FINANCE Minister Mthuli Ncube says
prices of basic goods in terms of RTGS$ were “grossly inflated” adding that
Treasury calculations indicate prices were in fact going down.
“Prices for basic goods in the
consumption basket in Zimbabwe have dropped by an average 19% in US$ terms,
from January to June 2019,” Mthuli posted on social media.
“Prices in terms of RTGS$ terms are
therefore grossly inflated.”
This is a nonsense argument going
round and round in circles and going nowhere!
If the RTGS$ is causing confusion in
the economy, causing prices to go up when, as far as the US$ is concerned,
prices are going down; then the Minister should just scrap the RTGS$ and pay
the civil servants and soldiers in US$!
It is the same government that
introduced the local currency in the form of Bond coins, then Bond Notes,
Ecocash and now RTGS$. It is within the power of the regime to scrap the local
currency and revert back to the basket of US$, British £, Botswana Pula and South
African Rand of 2009 or just use one of them.
The local currency was reintroduced
to easy the shortage of money for even internal transactions. We all remember
the queues at the Bank to withdraw US$20 or less a day!
“People do not need US$ to buy tomatoes
on the street corner!” the then Minister of Finance Patrick Chinamasa had
argued in support of introducing the Bond coins.
Now the new flamboyant minister
Professor Mthuli Ncube is tell us we would be better off buying the tomatoes in
US$ after all!
The truth is Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown
there soon after the scrapping of the Z$ in 2009, was still there and getting
worse when Chinamasa introduced the Bond coins/ Note and was still there and getting
even worse when flamboyant Ncube took over. The root causes of Zimbabwe’s
economic turmoil are gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and
institutionalised lawlessness that have made it impossible to do business in
Zimbabwe and scarred away investors.
Whilst the scrapping of the Z$ in
2009 helped to end the country’s runaway hyperinflation that had soared to 500
billion% helped to restore some sanity in the country, it was not enough to
restore investor confidence and hence the reason there was no economic
recovery. Indeed, even during the GNU years, the most stable period in the last
decade, there were companies closures than start-ups. Proof that the economic
recovery will not depend on which currency is legal tender alone but on
addressing the other economic fundamentals such as ending corruption and holding
free, fair and credible election to end the country’s pariah state curse.
In the Wizard of Oz, the is a comical
scene where the Cowardly Lion is asking the others to talk him out of going to
see the Wizard of Oz.
Cowardly Lion: Because I'm still scared. [He yelps]
Scarecrow: What happened?
Cowardly Lion: Somebody
pulled my tail!
Scarecrow: Oh, you did it yourself.
We are having a pantomime of our own,
in Zimbabwe. Our flamboyant Minister-Know-It-All, Professor Mthuli Ncube is yelping about RTGS$
causing prices to soar when US$ is bringing them down and yet he is the one who not only introduced the bloody
RTGS$ but can them scrapped them too! The cowardly minister is scarred to admit as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs there will be no meaningful economic recovery. None!
Case of the pot calling the pan black! Moyo is blasting Mujuru for the same weaknesses he has. Jonathan Moyo has proven to be so mean-minded; he would sell his own mother for a price and boast he had a mother to sell! By his own admission Moyo has boasted that he helped Mugabe stay in power after 2000 and beyond!
ReplyDeleteGutu Hospital patience forced to fetch water from the village.
ReplyDeleteThis is a nightmare but one we, the people, have allowed to happen by doing nothing to restore good governance these last 39 years!
Zanu PF is a party of corrupt and murderous thugs but the most important point is these thugs are mere mortals and therefore well within the capability of the rest of us, mortals, to team. We have done nothing to team the thugs they have ridden roughshod over our freedoms and rights for the last 39 years.
People risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders to implement democratic reforms designed to end the dictatorship. The party leaders sold-out and have failed to implement even one reform in their 19 years on the political stage. Indeed, it is MDC leaders who are helping Zanu PF stay in power by participating in flawed and illegal elections.
It is a universal truth that by and large, people get the government they deserve. We, in Zimbabwe, certainly deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its entourage of corrupt and incompetent opposition MDC A plus 130 others!
What Zimbabwe needs, desperately, is a stable and competent government not this corrupt, incompetent and unstable Zanu PF regime. Zanu PF rigged last year's elections, the regime is illegitimate and should not be in office was it not for the equally corrupt and incompetent MDC A who clearly do not care that the elections were rigged as long as they get some gravy train seats! They are objecting to Mnangagwa's win but only as a means to pressure him to give Chamisa a cabinet post!
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