How to Think About Cloud Computing in Zimbabwe Before It’s Too Late

Just a few years ago, economists labeled Zimbabwe’s economy a “basket case.” Now, they say it’s booming as it rides the waves of a gold rush.

That’s quite a turnaround for a country that not so long ago grappled with hyperinflation so extreme that most locals needed wheelbarrows of cash to buy groceries.

What’s fueled the boom has been the rising price of gold and other commodities. That, in turn, has been pouring cash into Zimbabwe’s informal economy, with some trickling down to the hundreds of thousands who work in small-scale mining, observers say.

“These youngsters are loaded,” one retailer in Mazowe, a gold-mining area north of the capital of Harare, told the Economist, describing a surge in spending on electronics and motorcycles.

Higher prices for other resources such as chrome, lithium and platinum are also boosting export earnings, bringing in more foreign currency, reducing the need to print money or once again replace the Zimbabwe dollar, and helping stabilize inflation. This has fueled economic growth, leading to one of the highest expansion rates in Africa.

The economy is booming, says President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Still, the boom hasn’t been even or widespread. Zimbabweans say there is a massive and widening gap between official claims of growing prosperity and the everyday reality, with gains concentrated in pockets of the informal economy. Meanwhile, more than half of the population lives below the poverty line.

“To millions of suffering Zimbabweans trapped in deep poverty, hunger, unemployment, hyperinflation and hospitals [lacking drugs], to suggest that a lot has improved in the last five years is a gross insult,” said former Zimbabwean finance minister Tendai Biti. “This economy is… weighed down by massive corruption, incompetence and indifference. It is slowly heading for an implosion.”

Moreover, almost half of the country is worried about corruption siphoning off the benefits of the economic boom. Zimbabwe is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, with the president and his circle heavily involved, according to the US government, which placed sanctions on the president and other officials.

“Mnangagwa is involved in corrupt activities, in particular those relating to gold and diamond smuggling networks,” the US Treasury Department said. “Mnangagwa provides a protective shield to smugglers to operate in Zimbabwe and has directed Zimbabwean officials to facilitate the sale of gold and diamonds in illicit markets, taking bribes in exchange for his services.”

The current situation in the country has dashed the hopes that Zimbabweans had for the transformation of their country after long-time dictator Robert Mugabe was ousted in 2017 after 37 years. Mnangagwa, who took office soon after, promised economic revival and democratic reforms. Instead, Zimbabweans got more of the same, wrote the Bertelsmann Stiftung.

“The past seven years have been marked by increasing repression, a lack of reform, severe corruption and a deteriorating economic crisis,” it said. “The systematic and widespread attacks on the opposition and civil society have severely narrowed democratic space.”

Mnangagwa’s administration has cracked down severely on members of the opposition and activists, and has turned increasingly authoritarian, civil rights groups say. His government has operated a system similar to Mugabe’s, though analysts say it has evolved, with informal cash flows and resource booms reshaping who benefits.

“In recent years, the rise of the ‘mbinga’ (wealthy hustler) phenomenon and the president’s call to ‘make money’ have to be understood in this matrix of clientelism and patronage,” said the Institute for Security Studies. “Simply put, ‘Work with us, and limitless money-making opportunities abound’.”

The situation is leading to a power grab.

Recently, the government proposed constitutional changes to lengthen presidential terms from five to seven years, which means Mnangagwa, 83, would stay in power past 2028 – possibly for life. Another change would eliminate the direct election of the president, who would then be chosen by parliament.

That has some voters outraged.

Ishmael Phololo, a cellphone technician who runs a workshop in Harare, said lawmakers cannot be trusted to choose the president.

“A [lawmaker] cannot relate to the people’s woes because the moment they get in parliament, they get cars and allowances,” he told Al Jazeera. “If they want to have indefinite terms, they should just declare Zimbabwe a monarchy and stop pretending that we have democracy.”