ZiG firms against US dollar for 10 days running but people still do not have confidence in the currency

Mr. President Sir, I will give you a scenario that happened in this country. In 2009 when we dollarised, this country did not have any money but because of the confidence and this belief that the GNU was a saviour, people survived and there was no inflation because of that. Now when we have some reserves because of this lack of confidence, we find our dollar fluctuating but what I can say is, we are doing all the efforts to bring back the confidence to ensure that we increase our reserves so that we can put measures to ensure that we mitigate this exchange loss that is happening because of speculation. We are now coming up with a roadmap towards dedollarisation because we believe that using the USD is not helping us at all and we cannot control it because it is not our currency. So, we are putting up measures to beef up our currency so that once we go on that roadmap, that will result in stabilising the currency and our prices will stabilise. 

I believe that this is an area that we can debate a lot when the Minister comes with the actual current figures but what we have noticed and why I am indicating that is largely due to lack of confidence and speculation. We have been offering money for sale and we are the ones who are offering and what we are offering per week, the market is unable to buy all of it. We then begin to wonder why the rate is above the one that we are offering. We believe that it is this panic in the population that we need to cure to say that when you have your money, your ZiG, you must be satisfied and have confidence. Once all of us have confidence in our currency, then that inflation that you have been talking about that is Zimbabwean made that you will not find in economic books will go away. Thank you. 

HON. SEN. CHIEF NHEMA: Thank you Mr. President. Mine is a supplementary but I have seen that it is almost the same. My issue is, what is Government doing now that we are faced with the festive season so that the ZiG is accepted in the shops? Maybe it is different where we stay from the ministers because here in towns, it can buy in big shops like OK but where we live in the rural areas, we do not have OK Shops and they do not accept ZiG. As we approach Christmas, our friends and relatives visit us. We do not understand and we say there are companies that are given USD so that they import raw materials from outside. If you visit the rural shops, the shops that sell cement and everything do not accept ZiG because they are saying all our suppliers do not accept ZiG. We want you to help us so that in the rural areas, we are able to buy using ZIG.

THE ACTING PRESIDENT OF SENATE: Thank you Hon. Sen. Chief Nhema. This is a different question all together but let me allow the Minister to respond. 

THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. Z. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Mr. President and I also thank the chief for his question. His question 

is in line with what I have said that our biggest problem is that as a nation, we have not embraced our own currency. We are used to saying that foreign currency is the best and that is what the shop owners think but in our investigations, we want to put in place things so that they accept the currency without forcing them. As it is, Mr. President, the money that is circulating in this country, the ZiG, is constituting 20% of the money in circulation. The foreign currency is the one that is in circulation. As we are approaching Christmas, we are going to enjoy because the money that we have in our pockets now is 80% but we want to put things in place so that we do not force those who sell. We want to put in place plans so that our money is accepted. It is not a one day job but we will go step by step so that people have confidence that even if you have it in your pocket, you will not get afraid. 

(62 VIEWS)