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Zimbabwean lawmakers have urged government to consider shutting down some of its more than 40 embassies, as the ongoing cash crises bites, reports the state-owned Herald newspaper.
According to a previous News 24 report, the Zimbabwean government had failed to pay some diplomats and staff their salaries for months.
Less than two weeks ago, Malawi staff at the Zimbabwean embassy complained of abuses, alleging that they had not received their salaries since December last year.
The workers wrote an anonymous letter to the Malawian government asking for interventions.
As if this was not enough, New Zimbabwe.com reported on Monday that the country’s ambassador to Kuwait faced a difficult time last year as he struggled to bring his wife home for burial after she died last year. He also had not been paid for months.
Marongwe was owed at least $130 000 in salaries.
Foreign Affairs Parliament Committee chairperson Kindness Paradza, who took part a recent trip to Kuwait, told parliament that it would be better if the government closed down some of its embassies as they were not in good conditions.
“The executive should consider making a bold decision and close some embassies,” Paradza was quoted as saying.
He said he was embarrassed when he was summoned by the Kuwait government over outstanding rentals. He said the rentals were in seven months arrears and the landlords demanded “immediate” evictions”.
Paradza’s revelations came as reports last month indicated that Zimbabwe’s embassy buildings in Botswana and Ethiopia were in deplorable and uninhabitable conditions.
