Sokwanele
27 March 2009
What would you have done? Taken the merc, or said ‘no thank you’…?
I hope, faced with the decision that all our new Ministers were faced with – to accept the Mercedes Benz which comes as a ministerial perk or not – that I would have refused.
Senator David Coltart declined his and hats off to him for doing so.
Unfortunately, our enquiries seem to suggest that every other minister accepted theirs – including the new guys, the MDC-T and MDC ministers.
Nelson Chamisa, our youngest Minister at the age of 31, said that, “It’s a symbol of authority and power … If you don’t have it, people will think you don’t have power. They feel good when they see one of their own in power.â€
Why stop there Nelson? Why not accept a farm or two as well, wrap your wife in gold and diamonds, and jet around the world after commandeering Air Zim planes? That will really show the poor how much power you have – they’ll be under no illusions who’s the boss then.
By the way, does an E-Class Mercedes come with really big doors, Nelson? I hope so, because if your head keeps growing at this rate it may not be long before you can’t fit it into the car.
Eric Matinenga at least had the grace to be slightly shame-faced when he accepted his. He said, “I know it’s not a good excuse, but will I make a difference if I turn this down?â€
You’re right, Eric, it’s a thoroughly lousy excuse.
As to the question about whether it would have made a difference… perhaps we can help out there. We did a bit of research on the Internet and we estimate that an E-Class Mercedes Benz is worth approximately US$50,000. There are 40 ministers (including Zanu PF) which means the government spent US$2,000,000 on cars while our people are starving and dying from cholera.
How many drips is that? How much mealie-meal does it buy? How many school books? How many prisoners, who are currently receiving no meals and dying of starvation, will that feed? Perhaps one of the Ministers could be kind enough to swish up to the prison in their new E-Class Mercedes Benz and find out and let us know…?
Tendai Biti recently said in Parliament that government revenue was running at US$30 million for March. So these cars seem to represent a spend of nearly 7% of the revenue coming in for that month. The issue here is not how you justify this to yourselves, but how you justify to us, the people, spending 7% of one month’s revenue on luxury vehicles for your goodselves when the majority of Zimbabweans are unemployed and most are depending on outside aid for food.
Furthermore, how can you go to the International Community and bawl about how bad things are, and beg for money, when one of the first things the new government did was take ownership of brand new luxury vehicles. It’s absolutely insane.
We’re only referring to the Ministers cars here; apparently the Deputy Ministers will all receive Pajeros, luxury 4×4 vehicles. The MPs have yet to be given their cars but they will and we don’t know yet what those will be but somehow we doubt they will be no-frills practical vehicles designed to get MPs with bags of maize out to their starving constituents in rural areas! And so the money for cars for an extremely bloated government (one which, incidentally, exceeds the numbers outlined in the Global Political Agreement) piles up and up and up. It’s disgusting. It’s a vulgar insensitive African cliche and I feel ashamed of our new Ministers.
Yes, US$2,000,000 is a drop in the ocean compared to our country’s needs, but its priceless as a gesture of good-faith, as a symbol to the people that this government will be different. The cost is the loss of credibility and diminished respect from the people.
Matinenga said he tried to talk other Ministers into turning theirs down:
“I said, ‘Look, how would we justify getting these luxury vehicles when there is a humanitarian crisis out there? … To my disappointment, we were not able to come up with a single position.â€
All I can say is they didn’t try very hard. I hope this is a hiccup, and not the first step on a slippery slope.