Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube has defended the forex auction system saying the policy is meant to reign on “saboteurs” who are running the foreign currency black market.
Ncube made the comments during Thursday’s Senate Question and Answer session after senators had accused him of introducing policies that have become a security risk. Ncube said:
We are doing various things. Firstly, we have increased civil servants salaries by 50 per cent and this is a temporary cushion while a normal adjustment is taking place as we speak.
It is on the table. We have also added an allowance which is the US$75 for all the civil servants and again, that is meant to be an inflation protector during this difficult time.
… This is just a gesture from the employer to the employee to cushion them against the vagaries of inflation.
To be clear, the saboteurs are the people in the parallel market and not the policies.
Ncube said the government allowed the dual pricing of goods and services during the corona-induced lockdown to give consumers flexibility when they go about shopping and paying for goods and services as well as to manage money supply growth.