The current situation in Harare, Zimbabwe is devastating. A power-sharing deal between Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai has yet to be realized and the country is rapidly slipping into complete mayhem. Inflation has reached 231, 000, 000% and a Z$50,000 per day limit on bank withdrawals does not even cover the cost of a loaf of bread. Unemployment is close to 80%, access to water in Harare has been shut off, and a recent outbreak of cholera has killed nearly 500 people. The list goes on and it is only getting worse. However, in spite of this utter chaos, there is a freedom fighter that continues to persevere and refuses to give up on his dream of living in a freer, more prosperous Zimbabwe. Rejoice Ngwenya of the Coalition for Liberal and Market Studies (COMALISO) can see behind what Zimbabwe is today to what it can be tomorrow.
A Zimbabwe native, Rejoice has always written against Robert Mugabe’s totalitarian tendencies. “The suppression of freedoms in Zimbabwe, coupled with shameless largess of the government and its appetite for reckless public expenditure, was fertile ground for resistance for me, a believer in natural justice.” In 1999, he began working with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) to train moderators and facilitators in classical liberal political ideology. Atlas was introduced to Rejoice in 2006 and in 2007, he established COMALISO; a Harare-based policy dialogue think tank that promotes free market ideas.
Rejoice explains inflation to young students.
After a visit to Virginia during Atlas’s Think Tank MBA program this past summer, he has been working closely with Atlas’s U.S.-based Zimbabwean partners to develop a cohesive strategy for Zimbabwe’s development. COMALISO is currently developing documents outlining why a free market economy must be a fundamental component of Zimbabwe’s national policy and is convening meetings with Zimbabwe’s National Chamber of Commerce and members of Parliament to discuss these ideas. Rejoice continues to hold discussion groups and debates in Harare to teach top-notch students (and Zimbabwe’s future leaders) about free-market ideas and how they are relevant to their lives. Rejoice is a regular contributor to Africanliberty.org.
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