By Moregiven Sithole
Zimbabwe Congress for Trade Unions (ZCTU) has castigated the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mangudya, saying his cluelessness has thrown the country into the current economic turmoil.
Addressing journalists at a press conference in Harare ZCTU President, Peter Mutasa said RBZ is responsible for the spiralling black market of money adding that Mangudya must resign and pave way for a more competent governor to save the country from the economic crisis.
“It is no secret that the country is in this serious predicament largely because of fiscal indiscipline that is being driven by a culture of consumerism by a broke and clueless government that can not accept that it has failed.”
“The spiralling black market can only be blamed on the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe as the sole monetary authority and government ministers. How do we explain the existence of million of mint crisp bond notes on the streets when the banks are issuing the smallest coin denominations?”
“Mangudya must explain to the nation how these huge sums of money are ending up in the hands of few individuals,” he said.
Mutasa said people must not be scared to criticise government policies as this leads to more problems in the country.
He urged Zimbabwean to speak loudly against corruption.
“Given the present environment of fear and oppression, our message to the people is that too much fear breeds misery in the land, let us rise up and cure this cancer before it devours us all,” said Mutasa.
The trade Union leader said if decisive action is not taken Zimbabwe would immediately plunge into the 2008 scenerio, which was characterised by hyperinflation and the shortage of basic commodities in the country.
ZCTU the current government must dissolve and pave way for a transitional authority to boost confidence in the economy and institute the much needed reforms before the 2018 general elections.
The bond notes which were injected into the economy late last year trading at par with the United States dollar have seen market forces devaluing the bond notes creating high premiums against the USD on the parallel market.
