The Zimbabwe economy has been facing serious challenges since 2000 with the dumped bearers’ cheques still fresh in the minds of many local people.
Some of the cheques worth trillions of dollars became so worthless that a pile of them could hardly be used to buy a loaf of bread. Most economists argued that form of money fueled the country’s historic inflationary figures, which eventually led to the dumping of the Zimbabwe dollar in 2009 at the inception of a unity government.
The adoption of multiple currencies by the unity government, made up of Movement for Democratic Change formations and President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party in 2009, led to the revival of the economy until 2013 when the nation held polls that were won by Zanu PF.
Critics say the economy has been on a free-fall since that time, resulting in serious cash shortages that have forced the nation to propose the introduction of bond notes, which are set to be equivalent to the United States dollar. To some people all this are machinations of the ruling party to stay in power and not to resolve the cash crisis.
For perspective, Studio 7 reached Zanu PF-leaning political commentator Gadzira Chirumanzu and independent banking expert Ngoni Chividze.
Chirumanzu said the central bank’s move has nothing to do with politics. “If a country is facing some financial problems its obvious they will come up with some means to deal with those problems and this is exactly what the reserve bank governor did.”
He noted that this has nothing to do with Zanu PF’s alleged attempt to stay in power.
Professor Chividze agreed, adding that this is a reaction to cash challenges faced by Zimbabwe. “This is actually a reaction to the political quargmire that they find themselves in and this quargmire is a sign of a disease which is two-old … One it’s lack of good to export and number two lack of the competitive of the country to attract FDI (foreign direct investment).”
Chirumanzu further dismissed claims that Zimbabwe is attempting to reintroduce the local dollar saying the country is fixing a cash crisis that may cripple the already ailing economy.
