The Case for the use of our Local Currency

Cash versus the Digital Currency and RTGS

The RBZ should know that ordinary people in the street need cash for various reasons. The people in the informal sector and the unbanked need both the Zimbabwean dollar and the US dollar for transactional purposes for their day-to-day use. The informal sector and the unbanked do not need digital currencies(RTGS) but want hard cash unlike the formal sector and those who have access to banks and banking facilities. The RBZ is making it difficult for the informal sector by reducing bank cash withdrawals.

Effect of Low Cash Withdrawl Limit 

The effect of the low cash withdrawal limit imposed by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has caused the rates of the RTGS against the US dollar and the Zimbabwean dollar to rise sharply on the black market. It is the formal sector that is driving the rate of the RTGS black market rate as companies are buying the US dollar on the black market instead of going to the RBZ auction. The informal sector plays a small role in the black market as they have little or no access to the RTGS. The cash rate in the informal sector is lower than both the black market rate and the RBZ auction rate. 

Value of Physical Money and Cash Rate

The RBZ is failing to appreciate that physical money in Zimbabwean dollars or USA dollars has an intrinsic value which carries a positive premium versus the negative premium on RTGS.The negative premium results in the RTGS having costs loaded on every RTGS transaction.

 Physical money, which a person can touch and get immediate value after a transaction carries more weight than the RTGS or its digital equivalent which needs third parties to complete a transaction. It is a fact that almost all transactions in the informal sector are done on a cash basis as compared to the formal sector. 

The Power of Cash

The cash rate, the value of cash against the US dollar, is lower than the RBZ auction rate and the black market rate. This indicates that the Zimbabwean dollar has a role to play in our economy both in the formal and informal sectors. The RBZ should exploit the power of cash by pegging the Zimbabwean dollar cash withdrawal limit to the auction rate. The RBZ must recognise that the local currency withdrawal limit plays a role in stabilising the foreign exchange rate.

Accessibility as a Cost

The informal sector, the unbankable and the rural population need help accessing banking facilities like bank cards and banks. These people can only access banks through third parties at a cost. The costs of using RTGS are loaded on their transactions via government taxes, bank charges, unavailability of power, mobile network availability and transport costs to convert the RTGS into cash at the physical bank.

My argument is that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe must increase the withdrawal limits for the people to have access to cash. This will improve the use of our local currency and increase our confidence in the Zimbabwean Dollar.

Of Consensus, Democracy and Confusion

 Where is the democracy in the CCC outfit??

The election is a democratic process of choosing a person to get into public office. The process here in Zimbabwe starts typically at the grassroots level. Nelson Chamisa has come up with a weird and ambiguous way of coming up with candidates. The process which he calls "consensus"   is a way of imposing favoured friends as election candidates. The imposition of candidates is a sure way to lose an election. 

Our questions as Zimbabweans to the CCC are;
 Where is the democracy in this secret process of "consensus"? 

Who is the democratically elected leader of the CCC?

Where are the primary elections of aspiring members of parliament?



Bribing The Leader And Forgetting the Voter

The opposition party or cult,  the CCC, has sitting Members of Parliament paying $1000 to the self-imposed Nelson Chamisa to get their place in the next election. 

The question here is, is this a democratic process? Are the same MPs going to pay the voters in their constituency? The CCC approach to the election process is undemocratic and it will cost them voters and they will definitely lose the elections.

The MPs have bribed their leader and forgotten the people who are going to vote for them.




The Parties and Primaries

The Zanu-PF primaries are the true democracy at play. Let the masses elect their leaders, young, middle-aged or old. The crux of the matter is the ability of the chosen candidate to perform. The general public must question the way the CCC alliance is handling the election process. Those shadowy NGOs and fake civic organisations must comment on the going on in the CCC.

Youth Vote And Generational Renewal

This notion of thinking that youngsters are the alternative leadership is misplaced. The Zanu-PF primaries indicate that a party can undergo generational renewal using the available democratic processes. A good leader will always be identified by the electorate.


The youth vote is not the monopoly of the opposition parties as seen by the youth participating as voters and candidates in the Zanu-Pf primaries. The CCC must look at itself if they need to be relevant and appealing to the youths of Zimbabwe.

We the people of Zimbabwe are all for the youth. The future of the country and the revolution is in their hands. Let the youths play a role in all our democratic processes.

Zimbabwe is forever!!

Notice

The above blog post was previously published on 20 April 2018 on this blog

Zimbabwean Gold Mafia Exposed

The so-called Jeezera series on the so-called Gold Mafia of Zimbabwe has come and gone. The "expose" that Al Jazeera Investigative Unit (I-Unit) copied and pasted from what  I believe is an old CIA plot generated by the US Embassy. It is a tall tale and a web of falsehoods.

The people involved in Zimbabwean Gold Mafia are a group of people employed by the Zimbabwean government to export gold on the government’s behalf. It is a scheme to bust the USA and EU sanctions placed on political leaders and government entities².

 LOOTING OR SANCTION BUSTING

The so-called Gold Mafia have one goal:  Sanction Busting! Here is a government that is under sanctions that have been declared illegal by the United Nations. The government is buying gold from licenced dealers, who in turn have bought it from artisanal miners.

The licenced dealers sell their gold to Fidelity ( a wholly-owned government company run by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe). The Reserve Bank with concurrency of the Zimbabwean Treasury(Ministry of Finance) and the Cabinet ( Office of the President and Cabinet) can sell the gold to anyone. The three institutions have the people of Zimbabwe's mandate to sell gold, without consulting the USA, UK or the Al Jazeera Investigative Unit (I-Unit). 

The process of selling our gold is legal and above board except if you are a USA citizen because the Zimbabwean Government act is at odds with the ZIDERA sanctions bill made in the USA senate in 2000.

TALL TALE or NGANO DZATSURO NAGUDO

The Al Jezeera Investigative Unit has told us a tall tale. The very act of having a phone call without a face at the other end of the line is a sign that they are selling us the people of Zimbabwe a lie. In this age and hour where we can Skype, Google Meet or Zoom the clever guys at Al Jazeera would like us to believe that we are still in the 1970s. In Shona, we say "Ingano dzaTsuro naGudo" .....a  tall fairy tale!!

HOW TO JOIN THE GOLD MAFIA

The Al Jeezera Unit should have had a fifth episode of how a Zimbabwean can be part of the Gold Mafia. It would have been helpful to the doubting Thomases among us. 

It will have gone like this: you can buy a claim or go to the nearest river, I recommend Mutare  River and take your sieve and start work. If you get your gold point, sell it to a licenced buyer. Get your money and be part of the gold Mafia.

For those with money, you can apply for a gold buying licence from Fidelity, buy gold from makorokoza in the above paragraph, process the gold and sell it to Fidelity. Get your money and you are now part of the Gold Mafia.

I am waiting for the Al Jeezera Investigative Unit to come out with Episode 5 of the Gold Mafia. I know they can not investigate with half-telephone conservations on this one.

Source: Conversation with Bing, 14/5/2023(1) BREAKING: Al Jazeera Investigative Unit’s Zimbabwe Gold Mafia .... https://www.zimeye.net/2023/03/02/breaking-al-jazeera-investigative-units-zimbabwe-gold-mafia-documentary-unleashed/ Accessed 14/5/2023.

(2) How a ‘Gold Mafia’ is looting Southern Africa, washing dirty cash. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/23/gold-mafia-looting-southern-africa Accessed 14/5/2023.

Nelson Chamisa And The White Supremacists Sponsored Poll

The Poll from Hell

Early this month I woke up to see not only one tweet but a barrage of tweets on my Twitter timeline. It was not your usual tweet but a tweet announcing that Nelson Chamisa had come out tops on a poll survey. He was leading Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa by a wide margin.

 

 I looked at it at the team that had done the poll and I laughed at the name! I looked at the sponsors of the survey and I nearly choked over my cup of tea! I looked up and wondered at the objective of flooding my timeline with those tweets. I then realised that it was a poll made in hell. Why you may ask me?

 

Cecil John Rhodes

Rhodesia was founded and plundered by a company called the British South Africa Company a charted company created by Cecil John Rhodes with the blessing of Queen Victoria, the Queen of England. 

 

This company was to become the owner of all of the land and minerals between the Zambezi River and the Limpopo River. It was the start of the white supremacists' domination and the creation of one of the most complex systems to oppress black people. It is also the source of the poll from hell that has jettisoned Chamisa to the top of the white supremacists' favourite lists.

 

Anglo American Corporation

When Cecil John died in 1902 the British South African Company was transformed into Anglo America Corporation. The company was inherited by the Oppenheimer family from Rhodes. The company was into every aspect of the Rhodesian economy. The AAC ran everything from farming, mining, manufacturing, finance and banking. 

 

The AAC's hold on the Rhodesian economy was only to break up into nebulous and obscure subsidiaries with head offices in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and London in 1980 after Independence. A point to note is that AAC subsidiaries were the conduit that the Rhodesian supremacists used to beat the United Nations sanctions. This white supremacist complex still has deep holds on our economy and our politics. The need to reclaim and control the Zimbabwean land resources is the reason for the poll from hell.

 

The  White Supremacists' Industrial Complex and Brenthurst Foundation

Let me now link the poll from hell with the white industrial complex. The link is the Brenthurst Foundation and the so-called Sabi Trust poll survey. The Brenthurst Foundation is the baby of the Oppenheimer family which is funded by the former AAC companies. The Brenthurst Foundation in turn funded the poll from hell.

 

I would like to lead the reader to why Chamisa come out tops on the poll from hell. Nelson Chamisa attended secretly a workshop on regime change (you can give it another name) in November 2018. The workshop was disguised as a "human rights" workshop. The workshop was to explore ways to fund opposition parties in all former British Colonies.

 

I personally view the poll as a reward to Chamisa for attending the workshop. This point out how the Rhodesian white supremacists' industrial complex has continued to influence our politics.

 

Pasi neMhandu !! Down with the enemy !! Zimbabwe will never be a colony again!!

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's wrong turn on Withdrawal Limits

 I was surprised by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's announcement of the increase in the weekly withdrawal limit from ZWL$5000 to ZWL$15000 on personal accounts. The announcement was made too late as the increase was not in tandem with the rise in the value of the United States dollar on the auction rate. There is no logical explanation or justification for the new withdrawal limit.

 

The RBZ had no rational explanation for the low withdrawal rate in as much as it affects the informal sector and the so-called unbankable rural citizens. The move by the bank to increase the withdrawal limit on personal accounts without increasing the monthly withdrawal limits ceiling is baffling.

 

The RBZ deliberate move to increase the unbankable group of our citizens into poverty as cash access to both the Zimbabwean dollar and the USA dollar will now be available only through the black market. The move will in the long run discourages saving and increase the informalization of our economy. Informalization will in turn decrease the country's taxation base.

 

The RBZ should have tied the withdrawal limit to the USA dollar equivalent, for example using the poverty datum line, the weekly limit should be around USD125.00 which will add up to USD 500. This is at today's black market cash rate of ZWL137500  weekly and ZWL550 000 monthly. These two limits should be allowed to move in tandem with the RBZ weekly auction rate.

The RBZ move to keep the cash withdrawal limit at unrealistic low levels will cause the margin between the Black Market Rate and the RBZ auction rate to widen.

 

The Governor explained that the withdrawal limit is in line with average wages earned is an insult. The Governor must be made aware that the wages are inadequate and people are living below the poverty line. The majority of our citizens both in formal and informal sectors have to hustle to cover the difference between their wages and the poverty datum line to survive. The hustle to cover the gap needs cash.

The RBZ should  revisit  the  cash withdrawal limits and increase them to realistic levels.