‘Mnangagwa SONA detached from reality, an address for Bvukururu’- Biti

By Nyashadzashe Ndoro | Nehanda Politics |

Former Finance Minister Tendai Biti has lashed out at President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s recent State of the Nation Address (SONA) saying it was detached from real economic problems facing the people of Zimbabwe.

Mnangagwa made his SONA during the official opening of the Fourth Session of the Ninth Parliament. He claimed that the country’s economy was on a rebound, with this year’s projections indicating over 7,8% economic growth.

But the opposition MDC Alliance vice president said Mnangagwa failed to handle a great deal of economic problems facing the country.

“It was an infantile diatribe by an extremely tired individual presiding over an extremely exhausted agenda, completely insipid and uninspiring presentation. In short it personified everything wrong about Zimbabwe. Sterile, illegitimate, unimaginative, lackadaisical, indifferent and totally irrelevant,” Biti said during an interview on Open Parly.

He mocked Mnangagwa saying: “The Sona was an address of another country. A country called bvukururu. A country called shongololo. It has a total disconnect with the reality in Zimbabwe.”

Last week, the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, a grouping of NGOs, accused Mnangagwa of failing to address issues of corruption and economic mismanagement.

“It is unfortunate that instead of appreciating the fact that corruption and the plunder of national resources by political elites are responsible for the economic turmoil in Zimbabwe, the President took the SONA as an opportunity for political grandstanding,” read the statement.

“The President in his address said his government was buoyed by an upward growth trajectory of the economy yet events on the ground prove that the economic crisis in Zimbabwe, which has been worsened by corruption has relegated the majority of ordinary Zimbabweans into abject poverty at a time unemployment continues to rise.” Nehanda Radio