Chinamasa in trouble

Patrick Chinamasa could be seeing off his last days at the Finance and Economic Development Ministry after he was rebuked by Cabinet for sneaking austerity measures into his mid-term fiscal policy review statement presented last week notwithstanding rejection of that course of action by the highest organ in government, chaired by President Robert Mugabe.

Chinamasa, who is leading re-engagement talks between Zimbabwe and its multilateral creditors as a stepping stone towards getting fresh funding to oil illiquid markets, came up with a raft of measures in his mid-term fiscal review in order to tame runaway consumptive behavior in government.

Christopher Mushohwe, the Information Minister, highlighted on Tuesday that while the measures unveiled by Chinamasa had been tabled before Cabinet, the Finance Minister had rushed to announce them while overlooking those measures rejected earlier on.

It is the second time Chinamasa has been humiliated in public for moving to streamline costs to match the rapid loss of fiscal space without getting the green light from his principals.

The first time was towards the end of last year when he froze bonus payments until 2017, citing poor revenue performance.