Zimbabwe: The politics of ‘salarygate’

via Zim: The politics of ‘salary-gate’   Mail & Guardian 14 FEB 2014 by Takudzwa Munyaka

Expectations that government would act on corruption are fast fading as the matter has become part of Zanu-PF’s divisive succession battle.

Ongoing media exposures of the massive salaries drawn by parastatal bosses may have been welcomed by the public, but expectations that the government would act on corruption are fast fading – instead, the matter has fizzled out and become part of Zanu-PF’s divisive battle on who will succeed President Robert Mugabe.

Vice-President Joice Mujuru, who leads one of the two factions in Zanu-PF that are battling to take over after Mugabe, this week suggested that the exposures that have become known as “salary-gate” could be the work of detractors bent on destroying the party from within.

Zimbabweans vented their anger on social media, leading the opposition to call for her to resign.

Officials aligned to Mujuru’s camp who spoke to the Mail & Guardian this week said that, although she may have struck a raw nerve, her assertion that the exposés were politically motivated were widely shared.

“Ever since Jonathan Moyo was appointed as a media minister, there has been a concentrated attack on our camp, especially by the public media. It’s not a once-off event; the attack has been consistent. Look at the spirited efforts to soil the image of Gideon Gono [the former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor] and the attack on our camp during the provincial elections last year,” said a Zanu-PF politburo member.

“The attacks were so severe that we discussed the issue in the politburo last year. When you look at the ongoing exposures, it’s clear there is a factional dimension that cannot be ignored.”

Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation
“Take the exposure of the salaries at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) as an example. Ask yourself who the minister of information during the inclusive government era was, and you will get your answer. Similarly, on the Air Zimbabwe exposé, ask yourself who was the minister and you will get your answer,” the source said.

The former information minister is Webster Shamu and transport was headed by Nicholas Goche.

Shamu is also the party’s political commissar and was a member of the national electorate directorate, which chose candidates for last year’s parliamentary elections.

He is a strong Mujuru ally and was pivotal in ensuring the faction won the provincial elections, which will be crucial in deciding Zanu-PF’s leaders at the elective congress later this year.

ZBC fell under Shamu’s ministry. It was recently reported that its chief executive officer Happison Muchechetere was earning $44 500 a month, and senior managers – among them retired brigadier general Elliot Kasu, general manager of news Tazzen Mandizvidza and general manager of radio services, Allan Chiweshe – were each taking home $26 875 every month. ZBC is in financial doldrums and has failed to pay lower-level staff salaries for about six months.

Air Zimbabwe executives Politburo member Nicholas Goche, a key Mujuru ally, was the minister of transport and infrastructural development when Air Zimbabwe executives allegedly dabbled in corrupt activities including a $11-million insurance scam, which resulted in the national airliner failing to meet its national mandate.

New Transport Minister Obert Mpofu dissolved the Air Zimbabwe board on Tuesday.

Public Service Medical Aid Society
The most shocking revelation was that the Public Service Medical Aid Society was paying its chief executive officer Cuthbert Dube up to half a million dollars a month in salary and benefits, at a time when the institution was heavily in debt and failing to pay service providers.

Another Zanu-PF insider confirmed that Dube is a Mujuru sympathiser.

“You can see that the leaks are very strategic. Why haven’t they leaked how much Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation or what executives of diamond mining companies are earning, for example. There is certainly an ulterior motive to these exposures,” said the politburo member.

Zanu-PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo told the M&G the party had not yet taken a position on the revelations but defended Mujuru’s stance, insisting she had been misunderstood.

Gumbo himself is said to belong to Mujuru’s camp and helped her to co-ordinate the Midlands province in the provincial polls, which she won. Midlands is also Mujuru’s rival Mnangagwa’s home province.

Gumbo said the Zanu-PF politburo would meet soon to discuss the issue but he did not give a date.

“The vice-president is a mature person and some of us understood that she was not condoning corruption. She was in fact speaking against it but said we must be careful about how we handle it. She is saying we must not be quick to judge people before we really know what is going on,” Gumbo said.

Another senior Zanu-PF official said most officials were clear the salary schedules were being leaked to the media by senior Zanu-PF officials but they were not clear what the purpose was.

“Some people thought it was meant to divert the people’s attention from the economic meltdown, but if that was the case it has come back to haunt us because most parastatals are run by our people.

The boards are also full of people with a military background, so if that was the case then it was a double-edged sword,” said the official.

“What is clear though is that in Zanu-PF everything is viewed with suspicion because of factionalism, so naturally people are skeptical. Mujuru, though, has shot herself in the foot by her reaction. People are angry and have been calling for the government to curb corruption, to no avail, and for her to condemn the media was a huge mistake.”

Anger and little action
Mujuru’s statements and government’s failure to take legal action on the culprits other than dissolving some boards and firing some chief executive officers has reinforced the view that the looting was sanctioned by senior government officials.

On Thursday the police arrested Air Zimbabwe’s company secretary for allegedly defrauding the airline.

Former education minister David Coltart said that during his tenure he knew and approved salaries of senior officers in public institutions under his ministry so there was no way ministers could not have known what was going on on their watch.

Coltart questioned how some ministers had allowed parastatal bosses under their ministries to take home such salaries considering the state of the Zimbabwean economy.

Former minister of state enterprises and parastatals Gorden Moyo last week said President Robert Mugabe and the Zanu-PF government knew about the salaries bosses of public institutions were getting.

Moyo said he had tried to address the issue during the inclusive government era, but did not receive support from Zanu-PF ministers, whom he said were taking part in the looting.

Moyo alleged that there was evidence that parastatals bosses were bribing ministers with top-of-the- range vehicles such as Mercedes Benz and Toyota Landcruisers as well as fuel and airtime over and above their official government allocations.

He said parastatals boards have become “retirement homes” for board members, most of them with a military background. Political analyst Dumisani Nkomo said the ongoing exposures were definitely political.

“It’s political. It could be factional wars between the Mujuru and the Mnangagwa camp. It could also be Zanu-PF trying to occupy the space that the opposition used to occupy, by giving the impression that it is keen to expose and fight corruption,” he said.

“But this has destroyed Mujuru. Everyone respected her until she spoke on the issue. She may have genuine fears that her faction was being targeted, but she should have kept quiet. She has emerged the biggest loser.”

 

COMMENTS

WORDPRESS: 14
  • comment-avatar
    Revenger-avenger 11 years ago

    And toilet cabinet operating in sewerage. Say no more

  • comment-avatar
    CHINDUNDUMA 11 years ago

    I THOUGHT JOYCE MUJURU WAS THE BEST PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE AFTER MUGABE LEAVES BUT SHE HAS NOW LOST THE PLOT. THE IDIOT HAS RENDERED HERSELF IRRELEVANT BIG TIME. WHO EVER ADVISED HER TO OPEN HER BIG GOB WAS THE DETRACTOR NOT JONATHAN MOYO. THE CORRUPTION UNEARTHED BY THE PRESS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ZANU PF FACTIONS BUT THE ECONOMY OF ZIMBABWE. PEOPLE CANNOT SUFFER FOR MUJURU TO BECOME PRESIDENT.SHE SACRIFICED HER HUSBAND FOR THAT AMBITION AND THAT IS HER FAULT. THIS WOMAN IS EVIL AND DEVILISH PERIOD.

  • comment-avatar
    Nyoni 11 years ago

    Who cares if their squabble is political. As far as we are concerned they can hang themselves. But dönt put the people of Great Zimbabwe at your mercy you idiots.

  • comment-avatar

    Big salaries have sabotaged the entities to such an extent that “sanctions” look credible: get it?

  • comment-avatar
    Senzachena 11 years ago

    Smith and the rest of the Rhodesian Front members who are no longer around must be watching this and saying “told you so”. One thing is for sure Bob and the rest of the rotten crew may be rich but they are getting older and will soon die. Nature is a wonderful thing!

  • comment-avatar
    Zindoga 11 years ago

    Plse can u plse dig our University of Zim.

  • comment-avatar
    Mutorwa 11 years ago

    “The African can never rule! Not in a Thousand Years.” We failed to rule from the time of creation when we gave birth to mankind. We have small or no visions. You hear this “My vision is to have my children eat.” or “My vision is to have eleven wives…a 14bed mansion or a mercedes S600 Limo made in Germany etc” or “My vision is for my daughter to study in HongKong and to stay in her own USD5million mansion!”

    To deliver these visions we steal from taxpayers, we plunder, we pillage and we are absolutely corrupt. The same way our dynasty failed when we sold our best brains to Europe and USA, only for the slave buyers to benefit through the development of high tech by our forefathers, sold by African rulers as slaves in exchange for sugar and guns to drink tea and to butcher citizens with as a sign of power. Hence we do not see Strive Masiyiwa as a resource in Zimbabwe. But we see Chiyangwa and the corrupt as acceptable since they sing for the emperor.

  • comment-avatar

    So that, elections were false, so that the results were entrenched and excused aspirations.

  • comment-avatar

    If its e factional fights cozing e exposure then forward w that fyt. We say thnx Moyo for a job well done at least we now know kuti mbuya Mujuru breathes, feeds on, sleeps corruption. If there was stinking corruption at mines ministry, as surely it was there,we expect mujuru allies to expose it. If they can’t do so thru e state media they can go to e private media

  • comment-avatar
    Mapingu 11 years ago

    Whoever were expecting action to be taken against these zanu pf thieves need to have their heads examined. If zanu pf functionaries literally get away with murder of innocent people why would any normal person except the same guyz to be punished for simply doing what everyone member of the zanu pf elite has been doing since 1980.

    I don’t think we have many brain-dead Zimboz who were looking forward to Ca$berts & Muchecheteres being punished. Most of us are waiting to see RGM, through his side kicks, promoting them to more lucrative government-related position so that they continue with they lavish styles. That how the old man has done it ever since he has been in office. Those who except him to do it otherwise, are zombies or moving corpse – we wonder which planet they are from. Those who have been on this planet for at least a few months know very well how RGM does it – loyalty to him is sacred & nothing shall befall those who loyal to him for as long as he is in charge. To the loyal fellows, what everyone terms looting is a divine right bestowed upon them the dear leader.

  • comment-avatar
    sekuru mushore 11 years ago

    Factionalism or no factionalism Zanu pf has since deserted the people of Zimbabwe for personal gain mujuru and mnangagwa included.l was a strong zanu myself like everyone else but have since left it to the dogs.Zanu is not with the people. and the people are not with zanu their only remaining weapon is rigging they should stop crying over spoilt milk

  • comment-avatar
    silent observer 11 years ago

    The absence of a vision that allows us to compete against other races is what destroys us as a race. We do things for ourselves and immediate families, then relatives; the common good is frowned upon. “Hazvisi zvamai vangu” seems to be the logic all the time. How can we take and take without putting and putting and expect sustainability? How can a normal person expect to get the kind of salaries and benefits that were being handed out to top management at PSMAS or City of Harare, and not have a conscience? This is such a shame for our country and race!

  • comment-avatar
    Godonga 11 years ago

    Nonsense, some dim wits saying incoherent bull. Mujuru is right, atleast she is being sincere; Salarygate has little to do with a sincere crusade against corruption…How does her expressing a credible opinion on the motives of the forces behind salarygate translates into her condoning corruption buffles me! Rather be sincere than lie! Icho!

  • comment-avatar
    Tafadzwa Zim 11 years ago

    This infighting is a distraction, there is no detraction!! If Zanu-PF or factions there of, legitimately want to lead the country and its people – They should address this massive crippling issue and win votes.

    They are so obviously incapable, the whole entire rotten troop need to be replaced.