Mnangagwa taunts Chinamasa

Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa taunted Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa in humorous remarks last week, saying the frugal Treasury chief is pre-occupied with saving money.

Taking pot-shots at Chinamasa - who has emerged as one of the most prudent spenders of government finances - Mnangagwa told Parliament last week that Chinamasa thinks about money every time.

"So you know minister Chinamasa, ukamuwana avete, (If you find him asleep) if you say to him ‘Chinamasa, Chinamasa', he will answer saying, handina mari, handinda mari (I don't have money) and you say ‘no, ndakuvigira bagwe randagocha (I have brought you roasted mealies)'."

Chinamasa — who has routinely snubbed government demands for more funds — has said over 90 percent of government revenue was being used to pay civil servants' wages.

"The reality of our situation is that out of every $100 revenue that I receive, 90 percent to 97 percent is going to wages," he said in the National Assembly last month.

"This means that I have $3 which I have to devote to service delivery and all the things that we are talking about here — roads, schools and clinics."

He has been intensifying efforts to collect taxes from the informal business sector. According to a ZimStat report, 94,5 percent of the 6,3m people defined as employed are working in the informal economy.

And as Zimbabwe's economy continues to die, the World Bank last year downgraded the country from its list of improved economies to the unflattering tier of struggling countries, as Harare's political and economic turmoil continues to escalate.

In its publication titled Africa's Pulse, the Bretton Woods institution said the country had failed to register significant economic growth over the past few years.

"Zimbabwe's fiscal deficit has deteriorated as remedial actions have been limited and this has resulted in the country registering a negative correlation between the cyclical components of government consumption and GDP," it said.