RURAL communities have called on the new inclusive Government to restore the Many people still have piles of local currency, which have been rendered
useless, as most traders were not accepting it as a legal tender -preferring
to sell their products and services in United States of America dollar,
South African rand, British pound and Botswana pula.
The rural communities’ concerns follow the presentation of the first quarter
of the 2009 Monetary Policy, in which the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor,
Dr Gideon Gono, presented that the new measures were meant to liberalise the
economy.
Since the announcement, virtually all services and goods providers started
charging in hard currency without accepting the local currency as a legal
tender. This has had a telling effect on the rural communities, who are
struggling to come to terms with raising the required foreign currency,
hence, the latest call to Government to have the local currency – which they
have ready access – to retain its legal tender status.
"Tiri kufa nenzara apa tiine mazakwatira emari yemun,o asi mashops ari
kuiramba. Deno Hurumende itsva yadzorera mari yedu yakare. Hatina nzira
yekuwana nayo mari iyi yekunze. Ini ndichitaura kudai, handisati ndambowana
chinonzi foreign currency chacho.
(We are dying here, but we have wads of local currency, which all shops are
not accepting. Our only call for the new Government is to restore the value
of the local unit. We have no way of accessing the foreign currency and as I
am speaking, I have never seen how this ‘foreign currency’ looks like),"
said one elderly farmer from Himalaya in Mpudzi Resettlement Scheme in
Mutare rural.
A Zimunya woman, Mrs Jane Madove, urged the business community not to take
advantage of the current economic crisis to rip off consumers.
"We might be in a crisis, but at times our business people are becoming
greedy and exploiting rural communities. We are calling on the new
Government to address the plight of the rural communities.
We do not have any way of getting foreign currency, and while all these
shops in rural areas do not have foreign currency trading licences, they are
charging all their goods in forex. We hope the new Government will give back
value to our dollar," she said.
However, the new Finance Minister, Mr Tendai Biti, was quoted in the Press
as saying adopting the rand currency would not resolve the country’s
problems without a package of economic reforms.
"Using the rand without addressing fundamentals that have led to this
economy where we are will not work. It doesn’t benefit Zimbabwe or South
Africa," said Mr Biti.
The Finance Minister said he would engage Western donors, who were sceptical
of the power-sharing Government with President Mugabe and have set
conditions for the release of aid.
Post published in: Agriculture