President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday reprimanded South Africa’s Finance Minister Tito Mboweni following social media comments by the minister regarding the removal of Bank of Zambia governor Denny Kalyalya by Zambian President Edgar Lungu.
Mboweni torched a diplomatic storm at the weekend when he slammed Lungu for terminating Kalyalya’s contract on Saturday.
In one of the tweets, Mboweni said “presidents in Africa must stop this nonsense of waking up in the morning and fire a central bank governor!”
“You cannot do that. This is not some fiefdoms of yours! Your personal property?! No!!”
He added: “The President of Zambia must give us the reasons why he dismissed the governor or else hell is on his way. I will mobilize!”
Zambia’s Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Dora Siliya angrily responded, saying her government was “very surprised with Tito Mboweni’s immature and improper criticism of a sovereign decision by Zambia.”
“The minister should be attending to COVID problems facing the South Africans, our focus here. We will pursue matter diplomatically.”
Ramaphosa’s acting spokesperson, Tyrone Seale said the South African government has taken action against Mboweni and the “issue is being addressed to ensure that such an incident does not occur again.”
“President Ramaphosa wishes to assure the government and people of the Republic of Zambia that the unfortunate remarks do not reflect the views of the South African Government and its people,” Seale said.
JN/APA