Our US dollars should not disappear from our accounts- MP says

Warren Park Member of Parliament Elias Mudzuri says Zimbabweans need assurance that their United States dollars, currently in their accounts, will not disappear because they want to use them for travelling and importing goods.

Speaking during the debate on the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill which seeks to legalise bond notes, Mudzuri said the only people that were benefitting from the introduction of the surrogate notes were money changers on the streets.

“They are busy exchanging currencies.  There are a lot of people who are creating other accounts outside this country.  If you want to deposit money into a certain account, they say bring the US$ and they post that money to Dubai and other such places and they will charge you 10% or so,” he said. 

“So, we are creating another problem because of the introduction of the bond note and we do not know how best it can be controlled.  We should not have brought the bond notes.  The US dollar should have remained in circulation.  People are not accessing the money because of the bond notes. 

“We need assurance as we finalise debate on the Bill that the US dollar that we are saying is equivalent to the bond note, if we had done that in 2008 and said one quintillion was equal to US$1, we could have been somewhere.

“We are now eroding the US dollar account and eventually, we are going to hear that all our accounts now have bond notes.  Our US dollars should not disappear from our accounts because we use them for travelling, paying school fees and importing goods.  How best can we access our US dollars without being controlled by the RBZ?” he asked.

Full contribution:

HON. ENG. MUDZURI:  Madam Speaker Ma’am, I thank you for the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill (Bond Notes Bill).  I want to add my voice to a number of people who have presented their cases in terms of this Bill.  I would rather change and speak in Shona.

*Madam Speaker, the issue of the Reserve Bank Amendment Bill arose from the Emergency Powers.  Then, the people gave their opinion on bond notes and it is a pity that the bond notes are now in use.  We have never heard of a country that came up with a law and insisted that different entities are the same.  The problems that the people are facing are that when one arrives in a banking hall, people do not know what type of currency they would be receiving.  I questioned the Leader of the House and he answered by saying that; upon your entering into the bank, you are told that you are going to receive so much US dollars and so much bond notes being withdrawn from one account.  But, I would remember that people were forced to have Foreign Currency Accounts that they used to transact in US dollar notes.  The banks can now decide whether to give you bond notes or US dollar notes which you may not want to use.   But the Leader of the House in response to my question said, I would be given a currency of my choice and I should specify what currency one receives after they have deposited what type of currency.

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