The Observer - 26 January 2014 - 7
Column
Of Wages, Degrees and Awards
People earn fame or notoriety for different reasons.
M
Dr Alex Magaisa
r Cuthbert Dube has earned
his notoriety on account
of his wages, which most
Zimbabweans believe to be
obscene considering the state of the country’s
economy and the national average wage
which struggles to hit the $500 mark for the
roughly 20% still fortunate enough to be in
employment. Mr Dube, who is the CEO of
the PSMAS - the medical aid society for public
servants - earns a whooping $230 000.00 per
month! Pronounced Pis-mas, Zimbabweans
can be excused for asking, “Are you taking the
p*ss?!”
A few weeks ago, when it was revealed that
a certain Mr Happyson Muchechetere CEO
of the ZBC, the state-owned broadcasting
company (still the country’s sole television
broadcaster although they have the nerve to
advertise their only station “the number 1
television station in the land”), earns circa.
$40 000.00 per month, Zimbabweans gasped
for breath, shocked by its magnitude. This
wage is paid by company that is not only
literally bankrupt (it would be dead but for
its “strategic importance” as a propaganda
machine) but has been unable to pay workers’
wages for nine months (how on earth did
they survive?). In December, they allegedly
received $50 payments in wages. Yes, 50 Jambi!
Now, it turns out Mr Dube of Pis-mas
(seriously), was the chairman of the ZBC
Board of Directors, which presumably would
have approved the Happy one’s $40 000.00
per month wage. Clearly, Mr Dube did not
bate an eyelid, probably wondering why a
CEO of a strategic state corporation that is
so patriotic would accept so little by way of
returns! Happyson was a featherweight many
rungs below Mr Dube’s heavyweight ranks
but a happy featherweight nevertheless. Who
wouldn’t be?
But we had to check Mr Dube’s profile on
his company’s website to find out just who
this fellow is and what he has done to deserve
so much in a sea of poverty. We were quite
amused by our discoveries. And, as you will
see, Mr Dube is no ordinary man.
He is Chairman of 13 corporate entities.
Yes, thirteen! (Although to be fair, he is in
pretty good company in Zimbabwe’s “scratch
my back and I will scratch yours tiny corporate
world”. He is also the President of the
Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) which
is supposed to run football in Zimbabwe
but in fact is a museum of ineptitude, poor
performance and corruption. To his credit (as
if he doesn’t have too much already) on more
than one occasion he has been a knight in
shining armour, coming to the rescue of the
national soccer team when it was in financial
dire-straits. But now we know how he could
afford such generosity at a time when most
people could not buy a loaf of bread.
Mr Dube is also a committee member of
the Confederation of African Football (CAF)
and FIFA - continental and world football
governing bodies respectively - themselves
not unfamiliar territories