ECONOMIST Godfrey Kanyenze yesterday railed against Zimbabweans’ growing propensity for food handouts and called for increased productivity on farms and other sectors of the economy to break the poverty cycle.
by VENERANDA LANGA
Addressing parliamentarians at a post-budget seminar in Harare, Kanyenze said the foodstuff doled out by First Lady Grace Mugabe at her campaign rallies will not reduce the poverty levels.
“The 2016 National Budget speaks to the need of breaking bad habits and the culture of dependence, where government gives everyone seed and fertiliser and where we major on minors,” he said.
“Over 70% of our people are living in poverty and so the budget must be able to speak to women in Chipinge, Zvishavane, and so on, and we must bring investment and train our people to participate in business and economic activities rather than to wait until the First Lady brings cooking oil to them.
“That is the culture of dependence that we are talking about. The huge story for Africa from the Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit was that a few decades ago, China was one of the poorest countries, but they grew their economy through productivity. We must change our mindsets and become productive.”
Kanyenze also took a dig on the culture of profligacy being exhibited by some Cabinet ministers who acquired top-of-the-range vehicles as soon as they were appointed.
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“The tragedy in our budget is that we need to restructure the 22,7% of gross domestic product, which is going towards employment costs and 92% of the budget, which is consumptive recurrent expenditure.
“Ministers and secretaries in ministries should not go to government to drive good cars. But now most of them are living like celebrities and yet there are many poor people in the country. We are majoring on minors and need to prioritise things. The first lesson to learn from this economy is that resources are limited,” he said.
Kanyenze lamented the country’s budgets, which have remained static at around $4 billion, saying Zimbabwe was “running and sweating and yet we are not moving”.
