To say I am disappointed and disgusted by Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance, Professor Mthuli Ncube, is only because I cannot find a stronger and more incisive language to express my outrage. Words have failed me!
Professor Ncube was highly recommended when he made his maiden entry on Zimbabwe’s political stage just over a month and half ago and yet he has already made so many glaring and costly blunders. He has done enough damage already to win him the worst Finance Minister award. Here are just some of the blunders he has made:
- · He announced that the Bond Notes will be phased out and made a U-turn a few days later, but the harm has done.
- He announce in London that the government would allow the free market decide the value of the Bond Notes. Again he reversed that a few days later but, once again, it was too late to stop the chaos the decision had generated.
- · Minister Ncube appointed this Lumumba fellow who told the world about the senior RBZ staff involved in the trading of Bond Notes. The story caused serious economic and financial damage because the implication that the regime was printing more Bond Notes than the promise limit was clear. The Minister fired the guy three days later.
- · There is no doubt that Minister Ncube’s 2% tax on all electronic transactions will affect the country’s poor. It is sicken that decades of Zanu PF misrule has left 75% of our people living on US$1.00 or less a day and Minister Ncube is going after the 2c of that dollar! Worse still, the revenue wrung out of the poorest of the poor is then used to buy posh cars, chartered plane, etc. for the ruling elite!
- · I lost all confidence in Minister Ncube as some with common sense when he said the Zanu PF regime was legitimate because the Con-Court had confirmed Mnangagwa’s victory. Yeah right, the same court that also said a military coup is legal and constitutional!
No doubt Finance Minister, Mthuli Ncube, has his University Degree, MBAs, PhDs, Academic Achievement Awards, Professorships and God knows whatever else, covering all the available wall space in his large ministerial office. What is clear is, for all impressive academic accomplishment and very impressive working experiences, Professor Mthuli Ncube has no common sense. None!
11 comments:
If Zimbabwe was a healthy and functional democracy then the parliamentary committe on finance have called the minister to explain why he has made all these foolish blunders and, more significantly, how much they have costed the nation.
I would much rather have someone with not a day of formal education but tonnes of common sense than an idiot with his seven degrees with a wife with her three month PhD but not an ounce of common sense between them.
Professor Mthuli Ncube is supposed to be the bright star in this Mnangagwa regime and now he has turned out to be just ass big ears, big mouth but no brain!
Part 1 of 2
@ daily news
“President Emmerson Mnangagwa has made a lot of promises ever since he came to power in November 2017, and again when he was elected in the disputed July 30 election.
One of Mnangagwa's proclamations in his first days in office was that his administration would take corruption head-on.
The president even published a list of individuals and companies he claimed had externalised millions of United States dollars to offshore accounts and tax havens around the globe.
Nothing has materialised from this naming and shaming exercise while government claims that a number of people on that list had returned the money back to Zimbabwe.
Mnangagwa's government has not made significant arrests since his anti-corruption fight began.
Only those who have fallen out of favour with the regime like former Health minister David Parirenyatwa, have been arrested and dragged to court on weak charges.
Following the announcement of a new transaction tax by Finance minister Mthuli Ncube earlier this month, the economy has been on a free-fall. The bond note's value had drastically dropped on the parallel market while basic commodities have disappeared from shop shelves. Pharmacies and most traders are now demanding payment in US dollars while fuel supply at services stations is erratic.
It's a ticking time bomb waiting to happen as Zimbabwe has slipped back into the 2008 hyper inflationary period.”
People should not be surprise that Mnangagwa has failed to deliver on many of his promises, top on the list of broken promises I would put the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections.
Mnangagwa was Mugabe’s right hand man throughout the 37 years he knew the corruption, voting rigging, murderous repression had destroyed the nation’s economy brought untold human suffering. Whilst the thought of giving up the Zanu PF dictatorial powers were unthinkable he was convinced he could be the dictator and still bring about economic prosperity and freedom and liberty to all.
Tyrants believe they are special, they Know-It-All.
Mnangagwa never doubted for even one minute that his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” would fail to attract a flood of investors and lenders. It is quite possible that the truth has still not sunk in that investors did not believe that lie. How can Zimbabwe be ready for business when the country is a pariah state ruled by the same corrupt and vote rigging thugs!
He rigged the elections to secure his strangle hold on power and he was cocksure the whole world would see this as a necessary evil to guarantee his rule. How could Zimbabwe be deprived of his competent leadership! The rigging was nothing; see what the nation gained!
As time goes by and one after another of his big ideas fall flat on their faces and thus prove he is not special after all he tyrannical instinct kicks in - he is resort to brute force to retain his hold on power. The shooting of seven protestors on 1 st August was not an accident but a calculated and deliberate act to remind all that his regime will shed blood without a moment’s hesitation just to retain its strangle hold on power!
Part 2 of 2
@ daily news
“Mnangagwa has once again promised to deal with illegal foreign currency traders whom he alleges are behind this carnage in the economy.
Once again, Zimbabweans will be sceptical of Mnangagwa's threat because we have heard all this before.
The president is full of rhetoric with very little action taking place thereafter.
Chasing down money changers and throwing them behind bars will not be the solution to solving this current economic crisis.
Illegal foreign currency dealers exist because there is a gap in the market which they are plugging. Zimbabweans cannot access foreign currency in banks and turn to the illegal money changers the government is trying to chase away.
As a result of the demand for forex by the general public, this trade will continue to exist with the money changers' modus operandi evolving.
Instead of just going to a street corner and conclude a transaction with a random forex dealer, Zimbabweans are now conducting their business in secret.
So this blitz by government and the police will not be successful unless Mnangagwa and Ncube address the fundamentals.”
Mnangagwa will never address the fundamentals behind the economic meltdown because he has no clue what they are much less address them. The country’s only hope of meaningful economic recovery is only when he and his junta go!
Mnangagwa rigged the elections, he and the junta are illegitimate, they must step down!
If Minister Ncube had any common sense then he would have accepted the political reality that Zimbabwe was not going to register any meaningful economic recovery whilst the country remains a pariah state. How anyone, much less someone smart enough to be appointed minister, would not know that Zanu PF rigged the elections beggars belief! He did indeed made a complete ass of himself by pretending the Con-Court, with its reputation, ruling counted.
Zimbabwe's have been cursed by having more than its fair share of incompetent and corrupt individuals and many of them have no common sense as well! If Professor Ncube thinks his reputation will be enhanced by his time as Minister, he has something else coming. His blundering has left his reputation in tatters!
No one is saying they expected the economy to be fixed without hardships.
The people of Zimbabwe have gone through the economic hardship brought on by the 1990s ESAP but it was all for nothing because Zanu PF did not implement the reforms necessary to end the criminal waste of resources. We are doing the same again here.
Ncube's foolishness comes from believing he could achieve the economic recovery whilst allowing Mnangagwa and the rest to continue to waste resources through corruption and mismanagement!
@ Doctor Future
“These Zimeye reporters and contributors may not be Zimbabwean, they wish people's suffering,” you say.
“I think majority varoi, they are heartless and uncouth.
“Anything that represents Zimbabwe is toxic, but why nhai imi.”
What is exactly that the Zimeye reporters and contributors have said or done that has cause the people to suffer. Name one thing, just one!
What has cause all the suffering and deaths is the gross mismanagement, the rampant corruption and the vote rigging tyrannical rule. It is not Zimeye reporters who are behind all these evil deeds. Indeed, Zimeye has done a commendable job in exposing the evil and the evil doers!
I notice you have no word of thanks to Zimeye but has remained stone silent when it comes to those causing the suffering and devil. Is it because you are one of the evil-doers, one of those who have benefited from the chaos or you are one of those brainwashed by the decades of Zanu PF propaganda you do not know right from wrong, left from right!
Zanu PF has stifle all meaningful debate and democratic competition we want these to retain and will not be side track by a village idiot like you Doctor Future!
@ Maths
“You sound very angry my brother. Cool down. There are more challenging issues like who determines the daily blackmarket rates and where are they?” you asked.
Why complain about an official 2% tax yet Ecocash agents are robbing us of large sums of money (anything up to 20%) in broad daylight every minute and no one complains.”
I would agree that we should give Minister Ncube a chance to see if his program will work if there was any chance of it working! There is no chance of an economic recovery when the money collected is wasted on new cars and chartered planes. Zimbabwe's economic structure is not right, we have a pariah state.
The notion that we should all be quite and give leaders a chance to see if their policies work even when we can see the policies are ill advised. ED came with his "Zimbabwe is open for business!" and many said it will not attract any investors because Zimbabwe was still a pariah state. One year later there is no denying the flood of investors have never happened.
We must reject this Zanu PF mentality of stifling debate. Leaders must be held to account at every turn!
As the farming season approaches, farmers’ hopes have been plunged into despair amid revelations that the prices of agricultural inputs, particularly seeds have skyrocketed with some prices going up threefold.
What will this mean to someone's flagship policy of command agriculture!!!
Writing on Twitter, Munyeza said:
“The truth is Mthuli Ncube is a better Finance Minister by far since 2000. Save this tweet…He (Biti) allowed us to eat the seed instead of dealing with economic fundamentals.
“He allowed corruption to be entrenched especially in local authorities that he controlled. He was busy dining with Mugabe whilst ($15 billion) diamond money was being looted.”
I agree, Tendai Biti has made some serious mistakes himself and it is rich for him to be criticising Minister Ncube as if his was a five star performance when it was not!
@ Eddie Cross
“Zimbabwe is a crazy place to live in, but at times like these we need to keep our perspective. Fuel queues, empty shelves, the constant stream of social media messages complaining about everything and claiming that tomorrow is Armageddon. Sometimes you simply have to get away from it all,” you say.
Just because you and you son can escape the chaos in Zimbabwe does not mean everyone else can!
Zimbabwe is still stuck with a corrupt and vote rigging tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship and whilst it remains in power it is naive to think that economic meltdown that has send unemployment soaring, basic services like clean running water and health care collapse, etc. will ever end. The country had the golden opportunity to end the dictatorship during the 2008 GNU and Eddie Cross and his MDC friends sold-out, they failed to get even one reform implemented.
"The 2008 GNU was about power, position and chlorinating infectious Zanu PF!" the present MDC Alliance leader, Nelson Chamisa has confessed.
If MDC leaders had implemented the democratic reforms, Zimbabwe would be a totally different nation today, as a healthy and functional democratic nation at long last!
@News Day
“However, the criticism by the former Cabinet ministers, now relegated to the party office, should be measured, given they themselves presided over the country’s economic demise under ex-President Robert Mugabe’s successive regimes,” you said.
“In ushering in his new dispensation Mnangagwa parked party stalwarts in the Shake-Shake Building placating them with ministerial perks. But with nothing to do all day, some are seeking relevance by making pronouncements on government policy and demanding that it answers to the party.”
Our former ministers who have parked off at party HQ are finding great comfort from seeing the new cabinet blundering from pillar to post - it makes them feel good, that they did a lot better! The only way ED can ever silence these old geezers is by turning the economy around - sadly that will never happen, not whilst Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by incompetent, corrupt and vote rigging thugs!
The only way out of this mess for Zimbabwe is to force Mnangagwa and the junta to step down; they rigged the elections and are thus illegitimate. Zimbabwe’s economic recovery will never occur, not whilst the country remains a pariah state!
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