Mugabe Falls In Power
20 April 2015
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The opposition and civil service unions yesterday rounded on President Robert Mugabe and his misfiring Zanu PF government, saying farcical developments around bonuses for State employees underlined the fact that the centre could no longer hold within the ruling party.
The criticism included claims that the bonus disaster showed that Mugabe was no longer in charge, that government was demonstrating how “hopelessly clueless” it was about fixing Zimbabwe, and that the State was now run as a “chaotic free-for-all”, with ministers working without supervision and doing as they wished.
This followed Mugabe’s often random speech at the Independence Day celebrations at the National Sports Stadium, in Harare, on Saturday where he gave Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa a humiliating public shellacking, emphatically denying that the government had decided against awarding civil servants bonuses this year and next year.
“I want to make it clear that the report which was in the newspaper (presumably The Herald) that bonuses were being withdrawn is not government policy. The cabinet did not approve that at all. And the presidency never, never was consulted on the matter. We were never consulted the three of us, that is myself and the vice presidents.
“And we say that is disgusting to us, and it will never, never be implemented at all. So let the civil servants not be down-hearted. That will not happen,” Mugabe said.
The pragmatic Chinamasa, accompanied by his Information counterpart Jonathan Moyo, had announced at a media briefing in Harare last week that Mugabe’s broke government was suspending bonus payments until 2017.
“Government has decided to suspend bonus payments to the civil servants in 2015 and 2016, and the situation will be reviewed in 2017 in the event that we are able to build enough capacity,” Chinamasa said.
Reacting to the farce yesterday, Zapu spokesperson Mnjobisa Noko said the embarrassing discord smacked of a “hopelessly clueless and directionless” government.
“What we are seeing is a government that will not lead Zimbabweans to prosperity as what they are looking at is themselves and themselves only.
“It is a situation where we have a president who is always air-borne and who does not know what is on the ground, and where ministers are clueless about the suffering of the man on the street, including civil servants,” he said.
Noko added that Mugabe had contradicted Chinamasa in a desperate endeavour to “justify his own salary increment” after the nonagenarian recently claimed that he was one of the poorest presidents in the world.
“This is about his salary justification at a time that the people of Zimbabwe are sinking deeper into poverty. They are blinded by power and do not care about the welfare of the ordinary people,” he said.
The spokesperson of the Zanu PF “People First” formation, Rugare Gumbo, said that the current confusion around bonuses were not new in the ruling party and showed that Mugabe was losing his grip on power.
“There is a free-for-all that demonstrates that the centre can no longer hold. People are taking advantage of the president’s lack of grasp of what is happening in the party and country. People are also taking advantage of the old man’s age and making unilateral decisions.
“It’s now a question of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing,” Gumbo said, although he also doubted that Chinamasa had made his earlier announcement unilaterally.
“It’s a party of policy inconsistences which we have always witnessed and which we are now called upon to change. We were involved in some of these things, where decisions were made and changed. Some of us are not really surprised,” he said.
Writing on his Facebook page, MDC spokesman Obert Gutu also doubted that Chinamasa could have made the announcement unilaterally.
“Knowing Chinamasa as I do, I don’t believe that one bit. Someone is lying,” he said.
The Secretary General of the Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (RTUZ), Robson Chere, said his union — which boasts more than 5 000 members — was baffled by Mugabe’s statement.
“The wild proclamation by President Mugabe on Independence day to the effect that bonuses will be paid to civil servants, contrary to Chinamasa’s position is baffling to us as Rural Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe,” Chere said.
He also claimed that the ongoing confusion allegedly showed that there was a plan “to make civil servants suffer”.
“Other Unions and individuals would claim that the centre has fallen and there is no more co-ordination and unity of purpose in government. Our union however believes that there is a coordinated approach to make us suffer.
“Mugabe is an accomplice to the suspension of bonuses. He might have been playing politics when he made the wild proclamation or might have forgotten what they agreed on in cabinet which is a natural symptom of old age,” Chere said.
RTUZ said it wanted the government to issue a positive cabinet resolution on bonuses, whereupon a failure to do that would “push us into the streets”.
Efforts to get a comment from Chinamasa and Moyo yesterday were fruitless as their mobile phones went unanswered.
But Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba defended the nonagenarian’s position and modus operandi yesterday.
“The boss has spoken,” he said.
Asked if this was not creating unnecessary confusion concerning the correct position on the issue, Charamba said Mugabe’s statement was the correct position.
“The minister has been corrected. There is a distinction between taking a position as a matter of principle and its implementation. So there is no discord. The president has spoken,” Charamba said. – DailyNews

5 Replies to “Mugabe Falls In Power”

  1. Do not listen to these statements they are designed to prepare civil servants for the worst and in the event that the government somehow manages to pay you bonuses you will be relieved and excited to the extent of forgetting that you are lowly paid. Now you are focusing on fighting for bonuses yet the real issue to fight for is your paltry monthly salaries. If you are reasonably paid bonuses wouldn’t be an issue. Last year same thing happened Unions wasted their energy fighting for bonuses yet the gvt was fully aware that it will eventually pay you. All they want is for you to take your eyes off the ball. Every year you fall for the same trick hee hakuna bonus hee hakuna bonus and that’s when unions become very vocal to the extent of threatening industrial action. This has been happening for years. Demand pay increase and allowances not bonuses.

  2. Do not listen to these statements they are designed to prepare civil servants for the worst and in the event that the government somehow manages to pay you bonuses you will be relieved and excited to the extent of forgetting that you are lowly paid. Now you are focusing on fighting for bonuses yet the real issue to fight for is your paltry monthly salaries. If you are reasonably paid bonuses wouldn’t be an issue. Last year same thing happened Unions wasted their energy fighting for bonuses yet the gvt was fully aware that it will eventually pay you. All they want is for you to take your eyes off the ball. Every year you fall for the same trick hee hakuna bonus hee hakuna bonus and that’s when unions become very vocal to the extent of threatening industrial action. This has been happening for years. Demand pay increase and allowances not bonuses.

  3. Mugabe is playing his good-cop bad-cop game in which he plays the role of the generous and rational one and Chinamasa, this time, is the one who has to play the role of the village idiot! Mugabe need some to grab the headline to say to the nation and the regime “manufactured” the good news by saying something bad then correcting it so that people see it as good news. It has worked, with a gullible electorate it has always work wonders!

  4. Mugabe is playing his good-cop bad-cop game in which he plays the role of the generous and rational one and Chinamasa, this time, is the one who has to play the role of the village idiot! Mugabe need some to grab the headline to say to the nation and the regime “manufactured” the good news by saying something bad then correcting it so that people see it as good news. It has worked, with a gullible electorate it has always work wonders!

  5. Mugabe is playing his good-cop bad-cop game in which he plays the role of the generous and rational one and Chinamasa, this time, is the one who has to play the role of the village idiot! Mugabe need some to grab the headline to say to the nation and the regime “manufactured” the good news by saying something bad then correcting it so that people see it as good news. It has worked, with a gullible electorate it has always work wonders!

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