Nevanji Madanhire
The farce goes on at Town House, seat of the Harare City Council, but the government is reluctant to fire executive mayor Solomon Tawengwa.
The city is tottering on the brink of collapse and all fingers point to one man.
Recently, half the city went without water for three weeks and a quarter was without power. The city’s workforce was not paid in October because no bank is prepared to grant its administration an overdraft. Meanwhile, work continues on the Z$50-million mansion the mayor is building for himself.
A government commission of inquiry has revealed gross irregularities in the financial management of ratepayers’ money.
Tawengwa searches for scapegoats and cries sabotage when it is plain the buck stops at his desk. He suspended the director of works, the city treasurer and the town clerk. They have since been reinstated by the minister responsible for local government.
Analysts say Tawengwa will not be fired because he is the deputy secretary for finance in the ruling Zanu-PF politburo. The catchword here is not politburo, but finance.
The politburo is the all-powerful board of directors of the ruling party. Every member is handpicked by President Robert Mugabe, and no decision can be taken by any minister without the politburo’s approval.
Until Tawengwa’s appointment, all members had to have made a contribution to the armed struggle which brought independence to Zimbabwe. Tawengwa’s contribution is not known.
He inherited his father’s business empire in the 1970s and concentrated on its (mis)management (the empire crumbled) rather than join the liberation forces.
Tawenga’s election race for the position of mayor was also strange. Zanu-PF has a system called primary elections in which all aspiring candidates for any post attend a form of kangaroo nomination court where they stand in front of voters and argue that they are the most suitable candidate. Party members then vote for the candidate of their choice.
In most cases the people’s choice is overruled by the politburo. But Tawengwa did not contest the primary election because he was not a member of Zanu-PF.
The Zimbabwean government is broke. The ruling party is broke. They both need a constant flow of cash. Zanu-PF owns several businesses but they have been mismanaged. Members no longer pay their subscriptions of 25c a year and even if they did, this would not count for much.
The Z$32-million the party receives from the fiscus under the Political Parties (Finance) Act has become insignificant.
It has a cash cow in the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) which was imposed on employed Zimbabweans without their consent. It rakes in more than Z$100-million each month. It has been said the government has often borrowed money from the NSSA to finance projects.
But a good milkman does not depend on one cow. The Harare City Council earns about Z$300-million each month from ratepayers.
A few months after Tawengwa was voted in as mayor, before the ink was dry on his new Zanu-PF card, he was appointed deputy secretary for finance in the politburo.
Last year 50 000 former guerrillas rose in protest. They bore the brunt of the struggle but were living in poverty and wanted a share of the national cake. The situation threatened to unseat Mugabe, who ordered his finance minister to raise Z$4-billion to give to the excombatants.
This was done within weeks. Harareans have been puzzling where that money came from. Some could have come from the NSSA, but not all. Could the deputy secretary for finance in the politburo have helped?