ZIMBABWE or let me say Zimbabwean professionals (subject matter experts) shy away from public office or involvement as partners with government.
We are very vocal in criticising government policies from our boardrooms but there is no desire or willingness to actively partner government and bring the much-needed ideas they believe the government lacks.
Ask a graduating class at our local university or the recent class of chartered accountants, who passed their final assessment, none of them has any dream or aspirations to one day join or partner the government.
I am not aware if the government itself actively recruits from top universities or business schools.
Hold on Brian, but we have had technocrats before and they have failed us, so what are you saying.
It is my desire to stretch the horizon of our thinking and reimagine new possibilities.
It is my concerted view that indeed we have had technocrats joining the government or partnering with it, but for maximum impact, it comes down to a numbers game.
To change a system and a way of thinking you need more individuals with a fresh mind coming onboard.
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If you have never led a corporate or been an active player in the markets, why should you have a seat on anything to do with the economic policy of the country?
The world is moving towards innovative technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence.
What has the government done to ensure in its corridors we have skilled personnel in this field?
Do we even have tech savvy citizens, who are eager when called upon to join forces with the government?
Recently I read that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) wants to introduce a gold-backed digital currency, the question on my mind is do they have anyone in the bank or the monetary policy committee who has experience in a financial market involving digital currencies?
On twitter, we have started to see great debates and conversations about the economy and the general state of issues.
We need to move such conversations to organised platforms and government has to stretch the olive branch and be seen to listen and take action.
It is refreshing to see the likes of Wendy Madzura and Wadzanai Manyore rewriting the script on professionals shaping the agricultural debates and landscape in the country.
Let us look elsewhere
Globally, I picked a few among many examples where the first world uses professionals in governance, in fact most professionals desire to end their career serving their country or be involved somehow in the future trajectory of their country.
During the George Bush administration, at the peak of his success, the chief executive (CEO) of Goldman Sachs, Henry Paulson left such a prestigious position.
In the announcement, President Bush said: “I am pleased to announce that I nominate Henry Paulson to be the secretary of treasury.
“He has a lifetime of business experience; he has an intimate knowledge of financial markets and an ability to explain economic issues in clear terms”.
Alan Greenspan, the famous economist who holds a PHD in Economics, having worked as an analyst on Wall Street before being appointed chairperson of the Federal Reserve. He has also advised the HM Treasury in the United Kingdom and Deutsche Bank just to name a few.
Despite being criticised for some of his policies, he provides additional evidence on the role that professionals play in governance.
He was reappointed four successive times, which shows his pedigree or his political savvy.
Wall street giants like Jamie Dimon, George Soros, Bill Ackman, just to name a few, are always vocal in proffering their thoughts on regulation, taxes, inflation, and China trade relations. Congress regularly does public interviews/debates with top CEOs for big companies who have a big impact on the society and its future.
Recently the tick tock CEO appeared before congress to allay fears on privacy and security issues. We need our local businesspeople to also be able to publicly vocalise ideas, views and participate directly in the economic agenda.
What does it take for professionals to be involved?
Firstly, the government needs to accept that they need professionals and create a space for logical testing of all ideas in an organised manner with no reference to political affiliations or titles or liberation war credentials. Parliament and any government committees should be a space for ideas to be evaluated. Skills are like prostitutes; they stand on corners where the likelihood of suitors are abundant. Accepting you need professionals does not mean we look on others already in the system, it is just an acceptance that stagnant waters attract mosquitoes and harbour diseases.
Subject matter experts need to change their mindset, whatever might have happened in the past, must stay in the past and not limit the dream to one day engage government in some form or capacity.
A mindset shift in from partisan based collaboration. One needs not to be a party member to come to the table and work for the good of the land. A patriotic compass has no political affiliation. The parties can change but structures with the right candidates must outlive the elected parties.
Progressive thinkers cannot be hired to be cheerleaders. One of the fundamental mistakes is to hire subject matter experts and not give them room to throw ideas even though some may sound hideous to traditional structures. Innovation is no respecter of tradition. For instance, the nation is battling power crisis and it’s my view that to take us into the future we need experts who have or are currently working in other markets who are Zimbabweans who have amassed great knowledge in this field and be allowed to be co-opted in any forums where binding decisions on energy are made. Hiring someone and then not listening to their advice is tantamount to disaster, they will just leave or join the old system of non-delivery. Visionaries like Tatenda Mungofa should be co-opted into the transport/vehicle manufacturing circles of this country, it pains me to see him more accepted in our neighbours’ yard.
Any professional will not assume a government role or an advisory capacity if there is no opportunity to influence the system or core structure that he/she needs to lead or revamp. For instance, appointing a technocrat at the helm of any city council when he/she does not have power to make changes throughout the whole council system is a waste of time as whatever brilliant ideas he may have, he needs equally competent town clerk, various directors, engineers, and town planners.
Remuneration. Here it pays only through abusing your office hence to attract professionals, the government needs to offer competitive remuneration that is performance based. We are losing lots of doctors, nurses, pilots etc. The question is why the government is not doing anything about this. In the past my elders told me that when finance people graduated from the University of Zimbabwe, they wanted to work for the RBZ. I recall Dr Nigel Chanakira also worked for the Reserve Bank when he first graduated with his economics degree — we need to bring this back. If salaries are performance-based, we weed out non-performers. Recently I applauded the performance contracts signed by government officials and the ceremony to award those that performed well. What I did not get is those that did not perform, what happened to them? and were the names of poor performers publicised? If non-performance is rewarded, professionals will not flock into government.
Possible measures going forward
Create a database of all Zimbabwean citizens who have amassed experience abroad and locally that are doing massive things out there, use that pool to create committees or boards or recruitment tool to any government related projects.
Award tenders to companies owned by Zimbabweans who are making big waves in the local, global, and regional space, this lures them back home.
As chartered accountants, on several occasions, we have started to receive invitations for CVs for consideration in boards of parastatals. I am yet to see the outcome of this. Government must reach out to professional bodies and use a private recruitment agent to fill a certain quota of their boards or top posts, this is a good start to attract professionals.
Send open invitations for working committees or sounding boards to great Zimbabweans like Strive Masiyiwa and many others doing exceptional work out there.
Every minister or government leader must be mandated to have a sounding board full of subject matter experts.
I dream of a Zimbabwe where the government creates platforms that outcompete private players for skills, with every businessperson looking to work with the government of the day one way or the other.
Makwara is a chartered accountant with both local and international experience in finance, accounting, auditing and business strategy. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe and the views expressed in this article are personal based on his professional experiences.
