ZANU PF legislators are calling for the return of the Zimbabwean dollar which was discarded due to serious levels of inflation in 2008.
by Senior Parliamentary Reporter
In his speech during the post-budget seminar for MPs at a Harare hotel last week, Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda expressed his desire for re-introduction of the Zimbabwean dollar.
Mudenda said if gold deliveries to Fidelity Printers intensified, Zimbabwe might be able to re-introduce its now defunct currency which was removed during the inclusive government era to end the tyranny of hyper-inflation.
“The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy made a proposal at the pre-budget seminar in Victoria Falls that there is need to formalise the informal gold mine sector to curb illicit gold mining,” Mudenda said.
“They appealed for amnesty for makorokoza [artisanal miners] and that clarion call must carry on. If these people can get 24 tonnes of gold, then why not give them amnesty because the gold will come into Fidelity and we should be able to have hundreds of tonnes of gold in the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Chances will be brighter for us to go back to our national currency because that gold will be a guarantee.”
During question time at the post-budget seminar, Manicaland senator Shadreck Chipanga (Zanu PF) asked economist Godfrey Kanyenze to explain if time was ripe to go back to the Zimbabwean dollar.
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“I do not know how we are going to continue as a country using other people’s currencies,” Chipanga lamented.
But, Kanyenze said re-introduction of the Zimbabwean dollar will be difficult because the success of any currency was based on issues of confidence on it.
“At the moment there is no confidence in the Zimbabwean dollar because of what people went through. If it is re-introduced now, it will create confusion and people will start removing their money from banks,” Kanyenze said.
“We do not have foreign reserves to back up our money, and we cannot just bring back the Zimbabwe dollar before people have confidence in it. We need to start rebuilding that confidence.”
