By Den Moyo | It was a sad sight to see an accomplished academic like Mthuli Ncube being reduced to a failed government propagandist, when he tried to woe Zimbabweans in the USA to invest back home.

What was most nauseating was Ncube talking down to finance, IT, business, and science professionals as though they were kindergartners.

First he lied that the RTGS$ was projected to maintain and even improve its value against the USD$ while trading freely in an open market. A high school economics student would tell you that the price of any product, commodity or service is determined by demand and supply when traded in an open market. Low supply accompanied by high demand results in higher price. The USD$ which is the commodity being traded here is at its lowest supply in Zimbabwe right now, while the demand for the greenback is through the roof mainly from businesses in need of forex for inventory and parts that are not readily available in the country. Contrary to Ncube’s fallacious assertions, the price of the USD$ to RTGS$ is earmarked to skyrocket dragging commodity prices up with it.

Responding to questions about how investors would repatriate their profits, Ncube replied that the government would not restrict withdrawals by investors as long as the USD$ was available. Talk of confidence building.

Then Ncube went on a tirade like a small kid in a candy store describing the vast riches found in Zimbabwe. He talked of how the entire country was laying on gold reserves, diamonds all over with kids using them as stones to hit birds, chrome, lithium, etc. Then in that same statement, he denied that corruption was rife in the country, stating that corruption was being overplayed as the government was poor and there was nothing to steal in the country. Really, after all that hullabaloo about how rich the country was?

Ncube was once again reminded that Zimbabweans in the diaspora wanted a diaspora vote in order for them to fully commit. He was asked if he had included the costs of implementing the diaspora vote in his budget and he said no, which means the Mnangagwa government is not yet prepared to grant the millions of Zimbabweans in the diaspora their inalienable right to vote as constituted. It needs to be reiterated over and over that without the right to choose leaders of their choice, Zimbabweans in the diaspora will always find it difficult to invest their hard earned cash in a corruption infested country like Zimbabwe.

Furthermore, Ncube who has been tasked with catching a falling sword by his government needs to know and understand that no amount of economic reforms will fix a political problem. He should go back to ED and advise him to focus on political reforms first that include but not limited to; stopping human rights violations, confining soldiers to the barracks, curbing rampant corruption, good governance, electoral reforms to level the playing field, opening up the airwaves, etc. The US government has been clear that the targeted sanctions will stay in place until the Zimbabwe government made concerted efforts to redress the above concerns.

Our advice to Mthuli Ncube is to stop wasting our precious time until he is ready to treat us as equals and listen to what we have to say than talk down to us as though we are ignorant.