AFRICANEWS

Zimbabwe

Uproar over proposed Aids tax

A proposed levy to boost the war against Aids has created a furore in Zimbabwe. Taxpayers have rejected it claiming that it is yet another scheme by government to get free money which will never be accounted for.

The introduction of a three-per cent levy on taxpayers to strengthen the fight against Acquired Immune Deficiency (Aids) should have been a welcome move for Zimbabwe, a country that ranks among the worst hit by the Aids scourge. However, the proposed levy to be enforced in January next year, which was announced by Finance Minister, Herbert Murerwa during the country's 1999-2000 budget in October, has unleashed a wave of protests.

Reasons for the revolt vary from those who don't want to pay ''for other people's promiscuity'' to those who fear that the money would end up lining the pockets of a few top government officials.
Most business people, legislators, workers and other members of the public have rejected the tax although some people in the country may be in favour. "Is the government saying that it will assist every family that is living with the disease?" asks 27-years old Tapfuma Mutema. "This is another strategy the government has employed to milk us of our hard-earned money." Edwin Nguwa, the secretary general of the opposition, National Democratic Alliance says: "Experience has taught Zimbabweans that money levied against us is not put to good use.''

Almost everyone in Zimbabwe, with a population of 13 million, knows of a family member who has died of Aids. While one in four sexually active adults is said to be carrying the virus that causes Aids, the ministry of health says more than 1,000 people die every week from HIV-related ailments in the country. With such alarming figures, the levy should have sailed through smoothly. There are some Zimbabweans who want the tax imposed without any hiccups, although street and bar talk shows that the majority of Zimbabweans are unhappy with the proposed Aids levy. Aids was first reported in Zimbabwe in 1985 and it took the government 13 years to put into place an HIV/Aids prevention programme.

Since 1995, workers in Zimbabwe were made to pay a five per cent drought levy following the worst drought of 1992. The levy was dropped only after protests, in December 1997. The government immediately replaced it by an even more unpopular five per cent Development levy which was withdrawn last year after pressure from the powerful Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). The government currently charges a 10 per cent tobacco levy on growers. After protests by farmers, the government agreed to reduce the levy to five per cent in January next year. Nguwa says that if the Aids levy is ever going to be implemented the responsible authorities should make public all financial statements regarding the once imposed drought/development levy as well as the current tobacco levy. With the country having 11 000 soldiers involved in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), taxpayers fear that the government is attempting to throw up a smokescreen. There is suspicion that the Aids levy may be used to fund the war . ''Experience has taught Zimbabweans that the (ruling) ZANU-PF government is very good at setting up all manner of schemes, funds and programmes to benefit the poor and the needy,'' says John Makumbe, a local political analyst. ''But soon after gathering the money, it loots everything with impunity for the benefit of big chiefs.''

Makumbe cites the Social Dimensions Fund meant to assist the poor with school fees and hospital fees, but whose coffers got bankrupt this year. Then there is the War Victims' Compensation Fund allegedly looted by top officials who awarded themselves huge rewards at the expense of the ordinary people who fought Zimbabwe's liberation war between 1963-1979. ''Needless to say very few, if any, of the looters have been charged, tried or convicted,'' says Makumbe. "It's not that taxpayers are unsympathetic to the plight of people living with Aids," he adds. ''But the truth of the matter is that by and large, the people no longer trust their government.'

Rampant corruption, lack of transparency and outright dishonesty among Zimbabwe's politicians and top government officials, according to Makumbe, almost provides a guarantee that very little of the three per cent levy will ever reach the Aids victims.

Even the Zimbabwe Aids Network (ZAN) has urged the government to drop the levy. Ticharwa Masimira, national chairperson of ZAN, says while the fund is long overdue, it should be provided for through a separate allocation from cuts in the defence ministry and other sectors. "What the government could have done was to reduce the budget for defence," says Masimira. "It is common knowledge that it is spending over Z$1 billion in the DRC." In the 2000 budget, defence got the lion share, Z$10 billion (US$263 million), while the ministry of health was allocated Z$6 billion (US$ 157 million). However, finance minister, Murerwa argues that the levy would only be used for Aids-related issues. The fund will be created in the ministry of Health and Child Welfare under the auspices of the Audit and Exchequer Act to ensure transparency and accountability.

Murerwa says the levy will also be used to buy low-cost generic drugs and in catering for the needs of Aids orphans. "Aids has affected industry and commerce in Zimbabwe," he says. "This levy is a step into alleviating the suffering which has been caused by the disease."

The Church is one institution that has welcomed the levy. However, the churches says that they should benefit from the levy since they have been dealing with the Aids pandemic before the government put in place mechanism to fight the disease. "This is a new dawn in the era of fighting against Aids," says Bishop Ambrose Musiiwa of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Zimbabwe. "We deal with Aids orphans and those suffering from full-blown Aids approach us for prayers and spiritual healing.From that levy churches should get a percentage in order to sustain what they began before the government ever thought about it."

| CONTENTS | AFRICANEWS HOMEPAGE |

AFRICANEWS - Koinonia Media Centre, P.O. Box 21255, Nairobi, Kenya
tel: +254.2.576175 (voice) Fax:- +254.2.577892 (fax-modem)
AFRICANEWS on line is by Koinonia Media Centre