By Own Correspondent- Addressing legislators on Tuesday, Wedza North member of parliament David Musabayana said the return of the Zimbabwean dollar marked the beginning of monetary sovereignity and presented the RBZ with the opportunity to control money supply

He hailed the introduction of the local currency saying the adoption of the basket of currencies had brought untold suffering to the majority of Zimbabweans.

Said Musabayana:

“…..in January, 2009, Zimbabwe undertook what we call currency substitution where a multi currency system was adopted and this multi currency system had a basket of currencies with the United States dollar and some of the SADC currencies were also in that basket, including the Euro and many other currencies.

Unfortunately the United States dollar slowly became the defacto currency as it bullied out the rest of the currencies from the basket.  This made it very difficult for most of the Zimbabweans because it was a defacto currency, it was not a de jure currency where it was legal in terms of its procurement – [HON. MEMBERS:  Inaudible interjections.] –  Mr. Speaker Sir, this created untold suffering to the rest of the Zimbabweans, because the Reserve Bank could not supply…

….. this made it very difficult for the Zimbabweans because the RBZ could not control the money supply.  So in terms of monetary sovereignty, the nation lost its monetary sovereignty because of the adoption of this basket of currencies. 

…… because of that there were also a lot of distortions that were created in the market, because the flow of this currency was not efficient.  Some areas could not get this currency creating unnecessary distortions and it also fuelled the parallel market.  Because of this Mr. Speaker Sir, the economy of Zimbabwe stagnated.

Mr. Speaker, in this light I would like to applaud the Minister of Finance and Economic Development through the Government of Zimbabwe for the adoption of the new currency–  [HON. MEMBERS:  Inaudible interjections.] –  

Why our own currency?  Mr. Speaker, foreign currency is only important for the payment of imports and payment of foreign debt, but for local transactions or day to day transactions, we need our local currency.  So, the return of the Zimbabwean dollar means the return of monetary sovereignty, it also means the return of national sovereignty.

Mr. Speaker Sir, this means that our imports are going to be competitive even on the foreign market.  The rest of the world is now rejecting the United States dollar.  Why are people rejecting the United States dollar, Mr. Speaker Sir?  The United States dollar is just a fiat currency, it is not backed by anything, and it is not backed by gold.”