Mnangagwa to use emergency powers to deal with unexplained wealth and bank deposits

By Gift Phiri

President Emmerson Mnangagwa is finalising drafting legislation that will restore stability and eliminate mischief in the money markets, his spokesperson George Charamba told the Daily News.

Charamba also revealed that Mnangagwa will use emergency powers to deal with unexplained wealth and bank deposits in wide-sweeping measures that will see tighter bank surveillance as well as target tax dodgers.

“If we find that an account that had two cents yesterday suddenly has $40 million, the first thing we do is to provisionally impound that and we push the onus for you to explain the source of those funds,” he warned ominously.

This comes after prices of basic commodities spiralled through the roof last month after the bond note and Real Time Gross Settlement rates took a heavy battering against the United States dollar on the parallel market.

Treasury has denied that the wide exchange rate movements were in response to a two percent tax introduced last month by the ministry of Finance on all electronic transactions, insinuating there could be some hidden forces taking positions on the market.

A communications task established by the ministry confirmed these suspicious when its then chairperson, Acie Lumumba, heaped the blame on the shadowy “Queen Bee” whom he said was presiding over a cartel that dictates the pace and direction the market takes.

Charamba said Mnangagwa has confidence in Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mangudya’s ability to restore stability in the monetary system, saying despite attempts to smear the central bank the presidency will not be fooled by such.

Asked if the president thought Mangudya has guaranteed monetary stability, Charamba retorted: “He doesn’t have to think; he knows he is guaranteed, because as you can see the real culprits have been dealt with and the impact has been most dramatic, hasn’t it? Why do we go on barking at the wrong tree when we know where the fault is? We don’t rely on the social media.”

Asked about the volatility of the money markets which has caused monetary and financial instability, Charamba said: “The miscreants of the money markets are known to us.”

Asked to respond to the accusation that the “miscreants” were being protected by the presidency, Charamba said: “No that’s a perception. To show you we were targeting the miscreants, our initial intervention has restored normalcy, hasn’t it?” Daily News