‘Mugabe must take cue from Magufuli’

Source: ‘Mugabe must take cue from Magufuli’ – DailyNews Live

Jeffrey Muvundusi      24 February 2017

BULAWAYO – Former Industry minister Nkosana Moyo has challenged President
Robert Mugabe to take a cue from Tanzania’s leader, John Magufuli, by
cutting on profligate expenditure instead of splurging hefty sums on a
lavish birthday party.

He said “under normal circumstances, it’s probably time he (Mugabe) would
go and rest and…spend time with his family, children and grandchildren”.

Moyo, who was appointed by Mugabe to his Cabinet in July 2000 but
uncharacteristically resigned in May 2001 after publicly speaking out
against attacks on businesses and factories by war veterans, said the
nonagenarian leader’s administration has a penchant of “eating what they
didn’t kill”.

He said the culture has precipitated poverty and misery among
long-suffering Zimbabweans.

“What happened in Tanzania when Magufuli became president, he looked at
all of the expenditures of government and slashed costs and in fact, when
he was supposed to be inaugurated, there was supposed to be a dinner
afterwards.

“He cancelled it because he said there was no justification for him to
have that expensive dinner to celebrate his becoming president, instead he
should be redirecting the resources of State to help the quality of life
of the citizens rather than have a big bash,” Moyo told the Daily News in
an exclusive interview yesterday.

The former banker – also the executive chairman and founder of the Mandela
Institute for Development Studies – was not a member of the ruling Zanu PF
party when he was appointed minister, but was hand-picked as a technocrat
to give credence to the party’s economic policies.

Moyo slammed Mugabe’s 93rd birthday party slated for Rhodes Estate
Preparatory School (REPS) in Matobo district in Matabeleland South on
Saturday.

“I would have thought that people around the president (Mugabe) should
have advised him that . . . it does not send a good signal to be spending
so much money at such a celebration like a birthday. They should at least
show compassion towards the suffering masses,” the former World Bank’s
International Finance Corporation staffer added.

While Zanu PF did not disclose the total amount to be spent on the lavish
bash this time around, Mugabe’s birthday held in Masvingo last year
gobbled a total of

$1,1 million.

Commenting on the intensifying factional brawling in Zanu PF, Moyo said
the infighting was hitting the economy.

“Are the people who are fighting for succession paying any attention to
the economy? . . . I think they are now all consumed with the succession
battles. I don’t imagine that there is much time they are spending to look
at what they could do to make the plight of citizens improve. I think they
are caught up on who is going to take over from the president,” he said.

Quizzed about his presidential ambitions as has been touted in some social
media platforms, Moyo said: “I want to be an active citizen and not
returning to being a politician, a member of parliament and aspiring to go
to the top. That has not come to mind yet.”

“No one has approached me, but maybe if am approached, I will have to
think about it. I have been there in Cabinet and I saw that it’s not
workable. If anyone is going to approach me, then he has to explain to me
what has really changed comparing the time I was in Cabinet,” he added.

Moyo said there is no hope and the economy will never change for the
better under Zanu PF’s leadership and administration.