"Mtuli Ncube's budget was one of the most dishonest budgets ever presented. It was technically unsound & doesn't meet the test for credibility. This was a man just going through a ritualistic formality since Sec 302 of the Con demands he goes through the process"
"Mtuli Ncube presented a ZW $900 billion budget using an exchange rate of 1:105, the official exchange rather on the day he presented the budget, on the 27th of November 2021. It is a USD $8.7 billion budget. This economy can't collect USD $8.7 billion"
"you can't collect USD $8.7 billion in an economy where more than 90% of our people are unemployed; where more than 70% are in the informal sector; where according to the World Bank & other sources, 50%/70% of our people are living in extreme poverty"
"In the same budget, Mthuli makes the admission that by Sept 2021,he had collected around ZW $300 billion & that he's hoping to collect by 30 Dec 2021, ZW $450 billion. How does ZW $450 billion double up to almost a trillion $ in 2022 with a growth rate of 5.5%?"
'How are going to collect ZW $400 billion with a growth rate of 5.5%? You're only going to collect 5.5% of ZW $400 billion dollars, to double that to ZW $ 9/800 billion, doesn't make sense. Its a lie, its a friction. There's no credibility in this budget'
"...by Sep 2021, 60% of the budget presented had been disbursed. Looking at the votes, there's an average disbursement of 31%, particularly to Min of Education, Health, Env, Trade & Commerce, etc, meaning MPs sit to pass a budget that doesn't deliver nor perform"
"There are four Ministries where there's overspending, with Min of Finance being the worst, at 150% by Sep 2021; Office of President & Cabinet 114%; then Defence & Home Affairs. These 4 Ministries have an average of 130% & pull the average of 31%, to 50%..."
" ..bottomline is you've a budget that's fictitious & not performing. For four (4) Ministries, it is over performing. In other words, there's no point in budgeting because OPC; Min of Defence, Home Affairs & Min of Finance itself will get whatever they want."
" The Ministries that matter, where our people are don't get anything,,e.g. Health (31%), AG's office (25%), there's under-performance, there's a myth."
"3rd big lie is projected 5.5% growth. 2021 grow rate is projected to be 7.8% & the major driver is a 36% growth in agriculture.Our agriculture did well in 2021. By 2022, agriculture will grow by less than 10%, so where is the 5.5% projected growth coming from?
'underlying assumption is we'll have a good rainy season.We already know there'll be an erratic rainy season. Farmers are already replanting with short term maize types.2nd assumption is stabilising covid, but omicron has already taken over, borders have closed'
"Another underlying assumption (for the 5.5% projected growth) is a stable exchange rate. That's a joke. Fourth Street has gone wild. The Parallel market rate is currently $220. You can sell the USD for $200, $198. There isn't going to be a stable exchange rate"
"what's the exchange rate used for the budget? Unless you identify the exchange rate, its a fiction. The exchange rate is fluctuating everyday. Day he made the budget, it was 1:105, before end of year it will be 1:120, rendering the budget a nulity & nugatory"
"Unless you're going to budget in USD, stop wasting our time. If you present a budget that doesn't address our biggest problem in this economy (failure of the de-dolarization experiment in absolute terms) you've done nothing."
"Gov is the biggest body in acknowledging failure of dolarization. They're pretending to pay civil servants bonuses in USD, bcoz they don't believe in their own currency. They've imposed a tax on new phones & increased taxes in USD. They're exposing the ZW myth"
"budget gets revenue from taxes. We don't get proper renumeration from our minerals. You need investment to translate our minerals into income. To build a simple platinum refinery, you need US $500 million. Without it, likes of Zimplants will continue stealing"
"Platinum has 10 other metals. Without our own refinery, they take the ore outside where they only declare one mineral and not the other 9 metals. We need FDI to transform our underground mineral wealth into assets with life value. Presently, its dead capital"
"But how do you attract FDI when you're converting people's monies, pensions, USD deposits into a worthless currency through SI such as 33 of 2019, 142 of 2019, 175 of 2021? You keep reproducing predatory & extractive policies that make the investor loose money"
"How can you invest where there's so much corruption, rent seeking behaving & arbitrage? Our average investment for the past 2 years has been US $200 million when in countries like Zambia its US $2 billion, Mozambique US $5 billion, despite the war. "
"Problem with the IMF SDR fund is that the Minister didn't comply with Zim law. The law says every cent received must be credited to the consolidated revenue fund; equally every withdrawal & levy must be accounted for. Min should've accounted to Parly & didn't"
"US $350 mill of the IMF funds has been taken to finance the rigged auction floor, which is serving only 26% of people applying.Roving bandits & elites of ZanuPF are accessing the US at 1:80, go sell it at 1:175, get a lot of RTGS,& go back to the auction floor"
"You can't patch up a few roads 41 years after independence & call it infrastructure. 90% of our roads are prehistoric. 71-85% are still using the bush as toilets. 70% don't have access to electricity. In some suburbs, children have never seen tap water."
"wake up sum1 who died in 1968, put her in Samora Machel avenue, they won't get lost. She'll only be confused bcoz where she left Jameson avenue, its now Samora Machel, Moffat Street is now Takawira, Stanley avenue is now Jason Moyo, Baker Avenue is now Mandela"
"Why are the companies doing our road construction not going through tenders? What you're calling construction is just extraction. Money for the boys. There's no value for money. Don't be fooled, there so much corruption."
"We've had 41 years of independence, but our infrastructure is pathetic. We've a stretch of road, 100 000km, less than 8% is tarred. That tarred road was done by Smith or the Bulawayo-Plumtree (the best road we have currently) which was done by the GNU"
"All expenses, (rent, fuel, gov taxes) are in USD yet civil servant are earning RTGS. Civil servants are subsiding the gov & are left in net deficit by going to work whilst earning RTGS and paying expenses in USD. Secondly, we've an oppressive regime of taxes."
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1. Admittedly, when I first read the "structured currency" headline, I thought the Harare regime was taking its "structures" propaganda too far.
With the benefit of more research on the topic, I'm now totally convinced the Harare regime is indeed taking its propaganda too far.
2. By definition, a structured currency is "structured" in that it's supposedly backed by both mineral reserves (in our case gold) and trust in government's monetory policies & regulations.
Unfortunately, no one believes any of the two are present in our existing circumstances.
3. Part of why all previous gimmicks have failed is a trust deficit.
Even if the government opts to accuse commentators of being alarmists, causing panick and despondency, no one can be faulted for rushing to withdraw their forex savings if we have learned anything from history.
1. Imagine trying to make sense of how some 4 gentlemen in Bulawayo can randomly claim, 'we have recalled Amos Chibaya, he has ceased being a member of CCC'.
Outside the influence of social media, many only know about #CCC because of the efforts of this indefatigable organizer.
2. Propaganda has to make some sort of sense.
Even where some decide to hide behind the claim of "a traceable history in the struggle," Chibaya would make the mark.
A devoted organizer during the times of Tsvangirai & even more so, during the times of Chamisa under the MDC-A.
3. For the successive elections between 2018-2023, it's a mystery how Chibaya found the passion to abandon the comfort of his home and the herculean energy to traverse the country, organizing the Opp for electoral triumph.
Chibaya is very much unheralded & doesn't seem to care.
1. So, a group of at least 25 individuals have decided to join nonexistent forces under the otherwise much heralded #NERA banner to push for electoral reforms.
It's difficult to even identify them as political leaders because they don't represent any political constituency.
2. If you review the outcome of the controversial 2023 election, these people combined had fewer votes than the Councilors who won your ward election.
Many of them have never even bothered to field candidates in successive elections but only pop up whenever they sense a need.
3. If you were to profile them, there is one Lucia Matibenga, masquerading as PDP President.
Her "party" never contests.
She only temporarily enjoyed limelight under PDP when Sen Mwonzora brought her as his MDC-A partner before they connived to recall MPs elected under Chamisa.
1. Interesting comment on this unfolding drama by Prof Ncube.
I, however, can't help recognize the continued conflation of politics & law, which I've previously written about, regarding the formation of CCC party from MDC-A.
It's quite strange that BaNcube does the same here.
2. I take notice of @Welshman_Ncube choice of words here.
He says: MDC-A party's "...National Council resolved to reconstitute itself as CCC..."
By definition, when you "reconstitute," you simply restore or build up again, using remaining parts of whatever has been destroyed.
@Welshman_Ncube 3. However, it was a legal nulity not only for MDC-A to 'reconstitute' itself but to even meet & make legally binding resolutions to begin with.
In 2020, Justice Chitapi ruled that the MDC-A party wasn't a legal persona, effectively meaning it wasn't a legally constituted party.
1. We need to accept that we've seen enough to conclude we've no justice system in Zimbabwe.
Perhaps it's time to totally (temporarily) abandon seeking judicial recourse, particularly around political issues
Why continue subjecting ourselves to the wig wearing ZanuPF activists!
2. Let me rationalize this personal view:
Firstly, we are simply patronizing the generality of the citizens by arguing that going to these "captured courts" is an important academic exercise that exposes judicial capture.
What has been the consequence of exposing this capture?
3. ZanuPF's reaction to the damning SADC Observer Mission report is evidence enough that they don't react to "embarrassment" by showing restraint.
ZanuPF chose rather to burn SADC through an unprecedented propaganda offensive and direct confrontation with the Zambia government.