via Cut cabinet spending, not teachers: MDC – New Zimbabwe 24/11/2015
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has been urged to cut his cabinet’s spending first before tampering with the country’s 500,000-strong civil service.
In a statement, the opposition MDC led by former Industry minister Welshman Ncube said government was shifting the burden to desperate workers and in particular teachers.
Party spokesperson, Kurauone Chihwayi, was responding to media reports that cabinet has given a go-ahead to a staff rationalization program that could see half of the civil service lose jobs.
“We find it incomprehensible that this move seems to be only targeting teachers when nothing is being done about Zanu PF youth officers who are on a civil service salary while doing absolutely nothing to benefit the nation,” said Chihwayi.
“It is our contention that as long as government does not first deal with the incessant spending of its bloated cabinet, unnecessary and pointless foreign trips by President Robert Mugabe and his equally bloated entourage and put a lid on corruption, all its talk of cutting
unnecessary spending is insincere.
“We view this as a new low for President Robert Mugabe’s government, whose wife Grace’s flaunting of obscene wealth through dishing out all sorts of goodies at Zanu PF rallies is in direct contrast to the country’s failing economy.”
In the past twelve months, media reports claim Mugabe has spent over a month “air-borne, earning the veteran ruler the nickname “Frequent flyer”.
The MDC said this is a clear example of how the Zanu PF government’s commitment to putting Zanu PF first comes at a high price for ordinary Zimbabweans.
“It is apparent that the country’s funds meant for provisions in education are being redirected into big wigs’ pockets,” said Chihwayi.
“The government has failed dismally to come up with a plan to finance education for all and bring sanity into the labour sector because it is obsessed with milking citizens of the little they still have for the personal benefit of a few individuals.”
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