ARMY chiefs have accused Finance Minister of reducing troops to “mere tribesmen” with budget cuts.
Tendai Biti unveiled the 2011 budget last week, proposing US$194,67 for the army. The minister committed a large chunk of his US$2,7 billion budget to the Education and Health ministries.
But defence chiefs say the allocation will leave the army unable to buy new equipment, by spare parts or repair some of its ageing infrastructure.
"We are being reduced to an army of mere tribesmen,” stormed Martin Rushwaya, the Secretary for Defence, on Wednesday.
“These meager resources will hamper the Zimbabwe National Army from meeting its constitutional requirements.”
Biti received budget proposals from ministries amounting to US$11,3 billion. But a slow economic recovery after a decade of decline and lack of critical foreign support saw Biti disappoint many government departments – his $2,7 billion budget dwarfed by expectation.
Defence chiefs, seen as loyal to President Robert Mugabe, would have read MDC secretary general Biti’s snub as a political manouvre which could provoke more open hostility to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s party by the men in uniform with elections imminent.
Rushwaya said: "The situation is far from adequate, we have serious constraints. The defence forces should have modern equipment because if we have obsolete equipment then we are compromised and we will not be able to meet the country’s defence requirements.
“We can’t get new equipment because we are said to be bad debtors.”
Air Force Commander Perrance Shiri said: "The money made available for aircraft is not enough to even buy one spare engine.”