Ex-Finance Minister Tendai Biti Slams Mthuli Ncube’s 2025 Budget as Failing Zimbabwe’s Working People

Former Finance Minister Tendai Biti Slams Mthuli Ncube’s 2025 Budget as a “Dishonest Anti-People Ritual”

Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe’s former finance minister, has fiercely criticised the 2025 National Budget presented by current Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube. In a series of pointed tweets, Biti labelled the budget a “dishonest anti-people ritual” and accused it of failing to address Zimbabwe’s pressing economic issues.

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“A Tough and Challenging Year”

Biti painted a grim picture of the year leading up to the budget announcement. He described it as a time of severe hardship for ordinary Zimbabweans, marked by spiralling inflation, a manipulated exchange rate, and crippling poverty.

“The 2024 Budget Statement was presented in the backdrop of a tough and challenging year for the working people of Zimbabwe,” he tweeted. “A year in which the citizen had been abused by extreme levels of inflation, emasculation by a rigged exchange rate, extortionate taxes, power shortages, and poverty.”

The former finance minister highlighted that citizens had hoped for a bold, honest, and technically sound budget to provide relief from these challenges.

“Regrettably, the Budget Falls Short”

In his scathing critique, Biti dismissed the budget as hollow and self-serving. He accused Ncube of perpetuating policies that reflect the worst aspects of the current administration.

“Regrettably, Minister Ncube’s budget was nothing but a shallow, hollow, narcissistic, dishonest anti-people ritual,” Biti wrote. He went on to describe it as embodying everything wrong with the Mnangagwa government, calling it “incompetent, ideologically vacuous, corrupt, insensitive, vicious, and toxic.”

Biti’s comments echo a growing sentiment among some Zimbabweans who feel the government has failed to alleviate their economic woes.

Citizens Demand More

The former minister’s remarks struck a chord with many online, with his tweets garnering significant engagement. Biti’s call for a budget that offers “hope and catharsis to a broken, fatalistic, desperate, and disparate population” underscores the expectations that many had for this year’s financial plan.

Neither Ncube nor the Ministry of Finance has publicly responded to Biti’s criticisms.

The debate over the 2025 budget continues to unfold, with many Zimbabweans closely watching how the government will address the mounting economic challenges.

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