Second own goal doesn’t cancel the first, Jonathan Moyo tells Mushayavanhu as he releases ZiG onto the market

Exiled former cabinet minister Jonathan Moyo has lambasted Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mushayavanhu over flip-flopping statements.

Mushayavanhu stirred debate after he said the government knew nothing about structured currency, but was sold the idea by the World Bank.

Meanwhile, getting reprimand from various quarters Mushayavanhu noticed his mistake and tried to change his earlier damaging remarks.

“I heard yesterday that people were now saying the structured currency that we introduced was given to us by the World Bank. That is not true.

“We got a consultant to work with us by [sic.] the World Bank who assisted us in getting further information on the structured currency and that enabled us to refine our our thoughts on that currency. We then proceeded to put together the monetary policy statement that we presented on the 5th of April,” he said.

However, Moyo says Mushayavanhu is entangling himself with a rope.

“It is a terrible and indefensible way for RBZ Governor Dr John Mushayavanhu to needlessly and recklessly score successive own goals one after the other, a week apart, by blatantly contradicting himself and saying opposite things about one and the same thing, with the result of losing the plot so fast by being too fast with the truth; to the detriment of the power of his word as Governor of the Central Bank, and with the consequence of squandering public trust at a time when he should be speaking no mumbo jumbo politics, and doing monetary policy to win the much needed public confidence in the new national currency, the ZiG,” he says.

Moyo writes:

A SECOND OWN GOAL DOES NOT CANCEL OUT THE FIRST, IT MAKES A BAD SITUATION WORSE

First Own Goal
“We also didn’t know much about a structured currency. We got a consultant from the World Bank. Who come to us. And a lot of the things that you’re seeing about the structured currency actually came from the World Bank.

So, if you’re going to blame me, you’re actually blaming the World Bank. Maybe they didn’t advise us properly. And if they did not advise us properly, it’s fine. Let’s refine it.” RBZ Governor, Dr John Mushayavanhu; 22 April 2024

Second Own Goal
I heard yesterday that people were now saying the structured currency that we introduced was given to us by the World Bank. That is not true. We got a consultant to work with us by [sic.] the World Bank who assisted us in getting further information on the structured currency and that enabled us to refine our our thoughts on that currency. We then proceeded to put together the monetary policy statement that we presented on the 5th of April”; RBZ Governor, Dr John Mushayavanhu; 29 April 2024

COMMENT
You are a walking disaster and a proverbial goner, if you are a top technocrat at the highest echelon of a key and strategic institution like the @ReserveBankZIM, and you find yourself publicly denying your very own words, hardly a week after you uttered them in public, and after those words were widely discussed and debated in public while you remained silent.

Hence, it is a terrible and indefensible way for RBZ Governor Dr John Mushayavanhu to needlessly and recklessly score successive own goals one after the other, a week apart, by blatantly contradicting himself and saying opposite things about one and the same thing, with the result of losing the plot so fast by being too fast with the truth; to the detriment of the power of his word as Governor of the Central Bank, and with the consequence of squandering public trust at a time when he should be speaking no mumbo jumbo politics, and doing monetary policy to win the much needed public confidence in the new national currency, the ZiG,

It would have been prudent for Dr Mushayavanhu to admit and own his error, take full responsibility for it and make a clear statement on the way forward; regarding his earlier remarks on 22 April 2024 that much about the ZiG as a structured currency “actually came from the World Bank”; ostensibly because the RBZ “didn’t know much about a structured currency”.

Those 22 April remarks were bad, their denial today is worse!