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The decision by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration to peg all business registration fees in United States dollars has been described as a reflection that the Zanu-PF regime itself has no confidence in the Zimbabwe dollar.
Brian Sedze: “Zimbabwe has no willpower to adopt a local currency because its implementation rots at top leadership, political arena and those who won’t follow the rules of the game are crony capitalists. It stinks.”
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has announced the imminent introduction of a ZWL100 banknote amid the gradual loss of value of the local currency.
Government yesterday gazetted new regulations that criminalise the conduct of charging above the official exchange rate and refusing to take the Zimdollar in local transactions.
The legal validity of a Supreme Court judgment which converted United States dollar debts to the Zimdollar at a rate of 1:1 in line with Statutory Instrument 33 of 2019, must be tested by a nine-judge panel of the Constitutional Court, according to lawyers acting for NR Barber, a mining company, locked in a fierce legal battle with Zambezi Gas Pvt Ltd.
Finance minister Mthuli Ncube yesterday vowed that government will not take the Zimdollar out of circulation despite pleas by MPs across the political divide that it had brought suffering to Zimbabweans.
NR Barber, a mining firm, is seeking the Constitutional Court (Concourt)’s permission to challenge last month’s Supreme Court ruling which converted United States dollar debts to the Zimdollar at a rate of 1:1 in line with Statutory Instrument 33 of 2019.
Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling declaring that debts owed in United States dollars (US$) incurred on or before February 22, 2019 should be settled using the Zimdollar at a 1:1 parity will further deepen investor mistrust and complicate the prospects of economic revival, analysts have said.
The Zimdollar (ZWL$) has devalued by 41,57% to $9,16 against the United States dollar on the official interbank market due to low forex and market confidence, a month after it was reintroduced, analysts have said.
By Ed Stoddard
Zimbabwe last week made its interim currency, the RTGS dollar, the country’s sole legal tender, drawing the curtains on a decade of United States dollar dominance. Harare was forced to abandon its own dollar in 2009 and adopt the greenback as its de facto medium of exchange in the face of hyperinflation and economic meltdown. Against this backdrop, what could possibly go wrong?