WHEN a government starts approaching the unemployed, who are trying to find a dollar at a betting house to buy a meal and taxing them, it means we are doomed.
On Thursday, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion minister Mthuli Ncube presented a ZiG276,4 billion 2025 national budget, raiding the pockets of struggling citizens.
In his presentation, Ncube was actually flipping the already struggling citizen upside down hoping a few pennies would fall out of their pockets.
Last year, he introduced a cocktail of taxes, such as sugar tax, hoping to stabilise an economy in tailspin, but still went on to underfund most if not all the portfolios.
This year, he has upped the ante: Introducing taxes for French fries, pizzas, plastic bag purchases, etc.
Even punters, some who were trying to supplement their poor salaries with a few bucks from the betting shops, have not been spared.
It did not make sense for many back in the years, when former Finance minister Tendai Biti would say Zanu PF was running a casino economy.
Back in 2022, Biti said President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his administration were practising feja feja economics, slang for unco-ordinated and disorderly financial management.
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Today, his statement makes sense for many who misunderstood him previously.
So, a country which has abundant gold, platinum, chrome and lithium reserves, as well as other small but luminary minerals, as well as raking in millions from processed tobacco exports, should soon anchor its economic growth on punters: feja feja.
For starters, that is a joke!
There has been no transparency in how much revenue exactly was collected from the sugar tax, with government putting the figure at US$18 million by September 2024.
On the other hand, Health and Child Care minister Douglas Mombeshora in July stated that US$8 million from the sugar tax had been allocated for health purposes.
Such inconsistencies raise dust.
It could be the same for all the other revenue collected from sin tax.
The mining industry is crying out loud, power outages are eating into their revenue as they have to buy fuel to keep the conveyor belts running.
Instead of capacitating the energy industry, Ncube apportioned a small vote compared to the other portfolios.
He allocated the Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development ministry ZiG22,9 billion or US$636,4 million, while the Mines and Mining Development portfolio for ZiG664,8 million (US$18,4 million) with the Energy and Power Development ministry getting ZiG259,8 million (US$7,2 million).
One can see that industry, which must be driving economic growth, is not being prioritised.
Instead, the authorities are focusing on tissues and not issues.
Little did we know that our leaders care for our health so much such that they have to discourage the majority from buying French fries or pizza — which afterall the working class can manage to buy after three salaries or so — by taxing these niceties.
A few years ago, a chartered polymer engineer and scientist fought in the corner of polystyrene, better known as kaylites, arguing that we should continue using them as they contain 5% plastic and 95% air.
A Cabinet minister, on the other hand, pushed for the ban of kaylites, which saw food packaging for takeaways shift to plastic containers, which are 100% plastic and non-biodegradable.
Instead of Ncube putting a 20% tax on plastic carrier bags, why not revert to kaylites.
Today, Graniteside industrial area, or rather Plastic-side, is filled with plastic manufacturing companies owned by our good friends from the East.
How bizarre!
Surely ours is a casino economy.
