FINANCE Minister Mthuli Ncube has denied ever suggesting that Zimbabwe needed to scrap Bond Notes from circulation because it was bad money driving away good money.
However, a few weeks before President Emmerson Mnangagwa appointed him head of Treasury in 2018, Ncube was quoted on camera saying there was need to remove the Bond Notes from circulation because it was “bad money”.
But, Ncube, at a media conference to announce government’s Currency Stabilisation Taskforce Wednesday, told journalists to watch the 2018 video again insisting he never expressed the comments.
NewZimbabwe.com managed to retrieve the 2018 video and in the clip, Ncube is seen saying: “What I would argue now is we have to remove the Bond Note which is becoming a surrogate Zimbabwe dollar but without the macroeconomic credibility to support it so that should be removed because it is now bad money.
“We know in economics bad money drives out good money, it is not surprising that even the US dollar is now in short supply…I would say the immediate course of action will be to remove the bond note, let the US dollar be the core currency of focus,” said Ncube.
However, on Wednesday the Treasury boss dismissed his 2018 sentiment.
“Watch that video again, watch it again, I said that on the exchange reform we have three options.
“One is to continue with largely a US dollar based multi-currency system, number two we could consider joining the rand monetary area as an approach,” said Ncube.
