The Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable
Socio-Economic Transformation (ZimAsset), a $27 billion, was the key to Zanu PF
election manifesto and Minister of Finance, Chinamasa’s January 2014 budget. Mugabe
was confident the Chinese would bankroll the programme. Initially the Chinese
were going to pay $30 billion the amount was then revised to $10 billion, to $3
billion, and then, in February, to $400 million.
The latest is that the Chinese are not
going to pay even the $400 million!
“We don’t normally provide budgetary
support to other countries but we try to help Zimbabwe in our own way,” the
Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe told reporters.
This change of heart by the Chinese
could not have happened at a worse time for Mugabe; sure, it never rains but
pours!
To rig the 2013 elections Mugabe had
been spending money as if there was no tomorrow. It was only after the
elections when bills started to flow in that the nation realized just how
reckless Mugabe had been. Money meant for whole ministries had been diverted to
his vote rigging operations with the Ministry of Higher Education getting a
mere $50k out of a budgeted allocation of $384m, for example.
Zimbabwe’s economic situation after the
election was terrible but was made even worse by reports showing that many
government owned or controlled institution were broke because of the rampant
corruption that had been going on. Mugabe’s own extravagant spending at his
birth day and then his daughter’s wedding plus his own vast accumulated wealth
from corruption made it impossible to punish his corrupt subordinates.
It is an understatement to
say Mugabe was desperate for this Chinese bailout but no one else showed any
interest. And now the Chinese are telling him they too are not interested is a hammer
blow to Mugabe personally and to the Zimbabwe economy – both have been very
frail!
4 comments:
Nehanda Radio showed grand pictures of Minister Obert Mpofu’s Nyamandhovu mansion. Some of “his properties mostly in Bulawayo and Harare can easily outdo some of the mansions that are featured on MTV Cribs and other lifestyle television magazine programmes” said the report.
His amassed must be seen through the lens of abject and despair that millions of Zimbabweans have been forced into whilst Minister and his Zanu PF looted lived in obscene luxury.
The Minister amassed all this wealth at the time when the Zimbabwe economy was shrunk at a shocking rate – 84% in the six year period 2002 to 2008 alone. He is either an entrepreneurial genius or he is one of the most corrupt people on earth! The nation will establish one way or the other!
It should be ease for Obert Mpofu to prove that he earned all he has fairly and squarely - his tax returns will do nicely, thank you.
If Minister Mpofu fails to prove that he is indeed a business genius then all the looted wealth must be taken away from him. The posh rural home will be used to house the hundreds of thousands of impoverished children – just some of the victims of the country’s rampant corruption under the Mugabe’s years of reign of terror.
For all the looting, Minister Mpofu will have to save a mandatory custo-dial sentence, pay a fine and banished from politics for life. If he has shed any innocent blood; then an even tougher tariff must be imposed.
Is it a wonder that these Zanu PF have rigged elections and even killed to stay in power and amass all this wealth! It is right and proper that the looted wealth should be taken away and used to help the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans whose lives these corrupt leaders have turned into a hell-on-earth and, more significantly, to send a clear message that corruption and murder does not pay!
@ Sipho Sibanda
You are right to say "in the absence of a viable opposition party, the whole of Zimbabwe will lose". The mistake the people of Zimbabwe made in this case is to pretend MDC was a viable opposition party when all the evidence said the exact opposite.
As far back as 2001 the USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe described Tsvangirai in a leaked WikiLeak cable as "a feeble and indecisive leaders". Over the years Tsvangirai has proven the Ambassador right a thousand times and thousand times again and yet there are millions of Zimbabweans who still refuse to see Tsvangirai and the MDC for what they are - an incompetent bunch!
Zimbabweans are a naïve and gullible lot and thus given to electing corrupt and murderous tyrant and/or the village idiot as their leader and, surprise, surprise, that in exactly what they have done!
Zimbabwe's economic and political problems are manifestly a problem of poor quality leaders but that is only scratching the surface. Dig deeper and you will see that it is a problem of the electorate. A naïve and gullible electorate that does not have the foggiest idea about the democratic changes they want implemented, for example, will believe anything. Tsvangirai himself too still does not have clue on what these reforms are but that did not stop Zimbabweans believe him to implement them!
What kind of people would be hoodwinked by a village idiot!? And worse still, after being taken for a ride; the people still do not see it! So we have not seen the end of mediocre parties being embraced as viable parties!
@ Farai72
Well, all I can say is that you have learnt the lesson not o be so naïve and gullible. Evidence of Tsvangirai and MDC's incompetence have been there for all to see only if you would open your eyes! There is nothing worse than those who have eyes to see but see nothing because they ill not open their eyes who have ears to hear but hear nothing because they have cotton wool stuffed in heir ears!
Biti changes about Mugabe winning the 2013 elections because he had a simpler message and admit the tyrant rigged the elections.
There was nothing with the 2000 message of democratic change but everything is wrong with the messengers entrusted to deliver the changes. Having failed to get even one single reform implemented in the five years in the GNU it was clear MDC were incompetent to carry out this task. But instead of admitting their incompetence and down- right betrayal of the people Biti is now blaming the message! What a cheap shot!
The most important thing for the nation is to understand that there is no hope of holding free and fair elections - the pre-requisite for good governance and economic recovery unless the democratic reforms are implemented. The people will have to be really naïve to trust Biti and Tsvangirai to get the reforms implemented!
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