Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, has said the government is taking a tough stance against individuals accused of “degrading and undermining” the country’s new currency, ZiG.
In a press briefing following a meeting with war veterans in Bulawayo, Ncube stated that over 70 people had been jailed nationwide for such offences.
The minister said authorities were taking harsh action to discipline these and others who will be found “destroying the currency.”
“War veterans must support ZiG as fighters who have experience in fighting should support our currency. They must make sure we should fight those who are destroying the currency and doing all manner of illicit activities,” he said.
“It’s not fair as Zimbabwe citizens that some among us continue to degrade and undermine the currency that everyone has fought so hard for.”
The finance minister said if the ZiG maintained its stability it would, “eventually be the sole currency in the fullness of time where we say we won’t need any other currency.”
“So we have to work hard to make sure it stays stable and we call upon all citizens to protect the currency,” Prof Ncube said.
“This is a strong message, let’s be disciplined and protect our currency. We have taken strong measures, the courts will deal with them, over 70 people whom we know, that we have arrested, who are committing crimes. We have arrested them so that they stop manipulating currency they are destroying our currency they should be disciplined.”
This development comes as Neville Mutsvangwa, the son of women’s affairs minister Monica Mutsvangwa and Zanu PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa was arrested last Wednesday accused of illegal foreign currency trading.
Neville faces four criminal offences including two cases of dealing in foreign currency, money laundering and contravening the Telecommunications Act.
He is jointly charged with Simbarashe Tichingana and Ellis Majachani who have also been denied bail, with the trio expected back in court on May 30, 2024 for routine remand.
The Finance Minister stressed the importance of strong penalties for currency-related offenses.
“When someone is arrested they ought to be adequately punished or sanctioned for that crime. It shouldn’t be the case that they get on the streets as if nothing is happening. That we should fix and as the government we will fix it to make sure that we enforce the law quite strongly,” he said.
“We also introduced certain fines where we said businesses that deviate pricing from using the willing buyer willing seller rate as published by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) they will violate the law. We will fine them. We are going to be strictly vigilant as authorities to protect our currency.”
While addressing the war veterans, the finance minister called on the former fighters to support the new ZiG currency as a store of value.
“The president has led us to the introduction of the ZiG. it is stable although some try to do this and that to make it unstable. We realised that the Zimbabwe Dollar (ZWL) that we were using was untenable. It was unstable making it difficult for you to use as a transacting currency for protecting your savings, so we introduced the ZiG,” Prof Ncube said.
“This currency is very unique, it is backed by our assets – gold, diamonds and other minerals to make the currency strong. As war veterans, you must fight for this currency since you also fought in the liberation struggle. You must also fight for it so we want to make sure it is stable and has a value that is dependable and predictable. “
Ncube said in introducing the currency, the government made sure that the interest rates dropped.
“We reduced from 130 percent down to 20 percent. It is better for those of you who are seeking to borrow in ZiG, you will find that the interest rates are more palatable, they are lower and therefore it is much easier to repay,” he said.
“You also know that when you deposit US$100 in the bank after three months that money is no longer there, it would have been wiped by bank charges. The president said we must remove that and we did. As we speak right now we should not have any bank charges whatsoever. We have removed those for any deposits from US$100 and more.”
Prof Ncube said no country can develop without its currency or develop by using foreign currencies.
“We will work hard to arrest and punish those who want to destroy ZiG. We want ZiG to strengthen so that in other years, we can say we want to use ZiG only. We will reach that but before we do that we have to strengthen ZiG and those criminals must be arrested and punished,” he said.
