By Own Correspondent- Joseph Busha, the Free Zimbabwe Congress leader, filed the application on Friday at the High Court challenging the introduction of the real-time gross settlement (RTGS) dollar. Busha argues that the presidential powers used in ushering in the currency reforms are unconstitutional.

The RTGS dollar was introduced in February through the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act. Busha Statutory Instrument 33 of 2019 which was used to introduce the currency outlawed as he claims that it was inconsistent with the constitution. He also wants the court to give an order invalidating any reference or actions based on the RTGS currency.

His application comes when the government has also introduced Statutory Instrument 142 of 2019 which bans the use of all foreign currencies for domestic transactions. The SI makes the RTGS dollar and bond notes the only legal tender in the country.

Busha also argued that converting people’s bank balances from United States dollars to the electronic currency was unlawful. He argued:

It gives the first respondent (Mnangagwa), the president, powers which the Constitution specifically and purposively does not give him. The powers of the president are set out in section 110 of the constitution and none of those powers entitle him to legislate.

It being subsidiary to the constitution, the Act cannot validly expand the powers of the president beyond what the Constitution confines them to. The Free Zimbabwe Congress leader wants Mnangagwa to pay the costs of the suit. The South Africa-based businessman argued it was the duty of Parliament to introduce such legislation.

He said the presidential powers law gave Mnangagwa powers that are not envisaged in the Constitution.

“It gives the first respondent (Mnangagwa), the president, powers which the Constitution specifically and purposively does not give him,” he argued. “The powers of the president are set out in section 110 of the constitution and none of those powers entitle him to legislate.

“It being subsidiary to the constitution, the Act cannot validly expand the powers of the president beyond what the Constitution confines them to.” The Free Zimbabwe Congress leader wants Mnangagwa to pay the costs of the suit.

Last Monday, the government ended the decade-long use of a basket of currencies that included the US dollar and the South African rand amid a worsening foreign currency crisis and rising inflation.