BY PROBLEM MASAU OPPOSITION Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party yesterday accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of “shutting off” the country to business through chaotic anti-economic measures.
Addressing a Press conference in Harare yesterday, CCC spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere said the cocktail of measures announced by Mnangagwa on Saturday had caused bloodbath in business corridors.
“His mantra when he got into power was ‘Zimbabwe is open for business’, but Mnangagwa has effectively closed the country for business. Most commercial actors have already warned that the lending freeze would hurt Zimbabwe’s already fragile economy,” Mahere said.
“Mnangagwa did not produce any facts or figures to justify the lending ban. This has created fresh uncertainty to the already uncertain economy.”
Mnangagwa on Saturday directed banks to stop lending, among other measures aimed at controlling the galloping exchange rate and arresting the continued fall of the local currency.
The stabilisation measures have attracted widespread criticism from business and industry, with legal experts saying they were a legal nullity.
“What Mnangagwa demonstrated is that he has no care whatsoever for the welfare of citizens. He is not in touch with the reality of commerce in Zimbabwe. What we need to solve the entirety of these problems is to ensure that we install a government that serves the people and not just a few,” Mahere said.
“The measures can be best described as an assault on trade, an assault on commerce which will obviously be felt the most by the ordinary citizen on the street.”
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The outspoken opposition information tsar said through his Saturday nocturnal policies, Mnangagwa had usurped the Constitution.
“There is simply no law that allows even the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to suspend all lending, to interfere with private contracts, to interfere with commerce to the point of hampering and halting all business activities,” Mahere said.
The Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce has also shredded Mnangagwa’s economic stabilisation measures as unworkable.
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