People believe that as soon as they get the local currency, they panic and want to use it immediately thinking that something might happen. That way, we feel that it is very expensive but what is happening now is, we have seen some big companies that are actually going to the Reserve Bank saying we have US dollars in exchange of ZiG. What we want to encourage the people is that let us not use or spend all our monies from the bank in terms of money or gold; if we want to buy the ZiG, it is not more than 23. The 23 and 33, that is what we are saying is the panic rate amongst people who think something might happen. Nothing is going to happen this time around, that is what we are saying. That is the panic rate amongst people who think something might happen but nothing is going to happen this time around. I thank you Mr. Speaker.
HON. MADZIVANYIKA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I heard the Hon. Minister saying that people panic when they have the local currency. He referred to confidence. My supplementary question; is it not possible Hon. Minister, for us to remove that panic and allow the businesses to charge the prices that they want so that people may not panic that the money may lose value? Is it not possible for businesses to be allowed to trade in the rates that they feel valuable to them so that we do not go back to this cycle again? I thank you.
HON. Z. ZIYAMBI: Thank you Mr. Speaker. Such a thought must be thrown away by the Hon. Member because what we are working out is to remove foreign currencies like Mr. Trump’s currency whereby tomorrow, he might wake up and say Trump first. As a country, we want to use our local currency, which is what we want to internalise.
HON. G. CHIGUMBU: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Hon. Minister for the clear response that there is a clear plan that we want to have on local currency. When can we expect that currency which will be acceptable to other countries?
HON. Z. ZIYAMBI: We do not wish to have money that will be accepted by other countries but our wish is to have a currency that is accepted locally. If you want to go to South Africa, that is the role of Dr. Mushayavanhu; go to the bank, why do you want our money to be accepted elsewhere when there are banks that are dedicated for that? I thank you.
HON. MAMBIPIRI: Thank you Hon. Speaker Sir. I thank the Hon. Minister that there are measures to strengthen the currency to ensure that we do not panic. What strengthens currency are not words but measures. What measures is Government putting in place to ensure that the currency comes strong so that we do not panic?
HON. Z. ZIYAMBI: Thank you Hon. Speaker. What is important is, let us not have a view that our money does not work, nothing else is needed. If you believe that our money works, you are good, you are correct that is the measure – [Laughter.] –
THE HON. SPEAKER: I have no comment.
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