Mugabenomics – the Art of Fiscal Self-Immolation Rejoice Ngwenya is jus passin by Harare, Zimbabwe on Monday, 15 December 2014 President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is desperate to ‘re-invent’ his political party and entrench his distasteful hegemony on local polity. Now he has done the unthinkable - killed government. Africa may be rising, but Zimbabwe is sinking fast, at least until Mugabe admits dismal failure and voluntarily resigns. A mere one week after finance minister Patrick Chinamasa confessed our Treasury is virtually empty, one would have expected Mugabe to fire non-performing ministers without even replacing them. If he cared to read about what Portfolio Committee reports say that ministerial budgetary requirements will never be fully met, Mugabe would not only have dismissed the ministers, but also refrained from creating new useless portfolios. Mugabe’s employees, most of which are army, prison, intelligence and police officers, will virtually swallow Chinamasa’s US$ four billion 2015 budget. A mere 7% of that meager budget is left for capital expenditure. Infrastructure while health and education sectors are doomed to die as Mugabe’s dysfunctional ministers guzzle scarce funds. All seven or more ministers he fired will no doubt walk away with millions worth of sparkling ministerial goodies. The incoming ones are pampered with new Mercs, new office furniture, new stationery, new drivers, new aids, new PAs, new homes and new whatever – more millions down the drain. As constitutional lawyer Lovemore Madhuku observed, fired national vice president Joice Mujuru will remain outside State House with full presidential benefits, compared only to the two additional new co-vice presidents Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and former diplomat Phelekezela Mphoko. My take - Mugabe is not and never has been serious about getting the economy out of the doldrums. Consider even the crucial energy and power ministry now under the control of Sam Undenge. This man does not have a single morsel of achievement to his name. At a time when Zimbabwe is suffering from debilitating power outages, we needed an electrical engineer qualified to get us out this quagmire. Zimbabwe has hundreds of competent citizens, but Mugabe cares more about loyalty than delivery. Oppah Muchinguri – former PA to slain guerilla leader Josiah Tongogara – is now heading higher and tertiary education. Seriously? Has she ever run a crèche? Why did Mugabe not consider bringing back David Coltart? By his own admission, Mugabe said his two vices are simple human robots waiting for presidential errands. Fair enough. Grace Mugabe – who herself wrestled power from Oppah Muchinguri – castigated former vice president Joice Mujuru for – among other transgressions – sitting around and waiting for her husband Mugabe to piggy back her. The country’s laws require constitutional re-alignment. Diplomats have not been paid. The human rights and electoral commissions need to be capitalised. Ministries already owe millions of dollars to service providers. Dams and power stations need to be refurbished. Devolution of power to provincial assemblies is yet to be effected. So how does Mugabe think his intellectually undernourished cabinet can re-ignite Zimbabwe’s ailing economy? Mugabenomics is suicidal.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 09:44:07 +0000