Where do we go from here…?
By AARON GONO
In the heydays of the newly independent Zimbabwe, from 1980 to 1990; everything done in the country was formalised, registered and taxed.
Every industry in the country had a duty of paying tax to the fiscus. It was a responsibility of any accounting department of any company in the country to abide and submit its tax returns to the lncome Tax Department ( now ZIMRA) its monthly contribution. It was done holistically.
Tax evasion in Africa is not a serious felony as compared to Western countries. Adequate tax collection in any country helps it to prosper and eligible to ask for credit lines from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and other international lending institutions.
This also enables cities, towns and rural councils to deliver on their goals, like paving roads, supplying potable water to urban dwellers, etcetera.
Although l am not a fan of the above institutions, but they made our country running something to be proud of, everything was on track and working efficiently. A country with poor tax collection measures in place, or has tax evaders suffers a lot on its balance sheet.
Due to sanctions imposed on the country in 2000, by America and the European Union, as a way of punishment to the ruling Zanu PF, accused of expropriating the white men’s land without; proper procedures and compensation took Zimbabwe back to the drawing board again.
The country failed to service its debts offered by the above lending institutions, thereby declared junk status. Lending institutions were denied or barred to give the country some lines of credit Cities failed and are failing to meet the services they are entitled to offer urbanites.
Rural roads are now inaccessible due to lack of funding which our government got funds from Germany before the sanctions. Boreholes in rural areas are also in the same predicament like roads; which the District Development Fund (now RIDA), used to discharge these duties efficiently and speedily.
With sanctions still heaped on the country, the second republic under the stewardship of His Excellency Comrade E.D Mnangagwa has managed to do a major project like the Beit-Bridge- Masvingo – Harare- Chirandu Highway; without any single dime from the European Union, what can stop the country from moving forward.
If Ian Smith of the Rhodesian Front prospered under sanctions imposed by Britain and its allies; l think we deserve to do better. Smith had friends who helped him to bust the sanctions, and l think we can also do better than him.
The obstacles which the current Zimbabwe as a country is facing are multi- faceted and these are created mainly by name droppers. Mining which is supposed to be the backbone of the Zimbabwean economy is now called ” Chikorokoza”, roughly translated, free for all. Minerals like gold, diamonds, lithium, cobalt, tin, etc are national assets. It is only the state which has the right to mine them to develop its country and meet other obligations, like water development, road development, etc. Now every person owns a gold claim, does this gold all go to Fidelity, a lot of it is siphoned out of the Zimbabwean boarders illegally and fraudulently depriving the government of the much needed cash.
Despite this indigenous gold miners, do not pay much attention to mining safety regulations in their operations, they are also causing much damage to the environment.
They don’t rehabilitate holes they dig on the ground or even plant trees to replace the ones they have destroyed. The health ministry is quite on deaths it records of young men who are involved in artisanal mining.
They are dying of lung infections caused by dust and other poisonous chemicals like methane, which they breathe whilst underground. Provisions to warn them of the presence of hazardous chemicals present underground do not exist.
Ventilation facilities which bring in clean and fresh air underground are not in place. So, the term ” Chikorokoza” depicts the way the minerals are obtained and finally disposed of, no record and quantifying of minerals obtained at these sites.
The middle Eastern countries had oil wells, if they allow any clever Arab to dig a well anywhere he likes, l don’t think we would have the United Arab Emirates of today. Let the government nationalise all rare earth minerals.
The taxi- industry which we grew up knowing, like Tshova- Mubaiwa, Rixi, Masvingo taxis, etc were all registered and paying tax to the fiscus.
Now the so called “Mushikashika” which are abated by the Zimbabwe Republic Police, in picking and dropping passengers at undesignated places all over the town; do these Mushikashika pay a dime to ZIMRA.
They only provide congestion, damaging our roads and polluting our cities for nothing. The police instead of arresting these illegal taxi operators they will be soliciting for some coins from these pirates. “Inceli irand” (give to me a rand ), is the norm for these officers as they don’t demand more than US$2 from these pirates.
So, we are between a hard surface and a rock. The police is also fleecing the country of the much needed income.
Also, the city council security and billing officers are also in the game. The previous operation which targeted these unlicensed taxis, was just a ‘sign of showing care.’ But did it change anything? We need operations which are 80% successful. In actual fact the operation was a ‘ failure.’
Land baronism in rural and urban areas is a scourge which this country must fight head on. It all started in year 2000, as Zimbabwe was grasping with sanctions and a big housing backlog in urban areas.
People connected to the ruling Zanu PF began grabbing pieces of land in the urban peripheries as their own.
Desperate house seekers in urban areas who didn’t own a house were their main targets. Unplanned and unserviced locations in urban areas began to mushroom, in Harare every wetland was targeted and all vacant pieces of land left for other amenities like shopping malls, clinics, schools, etc were targeted.
Infills was the name given to these squatter camps; l call them so because any building built without proper due course, deserves to be called so. Millions of dollars they fleeced from desperate house seekers, how much percentage did they pay to the fiscus?
Office occupation in the central business district is another blow which is not being looked into. For example, l once lived in central Johannesburg, at Skyways Flats and in another flat in Pritchard Street.
Occupants of these flats were not allowed to accommodate more than two visitors at a time. I hated the system as invasion of privacy, as sometimes they will knock at your door pretending to be doing house work, but they will be spying for the extra baggage and charge the occupant.
In many urban areas in Zimbabwe, an office which used to be occupied by one tenant is now being occupied by five or more tenants. The owner of the building only pays the rates for a certain designated use, the building was supposed to offer, like a supermarket and office occupations only.
Now the building houses all businesses of sorts and still paying the same rates. Land in urban areas must be professionally pegged, designating one type of businesses which offer the same services in one street.
Not some haphazard urban planning we notice these days, warehouses, filling stations everywhere, hardwares in every street, etc. Some might cite convenience as a result of this mixed bag.
But it is only poor urban planning in the city engineering departments all over the country. This makes it difficult for ZIMRA to tax occupants in buildings that accommodate unknown businesses and not registered, as only the building’ s name is in the deeds office.
Legislators are in parliament to serve their constituencies and make laws. They were not voted in to put the finance minister at ransom; demanding German sedans and sports utility vehicles.
They are in the august house to alleviate the poverty of the povo. Their duties are administrative and not operational.
Councillors in wards should perform the latter and the legislator will be his supervisor. Remember legislators you are only consumers and not producers, and don’t beat your chests as Invincibles, you are only reinventing the wheel.
Don’t exhibit some hubris to us, we are not looking at you at all. We are looking at councillors as our go- betweens. Mr Mthuli, if you are kind enough buy them some Buffalo bicycles.
European legislators go to work on public transport; and you deserve better than them? Who do you think you are?
Munosvodesa, (you are a laughing stock), three months on tour of duty, you are now demanding all weather terrain vehicles. What experience do you have to deserve such expensive toys, and any value addition you have added to Zimbabwe.
Tshabangu was right by recalling some inexperienced personnel. We need doers and not talkers. Zimbabwe lives on. Pamberi negutsa ruzhinji, pamberi nekusimudzira Zimbabwe, Vasingazive ngava dzidziswe. Sanctions are causing damage to the economy of the country, so are tax evaders.
