Mugabe desperate to convene Parliament

HARARE – Beleaguered Robert Mugabe is desperate to convene Parliament so as to table a money bill that would quadruple state spending for this year.

Economists warn that the move would accelerate the collapse of the economy already reeling from galactic inflation.  

“Finance minister, Samuel Mumbengegwi, is to set to table a supplementary budget as soon as Parliament is convened, almost quadrupling total government spending for the year,” officials said.

The astronomical budget was expected to run into quintillions. The original 2008 budget was exhausted long ago.

Mugabe was said to have emphasized the dire economic outlook in Zimbabwe in meetings with President Thabo Mbeki and heads of the SADC troika on Politics, Defence and Security in South Africa last Friday evening

“He told them that the allocations have not accommodated all the financial demands of the government, including election spending,” our source said. “He said the resources were simply not there.”

“The new money would be minted and then spent on paying a planned increase in government wages until the end of the year,” a government source said.

Inflation – at the official 2.2 million percent year-on-year up to May, according to an official announcement – was the central problem facing the economy.

“While negotiations are continuing it may be necessary to convene parliament to give effect to the will of the people as expressed in the parliamentary elections held on March 29, 2008,” the closing session communiqué said on August 17.

SADC proposed no clear remedy to deal with the problem, apart from hinting at the importance of continued engagement.

“The Memorandum of Understanding makes it very clear that no party during the duration of the talks will do anything that will structurally derail the talks and it makes it very clear that there are two things that cannot happen: the appointment of a government and the calling of Parliament,”  MDC secretary general, Tendai Biti, said.

“If anyone in his wisdom is going to appoint a Cabinet, it will amount to a unilateral repudiation of the agreement, in simpler terms, a declaration of war on the talks.”

Domestic pressure was mounting on Mugabe, whose government is now struggling to pay restive civil servants, including armed forces.

Economists say the huge forthcoming supplementary budget marks a new low point in the decline of what was once one of the most robust and diverse economies in Africa.