MARTHA MAMOMBE
Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube said Zimbabweans must brace for further fiscal shocks ahead of the 2023 elections that he said may likely see over US$100m being used.
He said the US$100m for elections comes as the country also used the same amount for the National Population and Housing Census that also came with fiscal shocks.
The two events coupled with the Ukraine crisis have bled the already muzzled local economy, reeling from other internal and external factors.
“In any country in the world those kinds of events produce some shocks and you have to be ready to absorb the shocks,” Ncube said during the Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) post-budget meeting in Harare.
“This year we had to absorb the national census shock that cost US$100m because we were hoping donors would come on board and support us,” he added.
“Next year we will be spending over US$100 million on elections because we have to have an election. We are a constitutional democracy and that’s what we’ve signed up for,” Ncube said.
In his budget presentation recently, Ncube set aside ZWL$74bn for elections due in July next year.
Last month, Ncube presented a $ZWL 4.5 trillion budget amid mounting social protection needs driven largely by a struggling population desperate for cushioning in food assistance, health care, and education.
Economist Prosper Chitambara argued that the budget was not sufficiently pro-poor and could have done more for 49% of working poor Zimbabweans who can barely make ends meet.
“The last estimate put the proportion of Zimbabweans living in poverty at 49% and I think that’s an indictment in terms of the quality of the growth that the economy has generated,” Chitambara said.
“It is then critical to enhance social well-being and productivity of the ordinary citizens because when you look at the structure of the economy it is now highly informalised,” he added.
CZR president Denford Mutashu said the economy needs to rise from Covid-19, Russia-Ukraine war setbacks and deal with challenges affecting the people.
“We have stability as a country now but we need to focus on moving towards a growth trajectory despite setbacks like the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine geopolitical crisis, the inflationary pressures that ravaged the economy due to speculative pricing models as well as the unstable exchange rate,” Mutashu said.
“Power supply challenges also took centre stage but we’ve been assured that the sector will be liberalised,” he added.
