Publications
Partners
Harare – Jonathan Moyo, Zimbabwe's minister of higher and tertiary education, has taken to social media to ridicule the South African rand, saying it was "falling like any other African currency".
Moyo's posts on Twitter on Thursday came after the rand tumbled early this week. It was the greatest drop since 2011.
According to a Bloomberg News report, the rand weakened 3.3% to R13.41/$ on Monday after it fell to R14.07 earlier, the lowest on record. The report said the rand has dropped 14% this year.
The fall of the rand underlines the challenges faced by President Jacob Zuma's administration in reigniting investment and growth in an economy running an electricity shortage and persistent fiscal and current-account deficits, the report said.
South Africa faces more than 60 000 job losses this year in industries ranging from mining to aviation, according to a report by the Solidarity labour union.
Moyo tweeted:
After SA lost position as Africa's largest economy to Nigeria, Rand is now falling like any other African currency! pic.twitter.com/LWL8zxb3C4
— Prof Jonathan Moyo (@ProfJNMoyo) August 27, 2015He went on to say:
SA's exceptionalism is a myth. The African experience has one path with one destiny littered with the same potholes! https://t.co/QbvLysJoa1
— Prof Jonathan Moyo (@ProfJNMoyo) August 27, 2015Moyo posted his second tweet after one of his Twitter followers, Nduku Nduna, responded to his first one, saying although South Africa was facing challenges, it would never reach the Zimbabwe status unless Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema took over the reins.
@ProfJNMoyo SA is facing challenges but I can't see her reaching the Zim status unless people vote Malema into power.
— Nduku Nduna (@nduna9) August 27, 2015Moyo's tweets received mixed reactions, with many expressing their disappointment and fury.
@Sentletse tweeted: "For a professor, you have an appalling grasp of elementary economics."
@Mozyiddo said: "By virtue only of its liquidity as a hedge to emerging markets unlike its neighbour that hasn't even got its own currency."
"No wonder Zim is in such economic crisis Prof, your analysis of economics needs some serious interventions of the Gods. @Tumeloboroto tweeted.
@nduna9 wrote: "There is no way of telling what will happen to SA, it could be worse than Zim even under Msholozi"
This was not the first time that Moyo sparked a war of words on Twitter.
In June he castigated the South African Litigation Centre, describing it as a "regime change outfit dominated, controlled & run by a white cabal with Rhodie or apartheid links" for ordering the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
As an International Criminal Court signatory, South Africa was obliged to arrest Bashir while he was attending a SADC summit in South Africa.
Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in the Darfur region.
