Cash crisis exposes clueless govt

Source: Cash crisis exposes clueless govt – DailyNews Live

8 May 2017

HARARE – There is no denying that the wheels have come off. And it is not
a secret that authorities are clueless as to how they can save the
country’s dying economy from completely imploding.

If there was evidence ever needed to highlight how things have fallen
apart in Zimbabwe, then one doesn’t need to look beyond the current cash
crisis.

As we report on our front page in today’s issue, the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) and government have failed to stem the shortages of  cash
that have left  the country perilously close to total chaos.

This failure to calm the jittery and panicking ordinary people and
stressed businesses is despite the RBZ injecting more bond notes into the
market and increasing their weekly importation of United States dollars by
50 percent.

Surely government needs to act decisively on this crisis.

What is disconcerting is that the RBZ at any given forum, continuously
talks about how money is being externalised by individuals and companies
who are known to them but are being let scot-free.

Add to the mix, bigwigs who have salted away millions of dollars, you can
easily see that the RBZ, no matter how much it tries to bring in measures
that plug leakages, is fighting a losing battle.

Clearly, the problem does not just lie with externalisation only, but
plugging loopholes and arresting the culprits who are well-known to the
monetary authorities, before Zimbabwe can talk about ramping up
production.

By his own admission, the RBZ governor John Mangudya, said forex earnings
had improved significantly on the back of improvements in the economy,
mainly in the agricultural and mining sectors, respectively.

But haven’t we walked this route before?

What was the result?

There is no political will to extricate Zimbabwe from this huge hole that
President Robert Mugabe and his cronies in Zanu PF have dug for the
country.

Consequently, opportunists have been encouraged to set up businesses and
loot both our resources and money at the expense of the suffering ordinary
people.

Politicians and crooks have aided these opportunists.

In the meantime, Zimbabweans can be forgiven for arguing that lightning
can strike twice.

Why not? In our case, history has repeated itself!

Zimbabweans experienced an economic crisis of huge proportions in the pre
2008 hyper inflationary era and we are faced with the same – a decade
after bringing stability in the form of using a multiple currency system.