ZiG continues to hold its own

The Zimbabwe Gold, ZiG, continued to firm against the United States dollar ending the week at 13.3975 up from 13.4825 at the beginning of the week.

The currency, introduced six weeks ago, on 5 April, is stronger than when it started trading on 8 April when it was pegged at 15.5616.  It is still way off its peak of 13.2517 that it hit on 24 April but far better than the low of 13.6757 on 6 May..

The government is cracking down on illegal foreign currency trading and businesses using black market exchange rates. It has ordered businesses to use one exchange rate, the official exchange rate determined by the interbank market.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube says the government is focussing on the stability of the exchange rate before introducing further measures to push demand for the use of the local currency.

The public have every right to be sceptical about the new currency as they have lost savings because of the collapse of other local currencies that the government has introduced after 2000.

While the government blames speculators and saboteurs of the local currency, sources say the biggest culprits are senior Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front officials as they have access to the ZiG and are normally immune to arrest.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa hinted at this six years ago when he said:“Reports and submissions before me on illicit currency dealings point to an intricate network of currency speculators mostly in high places and in places of trust.

“In a number of cases which have now been brought to government’s attention, some of our guardians of the financial services sector have either not discharged their roles fully, or have not done so honestly.

“In other cases, some have colluded with negative elements, both inside and outside the banking system, to aid and abet these illicit transactions. Considering that more than $9 billion is passing through different electronic platforms and leaving an ‘electronic trail’, it is inconceivable that these illicit transactions have and can ever go on undetected or unnoticed.

“It simply cannot be. Someone somewhere sees this, or simply winks.”

At the time,The Insider, was shown a list of who was involved in the illegal forex market that the party had compiled and it had names of some government ministers and politburo members.

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