MDC-T calls on Zimbabwe army to stop new recruitment

The MDC is deeply dismayed and appalled by reports confirming that the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) is currently recruiting thousands of new recruits to join the national army.At a time when the national economy is comatose and also the government is struggling to timeously pay the salaries of civil servants, it is completely disheartening and patently irrational for the ZNA to embark on a massive nationwide recruitment exercise. It is a public secret that the Zimbabwe civil service is already bloated as was recently disclosed by a professional human resources audit that was conducted by an internationally reputable firm of consultants,Ernst & Young.In fact, this audit revealed that there are no less than 75 000 ghost workers on the civil service payroll. Most, if not all, of these ghost workers are actually Zanu PF activists who are conveniently given the job title "ward or youth officers".

Patrick Chinamasa, the Finance Minister, is also on record publicly complaining that at least 85% of all government revenue, on a monthly basis, is being spent on civil servants salaries. This is a wholly and completely untenable state of affairs which essentially means that very little of the government revenue collected from taxes, customs duty etc is being spent on financing capital projects such as the rehabilitation of our dilapidated infrastructure such as roads, railways, hospitals, clinics and schools. International best practice dictates that not more than 35% of any institution's monthly revenue should be spent on salaries and wages.

As a peace - loving social democratic political party, the MDC is also alarmed by the fact that the ongoing massive army recruitment exercise is deliberately targeted at building the Zanu PF regime's "war arsenal" in preparation for the 2018 harmonized elections. The war - mongering and paranoid Zanu PF regime has never hesitated to unleash its security apparatus on unarmed Zimbabweans each time that the regime is faced with an impending humiliating electoral loss. This is precisely what happened during the farcical Presidential election run - off in June 2008 when armed soldiers and other security operatives were unleashed in urban and rural areas and in the process orchestrating an unprecedented orgy of violence and thuggery against peace - loving civilians.Hundreds of people were brutally murdered, thousands of women were raped and thousands of homesteads were also destroyed as the brutal Zanu PF terror machinery went into overdrive.

Because the Zanu PF regime is sensing a crushing and humiliating electoral defeat in 2018, it is already re - tooling and sharpening its instruments of terror, thuggery and brutality. Once again, the MDC would like to call upon SADC, the AU and even the United Nations to keep a close eye on the deteriorating political situation in Zimbabwe. As the national economy continues to implode and the insecure but paranoid Zanu PF regime cannibalises itself through senseless and relentless factional bickering, the socio - economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe is now getting out of hand. The country is on a knife edge and the thoroughly unpopular and unconstitutional decision to introduce bond notes within the coming few weeks is causing so much anxiety amongst the majority of the people. The international community cannot, therefore, continue to look aside and watch.

The time has come for the crumbling Zanu PF regime to be reigned in. The people of Zimbabwe have suffered untold socio - economic and political adversity over the past 36 years. Robert Mugabe and the Stalinist Zanu PF kleptocracy that he leads should be immediately called to order.