In Minister of Finance, Professor Mthuli Ncube, Zimbabwe has Charles Dickens unsavoury Oliver Twist characters; Fagin, a conniving career criminal; Bill Sikes, a brutal professional burglar brought up in Fagin’s gang; Mr. Bumble, the pompous, self-important beadle; and last but not least Jack Dawkins, the Artful Dodger, the cleverest of Fagin’s pickpockets; all rolled into one. How else can one explain that in practice Zimbabwe’s economy is shrinking but in Finance Minister Ncube’s reports it is booming in giant leaps and bounds!
“For February and March, Treasury managed to collect revenue of ZW$3,895 billion and ZW$6,103 billion, respectively,” reported The Independent.
“In February, Treasury recorded a budget surplus of ZW$64,435 million while in March it incurred a deficit of ZW$910,498 million.”
I am not an economist, but one does not need a university degree in anything to know there is something dodgy here! In just one month treasury increased collected revenue from ZW$3,895 billion to ZW$6,103 billion an increase of 57%. Most people agree that Zimbabwe’s economy is in total economic meltdown. Increased government revenue would suggest the economy is growing. A growth of 10% is the norm and 20% maximum. Zimbabwe’s 57% must be a world record!
If government had a surplus of February, increased its revenue by a staggering 57% then how is it possible that instead of an increased budget surplus it recorded a deficit!
It is impossible to audit government books because the figures grow and shrink, appear out of nowhere and disappear into thin air, it is all hocus pocus! No wonder mismanagement and corruption are rampant. The country’s Auditor General’s reports have uncovered millions of dollars unaccounted for but this is only the ears of the hippo the rest of the animal has remained hidden in the muddy waters of hocus pocus figures.
"I can say for my own part that I cannot be ready to support the idea of budget support to Zimbabwe," EU ambassador to Zimbabwe Timo Olkkonen said the other day.
"A new debt relief plan that has been given to a number of countries, where actually what is happening now is, there is a bit of a relief period of servicing debt has been granted to a number of countries," explained the ambassador.
"And in Africa, so that they are not servicing their debts, that excludes Zimbabwe for the natural reason that Zimbabwe is not servicing its debts. So, you can't have a moratorium on servicing debts when you are not servicing your debts in the first place."
The EU, IMF, WB and most other national, international financial institutions and investors have stopped doing business with Zimbabwe because the country is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs. Doing business with Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance, Professor Mthuli Ncube, is like dumping into Charles Dickens’ Artful Dodger, you will be lucky to get away with all your fingers as for the watch, ring, purse, etc. they are gone!
In a declassified letter that has gone viral on social media, one Geoffrey William Hoon says, "If the MDC does not win the Presidential election or the 2005 parliamentary elections there will be no prospect of getting into power at any other time as ZANU PF will get even tougher with the opposition."
ReplyDeleteWell MDC got the best chance ever in the 2008 elections which the party did win bur could not hold on to. Zanu PF stop ZEC declaring the result for six weeks whilst the party cooked up the result. Many people, notable Nobel Prize Winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, demanded that pressure must be brought to bear on Zanu PF to declare the result. And it was none other than Morgan Tsvangirai who insisted everyone must wait. By the end of the first week with Zanu PF still holding up the result Tsvangirai realised the folly of his strategy and called for protests, but no one listened.
In the 2008 to 2013 GNU that followed MDC got yet another golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections but once again MDC leaders fcuked up big time! After that the party has given up on implementing reforms and settled for the scraps Zanu PF gives away. The dog-eat-dog fighting going on in the MDC has left its leaders with no political credibility.
MDC is now not just irrelevant it is a serious obstacle to the nation’s hopes to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and replace it with a democratic system of government. MDC’s participation in flawed elections have given the process credibility and the results some modicum of legitimacy.
A shocking videos of Islamic terrorists fighting with Mozambican soldiers has gone viral on the internet.
ReplyDeleteIn the video, the national soldiers are seen in close combat with the extremist terrorists.
Since the beginning of the war, nearly 1,000 people have been killed, and more than 200,000 displaced by an armed group in northern Mozambique.
Mozambique has failed to hold free, fair and credible elections ever since the country gained her independence and that is unforgivable. Now the country is reaping the fruit of its folly!
"Total revenue collection for the month of April 2020 amounted to $3.8 billion against a target of $4.3 billion resulting in a negative variance of $493.2 million which stands at 11%," the statement said.
ReplyDeleteThe Zimbabwe economy has been in a comatose state and yet Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube has declaring revenue collection increases, 57% for February to March 2020 and budget surplus. What he has been doing is print more money which is fuelling inflation, now standing at over 1 000%. It is little wonder many people are now refusing to be paid in Z$. The shortage of US$ will slow down business activity even more causing untold hardships on the people!
Zimbabwe is sinking deeper and deeper into the economic hell-hole and with Zanu PF determined to hang on to power, the country is heading for a catastrophic crash! It is depressing, very depressing. The prospect of Zimbabwe engulfed in street protests or worse in now a reality!
It is really tragic that Zimbabweans should be thankful to corona virus for forcing the country's ruling elite to stay home, a feat they had failed to accomplish! The truth is until we the people take up the responsibility of holding those in public office to democratic account with the seriousness the matter demands this nation will continue to sink into the abyss and we with it!
ReplyDeleteOur magician cum Minister of Finance has held Mnangagwa and the rest of the cabinet spellbound with his trickery with money. He has produced the budget in Z$ his source of revenue is income tax and government is the single biggest employer in the land and from sale tax.
ReplyDeleteThe Minister has been printing Z$ nicodemusly to keep up with the country’s runaway inflation (which he knows is soaring but will never admit to). And since civil servant wages are always lagging far behind inflation and soaring cost of living WALLAH! There is your budgetary surplus!
The Minister allows the price of petrol, electricity to go up 300% plus and sales tax receipts shoot up and WALLAH! Revenue collection has gone up 57%! But since the petrol, electricity and all the other imports are paid for in US$ at the black market exchange Z$80:US$1 rate which is much higher than the fixed official Z$25:US$1. The increased revenue calculated at the fixed exchange rate is not even enough to pay for the imports at the black market rate and WALLAH! The country is in the red regardless of the 57% increase in revenue!
Artful Dodger Ncube mesmerized his Mnangagwa and his cabinet with financial wizardry but failed to even impress the IMF, WB and the rest of the international community who had seen all that before. Ncube was appointed Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance soon after the July 2018 rigged elections and by the end of the year he promised to sort out all Zimbabwe’s financial problems and will have IMF and the rest back on board bankrolling the country’s economic recovery. IMF, WB and the rest were not impressed with the fast talking Ncube and probably switch-off as soon as they realised Ncube was not going to do another about the country’s rampant corruption. They never gave Zimbabwe one single dollar!
One thing is clear, this kiya kiya economy is doomed! If the people of Zimbabwe do not do something to end this curse of rigged elections and bad governance then Zanu PF is going to drag the economy into the abyss and the people with it!