Comment:
6 - 26 January 2014 - The Observer
Comment & Analysis
Mandela legacy – peace
but poverty for blacks
Comment & Opinion
COMMENT
Mandela:
Our Renewal of Vows With Chimurenga
Cuthbert Dube earns 7
I
An African icon T
times more than Obama
O
on African terms
BY REUTERS
n global standards, Zimbabwe’s economy could be struggling and
considered an insignificant fraction when matched with large economies
like those of Europe and America but some of the salaries and perquisites
for CEOs and public institution leaders from this small nation have lately
raised eye brows worldwide.
Of late the hot talk that the Public Services Medical Aid (PSMAS) head earns a
whopping $230 000 a month, a salary almost close to the annual take home of the U.S
n mourning former South African President Nelson Mandela, everyone will want
President leaves many wondering the a good thing.
to claim him for their own. And that isseriousness of the Zimbabwean cause. At a time
when Zimbabwe is claim him stay afloat, some leaders about their own countries’
Some will want to struggling to as part confessionalsare taking inappropriate chunks
home as salaries as the entire
complicity in aiding apartheid. economy is bleeding. It is a source of anxiety to note that
President Obama’s take home salary is by far outweighed by that of Cuthbert Dube, the
Others as participants in domestic, continental and global struggles that brought
CEO of bastion ordinary medical aid society in the
down the last the most of settler colonialism in Africa.world, it has emerged. Many would
wish such their own failures and fervent desire to be judged as better players
Others still inhefty salary awards matched the expected public service. Unfortunately, there
in the is more talkagainst colonialism and imperialism. the PSMAS. By coincidence, the
struggles in town as regards the services offered by
Likesalary saga has also happened in the dissolved ZBC board where Mr. Cuthbert Dube
everyone else, I will join the queue. I will however claim Nelson Mandela as an
African icon before being held in awe by his global reach.
was part of the leadership.
These revelations come as a before the anxious Zimbabwean public as Mr. Dube
An African icon in the sense that shock towe were enamored to Mandela as a global
brand allegedly takes home way more he was can African leader with hiswith management,
(as they say in marketing) than he an chew. Together faced top decisions as
tough their salary bill ranges other African icons of his and later times. enough to move
as those that faced around $1 million per month, an amount good
He was economy leader to be deemed the ‘acceptable type’. Otherwise they would
the never a or meet the national teacher salary bill. The PSMAS board comprises key
not have had PF officials who also include one member from the national security sector.
ZANU him and others imprisoned on the infamous Robben Island for so many
years.
Curre nt documents being perused by government and leaked to the state media
Neither was he one toDube was earning a causemonthly salary of US$230 fight against
show that, by 2012, betray either his basic or his comrades in the 000 from his
apartheid. He was not a romantic who viewed people from either a religious or a
previously earned
messianic standpoint. US$144 097,52 in the same year. The big jump in the same year meant
that his basic salary went up by nearly US$100 000 in three months.
He was a leader who was cognizant of his placement in history, even before the
The PSMAS annual wage bill rose from marketing. The 2011 to US$33 413 373 of
age of satellite television, internet and mass US$15 547 171 in ‘feel good’ portrayalsin
2012, almost came long after he had the top 14 that the struggle for his people’s
this African icon, half of which was paid to decided managers.
freedom shall be his life.the next two top earners, according to the documents, were the
After Mr Dube,
I do group finance think thataMandela envisagedlonger with the PSMAS),iconicearned
not for once manager, Mr E. Gwinyai (no himself becoming the who figure
that would adorn murals, cups and t-shirts. His primary task was, together with
a basic salary of US$200 000 a month, and group operations executive Mr Enock
othersChitekedza (US$122 000).
and in a multi-racial fashion, the pursuit of the goals of the Freedom Charter.
It is trite that there are fellowwere earning a basic salary of US$60 mistakenly view
Eight other senior directors Africans who will attempt to 000 every month.
Mandela Three otherperspective of not having achievedUS$22 000 and US$15 000 00
from the middle managers were paid US$30 000, the goals of the Freedom
Charter as though he wrote it alone.
each.
Or those that will argue that he made mistakes in relation to the CODESA talks
The crunched numbers brought the PSMAS monthly wage bill of the top 14 officers
that led to majority black government in South Africa. Apart from theirs being an
to just nearly US$1.1 million. Everyone else at PSMAS earns a combined US$900 000
opinion that we must respect, we would have to point out that this is a mistaken and
as reflected by the documents.
ahistorical view of the man.
Further, all group executives recently received a and generational approved to
Mandela and even Oliver Tambo’s revolutionaryUS$300 000 payment, task wasby
MrANC and South unclear to attain independence as a first stage of what is still
lead the Dube, for as yet Africa reasons.
In June of 2012, the monthly wage bill of the top 14
referred to as the National Democratic Revolution (NDR). stood at US$570 969 and it
increased to US$744 no politics without stages, they were correct to negotiate
And because there is 000 in July and August.
Minutes of a meeting held on Wednesday July 4, 2012 constitution.
with the white Nationalists for an inclusive and ceasefire show that Mr Dube approved
lump sum payments of US$300 000 it was andof the groupto subsequent cadres
That initial task of the revolution done, for each remains up executives, and these
of the payments were to be made with arrears the fulfillment of the rest of the aspirations
NDR to continue working towards subscriptions recovered from the private sector.
of the anti apartheid struggle.
“It was agreed that a special bank account to be administered by the three collective
In Nkrumahistcommittee Mandela sought liaison with the group finance executive, be
bargaining parlance, representatives in first the political kingdom in anticipation
that everything else purposefollow.
opened for that would with immediate effect,” read part of the minutes.
It has beenminutes further state that the representatives should, on aremainsbasis, update
The slow for the South Africans, but it is a process that regular democratic
and is the group chief executive on the inflows and disbursementsbe a complete departure
most definitely underway. There was never going to from the said special bank
from the past in South Africa just as there has never been a complete departure from
account.
the same in Zimbabwe.
The documents also show that PSMAS bought a house in Glen Lorne, Harare, for
We all still grapple with the vagaries of colonialism and imperialism. We however
about US$534 to them. Nationalist sentiment alone is not enough either for
are not beholden 000.
It could not be established
South Africa or for Zimbabwe. by the time of going to press whether the purchase was a
loan advanced to Mr Dube Cabral, taught us that wegroup CEO.
Mandela, like Nyerere and or was part of his package as must navigate our ideals
Mr most who collects almost $3 million per year generations do not forget
with what is Dube, pragmatic while ensuring that future in salaries alone, had in the
afternoon said take our revolutions he was busy. He said he would generational
that their task is tohe could not comment asto higher stages and within be free to talk
contexts. 6pm but his mobile phone went unanswered up to the time of going to print.
after
Efforts to get comment from board chair Mrs Meisie Makeletso Namasasu and her
deputy Mr. Newton Mhlanga were also futile as of last night.
PSMAS group legal and corporate secretary Mr Cosmas Mukwesha yesterday
dismissed the alleged salary schedule in our possession saying employees last got an
increment in 2011.
Mr Mukwesha could not be drawn into revealing the “correct” salary schedule,
saying: “Issues of salaries are private and confidential but I assure you they are far away
from the figures you are talking about.”
He said PSMAS was reviewing salaries with assistance from officials from the
Ministry of Finance.
On the US$300 000 once-off lump sum that our to a Code of Conduct
The Observer newspaper subscribes documents show was approved for
all group executives, Mr Mukwesha said the money was yet to be paid out because of
that promotes truthful, accurate, fair and balanced news
financial limitations.
reporting. thewe do not meet thesethat would be deducted from salaries
He said If lump sum was a housing loan standards register your
complaints with the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe
monthly.
But Health and Child Care Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa said Government was
on:
investigating the matter.
04-708 035 or 708 417.
“We are investigating the allegations in an intense manner together with other issues
No. 38 Harvey Brown Ave, Milton Park, Harare
that are happening in the medical aid industry.
or [email protected]
“We want to put things under control in a sustainable manner for the benefit of the
country,” Dr Parirenyatwa said.
or [email protected]
Dr Parirenyatwa said apart from the salaries, his ministry – in conjunction with the
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Ministry – was also looking at medical aid
subscriptions and service providers’ tariffs among other things.
The Government monitors and regulates medical aid societies’ operations. It licences
them to operate as societies and has the mandate to de-register them when they fall
short of public expectations and government requirements.■
I
ZIMBABWEANS FOR PROSPERITY
N the 10 years after he withdrew from
he taking of our land and our rights
public life, Nelson Mandela divided hisby the
time
colonialists started our Johannesburg’s
between a mansion in one ofancestors on the
Chimurenga and his 1800s, leading to in
wealthiest suburbs Road in theancestral home the
Qunu, ahangings in South Africa’sour ancestors of
village and shootings of impoverished
eastern Cape.
the struggle.
The rule and the subsequent settler regime’s
Colonial contrast could not have been starker.
In one, his neighbours were cast in the
intransigence, arrests and murders of our nationalist
image of the white “Rand Lords”, the mining
forebears married usbankers who built the as Zipra, as
magnates and to Chimurenga as Zanla, sprawling
mujibas - and Africa’s biggest the waters in from the
city and chimbwidos and as economy - which the
guerrillasgold reserves in the rock beneath their feet.
vast swam.
OurIn the other, they were black peasant farmers
marriage with Chimurenga went on the rocks when
living our Liberation War leaders to and eking they
we allowedin thatched “rondavel” hutsbehave as if out
a living on windswept hillsides in scenes that
owned the struggle. After Independence we allowed them
have hardly changed in centuries, let alone the
trample on us as if we were not part of the struggle.
two decades since the end of apartheid.
For While 30 years we allowed them to squander the
the last few query Mandela’s achievement
economic infrastructure Africa back from the by the
in dragging South that had been built up brink
of civil and in the early 1990s and brokering
settler regimewar to corruptly squander the taxes that we
a peaceful end to three centuries of white
paid while they delivered no service and invested nothing
dominance, infrastructure.
in maintaining thetougher questions are being asked
of the country he leaves behind.
We are now left with roads that cannot be repaired or
Despite more than 10 years of affirmative
need billions of dollars the balance under the banner
action to redress which we do not have. The same
clinics what were build in the first decade of independence
of “black economic empowerment”, South
andAfrica remains one of the world’s most unequal
hospitals whose equipment now needs replacing have
societies places rather still control huge swathes
become dying and whites than places to be treated.
of leaders seek
Ourthe economy. treatment in South Africa and
In the words of leading trade unionist
anywhere else, using our own tax resources or corruptly
Zwelinzima Vavi, its structure is akin to an Irish
acquired income from diamonds and other minerals that
coffee - black at the bottom, with some white
have been and a sprinkling of chocolate on the top.
froth privatised.
When weaverage, a white that we are not interested
On finally started to say household earns six
times who than black one, and nearly one in
in leaders moredo not acare about us, they started killing
three blacks brothers and sisters in the high density
us; they killed ouris unemployed, compared with one
in 20 whites.
suburbs and in the villages and they killed those who tried
Such ratios are fodder for critics of the 1994
to publish the news of what was going on.
settlement that brought the curtain down on
We do not forget our heroes like the Edward Chikomba
nearly half a century of institutionalised whitewho was killed for and saw Mandela anointed South
minority rule telling the world that our leaders are
killers, and we don‘t forget our heroes who were killed all
Africa’s first black president.
The numbers also support the anecdotal
over Zimbabwe for daring to organise opposition.
evidence from wealthy urban neighbourhoods They killed those who dared to say that they would not
including Mandela’s Houghton - where, 19 years
vote for Zanu PF in 2008, and they continued killing until
after the birth of his “Rainbow Nation”, most
Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the 2008 Presidential
of the black people to be seen are housemaids,
election, saying he wouldgardeners. State House over the
security guards or not walk to
dead bodies of hishas gone a bit too far in doing good
“Mandela supporters.
to the non-black communities, really resolution
In our naïveté and pursuit of a peaceful in some
we cases along with the Global Political Agreement and
went at the expense of (blacks),” Zimbabwean
President Robert MugabeGovernment of National
subsequent negotiations for a said in a documentary
aired on South African television in May 2013.
Unity (GNU) in the belief that Zanu PF was an honest
“That’s being too saintly, too good.”
partner“He let us down” - Winnie.The defenders of
in nation building.
Zanu PF’s insincerity was clear inMugabe’s years of
Mandela’s settlement note that the four violent
negotiations of white-owned farms in neighbouring
seizure for the GNU, but we believed that we had
Zimbabwe from 2000 triggered were ready to
negotiated the best deal possible and wean eight-year
economic collapse and confirmed on July 31 last
accept the verdict of a democratic electionhis fall in the
eyes of outsiders from r espected liberation hero
year.
to international pariah.
But the unashamed theft of that election and the
Yet his criticism of Mandela finds echoes in
callousness with whichthe African National dismiss the
some corners of Zanu PF has tried to Congress
People’s Project, the callousness with which they have tried
(ANC), the 101-year-old liberation movement
that citizens that their vote the unions and that
to tell thejoined forces with does not count, and the
Communist Party to topple apartheid.
they own this country, has sent us to renew our vows with
In a
Chimurenga.2010 interview with the wife of British
author V.S. Naipaul, the anti-apartheid firebrand
We are Zimbabweans for Prosperity and we believe
and “Mother of the Nation” Winnie MadikizelathatMandela has now come for former husband unite
the time accused her all Zimbabweans to of
andsellingup to after being broken by his 27of thieves
stand out refuse to be bullied by a group years in
whose greed will not allow them to see beyond the their
apartheid prisons.
feeding“Mandela did go to prison and he went in
trough.
there declare July 31 the revolutionary. But look
We as a burning young Day of Rededication to
what came out,” she was quoted as saying.
Chimurenga - with activities to remind ourselves that if we
“Mandela let us down. He agreed to a bad
do not water the tree of democracy, we will lose it. We
deal for the blacks. Economically, we are still on
urge every Zimbabwean on July 31is very muchevery year
the outside. The economy this year, and ‘white’.
after, to remember how arrogantbut so many who gave
It has a few token blacks, leaders can be if they are
their life in the struggle have died unrewarded.”
allowed to rule without accountability.
Even among academics, there is broad
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acceptance that in its sparring with thenpresident FW de Klerk in the early 1990s, the
ANC under Mandela,that this illegal regime step down,
a self-confessed economic
We are demanding
novice, focused too much on the quest for
that all the progressive provisions
political rather than economic of the New Constitution
power.
be In less law and terms, the that new elections be
put into polite adhered to, ANC’s stance
conducted into a quip popular a the dinner
translated by a totally neutral body inat free environment,
parties of wealthy whites: as possible. them the
and that this be done as soon “We’ll give
vote but keep thecommunication with all of Zimbabwe
We are now in banks.”
William Gumede, a which includesat Wits
in an ever-growing network professor professionals,
Business School in Johannesburg, said it was
activists, students, you name it, at home and abroad, and
wrong to argue that Mandela sold out.
using modern technology.
“However, the economic negotiations were
notWe robust as the political ones,”that said. they did
as are giving notice to Zanu PF he what
on “There crossed a red line. They among clear message
July 31 was a glib acceptance sent a most in
the Zimbabweans that they do not do was capture we
to ANC that all they needed to care about what
political power, and that they believe that they own this
the citizens think and then they could transform
the economy. It was a simplistic argument, and
country.
it was also the Mandela argument.”
We are sending the
South Africa and message to them that in awe not
the world watched they do
have the right to rule over us without our consent, and
when, on February 11, 1990, Mandela left Cape
that they have Verster to abuse citizens for their
Town’s Victor no right prison and raised his fist own
in salute to the crowds as he stepped out on his
aggrandisement.
andWe will not stand forWalk towe believe that all of
the nation’s “Long it and Freedom” - the
title of his subsequentsame way, though we cannot all
Zimbabweans feel the autobiography.
The start of a momentous political transition,
express it because of fear of the security regime that has
it was also a key moment in the evolution of a
been put in place both at home and abroad.
cult of Mandela to monitor and punish citizens for even
thinking and myth PF.
Man against Zanu
We believe that Dr awarded the letter which was
In 1993, he wasJoshua Nkomo’s Nobel Peace rePrize, jointly withshows clearly how Zanu (PF)won 20
published recently, de Klerk, and in 1995 he killed
overin Matebeleland just because Zapu did not agree with
000 all but the most diehard right-wingers as he
salutedpolicies.
the overwhelmingly white Springbok side
Zanu’s
that won the Rugby World Cup in Johannesburg.
We
He also have the Border a stained glass window
is immortalised in Gezi youths who were directly
involved in the 2008Regina Mundi church; statues
in Soweto’s giant murders of over 300 MDC supporters,
rewarded by being boxing or raising his fist are
of him dancing,put on a government payroll and now in
dotted across the country; departments and parastals.
municipal councils, government and in 2012 the
central bank issuedpoor people are denied bearing for
Old women and a set of bank notes food aid
his face.
not supporting Zanu PF, and even Zanu PF members are
The announcement about the notes came on
so desperate to be seen to be supporting their party, that
February 11, the 22nd anniversary of his release
they prison.
fromwould go out of their way to be seen to be cruel.
While demanding loyalty from it was perhaps
In such an atmosphere, us, Zanu (PF) does not
have the state-craft and competency his providefive- the
inevitable that some episodes of to single even
year term as president clean water toover.
basics of a modern life - are glossed drink.
His have hadpersonal Christmas ever, without the 13th
We close the worst friendship with Libyan
leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi drew criticism that
cheque for most, which is our right and our only saving
- and a fierce rebuttal from Mandela, who said:
should have taken
“Those who feel us into theby our friendship with
irritated January fees-paying period.
Not only di d we can go jump to the pool.”
President Gaddafinot have money in celebrate Christmas,
butThe 2010 “blood diamonds”their jobs with many
most of our relatives have lost testimony of
British supermodel in the queue for liquidation, further
top companies now Naomi Campbell at a Hague
war crimes tribunalthe tax pot. an uncomfortable
reducing the size of also shone
light is cleardinner Mandela no competency to for
It on a that the state has hosted in 1997 manage
Liberian warlord Charles Taylor, whose presence
the economy and no wherewithal to engage with the
at the table called into question South Africa’s
international community
‘ethical’ foreign policy. for bridging loans. Even if
we Then there is the cannot do so forever. Nor $5 we
could borrow, we infamous ‘Arms Deal’, a can
continue selling equipment that are that the ground,
billion defence our minerals contract still inerupted
into a massiveour children to Mandela’s successor, in
literally leaving scandal for be enslaved by foreigners
Thabo Mbeki, and remains the defining episode
their own country.
in the ANC’s slide from post-apartheidrevenue which
grace.
We have to start producing our own
Amid fierce criticism of Mbeki and the
means
currentthat the companies Zuma, also embroiledmust
president, Jacob that are closing down
open, and newmany must open. For them to open they
in the furore, ones South Africans have chosen
need money and a confident workforce that is building
to forget that the deal was first announced in new
1998, whenbuying thing. still in office.
houses, and Mandela was
On are giving notice thatthe have started black
We the streets of
we sprawling mobilising
township of to Soweto, wheremanagementand to
police
Zimbabweans
resist this poor
and
disgruntled unemployed youngsters still face off
demand a return to constitutionality, starting with a free and
in sporadic, violent protests over poor housing
fair public supervised by are plenty who do not
and election,services, therethe UN Election Directorate that is why it was established.
buy the Mandela myth.
We are here to on the slide to here for age.
“Mandela kept stopsaying: ‘I am the stone the We
people, I am use every platform available to demand
are going to the servant of the nation.’ What
did he do? He signed the truth andallowed corruption.
accountability, to speak papers that expose white
people here on the Daily News every Wednesday. said our
to keep the mines and the farms,” Visit
Join Us
49-year-old Majozi Pilane, who runs a roadside
face book page Zimbabweans for Prosperity and e-mail/
stall selling sweets and cigarettes.
inbox us your thoughts,nothing for all the poor the
“He did absolutely expose corruption, blow
whistle of this country.” organise your neighbours for
people on corruption, and
the eventuality.■
- The Telegraph
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