It was 1992, and drought-hit Zimbabwe had just a week’s supply of maize left.
Cephas Msipa was chairman of the Grain Marketing Board, then the state grain monopoly. For placing an order to import maize, he found himself before President Robert Mugabe and his ministers, accused of trying to cause alarm and despondency.
The Ministers sat in silence as Msipa and Renson Gasela, then GMB head, were berated by Mugabe. It was all a lie, they were told. Our intelligence tells us our grain silos were full. Sitting there and watching was Bernard Chidzero, then Finance Minister.
Only one warning was to turn Mugabe. “If you don’t give us the money to buy maize, you people will not be in power; there is no way you can remain in power if people have no food to eat,” Msipa recounts in his memoirs.
It played on Mugabe’s greatest fear, and it worked. Chidzero was ordered to release the money.
Leaving the meeting, Chidzero admitted to Msipa he was aware of how dire the drought situation was. So why had he not said so in the meeting, Msipa asked. Chidzero’s reply: “I cannot be seen to contradict what the President has said.”
And that is just how Mugabe loves his Finance Ministers; quiet, obedient, and in denial.
Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa, a surprise pick for the post who has worked hard to confound his critics, has had to find that out many times. Last year, Chinamasa announced a suspension of bonuses, but was publicly humiliated by Mugabe four days later.
Now, just under a week after Chinamasa announced a raft of measures to cut government spending, he has once again been slapped down publicly.
On Tuesday, Information Minister Chris Mushowe released a statement saying Cabinet had never approved Chinamasa’s proposals, which include job cuts, a suspension of civil servant bonuses, wage cuts, and a range of other austerity measures.
Shocking as it is, nobody really should be shocked.
This is how it has always been with Finance Ministers who dare lay out the truth.
Continued next page
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