FINANCE minister Mthuli Ncube yesterday pleaded with
Zimbabweans to be patient with the government’s reform programme in the face of
the rising cost of living, saying the mess will be sorted in time.
A wave of price increases for basic commodities hit
consumers in the past two weeks, and in an interview yesterday, during the 39th
Independence Day celebrations at the National Sports Stadium in Harare, Ncube
said the cause of the sharp price increases was a puzzle for government.
“To those who are raising prices, I say that it is
unjustified. This kind of profiteering is unnecessary. It is not obvious to us
on what prompted it. So really, they must back off, especially the price of
bread, meat and maize which are staple foods for our people,” Ncube said.
“The price hikes are unjustified. To the citizens, I say be
patient, Rome was not built in one day. We don’t expect positive changes
tomorrow or next week or next month, it takes time and they must be patient
with the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP),” he added.
The TSP was launched in October last year. Ncube said
government was counting on several sectors, among them mining and tourism, to
ease the economic pressure.
“We have to make sure that investors put more money into
our mining sector, with different policies for different sectors such as the
diamond, platinum and so forth. So we expect this sector to generate jobs and
investment of over $8 billion.
“The tourism sector that has been highlighted by His
Excellency today will go a long way to create jobs, both in terms of local
visitors and international visitors. We are ranked highly in the world because
of the quality of our sustainable tourism,” he said.
Ncube said there were various infrastructural projects that
are expected to drive the economic growth, going forward.
He said Zimbabwe was engaging all stakeholders over
compensating white farmers, but said the government had a plan to raise the
money for the programme.
Ncube said the farmers and government would negotiate to
come up with an agreement that is palatable to all parties. Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment