ED, Chiwenga to take home $70m in salaries

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa and his deputy Constantino Chiwenga will take home $69,2 million as their combined basic annual salaries in 2023, the latest proposed estimates of expenditure (Bluebook) have revealed.

Finance minister Mthuli Ncube announced the national budget last Thursday. estimates of expenditure show that Mnangagwa and Chiwenga will earn $5,8 million each as monthly salaries. The wages are equivalent to US$8 964 at the prevailing official rate.

The estimates of expenditure show that in 2022, the unaudited out-turn to September under the President and Vice-Presidents’ salaries and wages vote stood at $18,6 million, while the revised estimate was $10 million more, at $28,1 million.

For the year 2021, the unaudited out-turn was pegged at $32,2 million with indicative estimates for 2024 for Presidential salaries pegged at $95,1 million and $105,9 million, respectively.

In terms of section 102(1) and (2) of Chapter 5, as read with the Sixth Schedule, part 4(20) of the Constitution, which deals with remuneration of Presidents and Vice-Presidents, their salaries must be charged upon and paid out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

In the 2023 budget, the Office of the President and Cabinet got an allocation of $161,7 billion. Of that amount, $114 billion will be spent by the Presidency, while $2,7 billion will go towards fuel, oil and lubricant expenses.

Foreign travel expenses alone are projected at $13,8 billion, while $2,3 billion will go towards hospitality expenses.

Estimates for acquisition of non-financial assets totalled $20,3 billion; partly made up of $15,6 billion in capital grants, $2,2 billion transport equipment and $1,5 billion for machinery and equipment.

Meanwhile, $5,2 billion will be spent on salaries and wages for the National Council of Chiefs.

This comes after a revised estimate for the National Council of Chiefs was pegged at $4,4 billion.

In other votes, salaries and wages for the Parliament of Zimbabwe were allocated $49,8 million in 2023, while the National Prosecuting Authority got $43,1 million.

The office of the Auditor-General’s budget for 2023 is $9,9 billion. However, some $902 billion was carried forward from last year.