Harare mayor Jacob Mafume has launched a broadside on “educated, but incompetent government ministers” whom he accused of running down the economy and failing to reign in the country’s run-away inflation.
Speaking on AMH’s HSTV FreeTalk show last week, Mafume castigated government for trying to impose academic qualifications on candidates wishing to run for council offices, saying those who were looking to make the law, while educated, had failed.
“How many doctors are in the Cabinet, where is the economy; how many doctors have run the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, where is the economy; how many doctors have run the Ministry of Finance, where is the economy now? These cities were not built by degrees, people who used to work in these cities used to have ZJC (Zimbabwe Junior Certificate), yet they built dams,” he said.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Cabinet has, among many, in its ranks Vice-President Constatino Chiwenga, who holds a Phd and Finance and Economic Development minister Mthuli Ncube, who is an economics professor.
Other ministers who hold doctorates include Amon Murwira (Higher and Tertiary ministry), Anxious Masuku (Agriculture and Lands), Sekai Nzenza (Industry and Commerce) and Paul Mavima (Labour and Social Welfare), among others.
Mafume said the fixation with academic qualifications was at the heart of Zimbabwe’s problems and should not be seen as a solution.
“This fascination (of having) a degree, whatever even a degree in witchcraft, by Zimbabweans will be the destruction of our society. How many educated people are in Botswana, yet they are being run very well?
“We have more educated people, more universities than Botswana and Namibia. There are misplaced priorities in Zimbabwe, what we need is a moral upright leadership that is clear on issues of corruption,” Mafume said.
Source: Newsday