What Ziyambi said about the cash crisis in Zimbabwe in full

HON. MLISWA: Mr. Speaker Sir, you recall that the last time the Minister of Finance has not been in the House for the past two months and we keep referring questions to him. This issue of cash is critical to the country and we cannot keep on postponing that issue. Why does he allow himself to take questions which he knows he cannot respond to? It is a waste of time. The whole nation wants to know what legislators are doing about the cash crisis. – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Mr. Speaker, it is either the Government admits that it have failed and then we go to a new Government so that it can solve the problems. It is either you have done it or you have not. It is a fact and I say so. Thank you.

THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order, order please!

HON. GONESE: Thank you very much Mr. Speaker Sir. My supplementary question to the Hon. Minister of Justice, in his capacity as the Leader of the House is – what are the concrete measures, the specific interventions that his Government is going to come up with in order to resolve this crisis which is a debilitating crisis which affects all the people of Zimbabwe? It is important Mr. Speaker for the Hon. Minister to give us an indication as to when we can expect this crisis to be resolved. It has been with us for a very long time and I believe that as a Member of Cabinet, they sit in Cabinet, they must be ceased with these matters and it is critical that the Hon. Leader of the House tells us what are the specific and concrete policy measures that they want to put in place in order to resolve this crisis and as to when we can expect a solution?  If they are clueless, they must tell us so that they have no answer to the crisis. – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –

THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order! Order at the back, Hon. Members, I think the Hon. Minister was abundantly clear.  He said that he will refer all those questions to the relevant Minister. So, there is no problem. – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Order, Order! Please take your seat. Hon. Mliswa, why do we not remain friends? If you continue, I may ask you to go out? – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] Yes, I will do that.

HON. ZIYAMBI: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.  I want to thank Hon. Gonese for the question.  I have to preface the answer by saying that we have RTGs money and we have United States dollars.  In circulation at any one given time now, we have about US$500 million compared to about $1.5 billion RTGs money.  So, you will find that the demand for US dollars is more than what we have in terms of RTGs money.  What the Government has been doing is to ensure that we put policies to ensure that we promote investment into the country so that we have inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country.

We have several projects that are going to be initiated that are going to come into the country. Most of them are in the public domain. The main purpose of that is that when foreign currency starts flowing into the country, there will be a balance between what we have and the RTGs money and the shortages will subside.  Thank you.

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