Mnangagwa’s recipe for ending Zimbabwe’s cash crisis

Q & A:

*HON. MPARIWA:  Thank you Madam Speaker.  I am directing my question to the Vice President and Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, who is also the Leader of the House, Hon. Mnangagwa.  We have noticed that there are a lot of people who are in queues, day in day out, waiting to access their finances from the banks.  We noticed that some of these people put up in the verandas and this is a derailment of the agricultural programme by the State.  What is Government policy regarding access to cash? Not only that, also the protection of these people and their social welfare so that they can be assisted in their times of need because these people should go back to their homes instead of staying in towns.

 *THE HON. VICE PRESIDENT AND MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. MNANGAGWA):  Thank you Madam Speaker to say the least, I feel more hurt than what the Hon. Members is expressing because every time I see these people in the queues, the old women, old men and ‘others people’, it hurts me greatly – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –

*THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:  I also heard that Hon. Vice President.  It was a slip of the tongue because a human being is a human being.

*HON. MNANGAGWA: As I stated before it is my wish that Government should take timely steps so that we do away with this liquidity crunch.  In order for us to access funds there are four ways which we have to use.  The first one is that we have people who would have exported their goods and then receive payments, that is when we can get our money.  The second way of accessing cash is through Foreign Direct Investment, where we have foreigners coming in to establish businesses in Zimbabwe and in that way we can have money.  The third aspect is that we have friends and relatives who are in the diaspora who will think of their homes and know that home is best and hence they send money, in that way Zimbabwe will be able to get money.  The fourth aspect of getting money is that the Government should get lines of credit bilaterally or multilaterally.

You cannot get money into the country through any other means besides these four stated instances, regardless of how much infrastructure we may construct, regardless of the roads, rail and air system; regardless of the accommodation and offices.  This will not earn us any funds but these four state ways Zimbabwe can get money and we need to improve on these aspects.  As a result, we sit down as people of Zimbabwe.  I know we have said we sit down and have these discussions in this august House.  If you were absent, well that is another way but as a country as the policy markers of Zimbabwe, we said we can conquer this cash shortage through the introduction of bond notes.

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