Opinion / Columnist
Does Mthuli Ncube really live in ZImbabwe?
07 Oct 2020 at 06:57hrs | Views
ZIMBABWE on Monday woke up to a fresh dosage of shocking data from the ever-blundering Finance minister Mthuli Ncube.
Mthuli scaled up defence against his catastrophic economic policies, which have relegated over 70% of Zimbabweans to extreme poverty, telling a stunned nation that a person surviving on his $300 monthly stipend is rich enough to evade poverty.
It is a joke!
Mthuli's propaganda to present the image of a country that has turned the corner since the 2017 coup has already inflicted harm to a struggling nation.
Donor funds have had to be diverted to other countries because the data that government has been releasing is highly glossed over and dangerous for a nation desperately in need of aid to avert mass starvation.
In United States dollar terms, government is spending US$3,68 on each poverty-stricken family, which under normal circumstances would require over $14 000 or US$175 per month for basic commodities alone to survive.
These are families that live mostly in some of the country's remotest and driest regions, where prices rocket at every turn.
These are families that have been cut off critical service provisions due to economic mismanagement and corruption. Their boreholes are malfunctioning, their dams are dry, their health centres have been closed, their road network is crumbling and their teachers, underpaid and frustrated and
have refused to return to work because they are hungry. Instead of addressing these critical problems confronting the nation, Mthuli braggingly tells them that they are rich enough and off the poverty line.
It is an insult of the highest order to people who cannot afford a single meal a day, let alone earn US$1 a day.
The propaganda levels that we have seen since Mthuli came to Treasury is preposterous. He has talked too much without tangible results. This is not how it should be.
We need a government that takes action to eradicate poverty, instead of engaging in endless propaganda while the nation sinks in abject poverty.
But while we were baffled by his figures on Monday, we were not particularly surprised by the minister's spin.
This is the same man who has spent the past two years boasting that his Midas touch had helped Zimbabwe record a budget surplus at a time civil servants are claiming being
underpaid.
It is surprising that a minister of Mthuli's stature takes pride in balancing the books, without looking at the stinking poverty in Zimbabwe.
We warn Mthuli today to stop presenting to the world highly glossed data, which has had the unintended effect of diverting potential assistance for COVID-19 pandemic to countries whose data demonstrate that they are in need.
Information that is massaged by people who seem to be living in their own territories other than poverty-stricken Zimbabwe has been the main source of the suffering this country is experiencing.
Mthuli scaled up defence against his catastrophic economic policies, which have relegated over 70% of Zimbabweans to extreme poverty, telling a stunned nation that a person surviving on his $300 monthly stipend is rich enough to evade poverty.
It is a joke!
Mthuli's propaganda to present the image of a country that has turned the corner since the 2017 coup has already inflicted harm to a struggling nation.
Donor funds have had to be diverted to other countries because the data that government has been releasing is highly glossed over and dangerous for a nation desperately in need of aid to avert mass starvation.
In United States dollar terms, government is spending US$3,68 on each poverty-stricken family, which under normal circumstances would require over $14 000 or US$175 per month for basic commodities alone to survive.
These are families that live mostly in some of the country's remotest and driest regions, where prices rocket at every turn.
These are families that have been cut off critical service provisions due to economic mismanagement and corruption. Their boreholes are malfunctioning, their dams are dry, their health centres have been closed, their road network is crumbling and their teachers, underpaid and frustrated and
have refused to return to work because they are hungry. Instead of addressing these critical problems confronting the nation, Mthuli braggingly tells them that they are rich enough and off the poverty line.
It is an insult of the highest order to people who cannot afford a single meal a day, let alone earn US$1 a day.
The propaganda levels that we have seen since Mthuli came to Treasury is preposterous. He has talked too much without tangible results. This is not how it should be.
We need a government that takes action to eradicate poverty, instead of engaging in endless propaganda while the nation sinks in abject poverty.
But while we were baffled by his figures on Monday, we were not particularly surprised by the minister's spin.
This is the same man who has spent the past two years boasting that his Midas touch had helped Zimbabwe record a budget surplus at a time civil servants are claiming being
underpaid.
It is surprising that a minister of Mthuli's stature takes pride in balancing the books, without looking at the stinking poverty in Zimbabwe.
We warn Mthuli today to stop presenting to the world highly glossed data, which has had the unintended effect of diverting potential assistance for COVID-19 pandemic to countries whose data demonstrate that they are in need.
Information that is massaged by people who seem to be living in their own territories other than poverty-stricken Zimbabwe has been the main source of the suffering this country is experiencing.
Source - newsday
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