Source: Mugabe must eat humble pie – DailyNews Live 19 January 2017
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s long-suffering civil servants are yet to receive their
2016 bonuses despite getting assurance from President Robert Mugabe.
What makes the situation worse is the fact that the nonagenarian leader
has taken time to enjoy himself with his family in the Far East on his
annual vacation, while the country’s over 300 000 civil servants have no
clue when they will receive their 13th cheque.
With the country’s economic fortunes taking a turn for the worse – after
the International Monetary Fund recently predicted that Zimbabwe’s economy
will contract by 2,5 percent this year – perhaps it is time for Mugabe to
admit that he has failed.
His rejection of Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa’s proposal to freeze
civil servants’ bonuses last year is an indicator of his denial of the
obvious fact that the Zanu PF-led government has bled the country’s
coffers dry through its populists and predacious policies that keep
deep-pocketed foreign investors at bay.
We will continue to shout our voices hoarse that no miracle money is going
to fall on Mugabe’s lap and rescue the country from the mess his
government made of the economy but only sound, credible and consistent
policies by a credible administration.
The country is literally on its knees, industries continue to shut down,
unemployment is skyrocketing, intermittent water and power shortages are
the order of the day while State hospitals and clinics have run out of
drugs. Government schools are now a pale shadow of their former selves
while the whole education curriculum is in a shambles.
Who in his right senses would continue holding on leading such a pariah
State and hope to change things for the better when you have failed to do
the same in the past 36 years?
Zimbabwe needs strong men and women who will deliver us from this State
capture by the corrupt and unelectable clique in government.
With external arrears amounting to over $10 billion, it is undeniable that
some radical cuts need to be made on government expenditure, starting with
Mugabe’s ceaseless, inane and costly foreign trips right down to his
bloated Cabinet.
In that case, the failure to pay civil servants’ bonuses and salaries on
time must be placed squarely on a predatory State that has failed in
stimulating the economy but succeeded in massive looting and plundering of
national resources.
The citizen, in the form of the nascent social movement has a duty and
obligation to rise against this government within the confines of the
Constitution and call for the resignation of the entire Zanu PF Cabinet.
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