Bonus confusion exposes Mugabe

The opposition and civil service unions yesterday rounded on President Robert Mugabe and his misfiring Zanu-PF government, saying farcical developments around bonuses for State employees underlined the fact that the centre could no longer hold within the ruling party.

The criticism included claims that the bonus disaster showed that Mugabe was no longer in charge, that government was demonstrating how "hopelessly clueless" it was about fixing Zimbabwe, and that the State was now run as a "chaotic free-for-all", with ministers working without supervision and doing as they wished.

This followed Mugabe's often random speech at the Independence Day celebrations at the National Sports Stadium, in Harare, on Saturday where he gave Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa a humiliating public shellacking, emphatically denying that the government had decided against awarding civil servants bonuses this year and next year.