Econet boss, Strive Masiyiwa has insisted pricing the goods in Rands can be achieved overnight and it is not the same as joining the Rand Monetary Union. He posting on his FB portal, said, “A loaf of bread in South Africa costs R9,50. It costs R30 in Zimbabwe. 3x!!! Eighty per cent of imported goods in Zimbabwe comes from South Africa.

It’s not uncommon to find those same goods costing anything above three times the cost.

The people who pay for a lot of goods are Zimbabweans living in South Africa, through their remittances.

The cost structure — labour and goods — in Zimbabwe is distorted by the arbitrage of the United States dollar as a currency of settlement for rand imports.

… This is not the same thing as joining a rand monetary area, or customs union, which is a much more complex process. This one can be done overnight, and even voluntarily.