Zanu PF is holding its
usual fundraising dinner with tables going for princely sums of $100 000 to $30
000 each. The money is to pay for the party’s annual congress.
The usual suspects - parastatals – are expected to attend.
Parastatals like NRZ, ZISCO, etc. have often failed to pay their lowly paid
workers for months and even years because there was no money – with the reduced
business activities it is no surprise that after paying the fat cats, the top
managers, their generous monthly salaries and allowances, there was nothing
left for the workers.
People should not be
surprised that parastatals are Zanu PF’s chief sponsors. Parastatals are all
but subsidiaries of Zanu PF, Mugabe has used appointment in parastatals in much
the same way as ambassadorial appointments, as the top draw reward in his
political patronage system. A few weeks ago he appointed his son-in-law, Bona’s
husband, to a cushy post in Air Zimbabwe.
No doubt Air Zimbabwe will
be making a very generous contribution in money, services or some other way
toward the Zanu PF congress – Bona’s husband and all the other political
appointees in Air Zimbabwe will see to that. They know they are expected to dig
deep and so they - it is payback time.
The generous donations by
parastatals in recent years has become sickeningly obscene given the organizations’
own pitiful economic situations. Parastatals like NRZ and ZISCO has gone for
months and even years without paying their lowly paid workers because there was
no money to pay the workers.
Whilst no one would
dispute that the economic meltdown has resulted in falling income for everyone
across the board. Still one has to question the glaring injustice that has
allowed the salaries and allowance of the top managers and board members in the
parastatals to soar into the stratosphere regardless of plummeting fortunes of
the organization. And, more significantly, the parastatals may not have money
to pay lowly paid workers they have always paid the top brass their due in full
without failure!
Of course Zanu PF is aware
of the economic meltdown, government too is failing to pay its workers much
less find money for everything else. A number of high ranking party chefs including
Ministers and MPs have already been dragged before the courts for failing to
pay their bills! Still Mugabe expects parastatals to attend the dinner and dig
deep because he knows the top brass in the parastatals have been looting big
time and he expects all who have benefited from the Zanu PF dictatorship to
contribute towards its upkeep.
“We want to warn
corporates against donating money or in kind towards that Zanu PF fundraising
dinner,” said Tajamuka/Sesijikile spokesperson Promise Mkwananzi. “We will not
only name and shame them, but we will bring the struggle to their doorsteps.
Business have an obligation to uphold the values and principles of good
governance and they are not exempt from good public standing.
“We call upon Mugabe to
abandon that stupid dinner. They have looted billions of dollars and what more
do they need? We know they want to raise money to sponsor more violence and we
want the business community to abstain from this ill-conceived process. We can’t
have this in the midst of poverty.”
Well the truth is dinner
gala, the looting and all the other criminal activities associated with this
corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship have been happening for the last 36
years. The grinding poverty and hopelessness we see all across the land are the
by-product of the decades of bad governance.
Grace Mugabe is expected
to be guest of honour at the dinner. No doubt she will have to fly to Singapore
to buy a new outfit for the occasion; she is not one to be seen in some old dress,
shoes, etc.!
“Companies should flatly
refuse to be forced to fund the operations of a political party that has
literally ruined their business operations. Business owners should take a bold
stand and refuse to be commandeered into bankrolling the operations of a party
that has got absolutely no respect for the rule of law and private property
rights,” weighted in Obert Gutu, the spokesperson of MDC-T.
It is this kind of the
nauseating nonsense from naïve and useless people like Obert Gutu that has
landed us in this mess! Most of the dinner gala attendees are nothing more than
mafia members paying a cut of their loot to the Godfather. Of course a CEO like
Cuthbert Dube at PSMAS who was on a $400 000 monthly package would be foolish
to listen to Gutu and abandon Mugabe because they will lose their cushy
position with the demise of the dictator.
Even the few from what is
left of the country’s once a thriving private sector who, in attending the
dinner are paying mafia protection fee, pizzo; would be foolish to listen to
Gutu and refuse to pay. The regime will pressure them to pay or else force them
out of business one way or the other which is exactly what has happened!
We have a well establish mafia
regime that has destroyed the nation’s once promising economy resulting in
grinding poverty; these things are not coming in the near future, they are here
already. We have had this corrupt and tyrannical Mugabe dictatorship for the
last 36 years the question we must ask ourselves is in all those 36 years why
have we failed to end the dictatorship?
36 years is a long time to
nurture a dictator, allowing him to ride roughshod over our freedoms, basic
human rights, dreams and hopes! In all that time there were numerous
opportunities to end the dictatorship, the best chance by a mile being during
the GNU. Why did we waste all these opportunities to end the dictatorship?
The country’s worsening
economic meltdown is presenting us with a serious challenge in the form of the
grinding poverty and despair but it has also presented us with another golden
opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship
We failed to take advantage of the golden
opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship during the GNU because MDC leaders
like Tsvangirai had no idea what democratic changes we needed to implemented
much less how they were going to be implemented. Even with the benefit of post
July 2013 rigged elections hindsight, MDC leaders and the rest of the
opposition activists still have no clue what reforms we need to implement to
dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship.
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