Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda displayed the utmost contempt for Zimbabweans when he suggested that the used vehicle import duty be increased to 150% from the already extortionate 96%.
Comment: NewsDay Editor
Either Mudenda is totally ignorant of the lives ordinary people are leading or he is disdainful of Zimbabweans’ suffering, as it is just unfathomable that someone can propose an increase in taxes just to make cars less affordable.
Mudenda needs to get out of his ivory tower and get a real appreciation of the suffering that Zimbabweans are going through because of his party, Zanu PF.
For starters, it is beyond doubt that everyone would prefer to drive a new car, but because of a decaying economy, underemployment and joblessness, most people cannot afford new vehicles and are forced to go to for the second best option, which is used cars.
Not everyone is in Mudenda’s shoes, where he has the privilege to get new cars on taxpayers’ money and duty-free for that matter.
Mudenda does not understand people’s suffering and instead he chooses to be condescending like most top Zanu PF officials.
Instead of pontificating about increasing taxes to reduce used car imports, what Mudenda and his ilk should be preaching is the setting-up of car manufacturing industries in the country so vehicles can be readily available to buyers.
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Mudenda should also be advocating for a situation where there is cheap and available financing so that people can afford cars that are manufactured locally, instead of this situation where loans from banks are quite usurious.
Better still, Mudenda could be advocating for a better and efficient public transport system, that would see fewer people needing to buy cars, but it is not a secret that his Zanu PF party is responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwe United Passenger Company and the National Railways of Zimbabwe.
It is not lost on anyone that Mudenda is one of the top government officials implicated in the patently corrupt Willowgate scandal, where he and others benefited from the crooked sale of cars.
Then, only a few people could buy cars, as they needed State approval to get foreign currency to purchase vehicles and some government officials took advantage of this bureaucracy to benefit corruptly.
It is clear Mudenda hankers for a time when vehicles where seen as a luxury by a select group of people rather than where they are accessible and affordable to Zimbabweans.
We are saddened that Mudenda thinks the best way to keep foreign currency in the country is by throttling the very people who are the victims of this economic decay.
If he was genuine, Mudenda would not be driving in a big fuel guzzler, but he would have instead opted for a cheaper car and, thus, save the taxpayer and foreign currency.
Any advocacy for an increase in whatever tax will hurt the poorest more, while Mudenda and his ilk continue to live in the lap of luxury at taxpayers’ expense.
Zimbabweans are already suffering enough and do not need Mudenda’s haughtiness piled onto them.
