‌President Emmerson Mnangagwa has reassured the nation saying that top government officials including himself were being subjected to the austerity measures which are affecting the masses as well.

Mnangagwa said he is also eating exactly what the average Zimbabwean is eating and suffering the same. Zimbabweans are failings to buy simple things like bread resorting to alternatives like dried maize grain with tea for breakfast. Is that what Mnangagwa is eating?

In an interview which was broadcast live on Friday evening, Mnangagwa said,

When we started austerity measures we cut salaries of ministers and us too the top officials. But what I eat is what you eat, what I wear is also what you wear. The lives of our people which we want to make better must be achieved after going through several aspects of reforming our economy, reforming the way we do business and in that process, a lot of suffering will come but what we will achieve is what we are looking forward to as a goal. So far we have identified what we need to do in the many areas of our economy.

We cannot reach where we want to go without resurrecting the economy that had collapsed. The situation in this country was because of various issues major of which was sanctions which collapsed the economy and currency. If we are to move forward we need to buckle up and be strong. It’s necessary to walk that journey if we don’t take such measures we will not make progress. We have to sacrifice some things in order to prosper.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube’s austerity measures have been roundly criticised for causing suffering among the masses.