Mboweni ‘childish and ill-informed’

The Zimbabwean government on Monday hit out at South African Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni for blaming the fall of the rand on instability in neighbouring Zimbabwe, AFP reported. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said that for South Africa to ascribe every fall of the rand to Zimbabwe “has now become so childish as to convince only those who are either insane or plain incompetent”.

“If true, the remarks are highly sensational, irresponsible, dangerous and therefore most unfortunate,” Moyo said in a statement. Mboweni was quoted last week by South Africa’s ‘Business Day’ newspaper as saying that “the wheels have come off in Zimbabwe” due to the lawlessness surrounding President Robert Mugabe’s plans to seize 90 percent of white-owned farms to resettle black farmers and landless peasants.

Moyo said Mboweni should be “more responsible as governor of South Africa’s Reserve Bank because of the dignity and sensitivity of the position of his office”. “The irresponsible remarks attributed to Mr Mboweni are so flippant, ill-considered and ill-informed as to be no different from the usual gibberish churned out by the all too familiar quarters whose agenda against Zimbabwe ... is now a public secret,” Moyo was quoted as saying.