Tuesday, 3 May 2016
Zim Ministers in a magical economic double act to half civil servants wage bill - drum roll! By Patrick Guramatunhu.
We have a government that has promised to reduce by half the civil servant wage bill, goggling up an unsustainable 83% of collected revenue, on the one hand. On the other hand the same regime maintains it is not going to lay off any worker!
"No civil servant shall be laid off," Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Prisca Mupfumira assured a Workers Day audience.
Is this just wishful thinking by a regime that has run out of ideas and so is now pedalling voodoo economics!
It does not make any economic sense paying the workers who cannot carry out any work because they do not have the plant and consumables they need to do their work. What is the point of having the full complement of the kitchen staff when there is no food for them to cook, no water and electricity and, it goes without saying, no customers. If this was a private business it would have folded a long time ago but since government, like the big US Banks or car makers, is “too big to fail” it is still here.
The US Banks were bailed out for a short term and soon returned to being profitable. The bloated civil service will be a milestone round the nation’s neck dragging the nation deeper and deeper into the economic abyss. The nation will not achieve any meaningful economic recovery as nothing is done to remove the milestone.
Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa was been courting IMF officials trying to convince them that Zimbabwe was now ready to abandon its voodoo economics of reckless spending which got the nation in this mess in the first place. One way of showing them the nation was serious was by promising to half the civil servant will bill.
So are we going to witness some magical economic double act by the Right Honourable Minister of Finance, Patrick Chinamasa, ably assisted by Minister Mupfumira in which the two will half the civil servants wage bill without laying off any worker. Drum roll!!!!!
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If Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, think IMF will be amused with his hocus pocus act he better think again.
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe is facing a serious economic meltdown, with unemployment sitting at 90% the alarm bells in government should have been ringing day and night. Someone should have lock these stupid ministers in one room and not let them out until they have a working solution to the nation's serious economic problems. We cannot have one saying one thing and the other saying the exact opposite and meanwhile the people continue to suffer!
“Inflation remains in negative territory, because of the appreciating U.S. dollar—the country’s main currency—and lower commodity prices. Zimbabwe remains in debt distress and the level of international reserves is low,” said the IMF.
ReplyDelete“Unless the country takes bold reforms, the economic difficulties will continue in medium-term. Given the outlook for the global economy, growth is projected to remain below levels needed to ensure sustainable development and poverty reduction. The current account deficit is expected to narrow, but remain high over the medium term, financed mainly by loans to the private sector.”
In other words the IMF is certainly not amused with Minister Chinamasa and his assistant Minister Mupfumira’s hocus pocus magical doubt act!
THE International Monetary Fund has stressed that Zimbabwe should move fast to implement a comprehensive economic transformation programme saying there is no time to waste
ReplyDeleteHow many times has the IMF said this and each time Harare has either ignored them or said they implement reforms and then do nothing! The IMF and the world at large should have learnt by now that what Zimbabwe needs to implement meaningful economic reforms a.s.a.p. is political reform first born out of free, fair and credible elections.
Without the far reaching political reforms in Zimbabwe nothing of any substance will ever be accomplished! Nothing! By failing to accept this simple fact the IMF has play its part in string Zimbabwe along to this dangerous point where the nation is running out of time to bring about the change or fall into the abyss!