Top Zimbabwean economists have urged the government of Zimbabwe to trim down parliament and fire all deputy ministers as means to address the current economic malaise affecting the country.
This emerged during at the ongoing two day national Civil Society Organizations conference organized by Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition.
Prosper Chitambara an economic analyst said, “Government must fire all deputy ministers and reduce the size of parliament because all the taxes are going to them at the expense of nation building.”
Chitambara urged people to venture into businesses calling on government to slash heavy taxes in order to boost the economy.
“More business ideas are needed because the economy as at the cliff edge and the government must trim taxes because many people in the country are surviving on less than a dollar per day,” he said.
Addressing at the same conference, Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) Chief Executive Officer, Christopher Mugaga, said ever since the country attained independence in 1980, the economy has been disappointing.
“Since 1980, the country’s economy has been disappointing and very few jobs have been created since then,” said Mugaga.
He blamed the multi-currency regime for stalling Zimbabwe’s economic growth as it had made goods produced locally uncompetitive due to high cost of production.
Zimbabwe currently has 350 members of parliament including 210 directly elected through a national election as well as more than 60 cabinet ministers who are all entitled to government salaries and vehicles.