“I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle,” said Winston Church.
The quotation of the great man complete with his picture has been going the rounds in my social media circle, prompted by Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube’s recent national budget statement. The statement itself is meant to once again “prove” Churchill wrong; just need to know how!
You tax the poor to bankroll the filthy rich ruling elite and their cronies. And to keep the poor quiet, you promise them that is will be their turn to stand in the bucket tomorrow and be uplifted into prosperity from the tax paid by the filthy rich ruling elite. Zimbabwe has been doing this for decades now!
Winston Churchill a democrat who was democratically accountable to the British people and so was compelled to speak truthfully. Mnangagwa, just like Mugabe before him, and his cronies are not democrats, he is not democratically accountable to the people - as he has bluntly demonstrated in the August elections. He can and is taxing the poor to bankroll the prosperity of the filthy rich ruling elite. The poor are being reassured that tomorrow it will be their turn to be prosperous as the nation attains its goal of upper middle income by 2030, vision 2030.
The nation has been chasing this mass prosperity mirage since 1980 when the nation attained her independence; Mugabe never tired of promising the masses "gutsa ruzhinji”. Even when it was clear the masses were getting poorer and poorer, there was mass poverty; the regime never stopped playing the gutsa ruzhinji drums.
Gutsa ruzhinji! Gutsa ruzhinji! the drums played day and night! Heard the drums first thing in the morning and last thing at night. One even heard the drums deep in their sleep.
When Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe in 2017 he announce that “Zimbabwe is open for business!” as the vehicle to finally deliver the elusive mass prosperity. However when he failed to deliver on his promise to stamp out corruption and to hold free and fair elections in 2018; he confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state. He confirmed that Zimbabwe was NOT open for business because the coup had changed nothing.
So the much hoped for flood of foreign and local investment in response to his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” mantra never materialise. Investors are shrewd lot they know it is near impossible to do business in a pariah state and so stayed away.
After three years of waiting for the flood of investors, the penny finally dropped, Mnangagwa finally forced to accept that “Zimbabwe is open for business!” was dead in the water. He changed tactic he focused on local investors. And so “Nyika inovakwa nevenevayo!” was born. But as with any other public pronouncements, the devil was in the detail.
It is one thing to claim Zimbabweans will be build the country (it should be rebuilt since it was Zanu PF who destroyed the country’s economy). Who were those Zimbabweans who would build the nation?
Many Zimbabweans have left the country as economic and/or political refugees in the last 20 to 30 years and most of them are highly qualified. Zanu PF government’s own man-power assessment has revealed that the country had up to 80% man power shortage in such key areas as agriculture, engineering, education, health, etc. And the few professional still in the country are poor, the decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and hyper inflation have left most people poor.
The only areas areas with legions of manpower were politics, law and religion. It is often said that if you throw a stone into a crowd in Zimbabwe, you will probably hit a PhD graduate, a lawyer, a politician or a pastor - sometimes all four in one! They are not exactly the building brigade, are they!
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube has kept up the Zanu PF tradition of finding new ways to squeeze more money from the poor. One of the very subtle ways to do this this year was by introducing the so-call mansion tax. Anyone whose home is worth US$ 100 000 or more will pay 1% of the value of the property tax per year. Many people heaved a sigh of relief; they think they escaped the dragnet.
The mansion tax is a very slippery slope. The slide-rule will swiftly move to lower the US$100 000 thrash hold and to widen what other assets can be included in the mansion for tax purposes. In short, many living is in mud-huts will soon find themselves paying mason tax!
Of course, Winston Churchill is right no nation has taxed its people to prosperity, to mass prosperity that is. Zimbabwe’s ruling elite and their cronies are filthy rich, the more ostentatious given the grinding poverty of the majority, because the government tax the poor to spare the rich.
20 comments:
The whites impose hut-tax to force the blacks to work in the white-owned farms, mines, etc. to earn money so they can pay the tax.
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube is reintroducing the hut-tax (mud huts will be called mansions for tax purposes) to tax the poor whilst he continues to spare the rich from paying tax.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w-zpnJVHeU
@ Dreamchaser
Has it ever occurred to you that all this blundering and bungling is the root cause of the country's failure to end the curse of Zanu PF rigging elections? MDC leaders had 5 years to implement the democratic reforms during the GNU and they failed to get even one token reform implemented.
MDC/CCC leaders have failed to implement even one reform in 23 years, 5 of which in the GNU because they are corrupt and incompetent. What else has to happen for you to finally see that!
The spirit is willing but the intellect is weak! No wonder Zimbabwe is a failed state we have more than our fair share of mentally challenge and, to crown it, the have the vote.
“Messed up what? Nonsense.” Fcuk me! We are really in deep, deep trouble! And this is coming from some one many you would look up to as the nation’s intelligentsia, creme de la creme!
@ Matthew Nyashanu
“Wilbert in earnest the who recall of CCC MPs is defective and unconstitutional. The act of recall and what is happening in Zimbabwe is typical of a pariah state worse even than a banana Republic. Any sane and forward thinking person will not stop and blame anyone fighting such a bandit like system . The truth of the matter is Zimbabwe is trapped under the arms of a barbaric government that operates like a loose canon . Honestly blaming anyone fighting the system is criminal and playing the politics of deception.”
I totally agree that we have a tyrannical regime in the form of Zanu PF. What we must also consider is does CCC have any weaknesses and how have these helped Zanu PF stay in power? After 23 years including 5 in the GNU this self examination is long over due.
There are some people whose default setting is that CCC leaders are infallible and must never be held to account. This is a foolish notion and must be dismissed with the contempt it rightly deserve. CCC leaders are human beings and per se mortal and fallible like you and me. We cannot afford the luxury of allowing the madness that has landed this nation into this mess to continue even one more day.
The argument that CCC leaders are fighting the system and therefore must not be questioned is equally flawed. If they indeed fighting the system then what is wrong with giving them a chance to explain how failing to implement even one reform in 23 years is fighting the system.
@ Mutambara
“As a collective political leadership, we should have taken time to apply our minds to the existential question:
“What next after the GNU?”
We did not address this matter.
This was suicidal.
It was a tragic lack of judgement.”
It is a great shame and very tragic that not even one token democratic reforms were implemented during the GNU. It was a golden opportunity wasted. What makes this even worse is that there are millions of Zimbabweans out there who still have no clue what the GNU was about much less that MDC leaders sold out big time. Even now with the benefit of hindsight, many still have no idea.
What is really unforgivable are the village idiots who are coming up with their own idiotic narrative to “prove” MDC leaders did nothing wrong. In the naivety they even contradict the narrative of those who were in the GNU like David Coltart, Tendai Biti, Arthur Mutambara, etc.
It is bad enough that we wasted the golden opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship during GNU the very least we can do now is learn from that mistake. The village idiots are stopping the nation from doing even this!
“Presenting his 2024 budget last week, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube proposed a wealth tax levied at 1% of market value of tax payer's property worth at least US$$100 000.
Ncube's proposal has triggered outrage even as it remains mired in confusion as it lacks clarity on various issues including method of property assessment, method of payment of the tax and enforce ment of the proposal. Zimbabweans now refer to the wealth tax as the mansion tax. "Resources derived from the levy will be ring-fenced towards urban infrastructure development, in particular roads, water, sewer and community health centres," Ncube said.
"Principal private residential properties owned by elderly persons above 70 years will, however, be exempt from the tax.”
The white colonial regimes introduced various taxes including bicycle tax, dog tax, hut tax, etc. to force blacks to work in the white owned farms, mines, etc. The earnings were then used to pay the various tax charges. This Zanu PF regime has all but destroyed the country’s once upon a time robust economy and with it reducing the tax revenue. The regime has had to dig deep to increase its revenue from the ever shrinking economy.
Millions of Zimbabweans now live in abject poverty and asking them to pay the ZAT like everyone else has sunk most of them deeper and deeper into poverty. Still they regime has co0me up with various ways to increase revenue from the poor. It is only a matter of time before the poorly maintained houses and next the mud-huts are classified as mansions for mansion-tax purposes!
@ Trevor Ncube
My take home from this is that the so-called strategic ambiguity policy was nothing more than smoke screen to justify and hide the one-man autocracy.
Like it or not Sengezo Tshabangu was no more than the boy in The Emperor's Cloths who pointed out that the Emperor was naked! Now that the gene is out of the bottle, we can hope that the CCC wildebeest herd will finally settle down, stop the rat race stampede, and listen to reason.
Chamisa is a corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent individual and not the infallible demigod the herd believed him to be.
Zimbabwe is a failed state because Zimbabweans love demigods so much so they worshiped the late corrupt, incompetent and murderous Robert Mugabe for two decades. They did not learn from that foolishness and so had Chamisa as their new demigod! There is a heavy price to be paid for this foolishness, the failed state is that price!
@ Dreamchaser
“Chamisa wakamuvenga nemoyo wese.”
You have believed all these years that Chamisa is a demigod who cannot do anything wrong and it is unbearable to hear that he is not only a fallible mortal but a corrupt and incompetent one!
Zimbabwe is a failed state because MDC/CCC leaders have failed to implement even one reform to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. If I am wrong then name one reform the infallible Chamisa has implemented. He conned you into participating in flawed elections claiming he had plugged all the vote rigging loop holes and yet failed to deploy even election agents at all the Polling Stations. These are the historic facts the nation must face and deal with.
You can go back and bury your head in Chamisa's back side, cold comfort, that will not change the reality on the ground. As for me, I have never allowed myself to be bullied and bamboozled by the brainless wildebeest herd or an overzealous village idiot and I am not going to do so now.
Chamisa and his MDC friends were in the GNU that failed to implement even one toke reform, why should they not be held to democratic account for their treasonous betrayal? Because you worship him as an infallible demigod? To me, he is not just a mere mortal but a corrupt and incompetent one. Of course, he is accountable - that is not negotiable!
This is a contest of ideas and not a popularity contest especially when the masses are nothing but brainwashed wildebeest herd who are easily conned. The herd participated in the August elections because they believed Chamisa's claim that he had plugged all the vote rigging loop holes. It was all hot air but the herd believed it!
“Elder Mukori you have been singing this chorus for quite some time now, what exactly has changed ever since you started this movement?? And what has been accomplished in doing so??? Yes we all know that change is needed but what use is it to us if you keep on saying the same thing over and over again without offering an alternative to the issue???”
So you are aware of my calling for reforms these last five years or so but not aware that MDC/CCC have failed to implement even one reform in 23 years, 5 of which in the GNU. The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect these leaders into power for that express purpose.
You want me silence because I have accomplished nothing and yet you continue to support the treasonous MDC/CCC leaders so they can continue selling out the nation. The sheer stupidity of it all beggars belief.
I have become public enemy number one is your view because I have dared to demand an end to the insanity of rigged elections and bad governance. I have to fight off one attack after another from the village idiots and howler monkeys. No wonder Zimbabwe is a fail state; we have more than our fair share of nincompoops and, to crown it all, they have the vote!
This is comparable to someone in high school asking grade one stuff. Do you know what the reforms are?
It would be good for SADC to deny Zanu PF political legitimacy because the party did, indeed, rig the August 2023 elections. The worrying question is what will change in six months?
It is naive, to say the least to expect CCC to force through any meaningful reforms in six months when they failed to do so in five years in the 2008 to 2013 GNU!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jc1iqSfBVY
@ Liberty
“Wilbert, yes Chamisa has his weaknesses, just like any human being. Why can't you and your party carry the democratic struggle forward? Implement the reforms and leave Chamisa alone.”
I have replaced Chamisa with Mnangagwa to give you the gist of what you have just said.
“Yes Mnangagwa has his weaknesses, just like any human being. Why can't you and your party carry the democratic struggle forward? Implement the reforms and leave Mnangagwa alone.”
This is exactly what Zanu PF’s leaders, propagandists and apologists have been saying all these years to justify the regime’s tyrannical rule and more specifically rigging the elections and denying the ordinary Zimbabweans a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
Chamisa and his CCC friends were elected by the people of Zimbabwe for the express purpose of bring about the necessary democratic changes to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. The party’s original name implied that promise; Movement for Democratic Change. Millions of ordinary Zimbabweans still believe CCC are committed to deliver that change not knowing that CCC leaders just like Zanu PF leaders did after independence have betrayed the people in pursuit of power and wealth.
It is not surprising that CCC leaders, propagandists and apologists, just like their Zanu PF parts, believe CCC leaders are NOT accountable to the people and must be allowed to do as they damn well please.
I have said it here a million times and will say it again: all those in public office are democratically accountable to the public - I, like it or not, am one of this body-mass called the public. Chamisa et al must and will be held account for selling out on reforms, for example. This is not negotiable.
I am holding CCC to account> Your foolish argument that I cannot do so because I have not taken Zanu PF head on is just as foolish as Mutsvangwa's argument that I cannot hold Zanu PF to account because I did not fight in the liberation war! Stop being foolish!
@ Franknet
“If not the opposition, who then? Political marketing will always go as 'we are the only ones capable of implementing reforms'. Without reforms the country is ungovernable independently.. and who can bcz hapana musiyano. What u pledge today is the same as what others are doing.”
This is very true. Indeed MDC/CCC leaders have gone from “we will implement the reforms” to “we will win rigged elections” when they failed to implement even one token reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The tragedy for Zimbabwe is the people continued to support them regardless of the switch because they did not know the difference.
They had believed MDC leaders would implement the democratic reforms without know what these reforms were much less how they were supposed to be implemented. The people did not know how CCC could win big without reforms but that did not matter, they believed it can be done because Chamisa said so. Chamisa said he had plugged all the vote rigging loop holes and yet he did not even deploy election agents at all Polling Stations. “God is in it!” he claimed. All hot air! What matters is millions believed hime. How stupid it that!
Ignorance and stupidity are one of our many curses and we have compounded our problem by granting these ignorant people the vote! As much as the nation desperately needs competent opposition leaders to implement the reforms the truth is it is not going to happen until the penny finally drops in the ignorant voters that CCC will never implement any reforms. Most of voters don’t what the reforms are much less that Chamisa and company sold out by failing to implement even one reform.
So it is the people who, in the ignorance and stupidity, are stopping change by participating in flawed elections giving Zanu PF legitimacy because they do not even have the common sense to reject oxymoronic nonsense of winning rigged elections especially after 43 years of Zanu Pf rigging elections.
You cannot change the economy, health system, education, etc. as long as Zanu PF remains in power because the regime controls everything. If you are serious about fixing the economy, etc. first implement the reforms and thus stop Zanu PF rigging elections.
MDC/CCC have had 23 years, 5 of which in the GNU, to implement the reforms and have failed to implement even one token reform. We need competent opposition leaders who will get the reforms implemented and that its why we must speak about CCC. There are idiots who think CCC are untouchable, that is nonsense and it would be foolish to listen to idiots.
@ Blessing Murondiwa
“To you the best is ED. Why do you spit vernom. What role have yourself played to better zim lives apart from arm chair criticizing. I have not seen you castigating the incarceration of political prisoners without due process and naked judiciary capture. Apart from trying to have Chamisa trapped by the regime what else have you suggested except praising the tortoise on the lamppost.”
So because I have dared to point out a historic fact that MDC/CCC leaders have sold out on reform it must be because I love ED! The sheer stupidity of it all is astounding!
I have called for the implementation of the democratic reforms so that there are free, fair and credible elections. Only a village idiot would believe that Zanu PF wants reforms and free elections!
“What role have yourself played to better zim lives apart from arm chair criticising.” This is just the Zanu PF idiotic nonsense that those who did not fight in the liberation war have no say in the governance of the country. At least Mutsvangwa and company risked life and limb, we are now being denied our freedoms and rights by some village idiots who have sold out when the got into power but claim to have been in the trenches.
Chamisa and his CCC friends were elected by the people of Zimbabwe for the express purpose of bring about the necessary democratic changes to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. The party’s original name implied that promise; Movement for Democratic Change. Millions of ordinary Zimbabweans still believe CCC are committed to deliver that change not knowing that CCC leaders just like Zanu PF leaders did after independence have betrayed the people in pursuit of power and wealth.
It is not surprising that CCC leaders, propagandists and apologists, just like their Zanu PF parts, believe CCC leaders are NOT accountable to the people and must be allowed to do as they damn well please.
I have said it here a million times and will say it again: all those in public office are democratically accountable to the public - I, like it or not, am one of this body-mass called the public. Chamisa et al must and will be held account for selling out on reforms, for example. This is not negotiable
@ Tavstan
“Iwe wanga uripi zvese izvi zvichiitika mumaziso ako.”
I was not there during the GNU just as I was not there to fight the liberation war, are you then saying CCC and Zanu PF have the licence to deny the ordinary people their basic freedoms and rights. Are you saying CCC and Zanu PF are only accountable to people like you who are in the trenches and/or fought the war of independence?
No one should be in the trenches fighting for the same freedoms and rights if Zanu PF was no denying us these rights. We have not yet secure these freedoms and rights and already Chamisa and company are claiming their reward for being in the trenches. Fcuk me!
Yesteryear’s liberators have become today’s oppressors. Today’s liberators are already growing their oppressive horns. And so the vicious cycle continues. Well I will damned if I will ever allow village idiots like you tell me I cannot hold those in public office, Zanu PF or CCC, to account. Watch and learn!
The real trouble in Zimbabwe is that we have some real braindead village idiots who think they are doing the nation a favour by promoting tyrannical rule! Those fighting to end the dictatorship have to fight these village idiots first to get to the dictators and the buffoons in power! Well, so be it!
@ SaMusa
“My thoughts are that the system we are using today is not in our DNA. Old Africa believed in communal systems of sharing and minimum hoarding, history tells of a level of cooperation in projects like farming harvesting that made it difficult to leave others behind. It was not easy to deny a poorer family or a stranger food when the farming, harvesting storing were community events and the community would gather to participate. [Nhimbe jakwara concept].
Labour was shared between clansman When a family killed a beast certain portions were distributed to neighbours and the extended family. The chiefs administered lands and food for the community (zunde Ramambo concept) The current system is commercial we sell the excess even if the neighbour is starving. We are even looking at how we can commercialise our garbage.”
Communal ownership of land, etc. served our forefathers well, if it did, that does not mean we should not change it. “System is not in our DNA”, what nonsense are you talking about? You have always strangled to think rationally and that might well be in your DNA not communal ownership of the land, etc.
You have rejected democracy and embrace autocratic dictatorship using the same idiotic argument it is not in our DNA. You cannot accept democracy because the West use it and for the Zanu PF ruling elite because their love of absolute power burns more fiercely that the love of justice and rule of law. It has nothing to do with DNA!
This is a political crisis that could and should have been avoided. It is tragic enough that the crisis has happened but worst of all those involved are not intelligent enough to grasp what has happened much less how to resolve it. And so the party is going to stumble along from pillar to post! A similar self-inflicted crisis tore MDC A apart and now history is repeating itself!
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