Now we know his salary, perhaps he can disclose the full extent of his wealth
Interesting article in the Sunday Mail of the 12th-18th September 2010. Good to know the president got a salary increase from $400 to $1750. Good percentage increase for himself there. Wonder how many people would get an increase of +400% in this environment? Not many l would wager. Anyway now that we know how much he earns officially perhaps we can have another front page disclosure of how much he earns from other perhaps “unofficial sources of income”? It would be interesting to know how the family could afford to send the first daughter to school in Hong Kong on a $400 salary. Maybe she benefitted from the Presidential Scholarship Fund? I mean a $400 salary surely meant her parents fell under the “disadvantaged” category? And that would have qualified her for a presidential scholarship wouldn’t it?
Great that he can now open an Edgars Clothing account. “When the President read it, he beamed and said, “The salary has not only improved; l am also eligible for an Edgars Account!” That according to Cde Charamba. But then, he hardly needs it does it? It would really be funny if it wasn’t so cruelly arrogant and insensitive.
Thursday, September 16th 2010 at 12:46 pm
Well,well guys whats wrong with the CEO of the country getting USD1,750-00.This is salary for middle management in companies in Zimbabwe.
Parastatals with NGO backings are even paying the top brass USD15,000-00 etc.The PM’s office is known to have personnel being paid USD7,000-00.
That the President has other business interests,farming etc is no secret and we dont want to know about it.In other states(western etc) you have to have a certain wealth to be able to qualify to contests presedintial elections etc.
I am an ordinary Zimbabwean and happy about the direction our country is taking.
Food is readiliy available,I can pay my rent,I can cloth,I can send some monies to the granny kumusha.
In any country there is always segmentation of wealthy.The poor,middle class and the richly wealthy.
Many Zimbabwean have their kids studing in expensive RSA schools,Malaysia,Australia.Whats wrong with the president sending his daugheter to Hong-Kong.He is not sanctioned there!!!!!!!!!!
I would urge your organisation to stop fuelling hate messages.i for one would not stoop low to put that South African ringing tone on my line.Who are they to tell the President to step down.There is an election next year and if Tsvangirai wins so be it.
We are past those times when we used not to tolerate each other politically.We dont want southafricans to start igniting such hatred among us.
I salute the Immigration Office for banning that group.
Proudly Zimbabwean
Lily
Thursday, September 16th 2010 at 4:01 pm
Well well, where do l start? Hmm. How do l explain this to you so you understand, because you have clearly missed the point! There is nothing wrong with the CEO of the country earning $1750. That is clearly what the Sunday Mail and you want us to see. However, there is everything wrong with someone being facetious especially when the reality for most people in this country is that unlike you, they cannot pay their rent (that is why they are living at the Borrowdale Camp), they cannot afford feed that you find to be so readily available and they cannot send monies to their grannies whom we are increasingly seeing so many of on our streets.
In any country there is always segmentation of the different classes. True. But there is nothing pre-ordained about that reality. As Gustavo Guttierez so eloquently put it, “Poverty is not fate, it is a condition; it is not a misfortune, it is an injustice. It is the result of social structures and mental and cultural categories, it is linked to the way in which society has been built, in its various manifestations.” Part of our responsibility as human beings is to understand why the poor are poor. In our case human actions have deliberately impoverished a whole nation. In a country with over 80% unemployment, it is the minority who are comfortably making it from one month to the next.
Once upon a time Zimbabwean didn’t need to send their children to universities overseas. Human decisions and actions taken by certain people have seen the destruction of our education system. And your solution is to say, let sleeping dogs lie? Let those who can afford to send their children to school in South Africa do so, and to hell with the rest?
Part of ensuring the recovery that we all so want and need is to be clear about where we went wrong, so that steps can be taken to ensure we never go there again. Now that our shops are full of food and produce from South Africa, right down to the GMO chickens and carrots, you think we should not be quabbling over why that is so? Why are we so ecstatic that there is now food in the shops? What had happened to it when it could not be found? How do we stop that ever happening again?
Have you ever wondered why Budiriro was the epicentre of the cholera epidemic and not Borrowdale and Chisipite? Going by your proposed solution, I guess its too bad that the folks in those areas didn’t have water, becoz let’s face it most folks in Borrowdale and Chisi have boreholes right? How is this all linked? It would be interesting to know how our rich rulers have managed to make it on measly government salaries, when the poor have just gotten poorer. Perhaps it’s a secret the poor would benefit from knowing, don’t you think?
And a final note. Kubatana is not sowing hate speech. We all know who has control of the infrastructure for hate speech. Sokwanele in their latest newsletter carry important analysis of the issue of freedom of expression; to quote “The argument that ‘the past is the past’, and we should forget about it, put it to rest, and move forward is one view that often comes up in social discussions ……. Those making this case, fail to understand –especially in relation to the Gukurahundi – that the past is very much a part of the today. It exists in the memories of the people of Matabeleland, in the way it has influenced and shaped their lives since the events, but also in very real tangible ways. Just last month NewsDay reported that wild animals were digging up the bones of thirteen people massacred and buried in a mass grave in Lupane; and as the bones surfaced, so did the horror and the truth”.
So you see Lily, the past is never the past if you lost your family to the violence. If you buried you child because of cholera, the past is not the past. If you live daily with hunger because you lost your job, when does that become the past? Perhaps if they all (MDC officials included) shared the Secret, we would all be able to get to Canaan. In the meantime, it is not for us who are comfortably ensconced in our homes, with all our family present and accounted for, bellies full to surfeiting to say that the past is the past.
Bring on the download!!