Bond notes worthless paper - Joyce Mujuru

Joyce Mujuru

OPPOSITION Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF) leader, Joice Mujuru, at the weekend, equated the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s proposed bond notes to toilet paper, which will not attract any commercial value, despite government’s frantic efforts to sanitise them.

Addressing party supporters at former ambassador, Agrippa Mutambara’s farm near Bindura in Mashonaland Central Province, Mujuru said it was illegal for government to benchmark the proposed notes against US dollar without the consent of the US government.

“Take note; don’t be fooled to think that you now have your own currency when you don’t have. They (bond notes) are worthless papers, toilet tissue. 

You will lose all your livestock to buyers, who will give you the worthless papers,” Mujuru, who served as President Robert Mugabe’s deputy for 10 years, before she was kicked out of government and Zanu PF in 2014 on charges of plotting to unseat the veteran politician, said.

“You (government) say we are printing bond notes in Germany, the money should be supported when you print it. You say you were supporting it with $200 million. If it is supported by US dollars, did America allow you to do that? This is illegal.”

The central bank has announced plans to introduce bond notes sometime in October to mitigate an acute shortage of cash, which has forced banks to introduce stringent cash withdrawal caps. Despite widespread resentment by citizens and opposition political parties over the move, the cash-strapped Zanu PF government has vowed to continue with the project.

Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa said the bond notes, to be traded at par with the green back, will be supported by a $200 million facility from Afreximbank.

Meanwhile, MDC-T youths yesterday threatened to roll out a series of anti-government protests this month under #MyZimbabwe campaign to force Mugabe to address the country’s deteriorating economic situation.

MDC-T youth secretary-general, Lovemore Chinoputsa, said they will join hands with other civil society actors, who have been demonstrating against the Mugabe regime.

“August will be a month of fighting the regime through all democratic and peaceful means at our disposal,” he said.

Source-Newsday