The system works and sellouts are angry!

The system works and sellouts are angry!

Nevanji Munyaradzi Chiondegwa.

The whole weekend from Friday to perhaps Monday, there was a furore on social and mainstream media about two companies which had been awarded a tender to supply laptops and desktop computers to Parliament of Zimbabwe.

The noise revolved around their quoted prices for computers which were outright criminal to say the least. The prices translated to slightly over USD9000 per laptop and USD3000 per the desktop.
The tender had been awarded long after President ED Mnangagwa and then Treasury had announced a freeze on payments of bills which were charged way above market values.
Government had long observed that it was being charged at excessive prices and that it was some of its suppliers who were causing a spike in black-market values of the USD.
Government suppliers were causing an artificial demand leading to the Economy heating up by quoting and supplying government at ridiculously high prices.
The pricing method is commonly referred to as forward pricing and assumes that by the moment one is paid, the value of the local currency would have fallen at so much. When the supplier is paid, he then takes the money on to the parallel market n buys forex at exorbitant prices.
To compound matters, the two companies turned out to be serial tender winners. They had been awarded several tenders in Government and quasi-government organisations.
They were also bidders on the Reserve Bank Foreign Currency Auction System. What this means is they would get hard currency at the official bank rate, and still go to the streets and cause a spike of the rate.
Then of course there are their offices which are in some rundown building next to a toilet.
One can from the onset, see that they are tenderprenuers, a term used on the streers to show companies that survive on bidding for and winning tenders.

That they had impressed Parliament procurement committee with their paperwork is beyond doubt and undebatable.
Clerk of Parliament Kennedy Chokuda had waxed lyrical about their bid to other organisations who had charged far less prices for the same products.
The prices charged were way above even the best specification laptops and computers on the market. A standard computer on the market costs between USD500 to USD1000.
A MacBook would cost between USD2000 to 2500. These are retail not OEM prices. That the laptops to be supplied to Parliament were HP type and the most expensive HP laptop is going for around USD1000 with all accessories means Parliament had been overcharged by over nine(9) times the market price.
Ridiculous and criminal!
Treasury balked on payment and via Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Mr George Guvamatanga, asked that the tender be canceled and the two suppliers be blacklisted. There is no doubt that though they were going to be paid at interbank rate, the money received would have found its way to the parallel market to fuel the trade and lead to a spike in the rate.
The reaction this time was swift for the company is among several blacklisted and whose tenders were canceled and blacklisted.
It also said the new Sheriff in town and his deputies were not fond of criminal and Economic sabotage activities. It also showed that claims of economic saboteurs by President Mnangagwa and his government were always true. This is a typical Economic sabotage move.
These organizations would suffer no loss if they spiked the rate to whatever level they saw fit to get their needed USD1000 per item on the parallel market to stay afloat in business.
All they really needed was USD173000 but instead they were going to get over USD1,5 million. At current official market price, this would be close to a billion in Zimbabwean Dollars and at the highest parallel market translates to over USD950 000!

A million United States Dollars instead of USD170 000 is a killing at any rate.
They could have pushed the rate to even 1:2000 and still made huge profits. This is why the economy was overheating and the demand was artificial.
The inflation rate was being pushed up by nothing other than speculative behaviour.
It is too bad that one organisation which is supposed to act and play an oversight role and also watchdog for the public had let itself be inveigled into being a participant in the criminal behaviour.
One may argue that it is business but this is a typical example of u scrupulous business practices and must never be condoned!
However, what this writer found most insincere was the actions of the country’s usual detractors and social media activists!
Hopewell Chin’ono and Ali Naka were among the two who leapt on to the issue, acting like they are the ones who had exposed it!
They wouldn’t even credit the source as being Government itself, having taken corrective action and wanted to act like graftbusters!
While regional leaders were calling on the USA to lift sanctions on Zimbabwe Ali Naka and Chin’ono were busy trying to make it look like sanctions had no effect on the Economy of Zimbabwe and that it was such procurement practices that were bad for the Economy.
Despite the fact that evidence had been presented and tabled to The United Nations of the effect of sanctions on the Zimbabwean Economy by the Special Rapporteur, the two tried to dismiss that as a non-event.
That they wanted to distort the fact that it was the system that had worked, it was the system that had exposed the overpricing and it was the system that had self-corrected says much about their intent. Clearly they are playing the tune of a paid piper. Why does it hurt them that the Government had outed the price inflator? Why does that have to get in the way of the anti-sanctions call?
Naka and Chin’ono are typical sellouts, the usual house-negroes who are hurt at the promotion of their nation. To them, sanctions must stay in place and cause more suffering on ordinary Zimbabweans. They do not care that Government canceled the tenders nor that it blacklisted the suppliers. They are not worried that the money never left the Treasury nor was it ever earmarked for the other sectors that they are fond of mentioning.
Chin’ono and Naka who in 2017 understood the effects of sanctions on the country and general populace have become the most vile of defenders of sanctions that some of us wonder at the source of bitterness.
Yes, reports did rounds that they both had been stiffed of employment in government but how can they take personal disappointment that far?
They should be among those praising the actions of the New Dispensation and praising President Mnangagwa for taking appropriate action and saving government millions.
After all, it is what they always clamor for, so why are they disappointed that much? Why are they trying to wave off the effects of sanctions instead of asking that both sanctions and Economic sabotage must be removed and nipped in the bud?
One would have expected people to be happy that action is being taken but well, what is to be expected when you have mercenaries for hire who only think of self? They are paid by the United States Embassy to minimize the effect of sanctions and make it look like it’s a punishment on ZANU PF leaders and yet, it’s not. Sanctions are real and they affect the ordinary folk.
Praise must be accorded to President Mnangagwa and Treasury for the swift action and we hope more tenderpreneurs will be blacklisted and Economic saboteurs taken out of the system.
Whoever approves such tenders as $30 per chicken or per kilogramme of beef must be stripped of his or her assets and lose their jobs too!