Mthuli Ncube: I engage with the public; they still have trust in me
Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube says despite the current economic challenges in the economy, members of the public still have trust in his ministry.
Under the guidance of Mthuli Ncube, Zimbabwe has struggled to make any meaningful steps towards economic revival.
Chief among the challenges has been the runaway inflation and unstable exchange rate.
These challenges have seen the cost of living going up while salaries have remained low.
To preserve value, most shops are indexing their goods and services on the US dollar or using the black-market rate.
Efforts to try and ease the demand for foreign currency saw the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe introducing a Dutch auction system.
Instead of making things better, the auction has reportedly made things worse.
Answering a question in the Senate from Honourable Elias Mudzuri on whether there is still trust considering the currency hardships, Mthuli said from his engagement there is still trust.
‘’On the trust between the public and the Ministry there is very good trust between the public and the Ministry such that when I go around the country, I engage very well with citizens.
‘’I have no problems engaging with any citizens. Citizens appreciate a lot of things that the government is doing and I have a long list of things; whether it is the quality of the roads, the quality of the dams and what we have done through the Pfumvudza/Intwasa program to empower our citizens.
‘’All that is taxpayers money coming through Treasury or the Government. Certainly, I do not get a sense that there is mistrust. There is a lot of trust. What the public does not trust imbavha idzi – that is the truth.
‘’Really, the government is committed to making sure that we bring to book anyone who is malcontent as far as this challenge is concerned,’’ he said.
Crooks have more resources to commit crimes
Meanwhile, the finance minister has also revealed that the government is aware of the crooks in the economy and has been arresting them.
He said the problem is that the crooks have more resources to continue committing crimes.
‘’We now know these crooked individuals. Some of them have already been arrested and some have been fined. I think that the honey pot of doing illegal activities is so rich that some of them keep coming back in one form or another.
‘’Those are the facts. So, we have to keep on arresting them and re-arresting them, fining them and re-fining them. That is what we have been doing. It is not that we are not doing anything. ‘’We are certainly doing something and dealing with them. We are still going through this transition of both currencies, and we need to live with some of these ugly facts, but we are dealing with the culprits, and we are fining them,’’ he said.
Mthuli Ncube: I engage with the public; they still have trust in me
