RBZ official booed at bond notes consultation meeting

A RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) official had a torrid time trying to explain the introduction of bond notes at a meeting with civic groups in Bulawayo on Thursday, evening, as the crowd constantly booed him.

Source: RBZ official booed at bond notes consultation meeting – NewsDay Zimbabwe December 3, 2016

BY SHARON SIBINDI

RBZ official, Kasanda Sibanda appeared to have provoked the participants when he asked them to give the government a chance to correct its mistakes.

He said the RBZ faced challenges, as people no longer banked their money, with an estimated $5 billion believed to be stored in homes.

“We get foreign currency from How Mine, Zimplats and Mimosa Platinum. People have $5bn, which they are keeping and it’s not in the banks,” he said.

Residents booed him after he failed to explain issues about the disputed surrogate currency.

They labelled him a puppet, saying what he was saying were not his views, but those of his “funders”.

The residents said he must go and advise his boss, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa to resign, as he had clearly failed to run the economy.

Sibanda, who tried to respond to numerous questions posed by residents, who later walked out of the hall, while at the same time jeering him.

The meeting, held at the Bulawayo Small City Hall, was organised by Habakkuk Trust, Shalom Project and Plumtree Development Trust.

Speaking at the meeting, Nqobizitha Dube from the National University of Science and Technology had earlier on said Zimbabweans no longer trusted the government.

He said they were still “hounded by the trauma” they faced during the 2007 and 2008 hyperinflationary period.

“It is hard for the people to accept bond notes and it makes it difficult to trust the government,” Dube said.

Samkele Hadebe said if the RBZ had no confidence in the bond notes, neither would ordinary people and investors.

Hadebe said people were not fighting the government, but wanted it to restore confidence on the market.

“People are not fighting the government, but the policies that keep hurting them all the time. Just check what happened during the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme in 1992, people are hurt,” he said.

Matshobana Ncube said the bond notes were illegal.

“The new Constitution says you cannot make laws without consulting the people of Zimbabwe. The people’s opinions should be there too. The constitutional court should test this decision and the indigenisation law should be revisited, ” he said.

Participants said they feared if they deposited their money in banks, it could be turned into “bond papers”.