South Africa

Hill-Lewis and Mboweni exchange words over minister’s supposed absence

Published on

16 October 2020

Geordin Hill-Lewis and Tito Mboweni exchanged words on Twitter, this after Hill-Lewis claimed that Mboweni missed the president’s presentation of the Economic Recovery Plan.

The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Shadow Minister of Finance, Geordin Hill-Lewis took Twitter on Thursday, 15 October 2020, to publicly call out Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni. This was over the minister’s supposed absence from Parliament during the president’s delivery of the Economic Recovery Plan.

The address came shortly after Mboweni’s request for a postponement of his own Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, which has now reportedly been pushed back by two weeks. The address was meant to be the first indication of how the ruling party plans to steer the country out of the economic crisis.

Therefore, his supposed absence from the joint hybrid sitting in Parliament did raise eyebrows. However, in responding to the allegation of him missing “this crucial speech,” Mboweni claimed to have been on the virtual platform.

Shortly thereafter, Mboweni appeared to provide a reason for delaying his own address. It is speculated that Mboweni is looking to align with the president’s plan first, according to the article he shared.

See the posts below.

. @tito_mboweni didn’t come to Parliament for this crucial speech.

— Geordin Hill-Lewis (@geordinhl) October 15, 2020

It is untrue that I was not in Parliament today. I was on the virtual platform. @geordinhl . Let us be fair!

— Tito Mboweni (@tito_mboweni) October 15, 2020