Harare – President Robert Mugabe claims that he earns a salary of US$4000 a month despite living in a US$10 million mansion in the posh Borrowdale suburb of Harare.
The 90 year old geriatric disclosed his salary in an interview with Ghanaian-born British journalist and film-maker Roy Agyemang for a BBC documentary titled “Robert Mugabe @ 90”, which was aired at the weekend.
“I am earning US$4 000 just now, because of the hard times this is what we decided on, that we should recognise the hard times at the moment,” Mugabe said.
“All the parastatals now we were discussing them. One-by-one we will go through them all and see what they were paying to the management. It’s the managements that were benefiting in most of these cases,” he said.
Despite spending years blaming western sanctions for crippling state owned companies, Mugabe’s regime was exposed by the ‘salarygate’ scandal which exposed how senior executives were earning obscene salaries and allowances.
According to Finance Ministry figures, NetOne boss Mr Reward Kangai’s monthly salary and allowances were equivalent to President Mugabe’s annual salary.
Information Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo, recently revealed that executives in State-linked firms chewed up about US$600 million in salaries and allowances since 2009, and US$133 million last year alone.
The money, he said, was pocketed by about 3 000 individuals who sat on boards or were chief executives and senior managers of the country’s 78 parastatals and State enterprises.
Government has since capped public sector packages at US$6 000 monthly, pending finalisation of a comprehensive salary structure.
According to figures released by Government last month, the highest paid chief executive was former Premier Medical Aid Society boss, Dr Cuthbert Dube, whose total guaranteed pay packet came to US$535 499 monthly (US$230 000 basic salary and US$305 499 in allowances).
The society had accumulated a debt of over US$38 million as of December 2013 – the majority of which was due to service providers, and made it difficult for members to access healthcare.
The highest-paid boss at a parastatal, according to the Finance Ministry, was Mr Kangai who took home US$43 693 monthly, while ZBC’s suspended CEO Mr Happison Muchechetere took home at least US$37 050.
