JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – President Emmerson Mnangagwa is wasting time and taxpayer dollars doing to the World Economic Forum in Davos because he has no good story to tell, former presidential candidate Nkosana Moyo said on Wednesday.

Mnangagwa left by a charter jet on January 13 on a trip that will take him to five countries, ending in Davos, an Alpine town in Switzerland where the world’s business and political leaders will gather between January 22 and 25.

A day after his departure, Zimbabweans rioted over a 150 percent fuel price hike he announced. The country was virtually shut down for three days after labour unions told workers to stay at home.

“He goes to Davos without a product to sell. He’s trying to ask the world to come and put money into Zimbabwe when the evidence that is there for these people to see is that he cannot preside over managing Zimbabwe’s resources properly. It’s totally irrational,” Moyo told CNBC Africa.

A solution to Zimbabwe’s deepening economic problems must be homegrown, Moyo said.

“The starting point for Zimbabwe is to understand that we, Zimbabweans, destroyed our country. No foreigner destroyed Zimbabwe. We did. Yes, sanctions were applied to Zimbabwe but those sanctions were applied because of what we did, and how we did what we did,” the economist and former World Bank executive went on.

“The evidence is that corruption and employing people on a patronage basis is what has destroyed our economy. But instead of dealing with those things and creating a credible platform or product which you can then take to the international community, we skirt around this issue and the world can see this and we try to persuade them to put money into Zimbabwe. It’s not going to happen.”

Zimbabwe’s major problem was one of a leadership crisis, he explained.

“It’s for Zimbabweans to get clear on selecting a president, in particular a president, who is going to preside over correcting all the mistakes that have happened over the last almost 40 years,” he said.

The NewsDay newspaper has estimated that Mnangagwa’s trip will cost at least US$25 million.

He is flying to Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Switzerland in a luxury Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which costs US$74,000 per hour to hire.

Gaining access to Davos for him and his bloated delegation will gobble over US$1,5 million.

Each member of the 40-plus delegation is entitled to an average daily allowance of US$10,000 for the duration of the trip.