MDC Alliance deputy national chairman and former minister of Finance Tendai Biti has accused current Minister of Finance Mthuli Ncube of destroying the economy by failing to grasp basic economics. Biti said that Mthuli Ncube’s decision to rebase the size of Zimbabwe’s economy by claiming that the country’s GDP is actually US$25.8 billion would negatively affect the country as it would be ineligible for debt relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) programme. Speaking to NewsDay, Biti said,
….That programme (HIPC) is very good because it allows your debts to be cancelled and forgiven if you behave well if you run the economy well. So you get rewarded, but you have to be a low-income country, you have to be poor.
… (with) no research, no empirical study. Our GDP [gross domestic product] is $13 billion. He doubles it up. Are you a madman? What are you smoking? Suddenly, we are now a middle-income country. Our per capita income is now $1 500 to $1 700. That is why I said Ncube is a disaster. He is a time bomb that is waiting to explode. He has done more damage to this economy than (former finance minister Patrick) Chinamasa.
Biti has been very critical of Mthuli Ncube and has gone as far as calling him a “fraud”.
More: NewsDay
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Hmmmm Hon. Biti, but that is the same formula that was used by Malaysia, Rwanda… Hmmm Vakuru, you cant wake up and refer to other people like you do: ‘Are you a madman? What are you smoking?” Hunu Hwenyu Makaisepi ko Vakuru? Even if I was your servant, I would not want to be addressed like that, not even your neighbour is addressed like that as an African people….the days of being emotional and personal over national issues are gone, think differently, respect others, see the good in other Zimbabweans , see how you can work with Minister Mthuli than behave like this… This situation calls for National thinking over party or personal patronage….This guy has been barely a month in office, and needs the direction of ‘experts’ like you in a polite, firm and progressive manner not such ridicule….Hmmm vakuru, chinjai maitiro enyu.
Mmm, you said it best good friend. Mataura sure.
Mthuli Ncube has been too quick to make his pronouncements on the economy before making an astute assessment of the situation. He has been too presumptuous in his approach. It is unlike an academic he has been profiled to be. His enthusiasm to suggest solutions for the repayment of huge debts for which he knows no explanation of what the debts were for is very unwise. He seems to be unaware that he is dealing with an economy in which politics has ascendancy over technical solutions or reason. Markets have reacted in accordance with his pronouncements. Signs of his failure are beginning to show and the very people who applauded him as he assumed this ministerial position, will soon dump him as a failure!