President Robert Mugabe, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mangudya and Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa have not been honest to Zimbabweans on the actual causes of the current cash crisis and real motive behind the controversial introduction of bond notes in the country.
It is shocking that it has taken a few months only since his assumption of office for Mangudya to expose his ineptitude to the watchful eyes of locals and the international community.
To us it is now clear that the primary cause of the cash shortages is that the government has literally been raiding the real time gross settlement (RTGS) balances at the central bank to pay for its recurrent expenditure.
Zimbabwe’s wage bill is clearly unsustainable and is driving a major budget deficit, which we estimate to be 30% of the gross domestic product (GDP).
It is our belief that the hole in the RTGS balances is as huge as $2 billion and has left Chinamasa and Mangudya with no choice, but to commit suicide through the measures announced on May 4, 2016.
Indeed, as our colleague, Eddie Cross has been saying, the government has been issuing Treasury Bills (TBs) like confetti as if there is no tomorrow. These TBs have been honoured from the RBZ.
It is our view that Chinamasa and Mangudya must stop lying to the people of Zimbabwe and the International Monetary Fund.
As the late Bob Marley sang in his classic hit, Get Up, Stand Up: “You can fool some people some time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time”.
As PDP, the people of Zimbabwe and indeed the international community deserve to know the truth.
We, therefore, demand a forensic audit on the TBs issued by the State and other incestuous parties like the Zimbabwe Asset Management Corporation (Zamco) and another one on all transactions at the RBZ, in particular the RTGS balances.
As PDP, we are convinced that in a bid to mislead the public, the RBZ and government has found it convenient to believe that the liquidity crisis is due to foreign currency leakages, when the truth is that Chinamasa has been raiding the RBZ coffers, leading to the current cash crisis and long bank queues.
Thanks to Zanu PF, this country is in a deep terrible economic crisis. That crisis is structural and deep-rooted.
That crisis is beyond the reach and capabilities of the clueless and knows-it-all Mangudya and the rage and fury of the cunning Chinamasa, who are busy addressing symptoms and not the real crisis.
As one top local businessman put it recently, when a child has diarrhoea, one does not buy tonnes of diapers for the child, the wise parent takes the child to the hospital.
We reiterate our position that Zimbabwe needs a political solution to the current economic crisis.
We restate that there is need for a National Transitional Authority (NTA) to avoid the national crisis that the country is heading for due to the cluelessness and failure of the Zanu PF government.