Fresh row over Mugabe’s trips

Source: Fresh row over Mugabe’s trips – DailyNews Live

Blessings Mashaya and Fungi Kwaramba     30 January 2017

HARARE – President Robert Mugabe’s latest trip to Ethiopia, which came
barely 24 hours after he had returned home from his annual and
taxpayer-funded month-long sojourn in the Far East, has triggered fresh
anger and heated debate among long-suffering Zimbabweans.

Angry opposition parties and civic groups which spoke to the Daily News
yesterday said there was “absolutely no justification” for the
increasingly frail nonagenarian to continue “blowing” millions of scarce
American dollars on his myriad travels at a time that the country was
facing severe economic turbulence, including debilitating cash shortages.

Mugabe left Harare on Saturday to attend the African Union summit in
Ethiopia, having been on a five-week State-funded vacation in the Far East
– which the opposition claims cost poverty-ridden Zimbabweans a staggering
$6 million.

Civic groups also argued yesterday that Mugabe could have saved a lot of
money – in insurance costs and per diem allowances for his large entourage
which includes government officials and security aides – if he had
proceeded straight to Ethiopia from the Far East.

Official figures show that Mugabe, who turns 93 next month, blew a
whopping $36 million in the first 10 months of last year alone on his many
trips abroad, a princely sum that is way bigger that the budgets of many
ministries.

During the time of the inclusive government five years ago, the
nonagenarian exceeded his annual foreign travel budget by a massive 133
percent in a mere six months.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC slammed Mugabe’s profligacy
yesterday, telling the Daily News that this was worsening the country’s
dire economic plight.

“Mugabe is the non-resident president of Zimbabwe. Put differently, he
ordinarily resides outside Zimbabwe and now and again visits the country.

“He just paid a short visit to Zimbabwe to drop off the First Family’s
shopping before he departed for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to attend the AU
summit,” MDC spokesperson Obert Gutu said.

“This is a complete and total disgrace. The man has completely and
absolutely lost it. He is a national liability. In the MDC, we would be
quite pleased if Mugabe could stay permanently outside Zimbabwe.

“Surely, the country is better off without him. How can he come to collect
his per diem of $4 million in cash from the bankrupt national treasury
before he dashed off to yet another foreign jamboree in Ethiopia? This is
a total shame,” Gutu added.

The Zimbabwe People First (ZPF), which is led by former Vice President
Joice Mujuru, said Mugabe’s endless trips were depriving the country of
much-needed foreign currency.

“Mugabe and his Zanu-PF acolytes have found these trips as a `legitimate’
avenue through which they milk State funds.

“We are also aware that a lot of money is being drawn from the treasury as
contingency funds and these funds are never returned to treasury even when
there is no emergency on the trip,” ZPF spokesperson Jealousy Mawarire
told the Daily News.

“His (Mugabe) desire to be always on the plane doesn’t speak anything
about the comfort and hospitality on Air Zimbabwe, but about the obscene
love for money by an old man who should know better about selflessness and
commitment to the country.

“He came back on Friday and left the following day without attending to
the dongas on our urban roads or the ravaging effects of rains that have
pounded most parts of the country.

“All he cares about are the travel allowances he will get on this trip to
Ethiopia and others on the calendar this year.

“Would it not have been sensible to forfeit the millions in allowances and
ensure that every cent goes towards the many disasters ravaging the
country, ranging from typhoid to potholes and flood destructions among
other things,” Mawarire added.

Civic leader, Gladys Hlatywayo, said it was clear no one could stop
Mugabe’s endless jaunts, to the detriment of the country.

“The challenge is that in an authoritarian regime, the supreme leader is
the law and anything he says is religiously followed and taken as gospel.
No one can challenge his word without negative ramifications for those
people.

“It is also clear for everyone to see that the sorry state of the economy
does not bother our government. They have a penchant for travelling and
staying in expensive hotels.

“One does not see any attempt at cutting costs, or any acknowledgement
that we are operating in difficult circumstances … it all defies logic,”
Hlatywayo said.

On Friday, Zimbabweans were hit with another dose of bad news when one of
the government’s advisers revealed that the country had only about $304
million in hard cash still left in circulation, including $73 million in
bond notes – a situation that reflects the country’s dying economy and
worsening cash and liquidity crises.

Ashok Chakravarti, who advises the Office of the President and Cabinet on
improving the ease of doing business in the country, told a Confederation
of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) symposium that the country was in deep
economic crisis.

“If you look at comparative studies from other economies, cash to deposit
ratio should be between 10 percent to 12 percent. If an economy has got
less than 12 percent, it faces a liquidity crisis. We need $900 million in
cash to have adequate liquidity,” Chakravarti said.

And as Zimbabwe’s economy continues to die, the World Bank last year
downgraded the country from its list of improved economies to the
unflattering tier of struggling countries, as Harare’s political and
economic turmoil continues to escalate.

In its publication titled Africa’s Pulse, the Bretton Woods institution
said the country had failed to register significant economic growth over
the past few years.

“Zimbabwe’s fiscal deficit has deteriorated as remedial actions have been
limited and this has resulted in the country registering a negative
correlation between the cyclical components of government consumption and
GDP,” it said.

Meanwhile, economists also say average incomes in Zimbabwe are now at
their lowest levels in 60 years, with more than 76 percent of the
country’s adult population having to make do with less than $200 a month.

This, they add, means that poverty levels have reached “numbing levels”,
amid indications that the situation will worsen in 2017, as the Zanu PF
government continues to demonstrate its inability to fix the worsening Zim
rot.