Mugabe 'has nothing to do with cash shortages'

The Information and Broadcasting Services Minister has reportedly defended President Robert Mugabe's State of the Nation Address (SONA), which left many "disappointed", as it did not address critical issues affecting the southern African country.

According to News24.com, Chris Mushohwe came to the veteran leader's defence after opposition parties took a swipe at the nonagenarian for not mentioning remedial actions regarding the cash shortages and other serious issues affecting Zimbabwe.

Mushohwe said that there was nothing wrong with President Mugabe's speech.

He also insinuated that the issue of cash shortages were "none of Mugabe's business".

"You don't have to follow up every comment from every confused person's comments and say whatever they say is what the president should have said. If the president were to do each and every one of the 13 million in Zimbabwe want him to do, what would be the situation? Government operates on basis of each of its policies ; it does not operate on the basis of some people who wake up from their sleep and say whatever they want to say," Mushohwe was was quoted as saying.

Mugabe on Tuesday failed to address the real issues affecting Zimbabweans in his SONA.

In a 28 minutes speech, Mugabe reportedly chose to focus on less important issues such as tourism and his chairing of the Southern African Development Community and the African Union.

Zimbabwe's main opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said that the nonagenarian was "no longer fit to govern and must step down".

Most Zimbabweans, some of whom staged protests recently in several parts of the country, had expected Mugabe to focus on cash shortages as well as the economic meltdown that has left millions of people jobless.

The country's central bank introduced a surrogate currency called "#bondnotes" last week in an attempt to ease a liquidity crunch that has resulted in many depositors failing to access their money from local banks.

However, reports indicated that the move had failed to yield any results, as bank queues were still remained in place.