“Mthuli, Mangudya must resign over RTGS dollars”

MDC-Alliance National spokesperson Jacob Mafume has called for the resignation of the Minister of Finance and Economic Development Professor Mthuli Ncube and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mangudya for introducing a fictitious currency .

In his full statement Mafume said:

At least six weeks after Mangudya presented a wishy-wash, self-contradictory and retrogressive Monetary Policy Statement, Zimbabweans are paying the prices

The exchange rate is collapsing every day, the price of the US dollar continues to firm against the fictitious RTGS dollar.

It is fictitious both by definition and by reality; sadly ED Mnangagwa is creating jokes around it.

He flanks himself with his chief economic aides – John Mangudya and Mthuli Ncube to make terrible economic decisions which worsen the suffering of the citizen.

The MDC finds this unacceptable.

We find it unacceptable for Mnangagwa to insult a currency which he imposed on the people and legislated through the back door by way of an unconstitutional statutory instrument.

He is not only responsible for its creation but the fundamentals around it both the objective circumstances (Trade position or the relationship between exports and imports) and the subjective (The social contract or its absence thereof).

There are unending spikes of prices of basic commodities.

The fuel crisis is worsening.

We made the point that the monetary policy should have removed the role of RBZ in allocating funds for fuel.

The fuel industry has the capacity to import on its own and shortages would not be an issue.

This is also true with any other quasi-fiscal activity pronounced together with the introduction of the so-called RTGS dollar.

Mangudya and Mthuli must resign.

The country requires genuine structural reforms. Sadly and strangely, the man who pretends to be doing this work is celebrating turning the nation into beggars.

MDC: Defining a New Course for Zimbabwe

Jacob Mafume
MDC National Spokesperson