2 - 16 March 2014 - The Observer
Mugabe’s $16m feasts
Z
imbabwe is $11 billion in loan
arrears, it just lost a hoped-for
bailout from China, and the
southern-tier African nation is
now grappling with the fallout of floods and
the breach of a dam weeks ago that left 60,000
people marooned.
Since it no longer qualifies for World Bank
and IMF loans, the Mugabe regime is pleading
around the world for $20 million in emergency
funds to cover the disaster.
Yet it also now unfolds that President
Mugabe used $16 million in taxpayer funds
in recent weeks to cover his birthday party,
his daughter’s wedding, and for giant statues
of himself to be built by North Korea that
commemorate his uninterrupted rule since
1980, and his status as father of the nation.
The Mugabe spending list, which dribbled
out in recent days -- has shocked many, since
public spending on the president’s family
is larger than the immediate cost to rescue
and aid the flood victims, not to mention a
widening number of homeless and hungry in
a country that used to be a breadbasket.
The appearance of excess has brought a
new grassroots grumbling at the gap between
the original liberation ideology of Mugabe
and his behavior today.
The spending surfaced at a time when
reports of Mugabe’s close allies’ salaries, some
of which top $40,000 a month, are in contrast
with the average salary of Zimbabweans, at
$285 - $300 a month, and just after a plan to
raise teacher’s pay by $79 a month fell through.
Mugabe’s 90th birthday bash on Feb. 23,
for example, where the president cut a cake
in front of 10,000 people at a stadium in
Marondera, and where 90 beasts were killed
and grilled for the occasion, cost more than
$1 million.
The cost of Bona Mugabe’s wedding on
March 1, attended by the heads of state of
South Africa, Zambia, and Equatorial Guinea
at Mugabe’s private home in Harare’s plush
Borrowdale suburb, cost $5 million.
Just after the wedding, plans leaked
out that Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) government
clandestinely signed North Korea, one of its
old friends, to build two statues of Mugabe at
an estimated cost of $5 million.
The statues were commissioned by
Zimbabwe’s minister of local government,
Ignatius Chombo. One is a nearly 30-foot
high bronze image worth $3.5 million to be
placed in Harare; the other is a $1.5 million
version to be placed in a $3.8 million museum
to be built in Mugabe’s rural Zvimba home, in
Mashonaland West. Building statues of leaders
is something North Korea has considerable
experience doing.
“Mugabe and his government have lost it
and all they care about now is the accumulation
of wealth and strengthening their hold on
power,” says Simba Makoni, Mugabe’s former
finance minister who now leads the small
opposition Mavambo-Kusile-Dawn party. “I
do not think that Mugabe and the people who
surround him now care about the country’s
economy anymore. Their actions show a lack
of willpower to make the country better. They
are no longer the same people who fought
for and delivered independence [from Great
Britain] in 1980.”
Back in November, the Mugabe
government said it had an inside track on a
$30 billion bailout from China. The amount
is whopping, considering that Zimbabwe’s
annual budget is now some $4.5 billion a year.
Yet the anticipated Chinese bailout has since
been steadily reduced in Harare’s telling: to
$10 billion, then $3 billion, $400 million – and
then zero, according to China’s ambassador
to Harare in recent days. – Christian Science
Monitor■
You are out of line Mr Speaker
T
Observer Reporter
he Speaker of the House
of Assembly Jacob
Mudenda has torched
a storm following his
recent threats to have MP Settlement
Chikwinya charged for contempt of
Parliament.
The charge carries a two-year
jail term. Chikwinya is currently
contemplating taking his case to the
Constitutional Court for arbitration,
by as early as Monday.
Questions have been raised
whether the Speaker is not stepping
out of line in his hurry to have
Chikwinya charged.
Mudenda’s gag has had the effect
of “gagging” members who are
now afraid of asking
questions
l e s t
they be charged with contempt of
Parliament too.
“How does the Speaker expect
me as an MP to first verify the toxic
levels of Harare water before I ask
in Parliament that Harare water is
not fit for human consumption,”
said one disgruntled MP.
Chirped in another MP: “For
one to say the chairman of Nyoka
Rural District Council is abusing
funds, I must bring proof ? Really?
I thought raising this in Parliament
is to enable the minister responsible
to look into it and address concerns
of our constituents?”
Still another MP said concerns
that school girls are being abused
by their headmaster at a
certain school required
one, according to
Mudenda, to
bring the
abused
girls
to
Parliament first before raising the
issue.
Legal experts told The Observer
Saturday that the role of the Speaker
was clearly stated in the Rules of
Parliament.
According to the Parliament of
Zimbabwe website, the Speaker “is
the presiding officer of Parliament
and as such must act with both
authority and impartiality. The
Speaker’s role in the House is to run
the proceedings.
“The Speaker maintains order,
puts questions after debate and
conducts divisions (voting in the
House). In maintaining order the
Speaker interprets and applies the
Standing Orders and practice of
the House by making rulings and
decisions. A decision of the Speaker
may only be challenged by motion
of dissent. By custom, the Speaker
does not participate in debates.
“The Speaker is the
mouthpiece for the House,
conveying messages and
addresses from the House
to the State President.
The Speaker is also
responsible
for
upholding
the
rights and privileges of Members
and the House. The Speaker has
extensive administrative functions,
being responsible for the overall
direction of the Parliament. In this,
the Speaker is advised by the Clerk
of Parliament.”
One legal expert who asked not
to be named said in pre-empting
Chikwinya, “Mudenda descended
into the arena, he is out of line”.
“The role of the speaker of
parliament is to ensure orderly flow
of business, interpret House rules
impartially; defend the rights and
privileges of members, including
rights to freedom of speech,” the
legal expert said.
“To preserve the trust of
the House, the Speaker must be
impartial. He never participates in
debates, and only votes in case of a
tie. He should protect the
rights of all members
to be heard.”
Mudenda said
on
February
27
during
a
corruption
debate, Chikwinya
made
serious
allegations
against Webster Shamu that he
received cars from the scandalplagued ZBC, alleged Gershem
Pasi, commissioner general of
Zimbabwe Revenue Authority of
Zimbabwe earned $320 000, and
said clerk of Parliament Austin
Zvoma was corrupt and implicated
in the “salarygate scandal”.
Mudenda alleged lawmakers were
violating the Priviledges, Immunities
and Powers of Parliament Act.
The Act speaks to the rights of
parliamentarians to protection from
impeachment for what they say in
Parliament.
Mudenda said Chikwinya had
repeatedly failed to heed warnings
to stop lying about salaries of public
officials.
He said Chikwinya’s punishment
would be announced in due course.
Under the Powers and Privileges
of Parliament Act, the Zimbabwean
Parliament is empowered to jail
people who commit contempt
against it for up to two years.
People sentenced by Parliament
can, however, appeal to the courts.
Mudenda alleged Chikwinya had
committed the offence on three
different occasions starting on
October 16, 2013, during the debate
on the motion on removal of
sanctions, by alleging a certain Zanu
PF MP was involved in murder.
Another legal mind, Munyaradzi
Bwanya, said neither yourself,
the Speaker, nor the House of
Assembly were clothed with any
lawful authority to deprive anyone,
• Continued on Page 5
Speaker of the House of Assembly Jacob Mudenda
MP Settlement Chikwinya