LAWRENCE BARTLETT, Harare | Friday 7.30pm
EMPLOYERS and workers alike on Friday slammed the Zimbabwean government’s budget for 2000, saying it fails to address the country’s worst economic crisis since independence nearly 20 years ago.
The powerful Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) stated that workers “will not accept additional burdens” — a reference to a 3% tax levy to fight the Aids epidemic. The ZCTU, which said it will decide on action at an emergency meeting to be held soon, called on people to rise against a government that refuses to make sacrifices.
The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) said in a statement that the budget lacks a sense of urgency in dealing with the country’s economic problems, which include inflation at a record rate of nearly 70%.
CZI chief economist Farai Zizhou attacked particularly expenditure on the army as opposed to health.”The fact that the defence ministry remains number two shows that there isn’t any commitment to reduce expenditure on defence. “Who are we trying to defend when people are dying because of a poor public health sector?” he asked.
Hundreds of doctors in government hospitals have been on strike for a month for better pay and working conditions, while some 11000 troops are in the Democratic Republic of Congo on an unpopular mission to prop up the government there.
The health ministry got Z$6-billion. Defence got Z$8,2-billion. Independent economic consultant John Robertson said that the budget is “nebulous”, failing to spell out the government’s tactics for meeting demands from the International Monetary Fund. Robertson congratulated the government on a “brave” decision to restrict local borrowing, but condemned it for failing to reduce the size of President Robert Mugabe’s bloated cabinet. — AFP