LONDON – There is laughter, mockery and anger all around after Finance Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube was named the “African Finance Minister of the Year” by a UK-based organisation calling itself Reputation Poll International.
“Today, I was greatly honoured to be awarded an accolade of the African Finance Minister of the Year by the Reputation Poll International in the United Kingdom at the 2023 Global Reputation Forum in the House of Lords in Central London,” Ncube announced.
Reputation Poll International chairman, Lord John Waverly justified the award by saying;
“In today’s rapidly evolving financial landscape, the convergence of technology and banking has given rise to a new era of financial management challenges and the Zimbabwean Minister, with a shoe-string budget, managed to fight the Covid-19 pandemic with the Government and country recording minimal Covid-19-related human deaths.”
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But back in Zimbabwe, the award has been met with both laughter, ridicule and anger. Writing on X (formerly Twitter) journalist Hopewell Chin’ono was the bluntest.
“Then we got the most anti-people national budget that Zimbabwe has ever had, and the Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube insulted the whole country by posting a silly tweet saying that he won the Finance Minister of the Year award from some bogus communications company.
“He has the nerve to post that crap on X when he is presiding over the worst economy in the world by inflation rates, Zimbabwe has the highest inflation in the world authored by his misguided and corrupt policies!
In another separate Tweet Chin’ono added; “How much did you pay Reputation Poll International for this one? The same organization that declared (Lazarus) Chakwera one of Africa’s top leaders. You are a joke Mthuli.”
Former Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere, now the MP for Mt Pleasant, was equally scathing in her assessment of Ncube.
“Mthuli Ncube is the worst Finance Minister Zimbabwe has ever had. ♦️Anti-people Budget, ♦️Triple digit hyperinflation, ♦️49% extreme poverty, ♦️Ballooning debt crisis, ♦️Dead Zim Dollar, ♦️Broken economy, ♦️Scavenging Treasury, ♦️Hut tax, ♦️Stealing exporters’ proceeds, ♦️More tax, Exchange rate confusion, ♦️Rejected by Cowdray Park, ♦️2% tax, ♦️Lied that he built donor clinic, ♦️Gold leakages, ♦️ZiG, ♦️Even more tax. He’s failed. It’s a mess. He must resign. #MthuliTheWorst.”
It’s not the first time Ncube has been given an award that has drawn mockery.
In 2021, he was ranked among the top five Ministers of Finance in Africa by the Senegalese publication “Financial Afrik.”
That year former Finance Minister Tendai Biti described Ncube’s celebration of the award as disturbing and sycophantic, emphasising the poor state of the economy in Zimbabwe.
He was backed by Tony Hawkins, a former economics lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe’s Graduate School of Management, who said with high inflation rates and unachieved targets, there was little for Ncube to celebrate.
