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MZWANDILE Jacks recently wrote an opinion piece titled Wanted: War talk. Let me borrow that and change it a bit, and say Wanted: Firing squad - but of course, not in reference to the famous method of capital punishment.
Let me borrow the lead from Jacks’ article and tweak it a little to say: if Zanu PF and the Zimbabwean government want to redeem themselves from their negative image, they should take drastic steps in addressing all the terrible events that took place not only recently, but for close on 30 years.
I am afraid I might have to borrow his second paragraph as well and say: they should fire the high-ranking officials at PSMAS and sack the CEO at Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, while giving the other heads of government owned companies a thorough warning.
Just a few weeks ago, Zimbabweans woke up to news that the CEO at state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC or Dead BC to some) Happison Muchechetere was earning US$40 000 plus a month.
This is not a lot of money by global standards. I am sure lower-ranking officials at the SABC might be earning even more than this.
But here we are talking about an institution that can’t even afford to buy cameras to broadcast a single football match - an institution that struggles to air its main news without any hiccups because of the deplorable state of its equipment.
We are talking about an institution whose employees went without pay for six months and yet they earn less than $600 per month. If the ZBC were profitable and providing viewers with quality programmes, I wouldn’t mind Muchechetere earning even more than that.
But for an institution that owes $4m to employees alone, it's totally unacceptable.
As if this was not enough, Zimbabweans woke up on Monday morning to news that the CEO of government-linked Premier Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) Cuthbert Dube was earning a staggering $230 000.
The managing director of the same company earned a basic salary of $200 000 a month, while the group operations executive earned $122 000. Eight other senior directors were earning a basic salary of $60 000 every month.
In summary, the top 14 gobbled nearly $1.1m of the monthly total wage bill of $2m. Again, these figures might be equal or less than what peers in regional companies are earning, but they are obscene if you consider that PSMAS owed service providers $38m in unpaid bills for medical services rendered to its members.
Institutionalised looting has now become so rampant that it is considered the norm. While Mzwandile Jacks is calling for “War talk” in the case of South Africa, I think in Zimbabwe we have gone beyond that - we need a “Firing squad.”
We need to clean up the mess and restore sanity as soon as yesterday.
I find it baffling that the board of directors only decided to make salary adjustments after the salary issue was reported on in the papers.
I find it even harder to believe that the board of directors did not want to take responsibility for the obscene salary structure, but instead blamed it on what they called a “long-established culture from PSMAS’ inception in the colonial days”.
Why is the board now realigning remuneration in line with market trends only after the reported scandal? I thought that’s what should be done before offering such benefits.
Just like Jacks, says the board must be dismissed publicly and should not be asked to resign in private. To borrow again from Jacks, “this would send a serious message to the others who are planning to be corrupt or are already dishonest”.
At ZBC, people are forced to pay radio licences and they expect quality programming. The money must not be used to pamper CEOs with obscene packages like Muchechetere’s unlimited access to fuel every month, five business class air tickets for him and his family to any international destination of his choice, three regional tickets and unlimited local air tickets every year.
Policyholders at PSMAS pay premiums so that they can get medical aid without the inconvenience of paying in cash, which might not be available on the day of need.
The premiums must not be used to pamper CEOs with obscene packages like Dube’s, to the extent that he claims to be the national soccer team’s messiah by chartering Air Zimbabwe to take the national team to various destinations.
Yes, government through the information minister has said it is taking action on the hefty salaries paid to parastatal bosses. But we all know “War talk” doesn’t cut it anymore in Zimbabwe.
We need a “Firing squad” that can dismiss these institutionalised looters sooner rather than later.
- Fin24
*Malcom Sharara is Fin24’s correspondent in Zimbabwe. Views expressed are his own.
Let me borrow the lead from Jacks’ article and tweak it a little to say: if Zanu PF and the Zimbabwean government want to redeem themselves from their negative image, they should take drastic steps in addressing all the terrible events that took place not only recently, but for close on 30 years.
I am afraid I might have to borrow his second paragraph as well and say: they should fire the high-ranking officials at PSMAS and sack the CEO at Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, while giving the other heads of government owned companies a thorough warning.
Just a few weeks ago, Zimbabweans woke up to news that the CEO at state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC or Dead BC to some) Happison Muchechetere was earning US$40 000 plus a month.
This is not a lot of money by global standards. I am sure lower-ranking officials at the SABC might be earning even more than this.
But here we are talking about an institution that can’t even afford to buy cameras to broadcast a single football match - an institution that struggles to air its main news without any hiccups because of the deplorable state of its equipment.
We are talking about an institution whose employees went without pay for six months and yet they earn less than $600 per month. If the ZBC were profitable and providing viewers with quality programmes, I wouldn’t mind Muchechetere earning even more than that.
But for an institution that owes $4m to employees alone, it's totally unacceptable.
As if this was not enough, Zimbabweans woke up on Monday morning to news that the CEO of government-linked Premier Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) Cuthbert Dube was earning a staggering $230 000.
The managing director of the same company earned a basic salary of $200 000 a month, while the group operations executive earned $122 000. Eight other senior directors were earning a basic salary of $60 000 every month.
In summary, the top 14 gobbled nearly $1.1m of the monthly total wage bill of $2m. Again, these figures might be equal or less than what peers in regional companies are earning, but they are obscene if you consider that PSMAS owed service providers $38m in unpaid bills for medical services rendered to its members.
Institutionalised looting has now become so rampant that it is considered the norm. While Mzwandile Jacks is calling for “War talk” in the case of South Africa, I think in Zimbabwe we have gone beyond that - we need a “Firing squad.”
We need to clean up the mess and restore sanity as soon as yesterday.
I find it baffling that the board of directors only decided to make salary adjustments after the salary issue was reported on in the papers.
I find it even harder to believe that the board of directors did not want to take responsibility for the obscene salary structure, but instead blamed it on what they called a “long-established culture from PSMAS’ inception in the colonial days”.
Why is the board now realigning remuneration in line with market trends only after the reported scandal? I thought that’s what should be done before offering such benefits.
Just like Jacks, says the board must be dismissed publicly and should not be asked to resign in private. To borrow again from Jacks, “this would send a serious message to the others who are planning to be corrupt or are already dishonest”.
At ZBC, people are forced to pay radio licences and they expect quality programming. The money must not be used to pamper CEOs with obscene packages like Muchechetere’s unlimited access to fuel every month, five business class air tickets for him and his family to any international destination of his choice, three regional tickets and unlimited local air tickets every year.
Policyholders at PSMAS pay premiums so that they can get medical aid without the inconvenience of paying in cash, which might not be available on the day of need.
The premiums must not be used to pamper CEOs with obscene packages like Dube’s, to the extent that he claims to be the national soccer team’s messiah by chartering Air Zimbabwe to take the national team to various destinations.
Yes, government through the information minister has said it is taking action on the hefty salaries paid to parastatal bosses. But we all know “War talk” doesn’t cut it anymore in Zimbabwe.
We need a “Firing squad” that can dismiss these institutionalised looters sooner rather than later.
- Fin24
*Malcom Sharara is Fin24’s correspondent in Zimbabwe. Views expressed are his own.
