RBZ chief brings back Gono disaster: MDC-T

Obert Gutu

Mangudya took over from Gideon Gono whose reign at the RBZ resulted in the country being forced to ditch its currency in 2009 after it was rendered worthless by world record hyperinflation.

But the US dollar which the country has largely used since then is now desperately short, forcing many Zimbabweans to spend hours in queues as banks are forced to limit daily withdrawals.

The RBZ plans to introduce so-called bond notes later this year to help mitigate the crisis among a host of other measures with President Robert Mugabe claiming Thursday that the crisis would end “soon”.

But the MDC-T said central bank boss Mangudya was doing his best to “exacerbated the situation”.

“From the beginning, Mangudya’s mooted idea to introduce the bond notes a couple of weeks ago, has resulted in massive capital flight as this has increased uncertainty in business,” said party spokesman Obert Gutu in a statement.

“As if he hasn’t learnt anything from the 2008 crisis, Mangudya is foolishly and arrogantly following the same destructive route followed by his predecessor Gideon Gono.

“It is disturbing that Mangudya is failing to realise that his ill-conceived idea has not only caused panic in business but has also forced importers and remittance-senders to the black market.

“It is abundantly clear that the black market will worsen upon the introduction of the bond notes.”

Gutu said the central banks package of measures aimed at trying to address only deal with the symptoms and not root cause of the cash crisis.

“Mangudya and his handlers in the corrupt Zanu PF regime conveniently appear to be oblivious of the fact that the current low business and consumer confidence coupled with massive cash flight from the banks, is a result of lack of trust of the corrupt Zanu PF regime by the general public and business alike,” he said.

“The world over, common economic logic dictates that, any financial service system only functions on the basis of trust and if that trust is broken, such manifestation as are happening in our banking and business sector would ensue.

“It is disturbing that Mangudya would suddenly think that business and the general public would miraculously begin to trust the central bank given their experiences during the quasi – fiscal escapades of Gono in 2008.

“Mangudya has got only one option left and that is to resign in order to preserve the little dignity if any, he is left with.

“Only a wholesale and complete change of government will be able to extricate Zimbabwe from the prevailing financial and socio-economic mayhem.”