Bond Notes Fallout: Vendors Told to Stop Banking U.S Dollars
“People must summarily halt banking with financial institutions following a policy ambivalence by the government of Zimbabwe as you know in the past millions of our people lost millions of dollars."
WASHINGTON — Zimbabwean vendors have been urged to stop banking daily collections until President Robert Mugabe’s government comes out clean on the proposed introduction of bond notes. Promise Mkwananzi of the Zimbabwe Informal Sector Organization said vendors should keep their money home as millions of people lost their hard-earned cash in 2009 when the country adopted multiple currencies that replaced the valueless local dollar. “People must summarily halt banking with financial institutions following a policy ambivalence by the government of Zimbabwe as you know in the past millions of our people lost millions of dollars when we transited from the Zimbabwe dollar to the U.S dollar. Those people have never compensated. “And we are making this precautionary statement to guard against the prejudice of our people by a government that is not known to be trustworthy that we cannot trust with the custody of our money ... As you know $15 billion (derived from diamond mining in Manicaland) has disappeared and it cannot be accounted for and not a single person has been held accountable for that money.” Many Zimbabweans believe that the introduction of bond notes within the next two months is an attempt by the government to reintroduce the defunct local dollar. Central bank governor John Mangudya, who has already dismissed such claims, was not reachable for comment. The Zimbabwe dollar was abandoned in 2009 when the country under a unity government adopted multiple currencies in an effort to revive the economy which recorded historic hyperinflationary rates.