IMF cash

It appears that there may be in-fighting within the Zimbabwe government regarding the IMF stimulus money. On the one hand, we have the state media triumphantly announcing the arrival of the money, so to speak; on the other, the minister of Finance, Tendayi Biti, casting doubt on the wisdom of accepting this loan.
As I have suggested in these pages before, the best way to achieve sustainable long term expansion of the Zimbabwean economy is by growing the economy from the bottom up. In other words, instead of rushing abroad to "beg, borrow and spend", the government should proceed on the basis that Zimbabwe is now a poor country and that hard work will be required to get the economy in reasonable shape again. Inevitably, this means less government spending.
I suggest as a starting point, that we should cut defence and intelligence spending by at least 50% (more on this in my next instalment). Loans like this latest one from the IMF simply boost the already bloated appetite for spending by those whose job it is to procure weapons, luxury cars and other politically expedient goods and services.
I am not suggesting that the government should reject this offer; however, I think that this loan, in its entirety, should be made available to the private sector to acquire machinery and materials required to restore the country to its former glory as a major manufacturing country in Africa. Certainly, the Reserve bank should not be responsible for its disbursement. One does not need to be a genius to know that otherwise, this money will end up being siphoned away to the foreign bank accounts of those who have been in the business of looting the nation's meagre pickings for the past three decades.