Financial Gazette

By Maggie Mzumara

23 Apr 2015

PATRICK Chinamasa, the Finance Minister, is in an ultimate catch 22 as he struggles to squeeze money out of nothing with apparently no ample legroom to manoeuvre to deliver for the broke country as the nation’s chief budget master.

This comes at a time when some civil servants are calling for his ouster.

With his options having boiled down to either not paying bonuses or retrenching civil servants, Chinamasa’s climb down on suspending bonuses for two years, might see him with no choice but to drastically do the latter.

The Finance Minister’s lofty task to pull resources out of a magical hat came to a head last week when President Robert Mugabe vetoed what he had deemed as an option to create fiscal space by announcing that there would be no bonuses for civil servants for 2015 and 2016.

As if eating humble pie when he had to apologise for making the no bonus decision is not enough, Chinamasa also faces the wrath of some teachers who are agitating for his ouster following what they are calling failure to increase the national pie.

Some economists are also on his back accusing him of not being sensitive to sectors that drive growth in the economy.

That his options are next to nil, in a country that has been in free fall long before he became the country’s exchequer in 2013, is not enough to halt the odds against him.

“Chinamasa must resign,” said president of the Rural Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe, Obert Masaraure. “He has failed to increase the pie but instead he is just focusing on the little bit of money that is there. He must do more. It is obvious that he is overwhelmed with handling the nation’s purse strings.” Masaraure also told the Financial Gazette that his union was currently in the process of mobilising other teachers’ unions in order to roll out some actions to express their disquiet with their financial woes. Notwithstanding that the President has overturned Chinamasa’s announcement to not pay bonuses till 2017, Masaraure said his union was taking that with a pinch of salt and so would continue with their plans to express their frustration over the country’s inability to provide for them reliably. “We are not taking the President’s words. Until we see a Cabinet circular on us getting our bonuses we are not taking that.“So we will continue with our plans to do a peaceful march and other actions. Chinamasa has failed to harness the potential of diamonds’ proceeds and also there are industries which could open which Chinamasa is not taking advantage of to expand the national pie,” Masaraure said.

While other teachers’ unions could not be reached to get their comments on the same, economist John Robertson also expressed disappointment in what he called Chinamasa’s lack of support to key sectors.
“The Minister should be much more supportive to activities that make money for the country. We need business activity — the country is not making money at all,” Robertson said, adding, “He (Chinamasa) has to fix the problem and encourage investment.”

Political analyst, Nhamo Mhiripiri, weighed in on the matter saying, “Something definitely has to be done to cut down on the expenditure.”

Local pressures are not the only ones he has to fend off. The Bretton Woods lending institutions expect him to cut the country’s wage bill as a sign of commitment to free fiscal space in order to service outstanding debt to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, before the two can consider re-engagement.

Although there had been some reluctance to retrench civil servants amid some planned resistance to that measure from various quarters, former education minister, David Coltart told the Financial Gazette that Chinamasa would have to cut down either travel expenses, perks or civil service.

“Chinamasa is in a fix. He is in the ultimate catch 22. He does not have much legroom. The President has cut off one of his solutions and he might have to cut down on the staff, which is equally unpopular. The same as not paying bonuses,” Coltart said. “This puts Chinamasa in a very difficult position.”

Coltart said in view of government contradiction on the issue of bonuses and the need for way forward in cutting expenditure, Chinamasa needed to have some robust debate with his government colleagues.
“He needs to have vigorous debate in government; He has to fight for his corner. And they are going to have to make one of other very difficult choices,” Coltart said.
Government has been left badly exposed after backtracking on its decision to do away with the annual bonuses.

The boob left many wondering how the current administration sets about executing its duties as it talks right and yet walks left.

The scrapping of bonuses had set the stage for a showdown between civil servants and their employer.

Unions had warned last week of a deterioration in service delivery standards, moonlighting and low morale among the workers — which would have undermined government’s efforts to turn around the sector which is just able to keep its nose above water.

The bending over backwards by government on its decision on bonuses effectively means that the plans that civil servant unions had set in motion to challenge the scrapping of the 13th cheque also fall away.
Aggrieved civil servants’ unions were said to have consulted regarding filing a lawsuit against the current administration for unilaterally suspending bonus payments until 2017 without consultation.
This is in addition to other routes that unions had been considering such as go-slow and a major strike action, if government had resisted overtures to come to the negotiating table to explain its unilateral actions.

With schools set to open in two weeks’ time for the second term, civil servants appeared to hold a vantage point in as far as bringing pressure to bear on the government as a crippling strike action would have brought the education sector onto its knees.

Sifiso Ndlovu, the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) chief executive, said they already had begun consulting their members extensively on what steps to take, before President Mugabe’s intervention.
“Unions were getting legal and economic intelligence on what to do, which was to establish if government was legally justified under the Constitution to do what it had done. The first stop was going to be the negotiating table, but if they were not coming forward to that then alternative routes would have been sought and these (routes) are legal and economic,” said Ndlovu.
“But the matter has been resolved now and that is a relief in terms of guaranteeing the rights of workers. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo downplayed the row over bonuses this week and said the issue was finished.

“The bottom line is that bonuses for civil servants have been reinstated as directed by the President and they will be paid accordingly. There’s nothing to debate about that. Full stop. End of the story,” said Moyo. — Additional Reporting by Ray Ndlovu
newsdesk@fingaz.co.zw

Daily News

By Gift Phiri, News editor

22 APRIL 2015

Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa is caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place, with the unenviable burden of having to defend President Robert Mugabe’s political irrationality while dismissing the economic wisdom of his earlier decision to suspend civil servants’ bonuses.

The 91-year-old publicly rebuked Chinamasa at Independence Day celebrations on Saturday, emphatically denying that the State had scrapped bonus payments to civil servants in the next two years.

This came a mere week after Chinamasa, accompanied by his Information counterpart Jonathan Moyo, had announced at a media briefing in Harare that Mugabe’s broke government would not pay bonuses to civil servants this year and next year — a move that was to be reviewed in 2017, ahead of the country’s national elections slated for 2018. Curiously this fiscal matter was announced from the Information ministry not the Treasury boardroom.

The announcement was also made without the ministers of Labour or chairman of the Public Service Commission. In preparation for the trip to Washington DC for the 2015 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund, the Finance minister made a bold announcement which indicated a serious intention to cut down on recurrent expenditure.

But speaking at the National Sports Stadium, the nonagenarian flatly denied that his government had made such a decision, leaving Chinamasa and Moyo with egg on their faces.

Mugabe did not say where the money will come from, but nevertheless promised that civil servants will still get their bonuses. This also comes as the same government struggled to pay the previous year’s bonuses.

Mugabe claimed bonuses for civil servants were a right that was curiously not linked to individual or general economic performance. Alex Magaisa, a former advisor to former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, said it shows populism was getting in the way of economic wisdom.

“In fact, the irony of all this is that while he (Chinamasa) is now saying his decision was a mistake, the reality is that in explaining the so-called mistake, he is in fact giving solid reasons to justify it,” Magaisa said.

Chinamasa admitted in lickspittle State media that he had made “procedural mistakes” when he announced the decision to scrape bonuses.

The Finance minister said he had been forced to make the announcement in response to the economic problems Zimbabwe was facing and the ever-shrinking national purse.

“In the process we have tripped and made some mistakes and I am happy that His Excellency in his speech at the independence celebrations has corrected our mistakes and in a manner has lifted us back to our feet,” Chinamasa said.

Magaisa said the long and short of it was that government does not have money and its sources of revenue are shrinking with the ever-contracting economy.

“Where does the government get the money when it struggled to pay last year’s bonuses?” Magaisa asked.

“Companies that operate on a commercial basis cannot afford to pay bonuses so government must be realistic about bonus payments.

“But of course government cannot afford to take away bonuses from the soldiers and other sensitive sectors of the civil service. They want to bribe workers into thinking they still care. They want to prevent the build-up of a reservoir of disgruntlement among its workers. But economically it makes no sense for a father to insist on eating meat when he is not bringing home any meat.”

Magaisa said Chinamasa had gone to Washington DC with a promise to the IMF and World Bank to reduce government expenditure “but his boss made a fool out of him and embarrassed him while he was there.”

“A proper professional would throw in the towel and defend his honour,” Magaisa said, referring to Zimbabwe’s former Industry minister Nkosana Moyo appointed in July 2000 who resigned in May 2001 after publicly speaking out against attacks on businesses and factories by war veterans.

After Moyo resigned, he took up a position at the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation.

The former banker with Standard Chartered was not a member of the ruling Zanu PF party, but was brought into the government as a technocrat to lend its economic policies some credibility with the International Monetary Fund.

Mugabe had urged Moyo not to resign but attacked him as lacking spine when he spurned him.

Magaisa said: “But these guys will never dream of doing that.”

David Coltart, a former Education minister in the GNU, said Chinamasa has been forced to eat humble pie by Mugabe.

“If Chinamasa acted without authority on such a major issue, he acted grossly irresponsibly. As we have seen his announcement was met with alarm and despondency within the civil service — this was no small issue. In most governments a minister would lose his job for behaving in this manner, but one can guarantee Chinamasa will keep his.”

Coltart said it seems implausible that Chinamasa acted arbitrarily.

“He is an intelligent man and in my experience always followed Cabinet protocol,” said Coltart who served with Chinamasa in government between 2009 and 2013.

“In other words, he is not a person who has a track record of acting unilaterally. Furthermore, Chinamasa’s decision was announced several days ago and economists were rolled out by the government controlled press to compliment him for the decision — saying that whilst it was a tough call it was the right one. It is hard to imagine that the tightly controlled Zanu PF propaganda machine would have acted in this way if there wasn’t a broad consensus that this policy be implemented.”

The former Education minister said one is left with the inescapable conclusion that Chinamasa is just the fall guy.

“Whatever the case, President Mugabe’s directive leaves Chinamasa between a rock and a very hard place,” he said.

In his statement published in lickspittle State media yesterday, Chinamasa speaks about a ballooning debt within the civil service including Premier Service Medical Aid contributions not being paid and government’s failure to meet debt repayment undertakings, which he was hoping to address by not paying the bonus.

“Zanu PF has run Zimbabwe like a tuck shop; money has been taken out of the till and never banked; sound decisions have been reversed for short term expediency; there has been a failure to implement long term economic plans,” Coltart said.

He said that was why the IMF and World Bank suspended support for the Zanu PF government in the 1990s — long before “sanctions” were ever imposed.

“Its failure then to comply with agreed policies that exasperated the international financial community,” he said.

“President Mugabe’s announcement this weekend, whilst Chinamasa was in Washington doing his best to woo the same community, will elicit a profound sense of deja vu in the IMF and World Bank.

“I have absolutely no doubt that Chinamasa timed his statement on bonuses to coincide with his visit — to show the IMF that the Zimbabwe government is serious about tackling government spending and debt. President Mugabe’s statement will have driven a coach and horses through Chinamasa’s attempt to get further international support for the government.”

Chinamasa returned from the IMF’s spring meeting this past weekend not only with egg on his face, but with empty pockets too, Coltart added.

A financial analyst with a local bank said: “There is total chaos in government. These guys are clueless including Chinamasa himself. If he believed so much in what he was doing, he should have resigned.”

New Zimbabwe.Com

April 22 2015

ZANU PF is to blame for the millions of Zimbabweans who have skipped the country’s borders in search of better lives elsewhere due to the ruling party’s violent and chaotic rule, a former cabinet minister said.

An estimated 3 million Zimbabweans are said to be living and working abroad, mainly in South Africa, although government has constantly disputed the figure.

Commenting on the ongoing xenophobic attacks in South Africa which have resulted in some 400 Zimbabweans being repatriated, former education minister David Coltart said Zanu PF must create a conducive environment for its citizens to return home.

At least seven people have been killed in three weeks of unrest in South Africa, the worst ethnic violence since 2008 when 62 people died, mainly in Johannesburg’s teeming townships.

“Whilst those who have perpetrated these horrors must urgently be brought to justice, we need to understand the root cause of the problem,” wrote Coltart on his official Facebook page.

“As far as Zimbabweans are concerned, the fact of the matter is that most Zimbabweans would never have gone to South Africa in the first place were it not for Zanu PF’s violent and chaotic rule.

“It follows that the only long term solution, as far as Zimbabweans living in South Africa are concerned, is for the Zimbabwe Government to get its act together to create an environment within Zimbabwe conducive for Zimbabweans to return home.

“That means that sensible economic policies, investment friendly economic policies, must be implemented; not the hostile, self-serving, policies which have chased away Zimbabwean entrepreneurs and foreign investors.”

Coltart posited that the low figures of those who opted for voluntary repatriation was partly due to fear of arbitrary arrests upon returning home.

“Many Zimbabweans living in South Africa FEAR coming home – they fear arbitrary arrest and being disappeared.

“That is why they would rather remain in South Africa, because for all the xenophobic attacks they still feel safer there than in Zimbabwe,” said Coltart.

Zimbabweans sought asylum in neighbouring countries citing harassment from Zanu PF although analysts said most are economic refugees.

Southern Eye

22 April 2015

President Robert Mugabe’s public rebuke of Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa (pictured) over payment of civil servants bonuses will complicate the minister’s job as he tries to woo the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to rescue Zimbabwe’s economy, a former minister said.

Mugabe at the weekend dressed Chinamasa down saying the minister’s announcement last week that the government had suspended payment of civil servants’ bonuses until 2017 had been done without his blessings.

Chinamasa had said the decision was taken in light of dwindling government revenues and Treasury’s failure to meet financial obligations.

Former Education minister David Coltart said it was unlikely that Chinamasa had made the decision unilaterally, but he was now being sacrificed because the move to stop payment of bonuses had proved unpopular.

Chinamasa was flanked by Information minister Jonathan Moyo when he made the announcement and State media made follow-up reports claiming the decision had been well received.

“It seems implausible that Chinamasa acted arbitrarily – he is an intelligent man and in my experience always followed Cabinet protocol,” Coltart who was a minister between 2008 and 2013, said.

“In other words he is not a person who has a track record of acting unilaterally.

Furthermore Chinamasa’s decision was announced several days ago and economists were rolled out by the government-controlled press to compliment him for the decision – saying while a tough call, it was the right one.

“It is hard to imagine that the tightly-controlled Zanu PF propaganda machine would have acted in this way if there wasn’t through broad consensus that this policy be implemented.

“One is left with the inescapable conclusion that Chinamasa is just the fall guy.”

Mugabe made the announcement while Chinamasa was away in the United States attending IMF meetings.

Coltart, an MDC secretary for legal affairs, said the president’s approach to the problem could undo all the work the minister had done to woo IMF and the World Bank.

“I have absolutely no doubt that Chinamasa timed his statement on bonuses to coincide with his visit – to show the IMF that the Zimbabwe government was serious about tackling government spending and debt,” he said.

“Mugabe’s statement will have driven a coach and horses through Chinamasa’s attempt to get further international support for the government.

“Chinamasa will return from the IMF’s spring meeting this past weekend in Washington not only with egg on face, but with empty pockets too.”

The minister, since his appointment to the Finance portfolio in 2013, has been working hard to re-engage international lenders such as the IMF and the World Bank.

In return, the institutions have been pushing for reforms in Zimbabwe including the reduction of the civil service wage bill.

Newsday

April 21 2015

By Paidamoyo Muzulu

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s announcement to reverse Treasury’s recent decision to suspend civil servants’ bonuses could jeorpadise Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa’s ongoing re-engagement efforts with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to obtain fresh funding to kickstart the free-falling economy.

According to IMF statement No. 15/101, Zimbabwe had agreed to cut its recurrent expenditure — which includes the salaries and wage bill — hence Chinamasa’s announcement last week to suspend the bonus payments was in line with that agreement.

“The commitment to eliminate the primary fiscal deficit reaffirms Zimbabwe’s intention to further raise its capacity to repay [loan arrears].

The top priority is to move resources from a too high wage bill to much-needed capital and social spending. To this purpose, the authorities intend to work toward reducing the share of revenues absorbed by the wage bill,” the IMF said.

“In addition, by amending the Public Finance Management and the Procurement Acts, they will seek to increase accountability, transparency and efficiency in the use of public resources. The reform of the tax regime for the mining sector could go a long way to mobilising additional resources, and continuing to publish audited financial accounts of the mining companies will enhance transparency.”

Harare’s external debt, at $10 billion, continues to block access to fresh funding and government feels its resolution would bring the economy on
the growth path.

It owes IMF and the World Bank $124 million and $1 billion respectively.

Chinamasa is currently in the United States negotiating with IMF officials for fresh cash injection into the country under the IMF Staff-Monitored Programme (SMP).

An SMP is an informal agreement between a government and IMF staff to monitor the implementation of a particular country’s economic reforms. It does not entail resumption of funding from the multilateral finance institution, but Domenico Fanizza, the head of the IMF mission which was in Harare to review the SMP progress last month, said Zimbabwe had developed a roadmap to seek debt rescheduling by the Paris Club, an informal group of official creditors whose role is to find co-ordinated and sustainable solutions to the payment difficulties experienced by debtor countries.

Mugabe on Saturday in an off-the-cuff speech said the announcement to suspend bonuses was invalid and criticised Chinamasa’s statement because of what he termed lack of consultation with the Presidency. This came after Chinamasa last week announced that government had suspended civil servants’ bonuses for the next two years to tame the ballooning wage bill and create fiscal space.

Zimbabwe has since 2010 been engaged in negotiations with the Bretton-Woods institution for fresh funding provided it has fully implemented the agreed SMP.

Former Education minister Senator David Coltart yesterday said Mugabe’s weekend remarks would further convince the IMF that Zimbabwe had no fiscal discipline and therefore was not ready for new capital injections.

“President Mugabe’s announcement this weekend, whilst Chinamasa was in Washington doing his best to woo the same community, will elicit a profound sense of déjà vu in the IMF and World Bank,” Coltart said. “I have absolutely no doubt that Chinamasa timed his statement on bonuses to coincide with his visit — to show the IMF that the Zimbabwe government is serious about tackling government spending and debt.”

Mugabe’s statement repudiated Zimbabwe’s commitment to the IMF in a letter that was jointly signed by Chinamasa and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya last year.

The pair made a commitment that the country would reduce recurrent expenditure through a salary and recruitment freeze and try to contain the wage spiral by introducing labour market flexibility.

“In addition, we will maintain the hiring freeze in Government which started in July 2012, while allowing some limited flexibility in filling critical vacancies that cannot be filled through internal mobility,” they wrote.

They added: “Finally, we have embarked on the reforms of our labour laws in 2014, in order to make our labour market more flexible, investment- and growth-friendly. To this extent, a Cabinet committee chaired by the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare (Prisca Mupfumira) has been constituted to co-ordinate the review of our labour laws.”

Ironically, the pair of Information minister Jonathan Moyo and Presidential spokesperson George Charamba swiftly moved to support Mugabe despite them being at Chinamasa’s Press conference at Munhumutapa Building last week where the bonus suspension was announced.

Contacted for comment via his Twitter account, Moyo said: “Not sure what you mean by spin, but whatever you mean, the President is the boss & his word is final. So there you have it!”

Charamba also distanced himself from the decision according to online agencies, saying: “He [Chinamasa] is part of a government led by President Mugabe. He is a junior of the President. So when the boss speaks, that’s the end of the story. [It is] as straight-forward as that.

“Remember, I was also part of the line-up that made that announcement. So we are all duly corrected by His Excellency.”

Chinamasa yesterday apologised for the statement, but reiterated that the country’s economy was not sound and could not support the kind of recurrent expenditure caused by a bloated civil service which currently chews 82% of the National Budget.

In February, Zimbabwe was taken off the list of countries subjected to monitoring by the Financial Action Task Force (FAFT) after improving its money laundering regime.

“Our intention is that by this time next year we should be entering the new phase of clearing our arrears and opening the floodgates of new development financing, FDI and other financial flows that will reduce poverty in our country,” Chinamasa said then.

The next assessment is in September.

Under the current SMP, the third since 2013, the policy reform agenda focuses on balancing the primary fiscal accounts, improving the investment climate, restoring confidence in Zimbabwe’s financial sector and garnering support for a strategy to clear arrears with multilateral institutions.

Bulawayo 24

By Thobekile Zhou

April 15 2015

MDC top official David Coltart has lashed out at Information minister Jonathan Moyo describing him a hypocrite over his xenophobic comments saying he cannot cherry pick what ‘types of xenophobia or racism are acceptable or not’.

On Monday, ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe was quoted saying the “ANC theorises colonialism differently to ZANU PF” and “has no desire to drive white people into the sea”.

That forced Moto to respond saying “We differ with Mugabe on whites: Mantashe” saying “And we differ with the ANC on blacks!”.

Moyo’s response seems to have not gone down well with Coltart.

“…Moyo statements are hypocrisy of the worst order. One cannot pick and choose what types of xenophobia or racism are acceptable or not” wrote Coltart on his official Facebook page on Wednesday.

“One cannot say that it is fine to make inflammatory racist remarks against one race and then condemn xenophobia or racist behaviour directed against another group.

“Xenophobia and racism are evil – period” said Coltart, a lawyer by profession.

He said the xenophobic statements made by some South African leaders are wrong and ZANU PF’s policy of ethnic cleansing directed against whites in Zimbabwe is wrong – period.

“Moyo’s comments are hypocritical for another reason – he makes them glibly ignoring the reasons why there are so many Zimbabweans in South Africa who are now bearing the brunt of these horrendous attacks.

“Most Zimbabweans I have spoken to in South Africa do not want to be there – they long to be back home but cannot return because there is nothing here for them. Most left Zimbabwe in the first place because of a succession of brutal and destructive policies implemented by Moyo’s party ZANU PF.

“In the 1980s thousands of young men fled the Gukurahundi from the very constituency Moyo now seeks to represent, Tsholotsho. If he is honest he will admit that. Since 2000 hundreds of thousands have left Zimbabwe because of the chaotic policies of ZANU PF which destroyed the Zimbabwean economy. Others left because they happened to disagree with ZANU PF and fled to save their lives.

SABC News

April 15 2015

Former education minister David Coltart on Wednesday said that comments by a top official from President Robert Mugabe’s government slamming xenophobic violence in South Africa were “hypocrisy of the highest order”.

“One cannot pick and choose what types of xenophobia or racism are acceptable or not,” Coltart says in a Facebook post.

“One cannot say that it is fine to make inflammatory racist remarks against one race and then condemn xenophobia or racist behaviour directed against another group,” said the lawyer, who served as education minister during Zimbabwe’s 2009-13 coalition government.

Coltart was responding to Information Minister Jonathan Moyo.

Earlier this week Moyo had hit back at comments from the African National Congress’s (ANC) Gwede Mantashe who said the governing South African party “had no desire to drive white people into the sea”.

Mantashe’s remarks may in part have been prompted by Mugabe’s declaration during a state visit to South Africa last week that he did not “want to see a white face.”

In his tweet hitting back at Mantashe, Moyo wrote: “We differ with the ANC on blacks!”

Coltart wrote: “To this day (Mugabe’s) Zanu-PF is still kicking productive white farmers off land, simply because they are whites who do not happen to support them.”

At least 13 white farmers have been killed and tens of thousands of black farm-workers have lost their jobs since Mugabe, now 91, began a programme of white farm takeovers in 2000.

The former education minister said many Zimbabweans who had fled to South Africa during recent years left due to a “succession of brutal and destructive policies implemented by Moyo’s party”.

Zimbabweans were on Wednesday mulling holding protests against xenophobia outside the South African embassy in Harare, according to social networking sites.

New Zimbabwe.com

April 15 2015

FORMER education minister David Coltart on Wednesday said that comments by a top official from President Robert Mugabe’s government slamming xenophobic violence in South Africa were “hypocrisy of the highest order”.

“One cannot pick and choose what types of xenophobia or racism are acceptable or not,” Coltart said in a Facebook post.

“One cannot say that it is fine to make inflammatory racist remarks against one race and then condemn xenophobia or racist behaviour directed against another group,” said the lawyer, who served as education minister during Zimbabwe’s 2009-13 coalition government.

Coltart was responding to Information Minister Jonathan Moyo.

Earlier this week Moyo had hit back at comments from the ANC’s Gwede Mantashe who said the governing South African party “had no desire to drive white people into the sea”.

Mantashe’s remarks may in part have been prompted by Mugabe’s declaration during a state visit to South Africa last week that he did not “want to see a white face”.

In his tweet hitting back at Mantashe, Moyo wrote: “We differ with the ANC on blacks!”

Coltart wrote: “To this day [Mugabe’s] Zanu-PF is still kicking productive white farmers off land, simply because they are whites who do not happen to support them.”

At least 13 white farmers have been killed and tens of thousands of black farm-workers have lost their jobs since Mugabe, now 91, began a programme of white farm takeovers in 2000.

The former education minister said many Zimbabweans who had fled to South Africa during recent years left due to a “succession of brutal and destructive policies implemented by Moyo’s party”.

Zimbabweans were on Wednesday mulling holding protests against xenophobia outside the South African embassy in Harare, according to social networking sites.