Claim: The Ministry of Defence got the biggest allocation of Zimbabwe’s 2020 budget.
Verdict: Not true. The biggest budget vote went to the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement.
Background:
In an article, “ED sucks up to the soldiers”, published on Sunday, 17 November, 2019, the Zimbabwe edition of the Sunday Times reported that the Ministry of Defence got the largest allocation in the 2020 national budget, presented by Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube on Thursday, 14 November.
The paper reported: “The ministry of defence and war veterans got $3.1bn, the single biggest allocation of the 2020 budget.”
This is inaccurate.
The 2020 budget statement shows that the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement got the single largest allocation, a vote of ZWL$11,163,481,000. The second largest vote went to Primary and Secondary Education, at ZWL$8,495,794,000, followed by Health and Child Care, at ZWL$6,459,100,000. Defence received ZWL$3,112,708,000.
Figure Allocations in the 2020 national budget (Source: Treasury)
According to the budget statement, the allocation for the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement includes spending of ZWL$5.2 billion for the purchase and importation of grain following the 2018/19 drought-hit farming season.
The ZWL$11 billion agriculture spending also includes, among other lines, ZWL$1.8 billion for the construction of dams, ZWL$422.8 million for irrigation infrastructure, ZWL$281.5 million on agricultural extension services, ZWL$380 million toward interim compensation of white former farm owners and also the Presidential farm input scheme.
Ahead of the presentation of the budget, images showing budget bids by various ministries had circulated on social media, following the pre-budget seminar held for Members of Parliament in Victoria Falls between October 30 and November 4, 2019.
Budget bids presented at the pre-budget seminar, which were wrongly interpreted as budget allocations (Source: Treasury)
These budget bids – in which ministries present how much they wish to be allocated by Treasury for the coming year – showed that Defence had the second highest bid of ZWL$25 billion (after Home Affairs’ ZWL$32 billion), while the bid for health was ZWL$18 billion. This was wrongly interpreted on social media as the confirmed budget allocations.
Conclusion:
The claim that the Ministry of Defence received the largest vote in the 2020 budget is not true. The biggest allocation went to the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement.
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