Last week Zimbabwe’s Minister of finance Patrick Chinamasa confirmed that
Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is getting completely out of hand. The regime is
now spending 97% of the collected revenue on civil servant wages alone, for
example, up from 80% last year when the aim was to reduce it to a manageable 40%.
The Minister proposed laying off thousands of civil servants, stopping
bonus payments, etc.; a desperate effort to contain public expenditure in the
face of shrinking revenue. This was not the first time the Minister has tried
to reduce public expenditure; he proposed similar measures last year but was publicly
slammed down by senior Zanu PF leaders including the President’s nephew Patrick
Zhuwao and President Mugabe himself. Minister Chinamasa was slammed down again this
time by the usual suspects.
What I have found shocking is the out pouring of heartfelt sympathy for
Chinamasa, with some even praising him; reminiscent of the Russians mourning Joseph
Stalin! When the Russian dictator Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin died in 1953 it
is said millions of Russians mourned him with the grief few had ever shown
before or since.
Joseph Stalin caused the untold suffering of hundreds of millions of his
own people and the deaths of millions more. He reportedly sent hundreds of
thousands of soldiers into battle with no weapons with instructions to find the
weapon of any who gets killed. Millions of Russians were arrested send to
labour camps or summarily killed during his reign of terror. And yet when the
tyrant died millions of Russians who were themselves or had relatives and
friends victims of his tyrannical rule shed more tears for the tyrant than
those shed for his victims.
“This year has been pretty hectic for my learned friend and former
Cabinet colleague Zimbabwe Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa,” wrote Professor
Welshman Ncube. “Patrick is a consummate politician, who in spite of the negative
public image he has in many circles, mostly justly earned for having been at
the forefront of the legal and media justification for ZANU PF's land grab
policies and the attendant attacks on the judiciary, is honest, possesses a
beautiful work ethic, loves his country and one of very few ZANU PF Ministers I
know for a fact as being uncorrupted. To this day he remains largely very poor
by ZANU PF standards because he has tried to practice honest politics.”
What a truck load of baloney!
Patrick Chinamasa is one of the Zanu PF officials who have benefited
greatly from the de facto one-party state in that he has returned his
ministerial job and all the financial and other fringe benefits that goes with
Mugabe’s gravy train political system. He has received at least one former
white owned commercial farm worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and never
paid a single penny for it. No doubt he has helped a few of his relatives
secure jobs, contracts, farms, etc.
So someone who has had a well-paid Ministerial job for 36 years (earned
by rigging elections), a large commercial farm (to gratify one’s insatiable
greed - never mind that the chaotic acquisition triggered the disastrous economic
meltdown), etc.; is still considered “very poor by Zanu PF standards”. Well by
the standards of the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans who have paid dearly for
having this corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship and are on the coal-face of the
90% unemployment, etc.; Minister Chinamasa is filthy rich!
By the way, Professor Welshman Ncube is one of the opposition political
leaders who was allocated a former white owned farms. Mugabe has dished out the
farms to bribe or reward those who have helped him establish and retain this
corrupt and tyrannical one-party state cum one-man dictatorship. Professor
Ncube was a senior MDC member in the GNU and, as we know, MDC did the tyrant a
great favour by kicking the democratic reforms into the tall grass. No doubt
Professor Ncube considers himself “very poor by Zanu PF standards”.
A few weeks ago Minister Patrick Chinamasa shocked the listeners when he
denied on BBC programme HardTalk that the $15 billion of diamond revenue, which
President Mugabe had admitted was “swindled”, had indeed been looted. Chinamasa
insisted the money was not looted but was instead an accounting error due to “mispricing”!
The wholesale looting of Marange and Chiadzwa diamonds is certainly one
of the worst cases of institutionalized theft of public resources. The grand
theft is taking place at the time when hundreds of Zimbabweans are dying every
week of simple illnesses like appendicitis because the country’s health delivery
service has all but collapse after decades of chronic underfunding. $15 billion
is a fortune for even the rich nations what more a country like Zimbabwe whose
collected annual revenue is $3 billion! What is worse, the grand theft is still
going on as we speak!
After President Mugabe’s confessed that the regime could not account for
the $15 billion of diamond revenue in February this year, Minister Chinamasa
and his counterpart in the ministry of Mines, Minister Chidhakwa, announced
that the whole diamond mining industry in Marange was being reorganized to end
the “mispricing”! In his budget statement last week Minister Chinamasa admitted
that industry produced less than one million carats of diamonds in the last six
months against an expectation of six million carats – proof that the regime is
failing to stop the looting!
Of course Minister Patrick Chinamasa, like so many of his fellow Zanu PF
colleagues, is a dishonest, incompetent, greedy, corrupt and despicable scum of
the earth; a curse to the nation. How anyone would describe him as “honest, possesses
a beautiful work ethic, loves his country and uncorrupted” beggars belief and speaks
volumes of the speaker!
Professor Ncube shed buckets of tears for Chinamasa’s frustrating
position of knowing what he must lay-off the thousands of civil servant to
reduce the public expenditure, for example, but being stopped by Mugabe. Ncube
did not shed a single tear for the unlucky civil servants and the hundreds of
thousands who dependent of them who are, for no fault of their own, are the
real victims here. To end his clearly frustrating situation, Professor Ncube
suggested that Chinamasa should resign or, better still, fall on his own sword
and commit hara-kiri!
@ Stobart
ReplyDeleteTurn that round - if we had competent opposition leaders with the vision, they would have implemented the democratic reforms we need a long time ago. It is folly to appoint the same corrupt and incompetent leaders to implement the same reforms which they failed to implement when they had all the tramp cards!
Just because you cannot see the stupidity of trusting someone who has already given you good reason to know he/she is not to be trusted; you are so stupid you do not listen to reason and worse still you expect everyone else to join you in your stupidity. No my friend you can continue in your stupid ways , I for one, will never follow you!
Patrick Chinamasa has made his political career from out of turning a blind eye and/or actively defending the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF regime. President Mugabe has rewarded him for his hard work; he had a share of the spoils. If a senior Zanu PF leader like Chinamasa is not guilty of all the gross mismanagement, rampant corruption, the vote rigging and the over 30 000 the regime has murdered in cold blood then who is guilty?
ReplyDeleteHow can Chinamasa be "incorruptible" when he sat there for the last 36 years playing his as-signed role in this corrupt and tyrannical regime in return for the share of the spoils of power? If he ever had any morals at all then he should have resigned after a few years, after ten years he should have drunk rat poison like Morris Nyagumbo!
I totally reject this stupid motion that Robert Mugabe and him alone is responsible for what has happened. This stupidity is what is making people like the Professor here think if we removed Mugabe everything will be plain sailing from there on, that even this corrupt and incompetent Patrick Chinamasa will fix the economy and make Zimbabwe great again!
Even if Chinamasa, the "incorruptible" was to become president in his own right, only someone who is naïve would believe for one minute that he will implement all the democratic reforms and thus forcing himself to be held to democratic account for not only his dodgy past but for every-thing he does from there on. No chance, President Chinamasa will seek to consolidate his own hold on power using the same dirty tactics Mugabe has used.
It is not surprising that Professor Ncube should be praising Chinamasa today; during the GNU he joined his fellow MDC leaders in praising Mugabe. He had a seat on the gravy train during the GNU and saw the whole world through the rose tinted glass of the ministerial limo - through the tinted glass President Mugabe is transformed from the corrupt and murderous tyrant to the benevolent and infallible father-figure. It is little wonder MDC leaders would not even think of implementing even one democratic reform.
Of course MDC leaders sold-out during the GNU and, yes, Professor Ncube should do the hon-ourable thing by giving Chinamasa a generous helping of rat poison and ingesting some himself! Millions of are people are suffering and dying because of the greed and selfishness of men like Chinamasa, Ncube and Robert Mugabe!
@ Mbanje
ReplyDeleteAre you saying Professor Ncube is right, Chinamasa in "incorruptible" because if that is what you are then why has Chinamasa defended this corrupt regime and played his assigned role in rigging elections, etc.? Chinamasa is just as dishonest and corrupt as all the other Zanu PF lead-ers! Professor Ncube is therefore wrong to even suggest otherwise.
Are you saying Professor Ncube, together with the other MDC leaders, did not sell-out during the GNU? If you are saying so then explain why they failed to get even one democratic reform implemented in five years? Of course Professor Ncube in as corrupt and incompetent as the other MDC leaders.
When it comes to implementing the democratic reforms and of the MDC MPs could have submitted democratic reform proposals, he or she did not have to be a cabinet member or faction leader. You clearly do not know the process of reforms and so stop talking nonsense!
The trouble with simpletons like you Mbanje is that you are still stuck in the pre-independence days with the mentality of everyone who is not with us is against us and criticizing leaders was a red line no one was allowed to cross. It is this stupid mentality that has allowed upstarts like Robert Mugabe to completely destroy the nation socially, economically and politically. He admits to the looting $15 billion and no one is even bothered, it is all water off a duck's back, because it is unthinkable to hold him to account. Meanwhile the same people are wallowing in grinding pov-erty.
Of course Professor Ncube is corrupt and incompetent you just do not want him held to account just as you have refused to let anyone hold Joshua Nkomo or Robert Mugabe to account before independence and for decades afterward. You keep blubbering about want democracy but only to apply to everyone else except you and your leaders. What is infuriating about simpletons like you is you want to impose your stupidity on everyone else.
@Mbanje
DeleteWell, why don't you address the points she raise here and stop changing the subject!
1) Are you saying Chinamasa is not corrupt and therefore Professor Ncube is right?
2) Are you saying Professor Ncube did not sell-out during the GNU by failing to get even one reform implemented?
3) Are you saying yes to 1) and/or 2) above and do not want Professor Ncube held to account because he is your leader and holding an leader to account is anathema to you and you want everyone else to do likewise?
For your information Zimbabwe Social Democrats is not died, we are not recruiting any members because we have said we will not contest in any elections in Zimbabwe until meaningful democratic reforms are implemented and there are free and fair elections. We are completely focused on making sure democratic reforms are on the national agenda.
I for one do not care whether MDC has five or ten million members, what matters is what the party has accomplished on the ground. What sticks out so far is how the party sold-out on democratic reforms.
You should be happy your party leader was one of those who benefited from the seized white farms, bribe for him kicking the reforms into the tall grass but that is all too complex for you to understand. Has Ncube ever invited you to visit his farm, he should reward for all your years of nauseating boot licking!
Of course Nomusa is right, you are a simpleton. Sadly the country has more than its fair share of idiots just like you which is why we are in this mess!
Before independence "grabbing the bull by the horns" was taking up arms and fight in the war of independence and so we all did play our part some more than other but where did it land us - into this hell-hole. After independence those who carried the guns turned the guns on the rest of us and impose themselves on the nation because they alone knew best, they were the "stockholders of Zimbabwe" as the war veterans still claim to this day and the rest of us are mere "stakeholders who can come and go"!
ReplyDeleteThe war veterans have the veto on who governs the country and we have the vote, if they are feeling generous!
"What kind of leaders would the armed struggle throw up?" asked Mahatma Gandhi when the question of whether or not the people of India should take up arms to end British rule of India. "Are those the kind of leaders we would want to rule us?"
We too should have thought through first what kind of Zimbabwe we wanted and how we are going to deliver it before we accept those guns from the Chinese and Russians! It is not as if the guns were a free gift from the Chinese and Russians, we have paid for every gun and bullet directly and indirectly a thousand times over!
MDC has had many opportunities to bring about meaningful democratic change in Zimbabwe, the best chance was during the GNU; they did not because they are corrupt and incompetent.
If we want a free, just and democratic Zimbabwe then we must implement the democratic re-forms design to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship. MDC will never to do this because they do not even know what these reforms are much less how to implement them. For the last three years people like Tsvangirai has talked about NERA reforms but have never ever given any de-tails of what these reforms are because he does not know what they are!
MDC-T has MPs and senators in both chambers and they have never said what electoral reforms they wanted Zanu PF to implement because they are all very careful not to say what reforms they want because they do not know.
MDC-T has taken the fight for democratic reforms off the table so none of us can subject what they are doing to any public scrutiny and have never submitted any of them in parliament be-cause they have nothing concrete to propose. The party is saying it has taken the demand for reforms onto the street (hitching NERA on the back of the public protest demanding an end to the worsening economic meltdown) because the street mob will never ask the party any awkward questions regarding the details of the reforms!
The street protest will never deliver the free, just and prosperous Zimbabwe we want just as the armed struggle to end colonial rule failed to do the same.
Action is important but like courage, passion, etc. it must be led by reason. Whenever action or courage goes before reason the results are always a disastrous failure! You have not learned the lesson of what happened before independence and hence are clamoring once again for action to lead reason!