President Ramaphosa Reprimands Mboweni Over Zambia Comments

South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa reprimands finance minister Tito Mboweni for making inappropriate remarks against the firing of Zambian central bank governor Dr Denny Kalyalya.

Zambian President Edgar Lumumba fired the former central Governor in a shock move and replaced the outgoing financier with Christopher Mphanza Mvunga, who previously served as the country’s deputy minister of finance.

Without providing any reasons for the dismissal, President Lungu announced that Dr Denny was fired with immediate effect.

President Ramaphosa reprimands Mboweni

In a number of tweets, Mboweni called President Lungu to explain the dismissal of Dr Denny. He continued in the now-deleted tweets that he will mobilize if no explanations are provided.

It is not common for officials in one country to openly discuss the appointments and dismissals in another country. The finance minister further added in his tweets that central bank independence is key and urged “all central bankers to speak out.

In reprimanding the finance minister, President Ramaphosa said that the “unfortunate remarks do not reflect the views of the South African government and its people.”

“The President of the Republic of South Africa, His Excellency Cyril Ramaphosa, has strongly reprimanded the Minister of Finance, Mr Tito Mboweni, following comments made by the Minister on social media regarding the removal of Zambia’s Central Bank Governor by President Edgar Lungu.”

EFF Commander-in-Chief (CiC) Julius Malema got on the action and called Mboweni “our brave Minister of Finance.”

Mboweni puts cooking skills to the test

Apart from managing the country’s financial purse, Minister Mboweni has over the past few months used Twitter to share his cooking skills with the nation.

In the past week, he ‘tried’ to roast a chicken but the results were not as stellar.

Mmusi Maimane, the former leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) responded to Mboweni’s “chicken not turning out according to plan.”

Maimane said the finance minister “promised and delivered two different economic chickens.” According to Maimane, the not so good chicken signifies the state of the economy.