Opinion / Columnist
BBC Hardtalk fails to get to the crux of the matter with Chinamasa
05 Jul 2016 at 16:31hrs | Views
I have just finished watching BBC Hardtalk with Zimbabwe Finance Minister Chinamasa and am rather disappointed that the BBC missed an opportunity to get to the crux of the matter and instead gave the Minister an opportunity to blame the British and sanctions once more for Zimbabwe's problems.
We have a government which has created a $2.5 billion budget deficit since 2013 because it spends more money on salaries, cars, travel and allowances than it invests. We have a government which cannot account for billions of dollars in mineral revenues looted by a predatory political cabal whose ostentatious lifestyles are questionable given the state of the economy. We have massive unemployment where the whole economy has been turned into an informal survivalist economy.
Our State Enterprise CEOs have been reported by the Auditor General to have fraudulently mismanaged almost $1 billion in 2015 alone. We have billions in "loans" from China and others which are fuelling the looting machine through inflated contract costs and secret pay offs to Ministers and connected individuals. We have massive looting by the Zanu-PF predatory cabal whose greed knows no bounds.
We then have a government which is technically bankrupt and wants to borrow to repay arrears of $1.8 billion and then further borrow another $1 billion from the IMF without demonstrating whether it has the means to pay the money back. In addition the promises made for economic and political reforms remain on paper only.
To the international audience who may have watched the programme, that was all propaganda where Zanu-PF minions must stay on script and mimic Mugabe's victim hood mentality or they will lose their job. Zanu-PF minions are told by their master never to take responsibility for how they have destroyed the country's productive base because that would be admitting failure.
The current public discontent and recent riots must be a clear indication that Zimbabweans have had enough and want Mugabe and his cronies to go. They are the sole architects of a failed state.
Unfortunately none of these issues came out in the program which to me failed to sensitize the international audience on the desperation of our situation.
Unless political change happens now, Zimbabwe is on the brink and no amount of loans, denial or cover up of the facts can change that.
Vince Musewe is an economist and author based in Harare. You may contact him on vtmusewe@gmail.com
Source - Vince Musewe
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