Opinion

Garikai Mazara

Zimbabweans have always been rated highly, when it comes to literacy levels, counted among the most educated on the continent. But if one is to go through the reasoning, especially on social media, by Zimbabweans, the arguments usually betray an attitude filled with self-hate. Probably lending credence to the notion that intelligence and wisdom are not necessarily the same thing.

On Monday the Government announced that the country is now adopting a mono-currency regime, where the local currency should be the anchor of all transactions.

This should have been welcomed by all Zimbabweans, regardless of race, political standing or religious belief. But not with Zimbabweans, especially those who live on the streets of Twitter and Facebook.

Those who have had the privilege of travelling to other countries will easily relate that, upon arriving in the said country, and if in possession of any currency which is not of that country, they approach the next bureau de change and convert the held foreign currency to the currency of the said country.

Those who have the privilege of using debit cards, the US dollar balance of the said card is converted to the currency of the said country.

The long and short of this explanation: no country in the world allows the use of a foreign currency in its shops; all transactions have to be in a local currency of the country. So Government’s decision was merely following up on what is proper and obtainable anywhere in the world.

But not so with Zimbabweans. The same people who nagged the Government in abandoning the 1:1 exchange rate between the bond note and the US dollar, arguing that the two were not equal. When Government took heed, all hell broke loose, “they want to steal our money,” they said. The Government even went further, and said the exchange rate shall not be controlled but market-determined, and the same learned citizens were up in arms against the Government. Despite them having called for a liberalised forex market.

Now the Government has gone a mile further, and asked all local transactions to be in local currency, there has been furore. But in an economy where the generality of the populace is earning local currency, that the pricing of goods and services was in foreign currency only defied common sense and logic.

Whereas urban legend has it that only a few individuals controlled the parallel forex market, causing mayhem in the national economy, equally a few individuals control the streets of Twitter and Facebook, preaching confusion, alarm and despondency at the slightest excuse.

Those who have been to South Africa will testify that you cannot buy with US dollars in any South African shop, no matter how many US dollars you will have on your person. You have to change them first into the rand.

Ditto in Botswana, where you have to change your forex into the pula.

The same in Zambia, where you need the kwacha. Equally the same in Mozambique where you need the metical to transact.

This is simply the same gospel that the Government is preaching, as the nation under the necessary currency reforms, that for one to transact in Zimbabwe, one needs to change their load of foreign currency into the local currency.

President Emmerson Mngangagwa, addressing the media in Victoria Falls on the sidelines of the inaugural AU-UN Wildlife Summit, was very explicit, that people can keep their US dollars, either under their pillows, in the banks or wherever, but once they want to transact in any shop, they needed to change that foreign currency into a local currency. Typically, there were the few who wanted to sound very learned, arguing that the Statutory Instrument that was applied to announce the mono-currency was in violation of the Reserve Bank Act.

These few form part of the clique that is always at the forefront on Twitter and Facebook, trying to cause confusion whenever the Government makes a major policy announcement.

Some even went to the extent of digging trillion dollar note stencils from the internet archives, trying to preach their gospel that the Government is about to introduce a new currency. All in the hope of spreading confusion, alarm and despondency.

And much to their chagrin, by Friday, the run-away parallel forex market was showing signs of slowing down and conforming to obtaining economic fundamentals.

And reading between the lines to what the President has always been preaching, as well as what Minister Mthuli Ncube has been saying, the adoption of a mono-currency by Government is part of the slow — and painful — process to economic stability.