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Speaking at an Alpha Media Holdings Conversations on The Introduction of Bond Notes jointly hosted by Africa University in Mutare yesterday, Irvin Mbengo from the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association said the introduction of bond notes were not the solution to the country’s socio-economic woos.
Mbengo is also the Manicaland war veterans deputy political commissar.
“We need to tell each other the truth here. The issue of bond notes is not our solution. There is need to have solid relations between the political parties in Zimbabwe. The parties need to be united. The GPA is only the solution here,†he said.
In 2009, the Government of National Unity (GNU) was set up on the basis of the Global Political Agreement (GPA). The agreement came about as a result of inconclusive elections which had seen President Robert Mugabe being beaten by Morgan Tsvangirai and Zanu PF losing its parliamentary majority to the two MDC formations.
“The problem is that the political leadership in this country is taking too much time concentrating in political issues rather than address the genuine problems in our country,†Mbengo added.
“We have too many thieves in the leadership of this country. There is corruption everywhere and our country’s leadership is protecting corrupt officials. In countries like China and India corrupt officials and thives within the country’s political leadership are executed by way of firing. So in Zimbabwe someone needs to be fired in the head by the bullet,†explained the popular war veterans amid cheers from the participants.
“We want ethical leadership and good corporate governance. How can a minister present a fake $10 billion cheque for the Zimunya-Marange Community Share Ownership Trust and yet up to now we still do not know what happened to that money,†he added.
“During the GPA we saw local industries beginning to fire up providing jobs where there were none for years. Public education and health care systems, which virtually shut down in 2008 due to political turmoil and economic stress, had a significant recovery,†he said.
Mbengo added that in 2008 Zimbabwe virtually collapsed.
“Everything was dead in the country. But when the GPA came in everything came alive again. There were no queues in banks and in actual fact people withdrew all their moneys from the banks because there were the multiple currencies (United States Dollar) everything went well smoothly,†he explained.
“Now we are back at it again, we have long queues and cashless banks.
We should not be late again, GPA is the only solution,†said Mbengo.
He said instead of introducing the bond notes there was need for the government to priorities more production in companies and farms.
“We grabbed the land, but, what are we producing. We are importing maize worth more than $200 million. The companies have closed and nothing is there, something must be done as early as possible and the GPA is the answer and not bond notes.
In making some responses the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Deputy Director (International Banking &Portfolio Management) Ernest Matiza said there were huge expectations on bond notes.
“People had huge expectations on the bond notes. The introduction of bond notes into the economy was only meant to incentivise exporters, boost local industry production, create employment and ease the liquidity crunch, among other benefits,†he said.
“However, my message to the Zimbabweans is that they must have trust in the bond notes. People must embrace them,†said Matiza.
However, participants at the discussions expressed doubt of the RBZ’s move to roll out the bond notes without widely consulting various stakeholders.