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Mutsvangwa warns Chinamasa

Politics
WAR Veterans Minister, Christopher Mutsvangwa has renewed his attacks on Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa for embracing International Monetary Fund (IMF) strategies

WAR Veterans Minister, Christopher Mutsvangwa has renewed his attacks on Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa for embracing International Monetary Fund (IMF) strategies, warning him to stop his overtures to the Bretton Woods institution.

BY NQOBANI NDLOVU

Christopher-Mutsvangwa

Mutsvangwa accused Chinamasa — who yesterday said the country’s plan to clear $1,8 billion had been accepted in arrears during the IMF/World Bank annual meeting in Lima, Peru – of acting like an IMF spokesperson.

He claimed Chinamasa actively blocked government officials, including him, from asking an IMF delegation questions, when they visited Zimbabwe recently.

“It’s very unfortunate that a Minister of the Zimbabwe government becomes a spokesperson of a multinational funding agency which has got its body in Washington and answers to its shareholders also in Washington,” Mutsvangwa told South African ANN7TV on Thursday night during its programme, Africa Tonight.

“I want to put it on record he is not their spokesperson. I think he is now appropriating a role which does not belong to him and he should stop it. When IMF officials visited Zimbabwe Chinamasa was blocking government officials and diplomats including myself from asking the IMF officials questions, and instead he was jumping around to answer for IMF.”

Chinamasa has been actively engaging the IMF seeking Zimbabwe’s debt relief, while also pleading for loosening of purse strings from the multi-national finance lending institution to extricate Zimbabwe from the economic morass.

Mutsvangwa recently also took a dig against Chinamasa and like-minded ministers who “still think that the white man is superior” in a sign of discord in government at a time when analysts indicate policy inconsistency scared away much needed investment.

He told war veterans in Mutare recently: “They (IMF) want to remove [President] Mugabe…they want [MDC-T leader Morgan] Tsvangirai to be at the helm.We have nothing to do with IMF because their agenda is removing war veterans from influential positions in government. They want security sector reform and they want Tsvangirai to be at the helm of the government.”

Both Mutsvangwa and Chinamasa were linked to a faction loyal to vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa who is considered the front runner in the race to succeed 91-year-old President Robert Mugabe.