10 September, 2017
"He cherished that freedom more than anything else, and forgot why he was put in jail", he said.
President Robert Mugabe yesterday conceded that his Zanu PF government had grossly mismanaged parastatals and turned them into "awful money spenders, very bad burdens around our neck".
"I phoned the secretary-general of Zanu-PF and told him that Mugabe may be all over Madiba, but the reality is that you've destroyed your economy".
"The country went to war for a number of years, lost men and women within the country, outside the country in order for us to regain what was our lost country".
On July 27, Members of Parliament across the political divide rejected the proposed appointment of Ndudzo as Auditor General to replace the popular Mildred Chiri, arguing that he was a failure in his current job where for 26 years he has presided over the vast, loss-making state-owned enterprise with interests spanning from vehicle assembly, fertiliser, mining to textiles.
"And it has been done in a responsible manner that has not brought our economy to its knees in the quest for populism", Mantashe has said.
On Thursday, Mugabe hit back, accusing Mantashe of acting foolishly.
"We didn't fight just for freedom".
Southern Africa generated some headlines when Mugabe insinuated that South Africa's first black president Nelson Mandela sold out black South Africans, and that he was interested in his personal freedom and not the economic freedom of the black South Africans.
"Gwede Mantashe stupidly reacted [to criticism of Mandela]". Yes, they only fought to remove apartheid. This was it, we talked to them.
"And they said, "well, freedom, independence was given to us by Britain in 1910 on May 31.' (Tambo said) 'It's a legal thing; we can not change it". What? You can't change it?
A revolutionary party says it can not change it.
Mugabe went further in the 10-minute attack on Mantashe and the ANC. Is this what they agreed upon with the whites?
"Apartheid, yes, is not democratic, it's a sinister policy". No, it must not obtain... but they could only go that far.
"Ours was not just freedom. No". We wanted freedom of the nature that gave us independence and the right of ownership of our country.
Mugabe has presided over shocking levels of corruption and nepotism that have left the country on the brink, with South Africa being the salvation of many. Praise God, if the future will yield for them true independence.
"So I said Minister of Finance, well you can go your own way and they said important ones must be kept, but the others we should get as many coffins as there are, those which have caused us vast expenditure, they should certainly go", he said.
The governments in South Africa and Zimbabwe at times appear to have frosty relations, but more often than not, they quickly resolve these.
Mugabe said they were not being made accountable and left with ballooning expenditures lacking control and huge debts from worldwide money lenders like the World Bank and global Monetary Fund.
Mugabe's comments have prompted South Africa's ruling African National Congress to issue statements aimed at making Mugabe refrain from further making such comments. "As a request, I would then want us to meet in a relaxed set-up and have dialogue and not have sermons for each other like we did today", said Mugabe.
