Zim should fix her multi-pronged crises

continues to mobilise resources internally and externally to respond to the devastating socio-economic effects of COVID-19.

Among other efforts, government in the 2021 National Budget set aside $7 billion to recruit health personnel, procure personal protective equipment, test kits and sundries required in fighting COVID-19.

Government has also budgeted $3,5 billion to cushion 500 000 vulnerable households whose beneficiaries comprise the informal sector, returning residents and children living on the streets.

On February 18, 2021, government through the Health and Child Care ministry launched the COVID-19 vaccination programme. To date, a total of 632 496 Zimbabweans have been inoculated.

On the economic front, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe deputy governor Kuphukile Mlambo has urged the country to sort out its “political problems” which he said played an important role in informing investment decisions.

The fact that a senior official from the central bank pin-pointed “political problems”, which in other words points to political instability or political crisis shows, how deep the Zimbabwean political question has gone.

This resonates with the view of a number of civil society organisations and citizens.

It is against this backdrop that we take pride in interrogating the effects of the wicked political problems in hindering national development and growth.

The term wicked problem was propounded by Rittle and Webber in 1973 in their article titled Dilemma in a General Theory of Planning.

Rittle and Webber noted that wicked problems do not have an enumerable or an exhaustively describable set of potential solutions, nor is there a well-described set of permissible operations that may be incorporated into the plan.

Another challenge we have in this country is that of government and the politics of food.

A study conducted by the Zimbabwe Peace Project exposed how government has continued to perambulate on the paths of partisan politics and the politics of food.

In the past, government has used food distribution to pacify their supporters and attain electoral competitive advantage.

It should be noted that this exclusionary system disregards the right to food enshrined in the Constitution and it is borders on governance miscarriage and misuse of public resources for political expediency.

For government, politics of food knows no boundary. Even in times of national disaster and pandemics, government has continued to exclude people based on political affiliation.

This has grave consequences on the lives of the poor and vulnerable citizens who are supposed to be benefiting from government food programmes.