The opposition MDC has described President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s trip to the United Nations General Assembly as ‘shameless and full of lies’ accusing the newly sworn in leader of embarrassing himself and the country over his remarks that Zimbabwe’s Gross Domestic Product per capita rose to $1500 in the first 7 months of his reign.
In a statement released this afternoon, MDC National Deputy Spokesperson Bekhithemba Mpofu, accused Mnangagwa and Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube of using unofficial figures to score cheap political gains.
“In New York Mnangagwa lied with a straight face that GDP per capita in Zimbabwe rose to $1500 in the first 7 months of his reign of shame. Zimbabwe’s per capital income is $890 according to the United Nations’ country statistics.
“The African Development Bank places it at $840 while the World Bank using the Atlas method places per capita income at $840,” said Mpofu.
He added that Mnangagwa could have saved himself embarrassment by using official figures from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
“In May of 2017 while he was still the vice president, he claimed that Zimbabwean banks were seating on US$9 billion with no viable projects to fund.
“In its latest report on the banking sector at the time, the RBZ had released information to the effect that only US$6 billion was in the banking sector,” added Mpofu.
He also blasted Prof Mthuli Ncube of mismatching figures in his address to the Zimbabwe Investor Forum on the side-lines of the General Council.
“His Finance Minister Prof Mthuli Ncube seems to be learning fast, he also lied and mismatched figures while addressing the Zimbabwe Investor Forum on the sidelines of the General Council.
“He overstated statistics on the ZSE’s cumulative return since March 2009 to 2000% whose variance to the actual 600% return is just too much of an irreconcilable gap.
“Then in a clear sign of selling his soul and committing integrity suicide, Ncube supported Mnangagwa’s claim to create a medium income economy of $3500 GDP per Capita by 2030. This cannot be reconciled with Mthuli’s projections of 6% annual growth rates.
“Achieving the above per capita income by 2030 will require an average growth rate of 11% considering population growth does not go beyond 16 Million,” added Mpofu.
