By Wisdom Mumera
(News Of The South)- On November 19 Zimbabwe`s Minister of Finance Patrick Chinamasa delivered a US$4, 1 billion national budget which was either a great policy based initiative in a time of crunching liquidity challenges or a financial flop, depending on which school of politics one believes in.
That’s what the debate about the budget has dwindled into a clash of the two major sides of politics in the country. Heads or tails? Left or right? No middle lanes, no moderates but only extremists perspiring each for its own side of zealous partisanship.
Former Finance Minister during the inclusive government Tendai Biti, now practicing law, had no mercy for the document, trashing it in its entirety.
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Before its announcement he already had a conclusion.
“It’s going to be fictitious because the government is too broke”, he said.
When it did come out he went a metaphoric inch higher describing it as a professional fart and the projected 6, 23 percentage growth rate being not attainable.
“Where is he going to get the $4,2billion for this budget, at the moment as of the end of October 2013 there is a deficit of $130 million the difference between the target and what has been collected and this year’s budget was only 3,8billion so now it has been put to $4, 2 billion when we can’t meet the $3,8billion dollars so the budget becomes fictional because the revenue base is nonexistent”, he said.
On the other political side the conclusions were also unequivocal in support of Minister Chinamasa craftsmanship in coming up with such a budget¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬.
It was lauded as a creative budget putting emphasis on policy and focusing on the new economy of the informal sector.
Simbaneuta Mudarikwa the ZANU PF MP for Uzumba and Minister of State for Provincial Affairs in Mashonaland East stated vaguely how it was people oriented.
“It is a people oriented budget. It has the element of ZimAsset. Money to artisanal miners has never happened in the budget and it’s a positive development. Everybody is now a master of his own destiny supported by the government”.
Deputy Information Minister Supa Mandiwanzira strolled down the same avenue.
“Nothing is surprising about taxes. The budget is encouraging Zimbabweans to utilize their own resources”.
Save for Eddie Cross the MDC T MP for Bulawayo South who tried to be moderate before switching back into camp verdicts, the judgments were pretty straightforward.
They could have been reached a month before the budget actually came out, or they had been hammered into their heads during party meetings.
For all the justifications each member gave to support his side of the verdict it was obvious that everyone was standing for his political beliefs.
This is where the poor ignorant electorate who don’t understand the intricacies of the national budget suffers.
All the politicians will be feeding them is party fodder and populistic rhetoric which adds no understanding of the document. After such a sermonious monologue rigid in supporting the man for his origins not the stated facts, the people are no more enlightened than before.
Instead of progressively outlining the positive and attacking the negative all the politicians do is denigrate anything by any other political colour.
At the end of the day the budget debate is castrated of its virility, each camp gains nothing from the insight of the opposing camp since all they will be doing is trading blows to vanquish each other.
Bitis remarks about the financial fart become a mere jab to reveal Chinamasas failures, no less aimed at adding anything to the discourse because Chinamasa himself isn’t going to accede that he has failed. He will stick to his guns, supported by fellow cadres crooning behind his ear that he has done well.
Like belligerent young boys none will gentlemanly give room for the greater good since doing so becomes a sign of submitting to the opposition, and giving in isn’t found in African politics.
Most disturbing is that no one is going to agree that what the other side has done is progressive and should be applauded.
As Douglas Mwonzora the MDC T spokesperson said some time last week, “ZANU PF does not have the will to effect change and ZimAsset won’t change anything. We have seen many other blueprints before and they have come to nothing.“
Dismiss the opposition. Just dismiss it.
From the ZANU side the conclusions are the same.
MDC T is nothing but a bunch of sellouts who showed that they don’t have the nation at heart.
In between the two contestants the electorate is left bereft of ideas of whether the budget is good or bad. Unable to demystify it on their own their only option is to follow behind the party’s verdicts.
Those from the MDC T will simply go around regurgitating Bitis lines.
ZANU PF supporters will likewise borrow Chinamasas sermons about a new economy of the informal sector.
The most common thing amongst the whole bunch of them will be an absence of understanding of what the budget really says.
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