Chegutu West legislator Dextor Nduna has called on the government to enforce the use of bond notes by the Asian Community, especially the Chinese, because they are rejecting them and accepting only United States dollars.
“They have not gotten into a position of accepting bond notes as a legal form of tender in terms of cash. They will still sideline bond notes and only accept US$. As long as they are in Zimbabwe, it is accepted that the Minister of Finance is the overall in charge in terms of finances,” Nduna said during the debate on the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill.
“I ask now, therefore, that he enforces the usage of these bond notes in the Asian community and also, whilst I am at it, that he enforces that all the Asian community be bankable. They should then take our bond notes and US$ into financial institutions which is also aligned to the introduction of this Bill.
“He should also introduce a law that forces everybody to be bankable so that we can embrace plastic money and technology, in particular our Asian community that is not bankable.”
Zimbabwe introduced bond notes to ease the cash crisis in the country towards the end of last year but has been releasing them gradually forcing people to queue for hours to get money.
Initially the central bank had announced that it would release $75 million in bond notes by the end of December, but it has so far released just $29 million.
It has, however, increased withdrawal limits but this has not resolved the crisis which was mainly caused by panic withdrawals as people rushed to withdraw their US savings fearing that they would once again be wiped out as happened in 2007-2008.
Full contribution:
HON. NDUNA: I also want to add my voice to the RBZ Amendment Bill. I want to start by thanking the Hon. Members that spoke before me. This bond note that is being introduced – there are a few critical issues that need to be brought out, in particular, that we are holding in trust against a guarantee of US$200 million loan from Afrexim Bank. What immediately comes to mind is that whatever loan we get accrues interest and that needs to be brought into account. How that interest is being liquidated needs also to be spoken about because as long as we are accruing interest against the US$, it means we are losing value on our bond note. Over a long period of time, it then does not become 1:1 just based on the interest. Assuming the RBZ is going to sustain the convertibility of that bond note over a certain period, it needs to be explained to the nation what it is that is going to be used as a convertibility sustenance mechanism for our bond note. The sustenance can never be in perpetuity but can only come to a certain point.
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