Doctors have received their Z$9,500 (US$90) salaries. Meanwhile, govt is boasting about reducing the wage bill to below 50% of expenditure and stabilizing the currency. These are disingenuous claim. The reality is govt has allowed salaries to be eroded by inflation. 1/
Assuming government agreed to pay doctors a modest US$360, the wage bill would immediately increase four-fold. The same is true of nurses, teachers and other civil servants whose salaries have been rendered worthless by inflation. 2/
Govt has no way to increase its tax revenues independent of an increase in production, the only card left is to print. It is not a matter of if but when this will happen. When it happens, the rate will begin to run again, the 50% of expenditure façade will disappear 3/
No country has escaped the dire straits Zimbabwe finds itself without a bailout. The regime is unwilling to implement the reforms that would make such a bailout possible so it has chosen to force the population to endure that which should not be endured. 4/
In any other country, the level of poverty and suffering being experienced in Zimbabwe would lead to social unrest. However, Mnangagwa has deployed the military and ferrets to prevent what would otherwise be inevitable. By shutting this safety valve, he has created a timebomb. 5/
The regime believes it can intimidate the population into submission and acceptance of the status quo. This only goes so far; the human spirit eventually revolts in spite of the danger. Genuine reforms are the only way out, the alternative is a hard landing. 6/
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