Published by the government of Zimbabwe
9 July 2009
Harare — The inclusive Government should refocus its attention on the urgent priorities of the moment and shun donor-driven agendas, Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa has said.
In an interview on Tuesday, Minister Chinamasa said it was disturbing to note that some in the inclusive Government were spending a lot of time attending meetings and staying in hotels with the expenses being footed by foreign donors who did not support the country's recovery agenda.
Minister Chinamasa was one of Zanu-PF's negotiators to the inter-party talks that led to the formation of the inclusive Government.
"We should focus our energy, time and resources to addressing our priorities; which are to ensure food security in our country and restore our health system to where it was before the sanctions were imposed on us.
"We should also make sure that we revamp the education sector and restore and rehabilitate most of our dilapidated infrastructure.
"I believe these are our main priorities that deserve our attention and any other issues cannot be compared to these.
"What is sad to note is that a lot of time, effort and energy is expended in meetings after meetings and staying in hotels.
"And we always find ready donors to sponsor us, essentially to tell us what we already know," he said.
Minister Chinamasa said the same donors declined Government's request for them to support the rejuvenation of education and the health delivery system.
"I ask now who is determining our priorities? It should be us Zimbabweans for the good health of our country because we know what our people need," he said.
Government has been trying to get donors to partner the State in efforts to restore the health and education sectors but without much success.
National food security has also been placed high on the inclusive Government's agenda.
Government has said it needs US$8,3 billion to fully implement its Short-Term Emergency Recovery Programme.
However, donors have preferred to merely offer subsistence aid with the only real meaningful assistance so far coming from China, which has extended a US$950 million facility to Zimbabwe as part of a larger US$5 billion deal with Government.
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