‘Bond note by another name’ – Chamisa says new ZiG currency doomed to fail

By Staff Reporter

OPPOSITION politician Nelson Chamisa has warned that the newly introduced Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) currency as doomed to fail, insisting that the country “needs political change, not a currency change”.

“A bond note by another name will not fix our challenges,” the former Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader commented on X (formerly Twitter).

“Currency reforms will not guarantee currency stability, but good politics will lay the foundation for currency stability Zimbabwe needs a political and democratic leadership change, not a currency change.

“No amount of currency change will pivot the nation into prosperity and boom.”

Zimbabwe’s new central bank governor John Mushayavanhu on Friday launched the new ZiG currency in yet another bid by the government to stem currency volatility, resurgent inflation and macro-economic instability.

The development came as the Zimbabwe dollar had lost more than 70 percent of its value since the start of the year and was trading at $33 000/US$1 on the interbank market while on the black market rates were above $40 000/US$1.

Mushayavanhu said the new “structured” ZiG currency have a starting exchange rate of 13,56 to the US dollar.

“With effect from April 5, 2024, banks shall convert the current Zimbabwe dollar balances into the new currency, which shall be called Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) to foster simplicity, certainty and predictability in monetary and financial affairs,” the Governor said.

However, Chamisa who rejected as flawed and rigged the 2023 elections which he lost to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, said without “trust and confidence”, currency reforms would not fix Zimbabwe’s economic crisis.

“Currency change has failed before; and it, surely, will fail again. All this, because of broken politics, disputed elections and contested national processes,” said the opposition politician.

“In recent years, all these currencies failed because of bad politics: ZW$, USD, Bond note, RTGS, ZWL$, Gold coins, ZiG. It is given that the new currency will fail again because of BAD POLITICS.”

“Currency reforms will not guarantee currency stability, but good politics will lay the foundation for currency stability Zimbabwe needs a political and democratic leadership change, not a currency change.”

Chamisa added; “No amount of currency change will pivot the nation into prosperity and boom.

“The citizens have zero confidence in the leader of the country. Once the citizens lose confidence in an administration, they automatically lose confidence in all that it stands for or represents.”

Meanwhile, the central bank chief said the new currency would be “anchored by a composite basket of foreign currency and precious metals (mainly gold) held as reserves for this purpose by the Reserve Bank”.

“If we implement these measures, we expect them to have an impact on inflation,” Mushayavanhu told reporters.