“So
what exactly is this bond note?” asked Ken Yamamoto, the Japanese researcher
and commentator on Zimbabwe. “Make no mistake about it, through these notes
Zimbabwe is bringing the Zimbabwe Dollar back using a different name.
“As
English author Shakespeare wrote, “a rose by any other name would smell as
sweet”. I would hazard to say a skunk by any other name would smell as bad.
This is the trouble with the RBZ’s proposed bond notes. It’s the Zimbabwean
dollar coming back cloaked under an Afreximbank facility which nobody has seen
except the people that claim it exists.”
Ken
is spot on there, the bond notes are the Zimbabwe dollar by another name. We
are going back to the hyperinflation of year 2000 to 2008 when inflation soar
to 500 billion per cent are wiped out people’s fortunes and life savings and
made life hell for all!
Ken
has attributed Zimbabwe’s economic and political problems to failed leaders. “With
these “musketeers” in power, its heads they win, tails you lose. This time
don’t be caught sleeping,” he warned.
Very
sound warning but, sadly, Ken was wasting his breath; the people he is advising
are not just fast asleep, they are in a vegetative comatose state. Zimbabweans
have been fast asleep for the last 36 years. The brain if not exercised for a long
period will, like every other muscle of the body, atrophy turning brain cells
into fatty tissue. Our challenge is not one of people being caught sleeping,
they are fast asleep already; the challenge is who does one wake a whole nation
in a comatose state!
Ken
Yamamoto dismissed RBZ governor, Dr Mangudya’s pathetic attempts to deny that
the bond notes are Z$ by another name and that there will be no hyperinflation.
Ken called Dr Mangudya a fence post tortoise.
”When
you’re driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a
tortoise balanced on top, that’s a fence post tortoise,” came the explanation. “You
know he didn’t get up there by himself, he doesn’t belong up there, he doesn’t
know what to do while he’s up there, he’s elevated beyond his ability to
function, and you just wonder what kind of dumb arse put him up there to begin
with.”
The reader is reminded
that the RBZ governor has a doctorate from Washington International University
(not a “credited” institution according to Newsday report but still not as
dodgy as Grace Mugabe’s crash three-month doctorate). He is Dr John Panonetsa
Mangudya.
For the generous RBZ
governor’s salary and gravy train lifestyle that goes with it is easy to see
why a village idiot would allow himself to be fence post tortoise but surely
not someone with common sense much less an intellectual! And yet the facts speak
for themselves, Dr Mangudya is RBZ governor and the fence post tortoise!
“Is
Mangudya a sincere man?” Ken postulated. Well we know he is brain-dead and so
the question is now irrelevant.
Dr Mangudya is not the first Zimbabwean professional to be forced by President Mugabe to discard all they had learned at school to the point of defying common sense to please him. He is an economist now forced to come up with and defend voodoo economic policies. Yes he is as helpless and lost as a tortoise stuck up a fence post.
ReplyDeleteThe late Dr Bernard Chidzero, Zimbabwe's second Minister of Finance had a high paying job in the WB, IMF or one of these international institution before he joined President Mugabe's cabinet. There is evidence that he tried to rein in the regime's reckless spending but was over ruled again and again by the fastidious and control freak Robert Mugabe. He
Chidzero was Minister of Finance when the regime signed the IMF and WB sponsored first and se-cond five year Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) in 1990 to 1995 and 1995 to 2000. Both programmes failed to revive the Zimbabwe economy largely because the regime never implemented the agreed reforms. It was the same thing, economist forced to implement voodoo economics. Dr Chidzero too was pushed into the awkward position of the fence post tortoise!
It was then that Dr Chidzero tried to leave government and take up some senior post in the WB or IMF. Of course he did not get it after years of defending voodoo economics his name was mud!
If Zimbabwe was a truly healthy and functional democracy where people like Dr Mangudya knew they would, one day, be asked by a competent panel to account for all his stupid policies; he would have never agreed to implement them.
Still, now that change is in the air he may find himself why he said there would be no inflation knowing fully well that was as certain as day following night! Better still, one hopes that whatever loot he is being paid to entice the tortoise up the fence post will be taken away from him and used to compensate some of the victims of these voodoo economic policies.
I agree that Mugabe is a fastidious control freak who thinks he knows best and it is shocking just how many Zimbabweans have compromised their professional standing by following his stupid wishes. Muga-be appointed them into the various position to give his stupid policy some modicum of respectability.
DeleteWho would think there is anything amiss with bond notes backed by $200 million bond from a continental bank as announced by the respectable Dr Mangudya. But now that the idea is falling apart Mugabe withdraws leaving poor Mangudya to face the music. No wonder Mangudya is looking as stupid and helpless as a tortoise stuck up a fence post!
The point is it was Dr Mangudya's own fault selling out his professional standing for the prestigious job of RBZ governor. He knew his predecessor Dr Gono had too been seriously compromised. Those would dine with the devil must do so with a long spoon.
It is my ardent wish that sell-out like Gono, Mangudya, etc. are thoroughly investigated in future with the view of recovery as much as possible the wealth they looted so it can be given to the people who paid the price of their betrayal.
"Authorised Dealers are advised that 50 percent of all new foreign exchange receipts from the export of goods and services denominated in USD shall be transferred into the Reserve Bank immediately on receipt of funds. The remaining 50 percent shall be credited into the export-er's FCA in USD," said the central bank in a statement released late on Tuesday.
ReplyDelete"On receipt of the 50 percent export proceeds into its Nostro Account, the Reserve Bank shall immediately credit the same amount plus the 5 percent export incentive /bonus in USD into the Authorised Dealer's RTGS Account for the exporter. Accordingly, the requirement for the apportionment of 50 percent of foreign exchange receipts into 40 percent ZAR and 10 percent EUR, has been removed with immediate effect."
Well this makes everything as clear as mud, well done Dr Mangudya. After all your voodoo economics we still have the problem of the cash crunch because our imports continue to out-strip out exports.
If importers are going to be forced to accept bond notes which they cannot use to pay for im-ports then either there will be a shortage of imported good and inflationary pressure on bond notes or both of these scenarios will happen.
Zimbabwe has seen this economic crunch coming but the regime chose to ignore the economic meltdown. The only way to end the economic meltdown is by implementing meaningful political reforms resulting in free, fair and credible elections.
The country can have an orderly reform process or a chaotic process as a result of social un-rest. President Mugabe and his cronies rigged the last elections and dragged the nation into this hell-hole; they will all be held responsible for whatever happens now.
Douglas Mahiya is being a hypocrite, the taxpayer paid $2 million for the war vets' meeting with Mugabe that was as much a waste of money as the planned march by the Zanu PF youth match. No doubt millions of dollars will be spend on transporting, accommodating and feeding these youths and, at the end of the day, the ordinary long suffering povo will pay the bill.
ReplyDeleteMugabe and Zanu PF rigged the last elections and therefore they are not accountable to the ordinary people and hence the reason why the regime is riding roughshod over the people's freedoms and basic human rights.
Zanu PF's factional war is not quite finished but this is only a minor skirmish the real fight is against the economic meltdown which the party is losing at every turn. 90% unemployment rate, millions living in abject poverty, etc. these are the problems that will not be resolved by a stage managed hired crowd holding placards with meaningless messages.
After the march Mugabe will still have the unemployment problem, the cash crunch problem, etc. to deal with; they will not go away because paid Zanu PF youths were marching on the street!
The prospect of another spell of runaway inflation is making me sick. Zanu PF's failure to deliver any meaningful economic recovery was bound to end in tears. Zimbabwe's present economic situation is simp-ly not sustainable the wheels were bound to come off, they are doing so now. The fear is Zanu PF will not stop and fix the economy but continue as if nothing has happened inflicting even more damage to the na-tion.
ReplyDeleteThe tragedy here is there is no viable way out for the country given Zanu PF intransigency, MDC confu-sion and to drive it all, a half-asleep electorate still willing following failed leaders!
Zimbabwe’s situation can easily be put to right what we have always lack is the competent leaders to do the common sense things; this is what so annoying.
MDC-T is becoming a party of opportunists always on the look out for the obvious issues that others have raised with the view of reproducing them as if it is their own original work. People must never forget that it was MDC's failure to get even one reform implemented during the GNU that got us into this mess in the first place. MDC is doing nothing to get the reforms necessary for free and fair elections implemented and so the next elections in 2018 will again be rigged.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the point of having an opposition party that is wasting time telling us what we have figured out for ourselves and doing nothing about the task it should be doing?