By Bridget Mananavire
Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa was yesterday heckled by protesters draped in Zimbabwe flags as he left Chatham House in London.
He was rescued by British police who protected him from the angry crowd.
The mob was shouting at the Finance minister as he left Chatham House, which is the Royal Institute of International Affairs, an independent policy institute based in London.
Chinamasa is in the United Kingdom together with Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya on a mission to woo international investors.
In the video posted on micro-blogging site, Twitter, protesters could be heard shouting: “Chinamasa wauraya nyika (you have destroyed the county)” and also spewing obscenities.
A grinning Chinamasa had to be escorted by security details.
The demonstrations in London coincide with a wave of protests in Zimbabwe.
The current wave of protests began when Mangudya announced that government would be introducing bond notes.
And the situation was worsened when government banned the importation of goods including groceries, household and building material under the open general import license.
In London, Chinamasa and Mangudya will meet British investors and later European business people.
The purpose of the mission, according to Mangudya is “to present and garner support on the re-engagement plan from the financial markets in the UK and Europe”.
As part of trying to improve the ease-of-doing-business, government has been instituting sweeping reforms while pushing its re-engagement agenda which includes normalising relations with Bretton Woods institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Zimbabwe must pay at least $1,8 billion to access low interest loans from the IMF, African Development Bank and the World Bank.
The country is in the throes of a bleeding economy which has spawned cash shortages and high unemployment.
To deal with the crisis, the RBZ will be introducing bond notes in October as it seeks to stabilise the jittery market, but the suspicious public perceives the move as a way of bringing the reviled Zimbabwe dollar “via the backdoor.” Daily News