Mugabe's 1 400% pay hike for militia

Mugabe's 1 400% pay hike for militia

MUGABE'S militia

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By Agencies

THE government of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has given pay increases of up to 1 400% to the war veteran's militia, ex-political prisoners and to traditional chiefs, reports in the capital Harare said on Sunday.

The increases are being awarded less than two months ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for March 31, and immediately drew accusations that Mugabe was paying off key political groups with a critical role in the Zanu-PF election strategy of intimidation of voters.

In the last parliamentary elections in 2000 and presidential ballot in 2002, war veterans led a country-wide reign of terror against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and are considered responsible for most of the murders of about 300 people in the campaigns.

Chiefs and their hierarchy of village headmen are accused of using their powerful influence over impoverished rural communities to force people to vote for Mugabe's Zanu-PF.

Mugabe in the state-controlled Sunday Mail accused the MDC of soliciting Western finance "which will then be used to buy votes".

"But we say, Zimbabwe is not for sale. Our people cannot be bought.

"Government has banned the MDC from receiving funding from abroad."

Social welfare minister Paul Mangwana confirmed the pay increase and indicated it would rise fifteen-fold.

In 1997, Mugabe ordered the unbudgeted payment of pensions to about 60 000 members of the guerilla war veterans movement.

Economists say the massive chunk of state funds paid out set off an economic crisis that has effectively wrecked the economy.

"The comrades will be happy with the pension increments, including burial allowances, health care and school fees," said Andrew Ndlovu, a senior official in the war veterans movement.

The massive increase also follows seething discontent among war veterans after Mugabe suspended its popular leader from the party amid a purge of dissidents among a large cross-section of the party's senior leadership - Sapa
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