He stands by every word that he uttered on the above.
When President Robert Mugabe made reference to Professor Mutambara on
ZTV, with regards to the above issues, he was expressing his own personal
views.
The deputy Prime Minister would want to put it on record that he
totally disagrees with these personal views of Mugabe.
It is important that Zimbabweans make a distinction between Mugabe’s
personal views and public policy.
The Deputy prime minister responding to Mugabe’s statement he made on
national TV Thursday.
President Robert Mugabe shot down recent suggestions by Deputy Prime
Minister, Arthur Mutambara who said last week that the just delivered
monetary policy statement and the national budget would be revised.
Mutambara advised business to disregard the fiscal and monetary
policies recently announced by the then Acting Finance Minister, Patrick
Chinamasa and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Gideon Gono.
Mutambara contended the controversial blueprints were produced without
the necessary consultations among stakeholders and were thus fundamentally
flawed.
The statement by the Deputy Prime Minister elicited an angry response
from Gono who declared he was still in charge of the central bank and as
such, his policies stood.
But in a development that has further exposed the huge differences
among government leaders, President Mugabe made a scathing dismissal of the
Deputy Prime Minister’s comments.
"That’s just an utterance," he said in his first public comments on
recent developments since the formation of the unity government.
In a televised interview this week, that was made to coincide with his
85th birthday, Mugabe said Mutambara’s comments did not at all constitute
the correct government policy.
"Those were emotional utterances. I am sure Mutambara regrets where he
said the monetary policy must be nullified.
"How do you nullify a budget that has gone through Parliament? It’s
the one that (Finance Minister Tendai) Biti is using, including the monetary
policy. So you don’t nullify it."
Mugabe said Mutambara was still new and was thus still prone to making
mistakes.
"You must also grant that we have new people and they would be making
a few mistakes," he said. "Well if mistakes are outrageous, naturally they
put people off but we try to correct each other.
"I have not been making any statements myself. In fact I have avoided
making statements.
"We should as much as possible keep quiet and talk to ourselves in the
chambers that we have provided ourselves with and we have those chambers.
We meet and I don’t see why but of course there is always the instinct
of ‘let the people hear me and let my voice be heard’, but it may be a
croaking voice, you know. Not harmonious and it’s not everybody who can
sing. Very few people have nice voices, some will make you deaf."
Meanwhile, President Robert Mugabe in the same interview rubbished
reports that he has secretly bought a £4m bolt-hole in the Far East saying
the massive mansion was being rented for his daughter Bona.
The London Sunday Times reports that Mugabes’ house, in an exclusive
residential complex in Hong Kong, was purchased on their behalf by a
middleman through a shadowy company whose registered office is in a run-down
tenement block.
When a reporter and a photographer called at the house last week, they
were attacked by the Zimbabwean occupants.
Mugabe last night said the mansion was not his but it was where his
20-year-old daughter was staying while she was in university n Hong Kong.
"There is a property in which our girl and a relative, the two
students studying in Hong Kong, are staying," Mugabe said.
"We pay rent. After they have finished, we will have nothing to do
with that home at all."
Mugabe said a private company had arranged real estate issues and
secured that property for Bona to rent.
"Because we could not get any other property which we could put them
in, we had this company which offered that house not on sale but rental and
we pay rental because the girl staying there has got to have room for our
security people also," Mugabe said. "What do I do with a house in Hong Kong
really?"
The property came to light during a Sunday Times investigation into
the Mugabes’ financial interests in Asia, where a web of associates has
helped them to spend lavishly on luxuries and stash away millions in bank
accounts.
In Zimbabwe, meanwhile, inflation has reached 89,7 sextillion percent,
unemployment stands at 94 percent and almost 4,000 people have died in
recent months from cholera.
Mugabe said he was still building his mansion in Harare and said he
had spent the last 12 years building the Borrowdale property and why would
he need to another house.
"Every month we pay lots of money to (Yugoslavian company) Energo
(Project), we pay Energo (for completing the house)," he said. "Why would I
need a house in Hong Kong, for what?"
Mugabe scoffed at reports that he had another house in Malaysia given
to him by former President Mahathiar Mohammed, a friend to Mugabe, for use
as bolt hole when he seek political asylum.
He was adamant that he was going nowhere and that he would never
abandon his country. He said: "Here l was born and here l fought and I will
die." – hararetribune.com
Post published in: News