I spoke with someone today who has an inside track into the MDC. She said that one of the reasons why it was good that the politicians went retreating to Victoria Falls is that they would have been interrupted, or not bothered enough to turn up to sessions in Harare. Makes you shudder doesn’t it? That our politicians need to be flown and put up at great expense because they aren’t professional or serious enough to do their jobs properly in Harare.

Meanwhile there is gathering outrage over the speedy profligacy of the new Government.

Robert, a Kubatana subscriber had this to say:

I am equally angered about the issue of Mercs. How many teachers can we pay from just saving on 1 Merc. Those beasts cost at least US$40 000 and that would be 40 000 teachers on US$100 allowance, can you imagine at least 50 of those machines….shame! I am really not impressed with the insensitivity especially of MDC Ministers. I am also not impressed by what I seem to see as the mindset of MDC as shown by the rhetoric coming from Minister Biti. I know the government is broke but I also don’t understand this issue of flying all over the world trying to borrow money we know we are not going to be able to pay back. Since independence our government did not borrow anything close a billion USS$ at once and we are going for at least $5B, who is going to pay for it? Why are we running to borrow from others when we have not tried to make sure that the money we have is allocated and used effectively. Why can’t we for example reduce the size of the cabinet and executive as a starting sacrifice for the people of Zimbabwe. Until and unless the cabinet is trimmed to suit our pocket, I will not take MDC, Biti and the unity governement seriously.

And an interesting article by Tanonoka Joseph Whande with the amusing title of Victoria Falls, here comes your Prime Minister with extra baggage! is worth reading in full but here’s an excerpt:

The Government of National Unity (GNU) has been in existence for less than two months now. Since February the main actors in this government have been contradicting each other at almost every turn. We have three unnecessary presidents, along with three Prime Ministers who are superfluous to our requirements; all complemented by more than 71 cabinet ministers and countless permanent secretaries. It appears that they are tired already and needed to seek renewal. They all descended on Victoria Falls over the weekend. As a Catholic I am familiar with retreats. When priests are under pressure and need invigoration and renewal they go on a retreat. Listening to and carrying the transgressions of all the sinners can leave any priest drained and powerless. The Oxford dictionary says a retreat is “withdrawing from confrontation with enemy forces”. It is also “a withdrawal to a quiet or secluded place” or just “a period or place of seclusion for prayer and meditation”. Which one of these descriptions best fits Zanu-PF and the MDC in Victoria Falls? Was it prayer and meditation; withdrawing from confrontation with enemy forces or simply the first stop of the GNU gravy train? Less than sixty days into office, the work horses of Zimbabwe’s government of national unity are so tired that they need to go on a retreat. And they are did it at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe’s most expensive tourist destination.

This entry was posted on April 6th, 2009 at 2:07 pm by Bev Clark and is filed under Activism, Governance, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.