FORMER Finance Deputy Minister Terence Mukupe has issued an indirect hint on possible dire consequences if President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his government continuously failed to award favourable wages to the country’s military, which ousted former President Robert Mugabe November 2017.
In his twitter comments Thursday, Mukupe appeared to take aim at Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube for boasting his tenure has seen the country record fiscal surpluses for the first time in years.
Mukupe found Ncube’s assumed triumph hollow for as long as the country’s workforce remained wallowing in poverty.
“Fiscal surpluses are good if the wages do afford a dignified standard of living. Just had a high ranking service official in tears showing me his gross salary of $430 netting $380.
“It is criminal! Professor (Ncube) let us take better care of those that brought about the second republic,” Mukupe said while referring to the country’s military.
The Second Republic is a phrase coined by President Mnangagwa and his government to refer to the Zanu PF number one’s tenure as elected national leader.
Mnangagwa became President November 2017 when the country’s military staged a shock ouster of Mugabe who was accused by then Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander Constantino Chiwenga (now state Vice President) of presiding over a fast deteriorating economy.
Chiwenga further said some hours before he led the coup that the economic situation at the time was volatile and ripe for a national insurrection against the Zanu PF led government, something he used to justify the coup.
Over a year later, the economy has slid further, creating an even worse situation compared to what Mugabe left behind.
Just like all other government workers, the army is still being paid in bond notes, whose value keeps falling almost on a daily basis.
With the current situation now a replica of Mugabe’s reign, Mukupe could be fearing the current administration may suffer a Mugabe fate. – NewsZim
