Zanu PF’s costly annual talk show ended in Masvingo last night with revelations that the party was $16 million in the red, a true reflection of the former liberation movement’s mismanagement of Zimbabwe’s economy in the last 36 years.
Comment: The Standard Editor
According to the Zanu PF central committee report tabled at the conference that began on Tuesday, the party is drowning in debt despite receiving $4,5 million from treasury under the Political Parties Finance Act.
President Robert Mugabe’s party admitted that it was struggling to service its loans and overdraft facilities as well as financing its day-to-day operations.
However, on the eve of the conference, the party unveiled 365 top-of-the range vehicles with an estimated value of $10 million.
The source of funds to buy the cars that would be used in the 2018 elections has not been disclosed and may never be known despite the likelihood that it could be taxpayers who bankrolled the new fleet.
To organise the Masvingo jaunt, the party needed over $4 million and most of the money was raised through the fleecing of struggling parastatals that are forced to fund Zanu PF events every year.
A brawl over nearly $500 000 that was allegedly siphoned from the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund early this year also gave a glimpse into how the ruling party uses state institutions to fund its activities.
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At times the money is drawn from these institutions in a manner that flouts the country’s laws, but the government cannot act because it would expose Zanu PF.
Following the public admission that revenue from the sale of membership cards and subscriptions fell by a staggering 73% this year, Zanu PF should now come clean on the new sources of its income in the interest of transparency.
Mugabe cannot be preaching against corruption when an institution that he leads is not open about its sources of funding. The president is simply not interested in fighting graft.
Other than exposing Zanu PF’s opaque financing scheme, the central committee report also raises serious questions about the ruling party’s capability to extricate Zimbabwe from the economic crisis that has been going on for almost two decades.
Mugabe supposedly deployed the best brains at his disposal to ensure that the party is well-resourced financially, but just as they have done with the national economy, their performance has been nothing short of a disaster.
A party that cannot manage its own resources or find clean and innovative ways of generating revenue cannot be trusted with the national purse.
Zanu PF has over the years forced down the people’s throats ruinous economic policies that have set back Zimbabwe’s economy a number of years.
The party’s conference did not discuss any meaningful policies that can be implemented to revive the economy. A tired Mugabe did not say anything that would excite foreign investors.
As expected, the conference was preoccupied with vile tactics to retain power for the 92-year-old ruler.
The millions of dollars wasted in Masvingo could have been better used to alleviate starvation in the province where government neglect has also led to the mass deaths of livestock.
There is no better evidence than this to prove that Zanu PF is a yesterday party. The shame is on us for keeping it in power for so long.
