An academic and political analyst, Alex Magaisa, says President Emmerson Mnangagwa is following his predecessor Robert Mugabe’s “create a crisis and solve it” strategy.
This comes after President Mnangagwa on Wednesday ordered a reversal of the scrapping of subsidies on mealie meal which was announced by Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube during his 2020 budget presentation.
Magaisa expressed his sentiments on Twitter where he wrote:
Mnangagwa is his master’s student but without the gift of eloquence. Mugabe was predictable with his “Create a crisis and solve it” strategy – his minister would announce an unpopular policy and he would use a rally to reverse it. ED is doing it here with the maize-meal subsidy.
His Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube announced the removal of subsidies on maize and related products which had a knock-on effect on prices.
Now Mnangagwa is pretending as if he didn’t know the impact and has announced a reversal. It’s a cheap stunt. But the gullible applaud.
Some retailers hiked the price of mealie meal by close to 100 per cent this week following the announcement that the subsidy had been scrapped. For instance, from “only” $60, a $10kg bag of Roller meal was hiked to over $100.