Zimbabwe government main culprit behind the price hikes, own inquiry says but Charamba disagrees

Commenting on the NewZWire story, President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s spokesman George Charamba under his twitter handle Tinoedzazvimwe said: “I keep telling my colleagues in industry and trade: leaving commissions which are critical levers in managing the economy on the payroll of the private sector creates loyalties which are anti-establishment. There is no good reason to have such critical commissions funded by the very sector they are meant to monitor!!!!”

Charanmba who is with the President in Egypt where he is attending the African Development Bank summit where he is expected to engage representatives of creditor nations, told the Herald today President Emmerson Mnangagwa was disappointed by some members of the business community whose conduct continues to frustrate government efforts to stabilise the economy. He said the current wave of price increases obtaining in the country showed a lack of support for the ongoing dialogue on arrears clearance and debt resolution.

He said that despite the fact that most international creditors and even the United States, were impressed by Zimbabwe’s commitment to the ongoing dialogue on arrears clearance and debt resolution, local business people continued to “stab the process in the back”.

“I will give you an example, during the liberation struggle and when we were going for the Lancaster House Conference, it was the time of blazing the guns ‘kusvika barrel ratsvuka’,  to support our leadership that was in London. The real intended beneficiaries of arrears clearance and debt resolution, namely the businesspeople, are in fact busy stabbing the initiative in the back. Ask them (the businesspeople) why?” Charamba said.

“Having said that, what the President feels disappointed about and I think which has come through his weekly column (on Sunday), is the fact that while there is general consensus that until and unless there is resolution to arrears clearance, which by the way has become a new debt, and together with debt resolution; until there is a resolution to that question, the forward march of the Zimbabwean economy will be a lot more difficult.

“As the President is preparing to go to that crucial meeting, we do not seem to read the same sense of support, the urgency, coming from the business community. We see businesses destabilising the macroeconomy, in the process, undermining the very effort towards arrears clearance and debt resolution.

“When we engage some creditors, you do so on the strength of your capacity to service those arrears and your debts. Now, that is very doubtful if there is chaos in the macroeconomic -environment. Which really explains the anger you read through the article of the President.”

Here is Mnangagwa’s article in the Sunday Mail.

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