President Emmerson Mnangagwa has hailed Finance and Economic Development Minister, Mthuli Ncube achieving a budget surplus for the country for the first time since independence.
In an interview with Bloomberg, while he was in Mozambique for the United States-Africa summit, Mnangagwa said:
I’ve been in government for 38 years as a minister and I can’t remember when you ever had a budget surplus.
Now, this young man has been able to achieve a budget surplus in less than eight months. So it tells me that what he tells me is possibly true on these issues.
Ncube’s austerity measures have generated despair among the generality of the citizenry.
With no salary increment for civil servants for many years, coupled with galloping inflation and punitive taxes, the announcement of a budget surplus has been met with scorn.