Lelo Nxumalo

This has been one of the most trying years to date. I entered 2011 with an optimistic outlook, lofty resolutions, and indomitable energy. My first resolution was to learn French. I spent one hour of most of my work days this year focused on achieving this goal, and I think I now have a solid grip on the complex rules of the language. My thanks to my instructors Jean-Philipe and Mousse. I would classify my level as 'tourist'. Secondly, I had resolved to be more comfortable in my own abilities and to put to use the knowledge I have acquired thus far. This meant being more gregarious but not too garrulous. This second resolution came from a need to change the overwhelming sense of helplessness I often felt around my peers and my own sense of self-worth. Being in my mid 20s I challenged myself to take more control of my own life and not to rely too much on other forces. I would leave it to my friends to assess how I have fared with regard to the latter. Moving on. I will not ev...

I was last here in the summer of 2005. It is very nice to see my family together after such a long time. I had wondered what it was going to be like. I was afraid there would be awkward moments but everything came back to me (but my Ndebele is still a bit rusty :)). I saw old friends and visited Milton Junior where I went to primary school. I am yet to visit Mzilikazi High School as well as pay tribute to my grandpa who passed on three years ago. We had a great Christmas at my family's new home and we greeted 2011 at my grandma's in Tshabalala. I uploaded all the pics on fb in case you are interested.

Perhaps now would be a good time to digest my transition to 'the real world' lest I forget. It was just over four years ago that I set foot in the 'New World', by way of Logan International Airport in Boston Massachusetts. I remember as though it was yesterday my first encounter with a person who would be my friend for the next four years - Yash. Yash got my name from a contact list that the office of international students had put together and circulated among incoming international freshman. We corresponded via email and eventually arranged to board the same Virgin Airlines jet to the United States of America. One memory that stands out is not a happy one, rather it was a reality check that we were not going to the land of milk and honey per se. Yash, who is from India, was pulled to the side by the TSA for their 'random' checks. You have to know Yash to understand when I say his demeanor throughout this ordeal was immaculate. I would have flipped. Random se...

I started work at the IMF on May 24th 2010, two days after graduation. The week before that was packed with things I absolutely needed to do before entering duty. On Monday the 17th (also my birthday) I traveled to the Big Apple to pick my visa from the Canadian Consulate in order to travel to Canada to apply for a G-4 visa to work at the Fund. I spent most of my birthday inside the Consulate. At lunch time I went to the Rockefeller Center and walked around the city looking for a suit for my commencement on May 22nd. I was the last person at the Consulate - for some reason the officers had misplaced my file. When I got the visa I set out for Canada. I called the Travel Office at the IMF to arrange my flight to Ottawa but it was a bit too late in the day. I left the US for Ottawa on the next day. Early Wednesday morning (May 19th) I literally walked into the embassy past the line (thanks to my semi-diplomatic status) to the G-4 window.The actual visa, however, was going to be ready on F...

IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Khan said in Kenya that the IMF as a changing institution is imagining a new AFRICA-IMF partnership. Khan was reinforcing the tone of the IMF-Africa meeting in Tanzania last year. As to what the new partnership looks like remains to be fully articulated. But I, like many, welcome the streamlining of fund-conditionality as well increased the policy space or country-ownership of development policy that the IMF is now promoting. To that end, I would like to encourage the Zimbabwe government to take advantage of this opportunity and strongly advocate for its Midterm Economic Plan launched late last year to the international community. As a student of international economics and development, the changing IMF presents a watershed event in global political economy. Instead of the 1980s/90s fiscal straight-jacket that the IMF pushed on struggling economies, the increased policy space now offered presents a strong platform for greater and meaningful international co...

Lush with US debt, and an insatiable thirst for raw materials the ‘factory floor’ of the world - China - continues to court resource-laden Africa. With a population of nearly 900 million, Africa constitutes an immense market for Chinese manufactured goods. It also provides a production platform for Chinese companies, or more precisely the Chinese government. China's policy of giving ‘no-strings-attached’ loans, however, undermines US efforts at promoting democracy on the continent. For example, Zimbabwe has the second largest platinum reserves in the world, but it is also. some might argue, home to one of the continent’s longest-serving dictators, Robert Mugabe. Because of Mugabe, the US and Europe pledged $500 million towards Zimbabwe’s recovery, a far cry from the requested $8 billion needed to bring the country back to pre-crisis output levels. Much to the West’s chagrin, China, because of its national interests in the Zimbabwe’s natural resources, and its 12 million-strong mark...

Perhaps after Mr. Obama’s job, the second most challenging role is that of the new Zimbabwean Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti. 2008 was one of the most challenging for the Zimbabwean economy, and indeed the global economy. The sharp increase in inflation against a background of acute shortages of goods and services, poor harvests and the attendant severe food shortages and the deteriorating delivery of public services such as water, electricity, sanitation and health imposed phenomenal hardships on the population. Needless to say, in order to decisively achieve economic turnaround, which regrettably would in the short and medium term be painful, cohesion and unity of purpose among the three political parties, and among institutions of government and business, as well as labor, o-operating partners and other stakeholders will be necessary if the country is ever to rebound. The 2009 Budget, presented to parliament at the end of the last fiscal year, seeks to respond to the various c...