Mthuli Ncube and Reserve Bank governor John Mangudya were called to attend the Zanu PF Politburo meeting as the party’s bigwigs who fell by the way side in the September 2018 cabinet reshuffle wanted answers. The party leadership are concerned about the 2023 elections and they feel they will lose the elections if Mthuli Ncube and John Mangudya do not improve the economy and way of life of the general populace.
Zanu PF Secretary for administration Obert Mpofu and Zanu PF acting spokesperson and former Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa asked a lot of questions from the pair and demanded they deal with the ever rising inflation. The party leadership are of the opinion that Mthuli Ncube is sabotaging them ahead of the 2023 elections.
Mthuli Ncube introduced the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) when he became the Finance Minister. Part of the programme saw him charge 2% tax per every transaction. The revenue collection policy was criticised by Zanu PF big wigs who felt their voters were being affected by the Finance Minister’s policy. The economics professor was roped in as a technocrat by President Mnangagwa soon after the August 2018 Elections from his Switzerland base where he was working as a consultant.
Insiders who spoke to The Independent Newspaper in Zimbabwe said at this week’s politburo meeting the big wigs took turns to shred Ncube and Mangudya over his policies and he deteriorating economic conditions.
Much to the astonishment of the Politburo members, Mthuli Ncube and Mangudya fired back and made it known that they do not have super powers to turn around the economy without the government changing policy on funding of certain sectors. They told the Politburo they are not magicians.
“The main issue was that of the economy and how prices of basic goods and services have skyrocketed so terribly since he became Finance minister. He was mainly taken to task by politburo members who are out of government over the state of the economy. The politburo members said they were deeply worried that this could alienate the party from potential voters because people are suffering. Most criticism came from Mpofu and Chinamasa, but all members basically expressed concern over the way the economy was being run. Generally, the two were being accused of working against the party. As you may know, to us the government is subservient to the party, which is then responsible for articulating these policies to the people. So what we have done now is to summon some of these ministers whose policies seem to work against Zanu PF interests,” ” a politburo member told the Independent.
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“We told them it is their responsibility to fix the economy but the replied that things are in bad shape and it would take a miracle to change things unless the government funds the productive sectors of the economy.”
“Mthuli Ncube said that his TSP would yield positive results in the future but you could see no one was buying his ideas.”
“Mangudya was questioned over the rising black market activity in foreign currency dealing but he responded that they made changes to the banking system and set transaction limits but they are runnin out of options as they have not achieved the desired results from the measures they made,” said the source.
Mangudya was taken to task to stabilise the foreign currency rate but he responded mentioning lack of productivity as the major cause of instability.
“He said, for instance, we grow wheat enough only to last three months and import wheat for the rest of the year, hence the high prices of bread. He told the meeting that unless government prioritised funding for the productive sectors of the economy, there was no hope,” a politburo member said.
“All raw materials are being imported. Mangudya stated that he was having a hard time trying to arrest the runway inflation and was running out of options after so many loopholes emerged as he sought to close one after another. He said players in the forex dealings have become so skillful that by the time they come up with a measure to control it, they would already have plotted a new way,” the politburo source said.
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Source: The Independent
Article by Savanna News Zimbabwe