COMRADE BOB

AT ALMOST THE SAME TIME that Comrade Robert Mugabe was serving up his anti-imperialist offerings at the Comesa summit in Nairobi (to much applause) last week, back home, his Secretary of Defence was grappling with the kind of mega-problems you cannot solve with rhetorical blaster.
Trust Maphosa told a parliamentary committee that with seven months to go, the Defence Ministry has already exhausted its budget of Zim$32 billion for rations.
It’s not that the chaps at the Defence ministry are lousy budget managers. Rather they couldn’t have foreseen that inflation would be running at 3,700 per cent as it is today.
The Zim$32 billion was worth £10 million when it was allocated at the beginning of the year, but its value has been shrunk by hyperinflation and the collapse of the currency.
A private’s monthly pay in February mounted to Zim$300,000, Maphosa said. At that time, it was worth about £50 (Sh6,650) a month – three times less than a private in the Kenyan army earns.
Four months later, the salary is worth only £4 (Sh532)! A Zimbabwean private arriving in either Dar es Salaam or Nairobi on a weekend with his salary intact, can only afford one movie ticket – but not even a popcorn or drink to go with it during the show.