Mugabe’s attempt to blame Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti , for the country’s economic problems and the pittance pay of teachers and civil services is laughable. The dictator promised teachers a hefty pay increase for this month and the Minister Biti is saying there is no money. This situation epitomises what was wrong in Zimbabwe and the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic collapse; i.e. that a single individual make a serious policy decision for selfish political gains without a plan or discussion with anyone and, quite often, contrary to dictate of common sense and damn the consequences. In the past it was Mugabe who made arbitrary decision and now, sadly, Minister of Finance has taken it upon himself to do the same much to the fury of the dictator!
Mugabe, like all dictators, thinks he is a cut above all other mortals and so if he says “a” is “b” then it is so regardless what the universal laws governing “a” and “b” say. For three decades he really believed he would create mass prosperity, “gutsa ruzhinji” in Shona, by spending recklessly and, when that failed to produce the desired results, by looting! Spending and looting are the sum total of Mugabe’s economic policies; “Mugonomics” some people called it.
Of course there is nothing special about Zimbabwe, the country is subject to the same universal laws of physics, economics, etc. No nation can prosper by being wasteful, that is basic economics. “Mugonomics” is a criminal waste of human and material resources and the nation has paid dearly for it as all the economic performance indicators showed. For decades the Zimbabwe economy struggled and went into total melt down after 2002 when the looting began in earnest. In the six years 2002 to 2008 the Zimbabwe economic shrunk by 84%, a world record, inflation soared to 500 billion percent, another world record, the Z$ - on par with US$ in 1980 - devalued to another world record Z$4 trillion to US$, etc.
Teachers’ wages fall to US$15 a month and banking restriction allowed them to withdraw a maximum of US$1 at a time. So the US$200 a month salary the teachers and other civil servants received after the GNU was a significant improvement. It is laughable if Mugabe thinks the teachers or anyone would want to see a return to his Mugonomics. Teachers have the memory of an elephant, they are known to remember your name and the childish pranks you played forty years ago; they will never forget nor forgive Mugabe for the human misery and deaths he brought upon the nation. Still that does not mean the teachers have no bone to chew with Minister Biti; they have.
After decades of Mugonomics, anyone with a bit common sense will be a genius compared to Mugabe. Minister of Finance Tendai Biti has definitely shown that he has some common sense but nothing more. The Teachers and the nation have good cause to expect a lot more than common sense from Minister Biti and his follow MDC leaders if the nation is ever to get out of the hell hole Mugabe landed us.
Full marks to Minister Biti for bringing government spending under some degree of control by resisting civil servant wage rises, for example. The Minister has to put his foot down on travel expenses especially Mugabe. But it is not enough to for the Minister to control the public sector without doing something all the other sectors. The Minister’s failure to institute similar controls in key government owned companies like Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) undermined whatever economic benefits the national economy got from the reduced the public sector burden. ZESA fat cats salaries have soared for example.
“The ZCTU has released a document which shows that executives in parastatals earn $11,000, in manufacturing over $9,000, those in insurance $6,000 and the average executive at a non-governmental organisation earns $10,000” S W Radio Africa reported. “But currently the average wage across all sectors for workers is $200, and comes down to $150 after deductions.”
ZESA bills have soared to pay the fat cats salaries. Domestic consumers’ electricity bill is typically US$400 a month making a mockery of the US$ 200 monthly paid to civil servant. Private companies like Sable Chemicals and Zimbabwe Alloys major electricity users have closed citing huge ZESA bills has a contributory factor. Power cuts have remained, of course.
Whilst it is true that reducing Zimbabwe’s bloated public sector is vital for economic recovery it is equally true that on its own is not enough. The teachers and the civil servants are being asked to take the bitter medicine for no real national gain because of poor planning on the part of the Minister. Of course the medicine will have to be taken all over again, at double the dosage and double the period. Of course the teachers have good reasons to be angry with Minister Biti; they are just the guinea pigs in a macabre experience!
The whole nation has good reason to be angry with Minister Biti, Prime Minister Tsvangirai and the whole MDC leaders; where is the democratic change they promised us? In this case, MDC should have commissioned a through economic study whose findings would be made public and from which the party formulated its own economic roadmap which the Minister would present in parliament and be subjected to public scrutiny and debate. Public affairs are just that, public affairs. Zimbabwe’s national economic policies affect us all and must not be decided by a Minister alone much less be subject to the whim of a tyrant like Mugabe.
Like Mugabe MDC has the same contemptuous disregard of the Zimbabwe public. Zanu PF and MDC have been engaged in endless political negotiations whilst they have disagreed or failed to honour their word they on many issues they have been one when it comes to keeping the Zimbabwe public in the dark on what they talked about. MDC’s chief negotiator on these interparty talks is none other than Minister Tendai Biti.
The Teachers and Civil Servants threaten to go on strike 21 June 2011 if the salary increases Mugabe promised them do not materialise.
Mugabe fearful of the mass protests similar to those in the Arab Spring has given Minister Biti an ultimatum to pay the salary increases, according to Independent Newspaper report. This could well be the public protest that will deliver the regime change the nation has been waiting for and Mugabe dreads. The dictator is reported livid with Minister Biti accusing the minister of “usurping” presidential power and exercising them himself.
As for Minister Biti he has said there was no money to meet the hefty salary increases and awarding them regardless will throw the country back on the slippery days of hyperinflation, etc. Minister Biti’s name will be mud if that happened.
So the battle lines Mugabe has his guns pointing at Finance Minister Biti but has the Riot Police ready to ruthless stop all public protest. The Minister is fighting back both Mugabe and the Civil Servants with the simple fact that there is no money to meet the salary increase. The Civil Servants have the formidable arsenal against both Mugabe and Minister Biti if the country’s affairs were competently managed they would be paid a living wage. How long are they expected to suffer for the regime’s incompetency and arrogance?
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“To meet these challenges, directors highlighted the need for reducing the wage bill relative to revenues, tightening the budget constraint on state-owned enterprises, and implementing public finance management reforms,” the IMF said in the report.
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