Dear Mr President,
Your Excellency, I come in peace and am writing this missive, not as an economist or a politician, but as a humble Zimbabwean navigating the turbulent waters of our nation’s economic landscape.
I also want to seek answers, like any other citizen. Your Excellency, my wish is to have leaders who are connected to their people, leaders who can relate to the joys and struggles of their constituencies. This is not the reality for now, Your Excellency.
In our beloved Zimbabwe, the chasm between the affluent and the destitute has become a gaping wound, festering with each passing day.
Mr President, while the privileged few bask in the opulence of their riches, the majority of our citizens struggle to make ends meet.
It is a tale as old as time — a tale of elites enriching themselves at the expense of the common folk.
Our leaders are the rich ones. They choose to connect with only a few people, who they end up using as their fronts for many shady deals.
The rest of the people, those without access to the leaders, remain poor. Your Excellency, this is something that you must monitor carefully. Because if you do not take action, the suffering that the poor endure today will continue.
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The anger that comes with suffering is unbearable. I will give you one example to demonstrate that in Zimbabwe we are living in two different worlds.
The current exchange rate discrepancies highlight the inherent inequalities within our society. It is evident that certain individuals are exploiting this situation for their own gain, while the rest of us are left to bear the brunt of their greed.
I do not know why it is like this, but in the world of the rich, the black market exchange rate is currently around US$1: ZW$40 000.
Yet in the world of the poor, the exchange rate is US$1: ZW$6 000.
The bulk of our people are vendors and this is the exchange rate they use. By the way, vendors make up over 75% of economic activities.
It costs US$0,50 per trip to commute using public transport within Harare. This equates to ZW$3 000 per trip.
A bundle of vegetables is anything between ZW$1 200 to ZW$6 000, which has remained like this for some time.
Consider, if you will, the stark dissonance between the official exchange rates and the grim reality faced by ordinary Zimbabweans. While the wealthy engage in high-stakes currency games, the average citizen is left grappling with the harsh realities of economic instability.
It is abundantly clear that our economy is being manipulated for the benefit of a select few. This manipulation not only widens the gap between the haves and the have-nots but also threatens the very fabric of our nation. The rich have bank accounts and transact in such sophisticated instruments as the Exchange Traded Funds, or real time gross settlement (RTGS) and the poor transact using cash or bond notes.
Clearly, there is a huge arbitrage opportunity that is created as a result of the gap between the cash exchange rate versus the RTGS exchange rate. Who is managing our economy? Cannot they see this gap? Your excellency, I pose the question: “Who is benefiting from this gap?” There are lessons to be learnt by the managers of our economy from this reality, Your Excellency.
And if they are not learning, you must whip them into line before this economy implodes again. You know it, Your Excellency, what it means to be returning back to 2008.
You will not enjoy your final tenure in office. Everything will disappear from shops and the currency will collapse.
Until Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion minister Mthuli Ncube and incoming Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mushayavanhu come down to the people and experience this reality, they will not be able to solve our currency or economic issues.
They must come down and see for themselves the complexities on the ground. We have all turned into economists and mathematicians down here. We are stranded; we do not know what to do next. Our policymakers are rich and they have a history of crafting policies to protect their interests and that of their connections, Your Excellency. They are selfish.
Policies are made without full consultation and understanding of the broader circumstances. Consequently, they have failed to address the broader economic matters they seek to address.
The delay in announcing the Monetary Policy Statement has been caused by the need to finalise the structured currency, which the authorities are introducing.
This is being done without full consultation and understanding of what is at play. This is happening at a time 85% to 95% of transactions are being conducted in United States dollars (USD), meaning we have a USD economy already.
We must manage this USD economy. Efforts should be on restoring confidence in our economy, not on creating new arbitrage opportunities, which benefit the few – the politicians and their hangers on.
Our institutions are key in ensuring that confidence is restored in the financial sector and the broader economy, Your Excellency.
The RBZ must play its key role without fear or favour — it must demonstrate its independence. Banks are at the centre of currency manipulation, but the supervision is not as it should be.
Banks’ officials are the most corrupt people, colluding with the private sector by moving the rate and in turn, creating arbitrage opportunities for themselves.
The RBZ forex auction system creates uneven playing ground for economic players and must be scrapped. The system is being used to externalise foreign currency by some players. Banking has become much more complex in Zimbabwe. Your Excellency, these complexities have cascaded to the non-traditional banks, such as, the money transfer agencies.
These have become quasi banks with the public preferring to use them for transacting purposes. Does the RBZ and other key institutions have sufficient skills and regulations in place to monitor the conduct of these institutions? I doubt it.
So, Your Excellency, please I do want you to really hear us and see how we are struggling, as ordinary people. I am humbly asking you to please put yourself in our shoes and feel our suffering.
Your Excellency, it is time for action. We cannot afford to ignore the suffering of the masses any longer. Our policymakers must be held accountable for their actions, and policies must be crafted with the interests of all Zimbabweans in mind.
I implore you to heed the voices of the ordinary people who are struggling to survive. It is only by standing together that we can hope to overcome the challenges that lie ahead.
Your fellow citizen, MUNAMATO CHITIMA
- NB: This is a weekly column and we would like to invite fellow citizens to contribute and be part of this thought leadership and nation building initiative. You can e-mail your contributions to fzaba@zimind.co.zw
