Nkomo blasts Zanu-PF over policy confusion

Zapu leader Sibangilizwe Nkomo has blasted Zanu PF government over policy  which he blamed for economic quagmire in the country.


In a statement Nkomo who is the son of the late former Vice President Joshua Mqabuko was reacting to recent move by the government to devalue the local currency - Zimbabwe Gold  and land owners being able to sell the land they acquire for free.

"The recent devaluation of our new currency by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe sent shock waves across the country and confirmed our fears that Zimbabwe's inept government is effectively flying us on auto-pilot. Under the sleepy eye of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, RBZ Governor John Mushayavanhu is free to dice with the fate of Zimbabweans, eroding confidence in a new currency that was hardly trusted from the outset," Nkomo said.

He said at a time when global gold prices are firming, the devaluation of the ZiG clearly exposes the lie that the currency is backed by our country's gold reserves in a vault somewhere. 

Nkomo said the truth of the matter is that we have no national gold reserves, as the mineral has been looted into private hands by the Gold Mafia, which we all saw in the expose aired by Al-Jazeera in June 2023.

"For civil servants and other workers earning their wages in the ill-fated ZiG, buying power was been halved in the blink of an eye with no warning or immediate cushioning," he said.

"Ironically, some of the workers affected by the knee jerk devaluation are ordinary staff at the RBZ itself, showing that the institution, like the rest of the Zanu PF-led government, does not care about anyone, not even the laborers propping up the regime."

"Needless to say the devaluation has spawned a succession of calamities.  Retailers have hiked their prices in local currency to hedge themselves from further uncertainty and possible losses. Whatever little trust there was between the citizenry and the monetary authority has evaporated due to the RBZ Governor's clueless maneuver."

He said it would have been tragic enough if that was all we had to bemoan today but the madness at Munhumutapa Building knows no bounds. 

"While the nation was still coming to terms with the impulsive ZiG devaluation, the cabinet was busy brewing another shocker."

Nkomo said the recent government utterances made by Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Minister Jenfan Muswere landholders who benefited from the agrarian reforms that began in 2000, could now transfer or sell their land to indigenous Zimbabweans was another misnomer.

He said nothing could be more criminally motivated than that. 

"Just harboring such thoughts could be considered deviant and criminal in a normal society. While no official land audit report has ever been published in Zimbabwe, it is safe to surmise that nearly all beneficiaries of the land reform are members of Zanu PF, making the latest policy announcement an extension of the ruling party's system of patronage," Nkomo said.

"We have said it time and again that the Zanu PF government is a spoils-centred and patrimonial regime, hiding behind a façade of democracy yet presiding over a totalitarian regime. Having realized that they have neither capacity nor acumen to produce on farms, Zanu PF has given its beneficiaries the carte blanche to cash in on land they essentially got free of charge."

Nkomo said it is clear that the so-called Second Republic is nothing but a criminal enterprise, driven by coup plotters and mercenaries still paying themselves for toppling the late dictator, Robert Mugabe.