When it comes to calling for increased politicians’
salaries and allowances MDC and Zanu PF MPs and Senators have always spoken
with one united and loud voice! They were once again united in their claim that
MPs were so poor it was “embarrassing”!
Zindi said MPs were
being forced to engage in corruption and other social-vices such as illegal
gold smuggling and cross border trading to keep up with their assumed status.
“They (constituents)
look at the MP for their financial needs even to the extent of requesting for
things which I as an honourable member can’t afford,” she said.
“This results in some
MPs engaging in corrupt practices and smuggling of gold among other things so as
to satisfy the electorates and assist them,” explained Zanu PF’s Mutasa South
legislator, Irene Zindi, during a debate calling for government to put money
into the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
Sure thing MP Zindi, we
are to believe that the MPs are undertaking all these corrupt practices for the
sole benefit of the public! The CDF have always constituted a supplementary
source of income for most MPs and that is why the honourable members want
government to put money in the fund!
“I know that some of the
new MPs are wondering - ‘is this what we are getting after investing so much in
campaigning?’ They were hoping that there is green grass here.” Said Innocent
Gonese, MDC-T MP for Mutare Central; jumping to the support of the Zanu PF MP.
“But there is nothing
greener here Mr Speaker sir, the only thing that looks green here is the
carpet and the benches otherwise it is a dry land.”
Of course MP Gonese is lying;
the grass is certainly greener in parliament than outside! These MPs have just
taken possession of new $35 000 cars, for example; how many honourable members
would have afforded one if they were not MPs?
What the MPs can
complain about is that the spoils of power are not as great as they used to be
in the past. But that is because the country is a lot poorer that it used to
be! And this is what makes one despair; these MPs are the leaders the nation is
looking to, to get the country out of this economic mess and yet they have not
even noticed that the mess.
The country is in a mess
and poverty has become the unwelcome guest in all our homes because of all the
years of corruption and looting. That economic reality has not dawned on the
MPs other than that they are poor and are demanding they that they too should
be allowed to loot as other MPs have done in the past. They have not even
noticed that there is nothing left to loot!
The Mugabe government is
struggling to pay the wages of the bloated civil servants; it has little money left
for much else. All those dodgy schemes to help politicians supplement their
incomes are all things of the past. If these seating MPs think there are poor
then they must wait for the day their seize to be MPs; if Zanu PF grandees like
the late Nathan Shamuyarira died a pauper then, unless the rot is stopped, the likes
of Irene Zindi and Innocent Gonese will be very lucky indeed to escape a
similar fate!
6 comments:
@ Lance Guma
Excellent article Lance!
I am a bit disappointed with the end. I thought you were going to say "We are all sick and tired of being sick and tired of all that is wrong in Zimbabwe and that is why we are doing nothing about it!" which is what is happening here.
As for me, I am sick and tired of Zimbabweans who complain about ending this Zanu PF dicta-torship but when the nation get its chance to do just that it wastes the chance because these idiots failed to see the chance! Zimbabwe had its best chance to dismantle the dictatorship during the GNU if the agreed reforms had been implemented. Not even one reform was implemented and the idiots, whose breath-taking incompetence costed us the chance, are out there pretending to be innocent. That really drives me nuts!
THE Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) is forcing its members countrywide to go on two weeks’ leave every month to reduce spending on, among others, food and utility bills at barracks, the Zimbabwe Independent has learnt.
The more this Zanu PF tries to pretend it can somehow ride the storm of the economic meltdown the more it is reminded that it cannot because the storm is only going to get worse until the underlying causes of the storm are address.
Corruption is one of the underlying causes of the economic meltdown. For years Mugabe has denied corruption was a problem; today the cancer has grown to the size of tennis balls. Mugabe will never do anything about it because corruption is just one of the by-products of his political patronage system used to reward those loyal to him and the party’s cause of retaining political power at all cost. He has been the chief beneficiary of the corruption and looting himself and his recent flouting of his loot has not helped.
He had a $1 million birthday party, followed by a $5 million wedding for his daughter which took place in his $20 million Blue Roof mansion. A few weeks ago he gave his daughter another be-lated wedding present of Mapfeni Farm in Mazowe complete with a three storey mansion worth millions too. All the other party members have been playing catch-up and Mugabe is powerless to tell them to stop!
What is of great interest is whether these rank and file soldiers and civil servants whose contin-ued support the regime needs to stay in power understand what is going on here. Do they really understand that the system is unsustainable and is doomed to collapse? If they had known that all along they would not have helped the regime rig the elections.
Of course when these rank and file soldiers are on the forced leave, they face the same economic hardship as everyone else; little do they know that they are as much the victim of this Zanu PF monster they have help created as the rest of us! The penny will finally drop when the boots they are wearing are worn out!
“Our political system is stable; we have a long-term one party state with clearly identifiable strat-egies that have been and will continue to be implemented fastidiously for the foreseeable future” you say.
Could not disagree with you more! Zimbabwe’s political system is ticking time bomb, the “long-term one party state’s” time is up! Mugabe had an iron grip on the country’s media and for 34 years it has denied the people a voice and kept the regime’s secrets, secret. The down side of the latter is that it has allowed corruption to thrive and grow to the monster it is today. It is corruption that is killing the Zimbabwe economy and Mugabe is helpless to do anything to end it because he is part and parcel of the system that spawned it!
When a regime cannot pay its civil servants, has to send its soldiers on two-week forced holidays every month, its own party grandees like Nathan Shamuyarira die paupers, etc. the writing is on the wall; the regime’s days are numbered. What makes this situation terminal for Mugabe and Zanu PF is that as long as they remain in office the economic situation will continue to get worse.
There is such thing as the regime holding its nerve and hoping things will get better. This problem will never go away because Mugabe and Zanu PF are the problem!
@ Zvaita 5321
They are adding to the mess, yes but paying for it too! Poverty does not ask for a party card. If a party grandee like Shamuyarira could not keep this brute out of his house I do not think the likes of Irene Zindi or Innocent Gonese will put up much of a fight. Indeed even as seating MPs they are already having Poverty as a regular guest - unwelcome but then so is the tax-collector, pay or go to jail!
There are reports that Mugabe collapsed on Wednesday.
Since the rigged July 2913 elections, Mugabe thought rigging economic recovery would be a breeze but it has turned out to be the greatest challenge of his political life. The mocking ZimAs-set begging bowl has become the symbol of his failure to rig the economic!
@ Whichfool
There is no leadership crisis in Zimbabwe; then what are you worried about?
Did you hear that soldiers are now forced to go on two week forced leave every month to save on food! When the boots of the soldiers are worn out - there is no money to buy them another pair - the penny will drop in the heads of those soldiers. They will finally admit that the current economic and political system Mugabe has imposed on the nation is not sustainable!
I have told you before; the regime is on its last legs!
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