'Mnangagwa must resign'

CITIZENS Coalition for Change (CCC) vice president Tendai Biti, has launched a scathing attack on President Emmerson Mnangagwa, saying he was an extremely incompetent leader with no capacity to run the country.

Biti said Mnangagwa and his entire administration must resign and go into peasant farming where they might have a chance of succeeding.

The former finance minister's outbursts follow government's dramatic volte-farce on its decision to ban lending services by banks.

The move, coming barely a week after it was introduced, became a spectacular howler after it triggered an unanticipated economic bloodbath characterised by a shortage of commodities, companies halting operations and downscaling of production.

Biti told Newzimbabwe.com in an exclusive interview that such confusion exposed government's gross incompetence.

"Why did they impose the ban anyway? This is a reflection that this government is incompetent, it is out of date, it is clueless, it is cruel, it is predatory and destructing," Biti said.

"They should just do the right thing and resign and go back home to farm," he said.

The CCC deputy leader said the ban on bank lending should never have been imposed.

"It was a blatantly unlawful, irrational and unsound decision. A country cannot be run on the basics of kick and hope strategies. Irreparable harm was caused and surely heads must roll, shame," he exclaimed.

Government lifted the ban on Tuesday, exactly eight days after the policy change.

The ban was implemented on May 9, in a desperate bid to arrest the rapid devaluation of the Zimbabwean dollar.

Government has been accusing companies of hoarding the United States dollars for speculative purposes and the ban was meant to stabilise the local currency.

Biti said this only confirmed that Mnangagwa was clueless and incompetent and must resign.

The ban resulted in various companies cutting off credit facilities, rejecting Zimbabwean dollar payments and temporarily ceasing operations.

The ban also triggered basic commodities shortages and price hikes.

Government at the moment says it is investigating the unnamed speculators who are taking out the local currency bank loans to buy foreign currency on the black market, driving the local currency's value lower.

Meanwhile, to ease the negative impact of its recent policies, the central bank has allowed the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) to scrap duty on basic commodities.