RBZ must come clean

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor, John Mangudya and Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa have not been honest to the people of Zimbabwe on the true causes of the current cash crisis and the real motive behind the introduction of the questionable bond notes.

By Vince Musewe 

It is shocking that it has taken a few months since assumption of office for Governor Mangudya to expose himself fully to the watching eyes of the Zimbabweans and the international community.

To us it is clear that the primary cause of the cash shortages is that the government has literally been raiding the Real Time Gross Services (RTGS) balances at the central bank to pay for its own recurrent expenditures.

Zimbabwe’s wage bill is clearly unsustainable and is driving a major budget deficit, which we estimate to be 30% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

It is our belief that the hole in the RTGS balances is as huge as $2 billion and has left Mr. Chinamasa and Mr. Mangudya with no choice but to commit suicide through the measures announced on 4 May 2016.

Indeed, as our colleague, Mr. Eddie Cross has been saying, the government has been issuing Treasury Bills (TBs) like confetti as if there is no tomorrow.  These TBs have been honoured from the RBZ.

In our view, Mr. Chinamasa and Mr. Mangudya must stop lying to the people of Zimbabwe and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

As the late Bob Marley sang in his classic hit, “Get Up, Stand Up”, “You can fool some people some time but you can’t fool all the people all the time”.

As PDP, the people of Zimbabwe and indeed the international community deserve to know the truth.

We therefore demand a forensic audit on the following;

• The TBs issued by the State and other incestuous parties like the Zimbabwe Asset Management Corporation (Zamco).
• An audit of all transactions at the RBZ including and in particular the RTGS balances.

As PDP, we are convinced that in a bid to mislead the public, the RBZ and government have found it convenient to believe that the liquidity crisis is due to foreign currency leakages when the truth is that Chinamasa has been raiding the RBZ coffers, leading to the current cash crisis and long bank queues.

Thanks to Zanu PF, this country is in a deep terrible economic crisis.  That crisis is structural and deep rooted.

That crisis is beyond the reach and capabilities of the clueless and knows it all Governor John Mangudya and the rage and fury of the cunning Mr. Patrick Chinamasa who are busy addressing symptoms and not the real crisis.

As one top local businessman put it recently, when a child has diarrhea, one does not buy tonnes of diapers for the child, the wise parent takes the child to the hospital.

As PDP, we reiterate our position that Zimbabwe needs a political solution to the current economic crisis that we are in.

Vince Musewe is PDP Secretary for Finance and Economic Affairs