Stir The Pot

THE principality of Monaco is a city in France. It is a playground for the rich and famous, its citizens are cosmopolitan and are not afraid to flaunt their obscene wealth. Monaco has its own tax and financial laws different from the rest of France. It is a tax haven, home to millionaires running away from their own countries and united by their filth riches and disdain to develop their own original countries.

Monaco is a dream President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his Finance minister Mthuli Ncube have for Zimbabwe’s picturesque resort of Victoria Falls. A dream that has been in the works for three years and is about to be realised.

COVID-19 pandemic could not have come at a better time for them to actualise this dream. The duo is ready to implement their plan during the COVID-19 pandemic. It fits well into Naomi Klein’s seminal book – Shock Doctrine, the Rise of Disaster Capitalism.

Klein’s book talks of the Chicago Boys — a grouping of neoliberal economists that are disciples of Milton Friedman. These are economists who believe in free market economics, privatisation and deregulation of the economy. Ncube is a classical disciple of Friedman.

Friedman and his associates believe that disasters are a necessary ingredient to implement deep economic structural reforms. They postulate that economic structural reforms are better implemented when citizens are in shock, and resistance is at its lowest.

Since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mnangagwa and Ncube have been in overdrive to privatise public institutions and State-owned enterprises, health and education provision. They have also made it very easy for capital to invest.

Last year, the administration