Own Correspondent

MDC Alliance Vice President and former Finance Minister, Tendai Biti has called on incumbent Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube to resign from his position as he is failing.

Below is Biti’s presentation on a point of privilege in parliament.

Mr. Speaker Sir, we are gravely concerned about the continuous shifting of our Monetary Policy. We are concerned particularly about the constant changes to our Monetary Policy. In 2009, we introduced the basket of multiple currencies. The basket of multiple currencies lasted until 2016, when in November 2016, the Bond Note was introduced through amendments that were made to the Reserve Bank Act. In 2017, Mr. Speaker Sir, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Ministry of Finance spent the bulk of the year convincing Zimbabweans that the Bond Note was on par with the US dollar. They ran an expensive campaign called Operation gedye gedye, persuading the people of Zimbabwe to accept that the bond note was equal to the US dollar. We were shocked Mr. Speaker Sir when on the 1st of October 2018 banks were suddenly advised by the Reserve Bank in an exchange control directive that they had to separate people’s accounts into nostro FCAs and nostro RTGS. We were further shocked when on the 20th of February 2019, Statutory Instrument 33 of 2019 was introduced which said we now have a new currency called the RTGS, which initially was at 1:1 then 1:2.5 and then was floated.

In June of 2019, Mr. Speaker Sir, we were advised by the esteemed Minister of Finance that the country had dedolarised; that the regime of multiple currencies were no longer legal tender in Zimbabwe; that the Zimbabwean dollar had been restored as the sole currency in this country. Mr. Speaker Sir, some people protested and made the point that the country was not ready to introduce its own currency. We made the point that conditions did not exist for the introduction of our own currency. We were further confused yesterday when the Minister of Finance effectively dedollarised by the introduction of a US$75 allowance to civil servants and US$30 to war veterans. It is our contention Mr. Speaker that the Minister of Finance owes Zimbabweans an apology that he should not introduce dollarisation through the back door; that he should repeal Statutory Instrument 33 and Statutory Instrument 142 and the Finance Act. Mr. Speaker Sir, the Minister of Finance has failed in absolute terms and must resign. I thank you very much Mr. Speaker Sir.