OUTSPOKEN independent MP for Norton, Temba Mliswa has questioned President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s choice of Mthuli Ncube as Finance Minister as he slammed the world renowned economist for allegedly failing to invent solutions that respond to Zimbabwe’s unique economic circumstances.
Speaking at a Brand Zimbabwe meeting in Harare on Thursday, the former Zanu PF provincial chair said Ncube’s predecessor, Patrick Chinamasa had a better handle on the country’s economy than him.
“We have a technocrat in charge of this economy who has just caused more confusion that is shaking the economy after taking office just two months ago,” Mliswa said of the non-constituency ministerial appointee.
Before his appointment to the country’s most demanding cabinet post, Ncube issued statements indicating Zimbabwe should adopt the rand as its anchor currency or reintroduce the local currency.
He strangely abandoned the idea when he took over as treasury boss.
Mliswa said the apparent policy inconsistencies were not doing any good to the country’s fragile economy.
In his comments, Mliswa, a known Mnangagwa apologist, seemed not to spare the President in his anti-government diatribe.
“Here we have Ncube who before even sitting in cabinet makes several pronouncements and at some point suggesting that the bond note must go.
“Then during the State of the Nation Address, we hear President Mnangagwa announcing that the bond notes will stay. How then do we attract business with such inconsistencies,” he said.
Mliswa said Zanu PF has chosen to adopt the Chinese model in which the ruling party has more power than party officials deployed to government, making it important for Ncube to first report to and engage the party before initiating his policies.
“So at the end of the day, one really wonders whether it is good to hire technocrats from overseas who do not know how these problems emerged or to deal with local technocrats who really know where we are coming from,” Mliswa said.
The Norton legislator also urged the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to come out in the open and admit that there are no funds in its coffers other than misrepresenting facts.
