PRESIDENTIAL adviser Paul Tungwarara is behaving like a snake oil salesman.
He has been smoothly selling hot air, promising jobs to Zimbabweans running away from South African xenophobia attacks.
Yet, it remains clear he does not have capacity to create those jobs.
The government, by its admission this week, confirmed that nearly 100 000 Zimbabweans have come back from South Africa.
These are men and women with varied skills in various sectors and some were relatively successful entrepreneurs running spaza shops, hair salons, repair shops or odd home jobs like plumbing or domestic electricity rewiring.
These people are coming back not voluntarily, but out of fear for their lives.
Some have been away in South Africa for more than two decades.
Some left in fear of their lives during the early 2000s political violence.
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Some left as economic refugees as the Zimbabwe economy was collapsing and hyperinflation spiralling out of control.
We are talking of people who sacrificed everything to cross the Limpopo River.
And today, they are returning without anything.
A lot of their property is being left behind in their haste to save their lives.
In the middle of this chaos, trauma, Tungwarara has chosen political hype instead of practical help for the returnees.
Tungwarara, who owns Prevail Group of Companies, published on social media that his companies were ready to hire those returning from South Africa.
Available jobs include: plumbers, builders, electricians, concrete batchers, drivers, carpenters, painters and general hands.
The advert made it clear that these jobs were strictly reserved for those returning from South Africa.
It is interesting that Tungwarara deliberately did not say how many jobs he was creating.
He is well aware that giving a figure is opening himself to scrutiny.
For instance, if Tungwarara said he was creating 1 000 jobs, it is easier for the media to follow up on the process.
It is a cheap publicity stunt.
The World Bank and International Labour Organisation concur that only 11% of Zimbabwe’s labour force are in formal employment.
The majority are in the rising informal sector without any employee protections such as working hours, safety and health standards, regulated salaries and wages and pension contributions.
Data from Zimbabwe Revenue Authority proves how perilous the Zimbabwe economy is.
The biggest four tax heads speak for themselves.
These are value added tax (27%), personal income tax (21%), excise duty (11%) and corporate tax (9%).
Other taxes such as customs duty, mining royalties and mobile money transfer tax contribute an aggregate 32%.
These figures paint the real Zimbabwe economy.
An economy that relies on squeezing the poor dry.
The few people working in the formal sector pay a disproportionate 21% of national revenue.
That is one in every five dollars collected comes from workers in the formal sector.
The blanket 15% VAT that brings nearly everyone under the tax bracket rakes in 27%.
This means VAT as a proportion of revenue is slightly over a dollar for every four dollars collected.
Formal companies are bring in less than a dollar per every ten collected.
The corporate tax in Zimbabwe is very low compared to the region.
It paints a picture of a struggling economy.
It is from this struggling corporate sector that Tungwarara promises to create jobs for the returnees.
The short answer is this is a lot of hot air.
Tungwarara is a man struggling to be relevant, a man pushing to be seen to be doing something by his principal.
If he was that good in job creation, how many has he created since his appointment as presidential advisor on investment?
How many touted mega deals have transformed into reality.
We know he has made money from building the new security wall at State House, sinking boreholes under the Presidential Boreholes Scheme and more recently an exclusive tender to rehabilitate rivers affected by alluvial mining.
In other words, Tungwarara has gained more from State contracts than creating jobs.
It would be interesting if he is willing to state how many people are employed in his “vast” Prevail Group empire.
However, that would be expected too much from a man trying to cut a political career.
The government has to admit that the returning residents are a headache to it.
It has to be open that it needs assistance from international aid organisations to help integrate returnees into a dollarised economy.
The regime has to admit it has no adequate hospitals and schools to accommodate the returnees.
It has to further admit that it has been having an employment freeze because it has no money to pay workers even more posts are vacant.
It cannot, in an about turn, say it miraculously has capacity to create jobs for the returnees.
The sooner the regime admits its limitations the better, it can openly seek assistance.
However, the government over the years has hyped itself too much to afford a climbdown on its economic recovery figures post the November 2017 coup.
The Parliament has been a big letdown.
It fails to ask these important questions during Question Time.
It has conspired to go to bed with the Executive.
Where has the money to unfreeze posts come from?
What tax incentives have been dangled for Tungwarara to just jump and offer jobs to returnees?
What is the data showing on demographics and skills from the returnees?
And how will the relevant Ministry of Trade use this data.
The search for feel good stories is just huge.
However, it is important to admit Zimbabwe is the sick-man of Sadc so that we can get help soon.
Politicians should not get away with propaganda when people are suffering.
I’m out!
