Zimbabwe lags behind.

Pope Benedict XVI is to step down; Pontiff says his age means he lacks strength to do job. More

Committee of the Peoples Charter (CPC) Press Statement on Proposed Government Exit Packages:

‘Say No to the Inclusive Government’s Politics of the Belly’

Issue Date: February 08 2013

The Committee of the Peoples Charter (CPC) is gravely disappointed with the departure lounge intentions of the inclusive government’s ministers and the current Parliament to award themselves ‘exit’ packages in the form of luxury vehicles and houses, as reported in the February 8-14 edition of the Zimbabwe Independent. Such an intention is grossly hypocritical as well as thoroughly unjustified and undeserved.

In a year where the country is facing a major drought as well as deplorable social services where there is lack of clean drinking water, affordable health care and a crisis in our education system, awarding these policy makers these ridiculous exit packages would be the height of political insensitivity.

These leaders would do well to be reminded that being in government is a service to the people of Zimbabwe and not a mechanism through which they must seek to enrich themselves.  Unfortunately this latest intention is only but the latest indication of the warped thinking that informs the inclusive government where and when it comes to matters of allowances and perks for its officials.

Against better advice, the inclusive government has over the last four years had a ridiculously high foreign travel bill, a penchant for purchasing luxury vehicles for ministers and their deputies while simultaneously claiming that the country has a mere US$217,00 in its bank account. That MPs and ministers now want ‘exit packages’  is akin to severance packages in a country where unemployment is reportedly as high as 80%, can only be viewed as a demonstration of utter contempt for the suffering of the ordinary people.

The CPC strongly advises the inclusive government and parliament to show contrition and sensitivity to the people that elected them into office by not seeking to loot the national purse for personal aggrandizement.

Zimbabwe is neither their personal tuck-shop nor theirs to treat as an ‘endgame takes all you can’ country.  Where the inclusive government decides to proceed with dishing out exit packages to itself, the CPC shall mobilize all Zimbabweans against such extravagance.

The agreed draft constitution by the three Zimbabwean political parties will be tabled in Parliament and after that the final say will come from the people in a referendum. The draft constitution took almost four years and nearly $100 million. Since the document had to be agreed upon by the three signatories to the Global Peace Agreement in the government of national unity a “YES” vote campaign is already under way. Most people would wonder why exactly they should vote “YES”.  Is it a YES vote to allow a no term limit for Members of Parliament or it is a YES vote to allow Parliament to add 60 more seats to the already resource straining House of Assembly? Our already poor performing Members of Parliament will have two jobs both in Parliament and Provincial Councils to replace the current system of provincial governors. A further analysis of the new draft by the National Constitutional Assembly will leave you wondering on why the Zimbabwean people are being forced to vote “YES” and settle for less when as a nation we can have more. Seems like the plot was already lost when the views of the people were discarded and politicians dominated the whole process. After four long years of resource grabbing, the nation’s supreme law had to be negotiated by politicians at the expense of the ordinary people. Is a “YES” vote the right way to go for the new constitution?

Voyaging begins when one burns one’s boats, adventures begin with a shipwreck. - Michel Serres, The Five Senses