FINANCE Minister Mthuli Ncube is all but postponing inevitable economic implosion by introducing a new currency that is not backed by production, opposition Freezim Congress party leader Joseph Makamba Busha said Friday.
Government this week announced new notes and coins will soon be brought into circulation as part of efforts to restore the local currency that was dumped years back.
In June this year, government announced the return of the local currency and discontinued a decade long policy of using a basket of multi-currencies dominated by the US dollar.
However, at the time, no notes or coins were issued but government indicated the surrogate currency – the bond note – was to continue being used as a medium of exchange.
Busha said the decision was only meant to delay the inevitable.
“The new currency they want to introduce I don’t think it will solve any problem because it is not backed by production.
“So, we need to make sure that there is production, proper governance structures and a coherence strategy that will take Zimbabwe out of its financial problem.
“The new currency for me is just a reinvention where basically they are just buying time and they are trying to hoodwink us and tell us that things will be better,” said Busha.
“Things will never be better until Zanu PF and its entire system are not given the responsibilities to manage the affairs of this country.”
Busha, a mathematics expert, said Ncube was not fit to be a Minister of Finance.
“They got us a Minister who is not truthful. He comes to say we have surpluses yet we don’t have medicines. Our schools and the entire infrastructure are collapsing,” the opposition leader said.
“I want to urge Professor Mthuli Ncube who I believe is actually a good academic but is not a business man to be truthful.
“If he cannot do the job, I am sure the National University of Science and Technology or one of the universities will give him a good course,” said the Freezim Congress leader.
