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NewsDay

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Mugabe’s salary, foreign trips must be reduced

Opinion & Analysis
There is absolutely no need for the President to honour every engagement he is invited to and where he feels there is need to fly out, then his delegations must be the bare minimum in numbers to ease pressure on the creaking Treasury.

On Thursday, some Zimbabweans called on President Robert Mugabe and his government to take pay cuts, as part of austerity measures after it has become clear that the economy is going down and the government is either unwilling or has no clue to solve its imminent collapse.

NewsDay Comment

In the same breath, more cost cutting measures are needed across the board if the government is sincere about turning around the country’s fortunes.

The most obvious cut is on Mugabe’s foreign trips and the large delegations accompanying him on these jaunts.

There is absolutely no need for the President to honour every engagement he is invited to and where he feels there is need to fly out, then his delegations must be the bare minimum in numbers to ease pressure on the creaking Treasury.

For example, on such one trip to Japan, Mugabe took with him his daughter Bona and Zimbabweans were left stunned as to what her role was and certainly, money would have been saved had she stayed behind.

Also, in the current circumstances, it does not make sense for ministers to have two cars, each refuelled on taxpayers’ money. Instead, there would be no harm in only buying one car for each minister and cutting on their domestic staff until the economy improves.

Presently, it seems some people are living in opulence, while the rest of the population suffers.

There is also no need for legislators to just buy cars from outside the country, at a time Zimbabwe is facing cash shortages and one way of ensuring the growth of local industries is that Members of Parliament should buy their cars from local assembly plants like Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries for example.

There should be corresponding cuts by all bureaucrats, starting with permanent secretaries and ministry directors, as there is ample evidence that they also enjoy some rich pickings during their time in government.

What Zimbabwe needs right now are hard-nosed decisions and a total breakaway from self-serving populist measures.

There is no need for the government to continue employing hundreds of youth officers and co-ordinators, who hardly have job descriptions.

It is time to make difficult decisions and cuts — failure to do that is indicative of a government failing to commit to Zimbabwe’s recovery.

Mugabe must accept that Zimbabwe is in a bind and is no longer the country it once was hence the only way to acknowledge that is by cutting government expenditure.

Government austerity is difficult, but in this case it is inevitable. Mugabe must take the difficult decision if he is to drag Zimbabwe out of this economic black hole.