ZIMBABWE’S economic figures are at best fudged, but the next three weeks could provide the real answers if Parliament does its proper job during the mid-term fiscal policy presentation to the august house.
In December 2024, Parliament passed a national budget worth about US$7 billion for the 2025 financial year. Treasury and minister Mthuli Ncube did not confide in Zimbabweans how the revenue would be raised. There was a significant budget revenue expected from overseas development assistance (ODA).
However, by the end of January 2025, this projection was wrong. One of the biggest donors USAid pulled the plug on funding. It immediately halted most projects they were funding in Zimbabwe. From a projected US$2 billion, conservative estimates now put the current funding at US$200 million. In simple terms, the United States is now putting a dollar per 10 that had been projected.
For easier reference, the United States was funding projects in health, agriculture, climate change, governance and democracy and sanitation, among other things.
The situation has been made worse by some European donors such as the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Sweden, who have also cut back on aid. These countries, however, are doing it in a phased approach, unlike the abrupt closure of projects by the United States.
It is important to note that despite all these red flags after the reduction in ODA, the Treasury has painted a picture of Zimbabwe being resilient and able to do it alone. It has not even suggested the tabling of a supplementary budget.
This is not new. Ncube has never tabled a supplementary budget since 2018 when he was appointed Treasury czar. The economics don started on the note of austerity — reduction in government spending. Everyone is now aware of what he meant. He suppressed civil servants’ wages, but the top bureaucrats maintained their perks, including top-of-the-range vehicles and bloated delegations on international trips.
Ncube has consistently told the citizens about a budget surplus. However, the surplus has not been felt in the economy. Taxpayers are paying through the nose and salaries across the board in most instances are still below the poverty line.
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Interestingly, going through the budget performance, one notices that the Treasury has not been disbursing the allocated funds. This has caused severe constraints on service delivery, especially in the health and education sectors.
Surprisingly, during the last seven years of Ncube's reign, the national debt has risen phenomenally from around US$14 billion to the current US$21,6 billion. It means we have been borrowing heavily, yet the effects of the debt are not being felt by the citizens.
Many still struggle to commute to work because there is no efficient public transport. Load-shedding has become the norm so are empty dispensaries at public hospitals. Most citizens have no access to potable water.
It is time that we look at what the Constitution expects from Ncube.
The Finance minister, in terms of section 298 (1) (f), is expected to ensure that “public borrowing and all transactions involving the national debt must be carried out transparently and in the best interests of Zimbabwe.”
The minister is also expected by section 300 (4) to “at least twice present before parliament the debts and guarantees and their performance.”
Ncube has consistently failed on this front. He is a constitutional delinquent and Parliament has not helped to bring him to account.
The constitution, in the wisdom of its framers, saw it fit that parliament should have oversight of state revenues and expenditure. This is well enunciated in section 299 of the Constitution.
Parliament has fallen short on this expectation. It simply makes noise about their perks, but little on doing this important constitutional duty. MPs have been afraid to question on revenues and expenditure, even daring to ask the Treasury where it found the powers to use money that had not been appropriated by Parliament.
It is important to note that Parliament has not insisted on the minister of Finance to do the minimum twice tabling of the national debt and its performance.
Most worryingly, Parliament has chosen to be mute even after Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development won a landmark High Court ruling that compelled the Finance minister to table a Bill before Parliament that seeks to control and cap national debt as well as empower the house to give prior approval before any new debt can be contracted.
It is not a mere coincidence that we have a delinquent Finance minister and a Parliament that is derelict of duty. Zimbabwe needs new politics, a new breed of MPs who appreciate their constitutional obligations.
Ncube will soon deliver his mid-term fiscal policy. It is hoped that it will address all the issues raised herein. The minister should come out clean on the debt and their performance.
At the same time, MPs should be bold and debate robustly on the debt and its performance, as well as use the opportunity to censure Ncube for defying High Court orders.
It is further argued that Ncube should stop pretending all is fine and be bold enough to present a supplementary budget rather than continue spending public money without parliamentary approval.
The country should be reminded that Ncube has in the past presented two Financial Adjustment Bills that were never passed because he could not explain where the money was used.
This would be a perfect opportunity to bring to public finance management. The government – the second republic – cannot continue to get away scot-free after abusing the Constitution about public finance management.
Public debt has an effect on both present and future generations, particularly that which is incurred to finance recurrent expenditure. The time is nigh to stop this madness and start putting the country back on a good economic footing.
