Mnangagwa is therefore quite serious about creating jobs. They are crucial for his survival and that of his party. Opposition stalwart Eddie Cross says the jobs are coming.
“I now hear people saying that the resumption of shortages and fuel queues and the sudden emergence of a parallel market for hard currencies means that we are going back into the conditions we experienced in 2005 to 2008,” Cross said.
“Nothing could be further from the truth, our economic fundamentals are sound, exports and the GDP growing rapidly and once the new team in the Ministry of Finance started to tackle the macro economic problems of the country, they were immediately rewarded by a sharp reduction in the fiscal deficit and we will be in surplus by Christmas.
“At this pace we will be in a different country by March 2019. Let’s keep our current problems in perspective – if we do, they will not look so entrenched or formidable.”
Cross is talking about hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
Though Mnangagwa has just approved projects worth US$5.3 billion- which people can easily write off as propaganda because before the elections there were investment projects worth $16 billion plus- Cross said: “I personally have a list of private sector projects that, if implemented, will involve the investment of US$30 billion and will generate many billions in new exports and hundreds of thousands of new jobs.”
Some of Chamisa’s supporters have already accused Cross of being a bootlicker looking for a cabinet post, but a casual observation shows that all is not well in Chamisa’s camp.
A close review of the video footage of the press conference last Thursday, at which Chamisa ended up calling those who demonstrated against the delay in announcing election results on 1 August as “stupid”, clearly shows that the opposition leader was very nervous and seemed to be seeking the endorsement of every statement he made by his party colleagues.
Chamisa is very fortunate because he has very “understanding” supporters who quickly forgive him for some of the gravest mistakes and shower him with praise for being a statesman for apologizing to the people when “some” have not apologized for their mistakes for more than 20 years.
But only a few days later Chamisa was at it again, saying those who demonstrated on 1 August were not his supporters.
“My supporters do not destroy property. Those who destroyed property are your supporters and you know them,” he was quoted as saying.
The question now is: Were those who demonstrated stupid because they are not his supporters or they were not stupid and they were not his supporters?
The public is likely to know the answer soon as Chamisa has promised to hold the “mother of all demonstrations” soon.
But the writing is on the wall.
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