Failure to pay cash for tobacco will benefit ‘Makoronyera’ – PDP
The government directive, instructing tobacco farmers to open bank accounts whilst doing away with spot payments at the auction floors, should under normal circumstances be welcomed.
Opening bank accounts encourages savings and helps farmers to plan and accessing loans which invariably will increase their production and thus their earnings.
However, the move to force farmers to open bank accounts is not being done in their best interests. There is an ulterior motive on the part of the government.
Most individuals and companies are failing to get access to their funds from the banks as there is limited cash.
The cash crisis is because there is no production and real active in the economy. Real production is in sector such as agriculture, mining, production, ICT. In Zimbabwe these sectors have collapsed.
Without wealth creation, the liquidity crunch is evident. Zimbabwe is also lacks capital in the form of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and basic saving.
The cash crunch in the country has been worsened by finance minister, Patrick Chinamasa who is raiding the Real Time Gross Settlement Systems (RTGS) balances at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).
Since the end of the government of national unity (GNU), this terrible government has made it a habit of looting bank balances held at the RBZ in order to finance government recurrent expenditure such as wages and salaries.
Chinamasa’s nefarious activities at the RBZ are creating a huge gap in the RTGS balances and it is only just a question of time before the chickens come home to roost and we have the mother of all bank runs on the market.
It is foreseeable that thousands of farmers are going to be disadvantaged as they will fail to access their money.
The government’s coercion will only open floodgates to unscrupulous middlemen (Makoronyera) most of whom are connected to senior Zanu PF officials to fleece the desperate farmers into selling their tobacco for hard cash to them below market prices.
As the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), we restate our call that this government has failed and should resign immediately.
We thus call on Parliament to pass a vote of no confidence on this government.
Released by;
Vince Musewe
PDP Secretary for Finance and Economic Affairs