Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Ziyambi Ziyambi has claimed that President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his administration never promised to solve the cash shortages quickly. Ziyambi insisted that the cash shortages were never identified as one of the problems to be solved within the first 100 days. Responding to a question in Parliament on behalf of Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa, Ziyambi said,
I would like to thank the Hon. Member for the question which he asked pertaining to the programme of Government, the Hundred Day Programme and what he indicated as promises to end queues within hundred days which is not correct. When the President came in, he promised to introduce a new culture of working and of accountability. Hence the Government came up with the hundred-day targets to ensure that we turn around the economy and introduce a new culture and work ethic. Among the targets which were set, nobody indicated that the problem of cash is a problem that can be overturned overnight.
…Government never promised that the cash shortage will end overnight. It is a programme to ensure that the economy is turned around and it is not something that you expect someone to get in and overnight things change. It is work in progress and within our 100-day plan, I do not remember anywhere where it is written that the cash shortages are going to be turned within the 100 days and no queues will be there.
Minister Ziymabi was speaking on behalf of Chinamasa because the Finance Minister has not been attending the National Assembly. Independent legislator for Norton, Temba Mliswa said,
Chinamasa has not been in this House for two months, yet the issue of cash shortages is critical. If the government cannot solve the cash crisis, then they have failed.
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