By A Correspondent- President Emmerson Mnangagwa has revealed that neighbouring South Africa imposed “unacceptable” conditions for Zimbabwe to join the Rand Monetary Union.

Responding to a question on why Zimbabwe has not adopted the Rand given the economic and in particular currency problems the country is facing, Mnangagwa said government has unsuccessfully tried this in the past.

He said:

“In 2008 after the local dollar collapsed the former administration (led by former President Robert Mugabe) that I was part of set up a committee of five. I was part of that committee and we decided to approach South Africa with a view to join the Rand Monetary Union.

We were given a check-list of conditions to meet. Some of them were unacceptable.

South Africa’s Reserve Bank wanted to know our GDP and other things that we did not agree with, even any other would not have. This was because they would have had to print the requite value of currency for circulation in Zimbabwe.”