On Tuesday, we carried a report that Zimbabwe’s surrogate currency – the bond note – has lost half its value by more than 50% on the illegal market.
This is a worrying trend given signs of economic stress are already showing with fuel queues starting to form everywhere. How this continues to happen under the watch of monetary authorities is mind-boggling.
Our major problem is that the leadership is only focused on amassing power and wealth at the expense of the majority.
While we appreciate that central bank governor, John Mangudya is operating in a difficult situation, where any move to stabilise the economy could be viewed differently in the context of Zanu PF factionalism, it is important that he puts measures to protect the public.
It is regrettable that our leadership forgets. They must be warned the subjugated do not easily forget because they are the ones facing the brunt of the poorly performing economy and poor governance.
The citizenry had hoped that Mangudya would resign immediately after the bond notes failed as he indicated at the launch of the surrogate currency. We still wonder what has stopped Mangudya from resigning.
Indeed, power is sweet, and for the record, quitting as a result of poor service delivery has never been part of Zanu PF’s service delivery charter. We knew all along that Mangudya was either fooling himself or thought he was hoodwinking the public. Mangudya can save himself the shame by coming up with measures to shore up the economy.
This, hoping, he will not get the usual resistance from among his Zanu PF handlers.
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If it was easy to quit, President Robert Mugabe would have left a decade ago for the good of the country.
Yet, he even attacked former minister, Nkosana Moyo that he was cowardly for choosing to leave after his frustration over poor service delivery.
We urge Mangudya to deal with economic fundamentals to stabilise the economy.
There is no doubt that a vibrant, stable sector is a backbone of a stable macro economy and this is key to creating a conducive environment for industry and commerce.
According to research firm, IH Securities, the high demand for foreign currency required to effect payments for goods and services sourced externally is what has contributed to the bond note depreciation.
In fact, our hard currency stock has seen on a decline due to lack of foreign investment and sluggish growth in exports. It is absurd companies and retailers have been forced to turn to the parallel market to source cash to expedite foreign payments to suppliers.
What with threats by foreign suppliers to pull the plug on local firms due to delays in making payments. Still some suppliers have threatened to cancel credit terms for local businesses.
We believe promoting economic stability is a matter of avoiding economic and financial crises, large swings in economic activity, high inflation, and excessive volatility in foreign exchange and financial markets.
It is disturbing that instability continues to increase uncertainty, discourage investment, impede economic growth, and hurt our living standards.
The other challenge is our policymakers are neck-dip in Mugabe’s succession fights. There are also power struggles in the opposition camp.
Our contention is it is their job to improve our living standards through rising productivity, employment, and sustainable growth, otherwise everybody should be sent packing come the 2018 polls.
