NATIONAL Assembly Speaker Jacob Mudenda yesterday broke with the Zanu PF tradition of blaming sanctions for the country’s economic stagnation, saying Western countries had now lifted the embargoes.
VENERANDA LANGA SENIOR PARLIAMENTARY REPORTER
Mudenda told legislators at a post-budget seminar in Harare that sanctions could no longer be a scapegoat for failure to get industries functioning.
“They have removed the sanctions and there is an opportunity that we must now hold onto and implement,” he said.
“Doors have opened and let us invite those who have money from Europe to bring in that money here in Zimbabwe under Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development and see whether they will refuse.”
The government has in the past decade blamed its failures on sanctions, with Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa bizarrely claiming the targeted measures were responsible for corruption in the country.
Mudenda said there appeared to be a lax attitude towards implementing policies meant to kick-start the economy.
He challenged experts to make follow–ups with the government on the policy suggestions they would have made.
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“Let us not be too technical discussing global trends, but let us be innovative regarding our own budget and come up with local solutions,” he said, adding that countries such as China, Germany and Japan were able to develop their economies from the ashes of World War II.
Mudenda said local experts had failed to challenge the government on the lack of implementation of what was agreed on in the Kadoma Declaration of 2010.
