A couple of months back, I conjectured that Emmerson Mnangagwa would not necessarily be bad as President of Zimbabwe moving forward. I still hold that view because I think that, despite his sordid past and his alleged hand in fraudulently prolonging Mugabe's reign, which of course has been disastrous for all of us, he does have some gravitas to be the head of state.

Given the dearth of leadership within ZANU (PF), we may have to accept him for now. The question we must ask is whether this will be good for Zimbabwe or not.

In my opinion, Zimbabwe needs a paradigm shift in the President's office. I am convinced that, on coming into office in 1980, President Mugabe had no clue on first, what we inherited and secondly, on the unimaginable upside potential of this country. I doubt whether to this day he can fathom how much potential he has arrested merely for political expediency.

In order to appreciate this, one only has to look at the decimation of agriculture, the opportunities in the mining sector, the underperformance of our tourism sector, the destruction of our state enterprises, the dilapidating infrastructure, the underutilisation of our industrial capacity as a country and the huge diverse skills base that we once had.

Zimbabwe has a mindboggling potential because of what we inherited from Ian Smith. As far I am concerned, our country is a miracle waiting to happen and I somehow believe that someone like Mnangangwa, being the businessman he is, would appreciate that and at least, move this country onto a better developmental trajectory.

However, in order for us to unleash the potential of this country, we will not only have to take a different path than that taken by President Mugabe since independence, especially on agriculture and indigenisation, but we will also have to attract our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora back.

The world has moved on significantly and we will have to catch up to most of our regional partners. We do have the potential to even surpass South Africa, especially when it comes to productivity, literacy, skills base, work ethic and low crime levels; there is no doubt about that in my mind. However, in order to do that, we cannot afford to prolong our predator politics. We must accelerate the creation of a developmental state.

The erratic winds of political change seem to be pointing in Mnangagwa's direction and the momentum is certainly gathering. I am sure if he prevails, we are going first to see a more disciplined government, the purging of dead wood and government parasites, thieves and delinquents, improved human rights, simply because he must exonerate himself from the ghosts of the past, and a more pragmatic informed approach to international relations. That would be my advice to him.

I doubt that we shall see as much transparency within government in the short term, but I think we are certainly going to be in a better position than we have been since 2000. I also suspect that he will try and address the Mugabe historical legacy with the British establishment and hopefully, begin to address the land issue particularly with regard to maximum utilisation of land assets, food security and the removal of conflict on land.

He will, of course, want to win 2018 elections, there is no doubt about that, and that could be his Achilles heel. You see ZANU (PF) are most unlikely to win any free and fair election in Zimbabwe simply because the injury done to that brand by Mugabe, regardless of who might be at the helm in the future, is irrecoverable. Given Mnangagwa's hand in past elections, especially 2008 and 2013 elections, I remain worried and doubtful that we will see the elections standards that we want. We will therefore have to create the necessary pressure.

So in the event that Mnangagwa becomes king, we ought to consider on how we can take advantage of the leadership change and encourage him to take an inclusive approach when it comes to issues of national interest especially economic recovery, better resource management, the fight against corruption, poverty alleviation and the rebuilding of the country capacity to produce in both the private and public sectors.

My advice to him would be as follows:

He should ensure that our laws are aligned to our new constitution as a matter of national priority. We must see our MPs being more serious on this issue.

Second we need to create jobs urgently, and this can only happen if we attract investors back into the country. The reengagement with the West is a good thing and we must see some reforms as anticipated during the GNU if this is to happen to its full extent.

Third, he must be tough on corruption within government and within state enterprises. No investor is going to invest in entities where there is no transparency and accountability. I would want to see some heads roll and the appointment of competent and not politically connected cronies in all our state enterprises.

Fourth, I would definitely want to see some ministers go especially in key sectors such as agriculture, energy, ICT, environment, local government, transport, education and health. In my opinion, these ministries can certainly be run better by people with the relevant qualifications and inclinations.

Fifth, for our economic recovery, the revival of agriculture is key. The land audit must be completed and we must plan and rationalise our land use, land tenure including the resolution of the dispute on land assets. That would certainly indicate that things have changed at the top.

Lastly, I would encourage him to take a more inclusive approach and engage with all democratic movements within the country to build consensus on the future of our country, it must be clear to him that ZANU (PF) can no longer go it alone nor can they afford any political arrogance that we have seen to date.

If he were to do only the above things up to 2018, I would call it progress.

Vince Musewe is an economist and author based in Harare. You may contact him on [email protected]

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