The real tragedy of Zimbabwe is that those who can least afford it have again and again been forced to subsidise the filthy rich. One prime example is Finance Minister, Mthuli Ncube’s 2% tax on all electronic transactions aim at roping in the country’s 90% unemployed who are not paying any PAYE tax. Most of these people ilk a living as street vendors earning as little as US$30 or less a month in a country with a poverty datum line measured at US$650 per month.
Minister Ncube was not content the vendors pay sells tax, council rates and other indirect charges such as ZESA bills, water bills, etc. even when these services have not been provided; fixed charges are payable regardless of power or water cut. The transaction tax was to ensure government took another cut from the vendors’ meagre earning!
It is no secrete that country’s filthy rich ruling elite are earning millions of dollars from their generous salaries and allowances, wholesale looting of the nation’s resources, etc. and they are not paying any income taxes and have often got away with not paying their regular bills. Minister Mthuli Ncube did not even make an effort to get these people to pay their fair share of the tax, he went for the soft target - the impoverished majority.
ZESA has an impressive list of Zanu PF ruling elite and associates who have not been paying their electricity bills.
Local Government Minister, July Moyo $414,775 Former foreign minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi $273,150 Former deputy police commissioner Innocent Matibiri $167,000 Redwing Mine in Mutare $3,200,000 Metallon Gold $9,300,000
Zimbabwe has struggled to meet the country’s growing demand for electricity fuelled by the Zanu PF government’s lopsided policies. The regime was obsessed with connecting more and more people to the grid, great for grabbing headlines and winning cheap popularism; whilst doing nothing to increase generation capacity to meet the increased demand. Zimbabwe has failed to maintain the generation stations it inherited from Ian Smith in 1980 much less invest in building new generation plant.
Zimbabwe has relied more and more on imported electricity to augment its inadequate generation. The country has not paid its electricity bills for the imports for various reasons including wrong electricity tariffs, the criminal waste of money due to corruption and mismanagement in ZESA and the filthy rich not paying their electricity bills. The countries that have sold electricity to Zimbabwe have reduced the imports for none-payment of existing debts.
“ZESA currently imports 50MW from South Africa and up to 100MW from Mozambique, but can access up to 450MW from the two regional power utilities if it extinguishes its arrears,” reported Bulawayo 24.
Thank God Mozambique and SA have not decided to switch off the supply; things would be a lot worse for Zimbabwe. As it is Zimbabwe is having a rolling 10 hours electricity power cuts which affect both domestic and industrial consumers alike.
So Zimbabwe is in this difficult situation of having to import electricity because the country failed to invest in local generation plant. The country is failing to pay for the imported power because it is not earning enough foreign currency to pay for the imported power because it the country killed off local production reducing its foreign currency earning and having to import even those goods it should be producing locally.
If ZESA supplied the 300MW, balance of the potential imported power, at cost to consumers who pay their bills, prompt without failure, and the money is ring-fence to pay for the imported power; Zimbabwe will be importing the full 450MW right now!
"The defendant (Moyo) is indebted/liable to the plaintiff (ZESA) as at May 6, 2019, in the sum of $414,775.79 being charges in respect of power/electricity supplied by the plaintiff to the defendant at the latter's special request and instance in terms of the running electricity supply contract between the two, for account number 2346569," the power utility said in its High Court declaration.
It is intolerable that impoverish Zimbabweans should subsidise the July Moyo’s of this world but why should impoverished South Africans and Mozambicans be collared to do the same! ZESA’s load shedding is collective punishment of all Zimbabwe electricity consumers for the sins of the few filthy rich ruling elite ZESA did not have the guts to punish for failing to pay their bills!
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Well, well! The untouchables are now fair game. Zanu PF leaders like Didymus Mutasa never thought they would ever be asked to pay for anything until the day he was booted out of the party together with Joice Mujuru. Now even those still under the protection of the party and occupying ministerial positions cannot believe they are being asked to their electricity bills like everyone else.
Gone are the days when these Zanu PF thugs would have told ZESA that they wanted power to their house 24/7 regardless of the load shedding affecting everyone else. Now the thugs are being switched off and have to read the court summons for failing to pay ZESA bills by candlelight!
The economic meltdown is sparing no one but who would have believed that even those at the Zanu PF top table are feeling the ill-effects of the meltdown. "Charova sei chando, kukwidza hamba mumuti!" (It will take a very bitterly cold winter to force the tortoise up a tree!)
Zimbabwe's anti-corruption drive this week suffered a big blow after the southern African nation dropped three places to position 160 out 180 rated on the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (CPI) scoring 22 out of 100.
According to the latest CPI for 2018 which was released this week, Zimbabwe remains on the tail-end of tackling corruption despite renewed government efforts to fight graft both in the public and private sectors.
The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and business people. It uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. More than two-thirds of countries, according to the report scored below 50 on this year's index, with an average of just 43. Zimbabwe scored 22.
Zimbabwe needs to end this scourge of corruption if the country is serious about reviving the country’s economy. No one in their right mind would want to invest their money in a country in which corruption is rampant and risk losing it all to corruption. No one!
It is a great pity that selfish individuals like Professor Mthuli Ncube has been misleading the nation with all the foolish promises of attracting investors and lenders back into Zimbabwe knowing fully well Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs.
"God bless Zimbabwe!"
How ironic, you should evoke the name of the Almighty in your demonic work of creating and retaining this corrupt and murderous tyrannical regime that has brought so much human suffering and deaths to the nation. God has had no part in the creation of the Zanu PF dictatorship and will have no part to play in this National Dialogue because it is just an excuse to keep the Zanu PF dictatorship in power against the democratic wish of the people!
Given the 8 to 10 hours a day every day ZESA blackout these Zanu PF chefs may find themselves reading their Court Summons for failing to pay their ZESA bills by candlelight - how exquisite!
Comrades, a belated welcome to the real Zimbabwe you fostered on us all these years but never noticed until now. Now that you have have a taste of the economic hardships we have faced all these years you will be surprised how quickly they will overwhelm you. Now that ZESA has sued you, you will be surprise how many other law suits will follow for unpaid bank loans, water bills, small house maintenance claims, etc., etc. The untouchables are now fair game!
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube was cocksure he was going to get the IMF, WB and all the other usual finance houses to bankroll Zimbabwe's recovery plans. He has failed to do s because they are not convinced the plans will ever work especially given Zimbabwe still remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging mafia.
Wherever the Minister got the $500 million from, we can be certain the lender(s) will be charging the country an arm and leg interest charges and impose tough repayment conditions. The loan will be a short term benefit with long term suffering, the kind the nation should be avoiding!
The people of Zimbabwe are paying dearly for the 39 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule. These sweeping ZESA power cuts are coming at a time when the country is already in serious, serious economic trouble with unemployment a nauseating 90% and 3/4 of the population living on US$30 per month or less. The power cuts will only make the bad, bad situation even worse!
Hundreds if not thousands of people will be dying every month of poverty induced hunger and illnesses, that is how bad the situation in Zimbabwe has become.
These ZESA power cuts could have been avoided if the country had maintained the plant it inherited from Smith, invested in new generation plant and had paid its debt for imported power. These are all common sense things but for the last 39 years we, the people, have seen the country going to the dogs and did nothing to stop it. And now we are paying with human misery and lives for our folly!
After sensationally claiming that there is no fuel price increase in place in the country, the Zimbabwe Energy Regulating Authority, ZERA, has increased the price of fuel with an immediate effect and valid for a week.
The new pump price for petrol is now $4.97.
Since fuel is a key commodity there is no doubt that this increase will result in a new wave of price increases right across the board.
Strange, Finance Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube was boasted on Friday that the country has receive a $500 million loan and it will be used “to stabilise prices” as of Monday 20 May 2019! Well, so much for our blundering Minister of Finance.
I have lost count the number of time Mthuli Ncube has blundered even the UN has expressed its concern over the tragic consequences of his blundering incompetence.
“The government is pushing people further into poverty. We are not aware of any government measures to provide even minimal safety nets for those who are already living on an economic cliff-edge and who will suffer the most from these regressive policies”, the UN report read.
Until the people of Zimbabwe wake up to the reality that Zanu PF has failed and must be replaced with a competent and accountable government the country’s economic and political problems will only get worse!
CSC has a huge debt of close to $22 million and has seen production going down to around 10% of capacity.
The company was at one time the largest meat processor in Africa, handling up to 150 000 tonnes of beef and associated by-products each year and exporting to the European Union.
CSC is reportedly left with just 700 cattle and more than $80 million is needed to bring the company back to its feet.
Zimbabwe has not paid back it’s debt to Botswana that dates back as far as 2012 during former President Robert Mugabe’s era for the sale of livestock they sold them.
This was all revealed in the Auditor General’s report for the 2018/2019 financial year that was released last week that Zimbabwe still owes Botswana a total sum of P1 239 000 for that livestock sale that took place.
For the last 39 years Zimbabwe has been amass debt, spending as if there is no tomorrow on leisure and luxuries and how the chickens have come home to roost in their billions like red-billed quelea!
What the people of Zimbabwe must now accept is that the nation’s problems are not going to disappear but, until they do end the Zanu PF dictatorship behind all this mess, the problems will only get worse. Mnangagwa thought he would fix the problems but after one and half years in power it is now clue he has no clue what to do!
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