×
NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

Drop in GDP linked to bickering GNU

News
Finance minister Tendai Biti has said the countrys Gross Domestic Product has dropped by 5% due to continuous bickering by the three political parties in the inclusive government. Addressing the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Water, Lands and Resettlement on Wednesday, Biti said: Two thirds of our time has been spent on non-productive issues like […]

Finance minister Tendai Biti has said the countrys Gross Domestic Product has dropped by 5% due to continuous bickering by the three political parties in the inclusive government.

Addressing the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Water, Lands and Resettlement on Wednesday, Biti said: Two thirds of our time has been spent on non-productive issues like political bickering and our country has lost five GDP points per year as a result of this.

I do not know why we fight this much, and just for $800, my job as a minister is not nice and has even left my stomach(sic) which was big, flat.

Biti had been asked by committee chairman and Chikomba Central MP Moses Jiri to explain why Cabinet ministers always issued conflicting statements on government operating policies.

Biti said Zimbabwe was currently number three from bottom on Sadcs economic ladder and yet in 1996 the southern African countrys economy was second to South Africa. The other countries at the bottom of the ladder are Lesotho and Malawi.

The GDP of Zambia is better than that of Zimbabwe because they do not have political bickering.

They had an election on September 11 last year and we saw former President Rupiah Banda greeting the winner Michael Sata, yet in Zimbabwe we still have not forgotten we had an election in 2008 and still have scars I do not know why we fight this much, Biti said.

One hundred years from now, our children are going to urinate on our graves because we wasted their time and lives.