HARARE – Finance minister Mthuli Ncube will present his maiden National Budget next week Thursday against a background of huge economic challenges and public expectation that he is the man to help Zimbabwe out of its current rut. So far, Ncube has had an unflattering start to his tenure as evidenced by public anger to…
HARARE – Finance minister Mthuli Ncube’s recent confirmation that government will soon buy vehicles for parliamentarians exposes government’s insincerity in tackling its ballooning budget deficit. It also flies in the face of Ncube’s claim to parliamentarians this week that Zimbabwe is putting in place measures to reduce its budget deficit to four percent of gross…
HARARE – Recent events following the tragic road accident that left at least 50 people dead along the Harare-Mutare highway near Rusape on Wednesday are very disturbing. A Smart Express bus is alleged to have tried to overtake a haulage truck on a prohibited stretch on the road before crashing into a Bolt Cutter bus…
HARARE – While we all applaud the anti-corruption drive being spearheaded from President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s office which has seen several ex-ministers arrested for abuse of office, we all wait for the first conviction. Until we start seeing convictions and perpetrators being sent to jail, the on-going crusade will just remain a witch hunt. All the…
HARARE – Late on Wednesday afternoon, at least 47 Zimbabweans lost their lives following a head-on bus collision along the Harare-Mutare highway. A Smart Express coach crashed with a Bolt Cutter bus near Torish Farm just after the Rusape tollgate. Although police are still investigating the cause of the accident, initial accounts from eyewitness and…
HARARE – Would you believe that your poverty is being created by your own government? I know it is hard to believe, but here is the story. Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson in their 2012 seminal book Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Poverty, and Prosperity; have this answer: “Rather … opposition to…
HARARE – Among the many things in short supply in Zimbabwe today are cool heads, especially among our business leaders. It is quite evident that, once again, Zimbabwe’s economy is on a slippery slope, risking sliding back to where it was about a decade ago. Inflation — an evil that devoured the Zimbabwe dollar in…
HARARE – Government has, for the past few decades, had to battle a restive employee body that continued to pester its employer over working conditions. Admittedly, people’s salaries and wages have been undergoing gradual erosion in terms of value since 2012, despite multi-currencies having been introduced into the economy way back in 2009. This erosion…
HARARE – President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s recent announcement that he will review the two cents per dollar transaction tax is a welcome relief to long-suffering Zimbabweans. The new tax regime introduced by Finance minister Mthuli Ncube last month had been totally rejected by both business and consumers but government went ahead with the promulgation. Shortly after…
HARARE – The recent wave of price increases that has been sweeping across the country has not spared the country’s agricultural sector, without doubt the mainstay of the Zimbabwean economy. Prices of farming inputs — especially those for seed and fertiliser — virtually shot through the ceiling. [GoogleAd] A 20kg bag of maize seed, which…
