“Following recent
revelations by economists that average incomes in Zimbabwe are now at their lowest
levels in 60 years, it has now emerged that more than 76 percent of the
country’s adult population has to make do with less than $200 a month,”
reported the Daily News.
“This, economists said
yesterday means that poverty levels have reached “numbing levels”, amid indications
that the situation will worsen in 2015 and beyond, as President Robert Mugabe
and his Zanu PF government continue to demonstrate their inability to fix Zimbabwe.”
Mugabe has remained in
power for 35 years because he was able to outwit and bamboozle his political
opponent both inside his own party, Zanu PF and outside with easy. But the
decades of mismanagement and corruption under his watch have taken their toll
on the nation’s economy and now it is in total meltdown.
Mugabe has since the
July 2013 rigged election found he cannot rig economic recovery. And it is the
economy that is going, one way or the other, force him to finally give up
political power.
It is the “Economy
stupid!” to borrow from former US President Bill Clinton, that is going to
force regime change – the phrase Mugabe has dreaded and vowed will never ever
happen in Zimbabwe in his life time.
Mugabe was sure that
his ZimAsset economic recovery plan would delivery economic recovery, he was
cock sure. But after a year since the July 2013 rigged elections of grovelling
and begging he still had nothing to show for it; the empty ZimAsset begging
bowl was beginning to mock him, it was doing his head in.
So just to get some
funding in the begging bowl Mugabe offered the Chinese and Russians deals they
could not refuse. The details of the Chinese $4 billion power generation
projects deals are not known but Chinese has also kept its major player
position in the looting and plunder of Marange diamonds.
The Marange diamonds
have been valued at $ 800 billion. Partnership Africa Canada said Mugabe got a
staggering $ 2 billion for his share of the loot in 2012 alone. The GNU
collected $ 400 million in taxes from Marange in 2013 when more than twice was
expected. The tax remittances have since dropped to zero.
The Russian deal
included them getting in on the action in Marange. They also signed a $4.8
billion platinum mining deal and it has since emerged that they too will be
paying not a dollar in taxes for the first five years, at least, of operation.
What is happening in
Marange is looting plain and simple and now the same is going to happen with
the platinum mining in this Russian deal. This is state sanctioned looting and
criminal waste!
If Mugabe thought the Chinese and Russian
deals would open the floodgate to more investors, he has been disappointed. Not
even the Chinese and Russians have offered another dollar. What Mugabe wanted
most was for the $27 billion ZimAsset to be paid as budgetary support. He has
failed to get a single dollar for that; the Chinese told him to his face they
would not offer even a dollar because he “is a bad debtor”!
With budgetary support
Mugabe knows that his ZimAsset plan is dead in the water. Mugabe has nothing
else to stop Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and hence all the company closures
and mounting unemployment figures. The few remaining companies will close and
soon even the vendors will not be able to eke a living because vendors sell
mostly to those in formal employment and not fellow vendors.
What Mugabe will have
to accept is that he has nothing to offer to stop the total economic collapse
and therefore he should step down now. The economic situation has reached the
point when social unrest could happen with devastating consequences of which
one thing will be certain, he will be swept aside Muammar Gaddafi style or
worse!
14 comments:
Now Bhasikiti will know that is it not enough to have a long spoon to sup with Mugabe; he needed to know all there is to know on the cure of food poisoning because the devil is known to season his guests' meals with poison!
It is impossible to feel sorry for people like Bhasikiti, Gumbo, Mai Mujuru, etc.; they have all played their part in building the Zanu PF dictatorship and now the tyrant is abusing them as readily as he has abused millions of ordinary Zimbabweans. They deserve the abuse whilst we the ordinary people have done nothing to deserve it!
Mugabe is fooling no one, he a sick and frail old man who has been a total failure. He rigged the 2013 elections to stay in power and it is intolerable that the whole nation should suffer just to gratify his insatiable greed for power and wealth!
“I maintain that I have stood by the president even when everyone had abandoned him and I have shown that in my thesis with the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa. I am consistent in my support for Zanu PF and the president,” said Bhasikiti.
Yes you have been very consistent in your support of a corrupt and murderous tyrant. You never spared a thought about what Mugabe was doing to the nation and the rest of the populous as long as he gave you your share of the looted wealth and your wielded a slice of some of that tyrannical power yourself. You have actually enjoyed supping with the devil all these years; after all you had your long spoon.
It is only now that you learn that it is not enough to have a long spoon because tyrants like Mugabe have no friends only short term allies to be disposed of at the next opportune moment. You have helped Mugabe build the Zanu PF dictatorship with your “consistent” support of the tyrant and now he does not need you anymore and is disposing of you as it you are used toilet tissues. Come to think of it, your willingness to sell the nation for selfish political gain makes you as worthless as used toilet tissue!
Bhasikiti, it is not enough to have a long spoon when you sup with the devil. You must also know the antidote to food poisoning because, without doubt, the poison the devil has been dishing out so liberally to the commoner he will one day serve you the poison too.
The EU has confirmed that the sanctions and travel ban imposed on Mugabe and his wife will remain in place until February 2016.
If the EU thought by lifting the sanctions on most of his cronies they would make Mugabe change from the corrupt and murderous tyrant he is then then they have their answer; Mugabe is a corrupt and murderous tyrant who will never ever change.
@ Mazidofo
The EU ban is just the icing on the cake; Mugabe's real problem is the economy. His ZimAsset is dead in the water other than the two post-dated cheques from the Chinese and Russians - Mugabe has paid for up front by allowing them to lead in the looting and plunder of Marange diamond - Mugabe has failed to get even one dollar in budgetary support. The economic meltdown is now like a python with its coils wrapped on the victim and it is squeezing.
76% of the people now live on less than $200 per month with income at their lowest in 60 years! Only a naive person or heartless tyrant will fail to see that regime change is certain because this is not socially or politically sustainable! Mugabe is going and good riddance!
Life expectancy in 1980 when Mugabe took office was 68 years and it dropped to 34 years in 2004 when it was last calculated; that is Mugabe's legacy!
“IN the twilight of his political career, Zimbabwean president has outmaneuvered many of the detractors who have tried to undermine his rule over the past decades,” you said.
That is very true but Mugabe has now found his match in the economy; after decades of mismanagement and corruption the chickens have come home to roost in their millions like quelea birds. Now with his ZimAsset recovery plan dead and buried the economic meltdown is now outmanoeuvring him. Mugabe’s political career is over and he is the author of his own demise!
@ Simon
Yes there is no one is Zanu PF who is not corrupt but Mugabe has taken corruption to a completely new level. Here is someone who has accused senior members of his party of very serious crimes, have them punished and then has the audacity to dismiss everything as a bad joke!
What makes Zimbabwe's corrupt ruling elite so arrogant and contemptuous of the law and common justice is their confidence the Zimbabwe public will do nothing. And that is exactly what has hap-pened here. Mugabe blatantly rigged the national elections in July 2013 and has gone on to blatantly rig Zanu PF party elections in 2014 and it has all been water off a duck's back!
76% of the population now live on less than $200 a month and incomes have fallen to their lowest level in 60 years; there is no doubt the nation is paying dearly for the 35 years of this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF government. And yet the people still continue to do nothing to end the corruption; it is all water off a duck’s back. Well Zimbabwe is a sovereign nation if we are too laid back got end corruption and get a government that cares about our needs then we have per se accepted to live and die in abject poverty. And so we will!
How long have we heard of the Batoka Gorge project? Why is everything in Zimbabwe decades late and cost five times plus because of incompetence and corruption?
Zanu PF is a party of thugs; Mujuru was a threat to Mugabe's continued hold on power and the fact that the her popularity was the expressed wish of the party's members is irrelevant. She was a threat and she had to be dealt with the Zanu PF way, the thuggery way - falsely accuse her of treason when those accusing are in fact the ones guilty of treason!
@ Bhukuzulu
It looks like you are slitting hairs here; economic environment that is healthy for Zimbabweans will also be healthy for foreign investors. Zanu PF is lying to say its indigenisation laws are healthy for blacks; there are not healthy for even Zanu PF cronies let alone the ordinary Zimbabweans which is why so many companies, including Grace Mugabe's many businesses, are all struggling.
Zimra has reportedly called for a cut in salaries across the board and for Government to stop creating too many non-productive entities which are draining the already strained Treasury.
Zimra commissioner general Gershem Pasi has said Government, employers and labour should resuscitate the social contract in order to stop the country sinking "deeper into the hole".
According to The Herald, Pasi said salaries were pegged at artificial levels when the country adopted the multi currency system in 2009 and the national cake cannot sustain such high pay-outs.
How did Pasi come to this ridiculous conclusion? Yes government is not collecting enough reve-nue to pay civil servants let alone pay for anything else but there are many other things at play here than the individual pay packet.
The very fact that most of the civil servants are being pay less than the $500 per month, the ac-cepted minimum for a decent standard of living, means the start-off point in 2009 was in fact too low.
Yes there is the top 5 to 10% of the civil servants who are being paid obscene salaries and al-lowances; these needs to be cut by a lot more than 20%!
There other area that needs looking into is the bloated size of the civil service especially the security sector.
Whilst cutting the salaries, the size of the civil services, etc. will help reduce the wage bill what the regime has to accept is this will all be too little too late. Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown will only be stopped by addressing the root causes of mismanagement and rampant corruption and that will only happen after Mugabe and Zanu PF step down.
Zimbabwe’s economy is in serious trouble and the time half-hearted and shooting-for-time measures is over. If people like Pasi do not have the courage to call a spade a spade, then they must shut-up and stop wasting time!
Chiyangwa splashes $500 000 on monstrous limousine.
“This (public show of wealth) shows you that this politician is working and I have no apologies to make,” said Chiyangwa.
“It’s a narrow mentality; and if you write about narrow things it means you too have no cash. Ndonyaya yacho umwe wangu; the narrower you become the more finished you are”
In a country were so many companies have been forced to close throwing millions of people out of work it is either that Philip Chiyangwa is a very talented business man or he is one of the very corrupt few whose activities are one the root causes of fuelling the country’s economic meltdown. A look at Mr Chiyangwa’s tax returns will settle this matter once and once for all.
Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown has pushed unemployment into the stratosphere of 90% plus and already two million Zimbabweans are living in abject poverty; this is socially and politically unsustainable. And the only way to end the meltdown is for Mugabe and Zanu PF to step down. Regime change is now as certain as the sun rising tomorrow.
Once there is regime change then all the secrets of this Zanu PF regime will come out. The truth of Philip Chiyangwa’s multi-millionaire business success, the once upon a time vendor in Chegutu, will be an open book for all to see! I only hope for your sake, Mr Chi-yangwa, that your patronizing boosting will not come back to haunt you
Mugabe is losing his grip on power because his ZimAsset economic recovery plan is dead in the water. Two million Zimbabweans are living in abject poverty already and the situation is getting worse not better. The situation cannot go on for much longer and the only way to end it is for Mugabe and Zanu PF to step down.
Grace Mugabe does not have a clue what is causing the economic meltdown much less what to do to end. Yes she has dreams of holding the office of the president but that it will remain just that, a dream!
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