MDC-T secretary- general and Finance minister Tendai Biti has taken a swipe at Zanu PF for engaging in “primitive accumulation” of wealth saying the former ruling party does not care how and where money to run the economy was generated.
Biti said Zanu PF had an appetite to spend but fell short of caring where that money came from.
“Zanu PF accumulates for the sake of accumulation.
In fact, they engage in what is termed in English, ‘primitive accumulation’.
They steal, smoke and eat government money. Afterwards, they go to the toilet.
“They then accuse the Finance minister of refusing with money, but where is the money?” fumed Biti at an MDC rally in Mkoba on Sunday.
Biti said since the beginning of the year diamonds had been mined and sold but the government had not received any diamond revenue.
He said the government was still grappling with 75 000 ghost workers, mostly Zanu PF youths and women, who were on the payroll draining State coffers.
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He added that the diverted revenue could be channelled to improving the salary conditions of civil servants.
“From January 2011 to date diamonds have been mined and sold and we haven’t received a cent. There are 75 000 ghost workers on the government payroll, some with more than one employment contract number.
“MDC was born out of workers’ struggle and there is no way it can abandon the same workers. Zanu PF now wants to feign love for civil servants. After the destruction of the economy, after Operation Murambatsvina that culminated in displacement and destruction of people’s property and after continuous printing of money that saw inflation percentages running into billions, Zanu PF now pretends to be a template of civil servants’ plight,” said Biti.
Biti spoke as MDC-T president, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, reiterated that President Robert Mugabe could not set an election date without the input of other principals in the inclusive government.
President Mugabe has on several occasions said elections will be held anytime this year.
Tsvangirai said: “Mugabe cannot just wake up and announce an election date on his own. There are certain parameters we should agree on as principals before we announce the date for elections. We will announce that date together as principals.
“Zanu PF can therefore not insist on an election that they want to run on their own rules of violence, intimidation and fraud. That election can never come close to a free and fair election. In fact that election would be illegitimate. Never again should this country hold an election that is not legitimate,” he added.
