The Sunday Mail
I am one of the “fools” who enrolled to what is called the “Zimdolovers School of Thought,” whose headmaster, they say, is Tafataona Mahoso.
The movement that has been calling for the return of the local currency, when everyone else is charging otherwise. Stupid Mahoso and yours truly, huh!
Oh, before I forgot, let me stray a bit from my main issue to talk about the Miss World pageant. Rolene Strauss from South Africa was crowned Miss World, right before the eyes of one billion viewers worldwide, beating 120 international contestants. Amhlope, Rolene!
Rewind a few weeks back, nobody would have thought that this 22-year old Medicine student will do us this proud, if the fashion experts’ attack on her national outfit were anything to go by.
Prior to the watershed contest in London, Simon Radema, a decorated fashion designer and author of “The Style Bible”, wrote an open letter to Strauss saying, “Dear Rolene, you have no idea how ridiculous you make SA look in this shredded table cloth!… Now shoot me!”
The Sunday Times too was laden with negative comments on her outfit. Nobody would have wanted to wear a dress condemned to that extent.
Fast forward to today last week when she was actually crowned Miss World. Her simple message was:
“Anything is possible.” Being a test-tube baby who won the international pageant wearing a “shredded table cloth”, surely nothing is impossible. Her triumphal return to South Africa, much to the chagrin of her doom-sayers, was quite something!
Those of us who have been calling for the strategic return of the local currency, backed by land and industries, have nothing to apologise for. We are not “firing blanks” like some thought. Like Strauss, I say, anything is possible.
Government, in its wisdom, has – however – seen it fit that the local currency should not return now.
The fundamental conditions for the return of the Zimbabwean dollar, as highlighted by the Minister of Finance, include sustainable economic growth and current account position, industry competitiveness, sufficient international reserves and restoration of confidence in the banking system and economy. This is where some of us park our desire for the return of the local currency and deal with what is actually happening, not as a compromise but by just being realistic.
What is happening is that those raising fears of the local currency’s return because of a mere introduction of bond coins to avert the change crisis are doing a disservice to the economy.
The 2015 National Budget, passed by the National Assembly last Thursday, has talked about demonetisation of the Zimbabwean dollar. Demonetisation is the act of stripping a currency unit of its status as legal tender. How then does Government intend to regenerate the “ogre” it is envisaging to find the best rifle to shoot dead with?
Sadly, the tendency in Zimbabwe is to politicise just about everything.
Take Dr Godfrey Kanyenze, for instance, an ex-central bank board member: “People no longer trust this Government anymore after what happened in 2009 when their pension funds were just wiped away.”
He carefully made no reference to the fact that the 2015 budget has actually pledged to institute a Commission of Inquiry to investigate transparency issues with respect to the conversion of insurance policies and pension benefits from Zimbabwean to US dollars to address the concerns of the public.
The Inquiry is also expected to bring closure to the matter and enhance confidence. Why then should people not trust a Government that is envisaging to address their very concerns?
The MDC led by Professor Welshman Ncube added its voice to the catalogue of negativity: “We also believe that there has not been much publicity about these coins but most importantly there has not been apology by the RBZ of previous mistakes which made people lose confidence in their local currency.”
As MDC was busy penning this statement, the radio stations and Press were already awash with publicity on the bond coins. Government actually pledged, in the 2015 Budget, to set aside resources for demonetisation. The programme will result in those whose Zim dollar account balances were closed-in being converted into US dollars.
The debate should, therefore, not be about the bond coins leading to immediate reintroduction of Zim dollar notes, but about the exchange rate to be used when converting the soon-to-be demonetised Zim dollars into US dollars. Like I have said before, there is nothing unusual about Zimbabwe using bond coins, as countries that have dollarised way before us have done that.
What the central bank should have perhaps done in their publicity campaigns targeting the rural areas was to clarify that the introduction of bond coins does not mean that the old Zim dollar coins are back in circulation.
I hear many rural folks went on treasure hunts, digging out the old coins only to be turned down at beer-hall counters.
Still on clarification, Econet must not forget how it left as many as 1,2 million EcoLife subscribers disappointed a few years back when they discontinued the funeral plan service – only to now crawl back to launch a successor service, EcoSure, as if nothing happened.
Econet argued back then that it did not owe anybody money as it was offering life cover for free to its customers – a painful reality.
They were, however, not offering customer trust for free. Econet owes members of the public a detailed explanation on what measures they have put in place to ensure that the new life cover service will not be withdrawn again, even though the customers are required to pay monthly premiums this time.
Ho ho ho… Merry Christmas!
