When you are in a hole, stop digging because you are not doing to dig yourself out of the hole by making the hole deeper! That is obvious, common sense, but clearly not to some people; but I never thought one will need to explain this to someone like Professor Mthuli Ncube, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance, no less!
“Zimbabwe’s army and police are poised to get the biggest chunks of the 2020 national budget, which finance minister Mthuli Ncube has revised to far exceed the initial ceiling of ZWL$28 billion (about US$1.77 billion or R26.1billion),” reported TimesLive.
The Army and the Police are each going to get ZWL$25 billion and ZWL$32 billion.
This must be compared and contrasted with the budgetary allocation to health, agriculture and industry which are getting ZWL$ 18, 14 and 6 billion respectively!
The first thing to note is that the budget allocation to the Police alone exceeded the initial total ceiling set by the Minister and his staff. The total allocation to the five ministries named above alone is ZWL$ 85 billion or nearly three times the set ceiling. Of course, this is bound to fuel the country’s hyperinflation estimated at between 358% to 900%.
The second obvious flaw is why oh why is the country spending fortune on security and pittance on health, agriculture and industry?
"People complain about soldiers this and that, but let me tell you, if we do not have peace we will have huge problems,” Minister Ncube explained.
"It's very important that we should make sure that the security cluster is well funded, that soldiers have a decent meal, three meals a day, as well as the police.”
Minister Ncube should know that ever since the country attained her independence in 1980 the country has spend disproportionately more and more resources on its bloated public sector, notably the security services. Yes this was done to placate the security personal but at the price of starving the country’s wealth generating sectors. When a nation spends more than the wealth it is generating that is the root cause of economic meltdown and price inflation.
By increasing the money supply three fold without doing anything to increase the wealth the nation generates the Minister has only stoked the hyperinflation flames!
After 39 years of kicking the can of voodoo economic policies down the road the country is running out of road. Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown has pushed unemployment to the nauseating heights of 90%, basic services such as health have all but completely collapsed, etc. The country desperately need sound economic policies to revive the comatose economy and not more of the failed voodoo economics!
Some people have no sense at so ever! Why would any Zimbabwean brain be interested in what a thug like Kasukuwere has to say, specially now when the idiot is of no relevance. We should be gripped by the search for a way out of the hell that 39 years of Zanu PF corrupt and tyrannical rule landed us in.
ReplyDeleteKasukuwere will not get us out of this hell, so why are these people interested in what he has to say? They have failed to come up with solutions out of this hell and so they are turning to the Zanu PF thugs!
@ Jonah Nyoni
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe’s crisis is not just one born of bad leadership although this too is a key factor; it is one born out of the failure by followers to accept they have poor leadership. After 39 years of Zanu PF blundering from pillar to post it should have dawned on even the most naive and gullible followers that Mnangagwa and his fellow Zanu PF cronies have no clue what they are doing. But surprise, surprise; there are still some village idiots who still look up to Mnangagwa for leadership and inspiration!
“Mr President, John C Maxwell says "everything rises and falls on leadership." Take us to the promised land. Leadership is the engine of this country. Let the engine kick-start the change. We have made mistakes as leaders and citizens of this country, but now let's repent and lead. Robin S Sharma clearly pointed out, "Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It's about impact, influence and inspiration. Impact involves getting results, influence is about spreading the passion you have for your work, you have to inspire team-mates and customers.”
Mnangagwa is a corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs; there is a mountain of evidence to prove this. He is president only because he blatantly rigged last year’s elections and shot died all those who dare to protest again another rigged election and illegitimate government. What else does he have to do before the penny finally drops in your empty head!
@ Tamborinyoka
ReplyDeleteNow that would be a real Ecumenical Debacle (ED) for the crooked Lacoste temple, in which avarice and dishonesty are core values.
After all, the Emptiness Doyen (ED) himself and his well-heeled and politically-connected criminal lot are the royal priesthood firmly tucked at epicenter of the cartels and the criminal gangland that are at the very pivot of the despicable national rot.
The people of Zimbabwe are getting sick and tired of you MDC people’s political grandstanding and posturing. You claim to look “the beast in the eyes” and yet MDC was in government for five years and never looked the beast in the eyes even once!
You say Mnangagwa is an empty head and yet he outwitted MDC by blatantly rigging the elections and MDC gave him legitimacy by participating in these flawed and illegal elections.
MDC has been on the political stage for over 20 years now and yet has failed to get even one democratic reform implemented. Not even one! The truth is, MDC are corrupt, incompetent and sell-outs; you lot will never implement any reforms and deliver free, fair and credible elections!
You MDC people like standing up on the anthill and make a lot of noise about the wrong Zanu PF is doing but when push comes to shove you have done nothing to correct even the obvious Zanu PF excesses like rigging elections because you are content with the scraps the regime throws at you!
@ Terence Simbi
ReplyDelete“Too much has already been said and done by our current political protagonist that dialogue between President Nelson Chamisa's MDC-A and President Emmerson Mnangagwa's Zanu-PF is no longer possible without an external force.”
You have a fixation with Zanu PF and MDC as the only political players who can get us out of the political and economic mess the country is in. Have you ever asked yourself why we are in the mess in the first place?
After 39 years of being dragged into the mess surely it should be crystal clear that it is none other than Zanu PF assisted, for the last 20 years, by MDC who dragged us into this mess. In other words, for the last 39 years the nation has trusted Zanu PF and MDC to deliver economic prosperity and the parties have instead dragged us deeper and deeper into abject poverty and despair.
Albert Einstein said insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result!
After 39 years of Zanu PF and MDC misrule; anyone, anyone at all, calling for Zanu PF and MDC dialogue is insane!
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday reshuffled his Cabinet and expanded his administration by splitting the Home Affairs ministry in his second reshuffle since the election in July last year.
ReplyDeleteA bloated Army, bloated Police, bloated cabinet, bloated CIO a bloated everything at the expense of those sectors that provide useful service like health and education and wealth generating sectors like mining, agriculture, industry, etc.
RBZ governor told MPs last week that government was splashing US$ 16 million on new cars for ministers - we now know why!
This is a regime that has failed too revive the economy but clearly believes that it has the divine right to govern regardless of its 39 years of blundering from pillar to post.
Zimbabwe is not the first country to be stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical regime, I dare say it will not be the last one either. The solution, I dare say, has been staring us in the face all along: Zanu PF has failed and should step down.
Zanu PF has remain in power for 39 years because the party rig elections and thus falsified its mandate to govern.
We must stop Zanu PF rigging elections, that is obvious!
We need to get all the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections implemented and the only sure way to get that done is for Zanu PF to step down. A GNU in which Zanu PF plays a leading role has failed to get even one reform implemented as the 2008 to 2013 GNU has shown.
The problem of implementing the reforms and deliver good governance is the number one issue Zimbabwe is facing today. We must deal with the issue with the sense of urgency and single minded resolve the matter demands!
Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, has always presented himself as the man who knew exactly what he was doing and was going to put Zimbabwe’ economy back on track. After a year, it is now clear that he is just a buffoon with a very large ego but no clue what he was doing.
ReplyDeleteUntil a few weeks ago he insisted that Zimbabwe’s inflation rate would be below 10% by the end of the year. We are less than two months away and still inflation is soaring upwards, it is now 700%. His bloated budget on wasteful securocrats at a time when the economic is shrinking is only going to fuel inflation.
Zanu PF has failed to govern and this foolish notion that the Mnangagwa and his cronies are the only ones with the divine right to govern has been completely discredited. The only reason Zanu PF has remain in powers all these last 39 years regardless of the party’s well documented track record as corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical thugs is because the party rigged elections and falsified their mandate to govern. We must now deal with this curse of rigged elections and bad governance with the urgency and single minded resolve the matter demands!
Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections, the party is illegitimate and it must step down to allow the nation to finally implement the democratic reforms leading to the holding of free, fair and credible elections. This is the task before this nation and we must keep our eyes superglued on the ball!
If Zanu PF impose price freeze there will be empty shops same as we saw in 2008 when there was hyperinflation and price controls!
ReplyDeleteZanu PF has no clue how to revive the country's economy. Mnangagwa's "Zimbabwe is open for business!" is dead in the water. It was going to take a lot more that Mnangagwa and his cronies clad in their colourful scarfs to restore investor confidence in Zimbabwe after decades of rampant corruption, gross mismanagement and lawless thuggery.
Mnangagwa blatantly rigged last year’s election confident he would go on to rig economic recovery too. Well he has failed to deliver the latter and must now step down. This nonsense that Zanu PF has the divine right to rule Zimbabwe is at the very heart of the country’s economic and political crisis.
For the last 39 years we have allowed Zanu PF to rig elections and stay in office regardless of the mountain of evidence the party leaders are incompetent, corrupt and murderous thugs. The country is in a serious economic crisis with unemployment a nauseating 90%, the country’s health service all but completely collapsed, etc. The economic meltdown is now a serious threat to the nation’s very survival.
To end the economic meltdown we must end the country failed and dysfunctional de facto one-party dictatorship. Zanu PF DOES NOT have the divine right to govern Zimbabwe.
Zanu PF must step down to allow the nation to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections - that is not negotiable!
Senior Doctors here have demanded the reinstatement of Junior doctors who were fired by the government following their labour action of not reporting for duty for over 60 days.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking to the Health Times, Zimbabwe Senior Hospital Doctors Association said:
“For the way forward the punitive disciplinary hearings must stop forthwith and those dismissed must have this decision reversed. A livable wage must be dispatched. Robust dialogue in good faith should take place with key stakeholders to help direct the capacitation and of the workers and the public health institutions. These must be given timelines to yield results.
The firing of doctors was an act of desperation by a regime that has clearly run out of ideas what to do to solve the country’s worsening economic situation. It will not admit that it has no clue what to do and is using school boy bully tactics of terrorising its victims to hide its failures.
By failing to pay the doctors, nurses, teachers, etc. a living wage the government has itself made it impossible for these workers to continue working. This is exactly what these workers have been saying to the regime when they talked of being “incapacitated”. Of course, it is nonsensical to fire a worker for failing to turn up when the said worker is not paid enough to pay for his/her transport cost, to buy food to eat, etc.
The issue government must pay workers a living wage is now a side issue, the real issue here is what are we going to do with a regime that rigged elections to be in government but has clearly failed to govern. This is a problem Zimbabweans have ignored for the last 39 years but cannot ignore any more!
It is insane to keep pretending these Zanu PF thugs can revive the economy. They are corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs who believe they have a divine right to govern Zimbabwe regardless of their 39 years of blundering from pillar to post. For how many more years of this criminal waste of the nation’s human and material resources are we going to allow this madness to continue!!!!!
Costa Mutumbi
ReplyDeleteYou are right, Zanu PF will never end corruption because the corruption godfathers are not going to arrest and prosecute themselves. By the same token Zanu PF is not going to reform itself out of office and those calling for a new Zanu PF and MDC GNU to finally implement the democratic reforms are being naive.
If we are serious about ending the Zanu PF dictatorship then we must force Zanu PF to step down so we can implement the democratic reforms.
The fugitive Jonathan Moyo made a bold step in Mnangagwa's heart with guns blazing accusing ED of nepotism and Tribalism. He took no prisoners in his twitter accusing ED of sidelining the Ndebeles from security ministries. He purports to suggest that there is an agreement to have one person from ZAPU to be appointed in one of the security ministries. As a former propaganda chief Jonathan Moyo thinks every twitter must be propaganda.
ReplyDeleteWhat one can surmise from this is that two years live in exile has had no beneficial effect on Jonathan Moyo. He is still the same political sell-out who helped Mugabe and Zanu PF rig elections and stay in power from 2 000 to 2017 when he was luck to escape with his life.
The idiot has clearly failed to grasp the political reality that Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs who are in power only because they rig elections. Only a first class village idiot like Jonathan Moyo will therefore be wittering about who Mnangagwa has appoint in this or that ministry because he has failed to grasp the critical point that Mnangagwa is illegitimate!
Mnangagwa and Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections, the regime is illegitimate and must step down. If Zanu PF is allowed to stay in office till 2023, the party will rig that year’s elections just as they have done in the past and we, Zimbabweans, will have no one else to blame for it but ourselves.
We must not let village idiots like Moyo distract our attention from the real task before us - getting the illegitimate Zanu PF regime to step down.