Banks and companies involved in acts of economic sabotage through manipulation of local currency and unjustifiably raising prices of goods and services could lose their licences as Government moves to restore order.
Addressing a rally in Epworth yesterday to celebrate ZANU
PF legislator Cde Zalerah Makari’s by-election victory, President Mnangagwa
said the Government had uncovered the culprits behind the currency sabotage
that has seen the local currency losing value on the parallel market.
“We have a challenge in our economy, especially around
prices and exchange rates. We are working out a solution, we are now closing in
on companies that are behind what we have been witnessing lately,” said
President Mnangagwa.
He said there is a third-hand pulling strings behind the
scenes, to the detriment of the local economy.
“These economic players are not acting alone, they are
being sent by foreign countries hostile to Zimbabwe to weaken our local
currency. So we are devising methods to deal with them, we will close some big
companies and banks. These will be announced in due course,” said President
Mnangagwa.
The past few weeks have seen the Zimbabwe dollar losing
much value on the parallel foreign currency market while prices of most goods
and services have been going up significantly without justification.
This threatens to undo the economic gains made over the
past few years. The economy is expected to grow by 5,5 percent this year. The
celebratory rally was symbolic, as the ZANU PF by-election campaign was launched
in Epworth.
During the campaign trail, President Mnangagwa promised
residents in the dormitory town that they would get title deeds to regularise
their homes and yesterday he said the deal was still on despite a technical
delay.
“We promised you title deeds, I remember telling you the
last time that we had completed the geospatial mapping, which allows us to see
the state of the settlement and we were ready to give title deeds. However, our
security told us that some crooks were printing their own title deeds. We had
to go back on the drawing table and find a way around that, we are now
introducing biometric title deeds with security features.”
The documents would be of the same calibre as the recently
introduced electronic passports.
“These are title deeds which cannot be fraudulently printed
by individuals. These title deeds have the same security features as
e-passports. We procured equipment from Germany, which allows us to print
secure documents with impenetrable security features.”
At least 50 000 beneficiaries would receive the title deeds
under phase one.
“So far we have ordered for 50 000 to be printed, some of
which will be brought here,” said President Mnangagwa as he assured the people
of Epworth that their issues would be solved.
“Yesterday, your MP (Makari) told me that there is a
struggle for water in Epworth. I have four Presidential borehole drilling rigs,
three that are in Harare and one in Binga. So yesterday around 6pm I called the
team running the scheme and I told them of this event, I told them that they
should spend the night drilling one borehole. I am proud to say by this morning
they had completed drilling the borehole and installing the whole system,” said
President Mnangagwa.
It will take time to solve water challenges, because there
are structural issues which need to be taken care of. But in the meantime, we
will put two boreholes in each of the seven wards in Epworth,” added President
Mnangagwa.
The President also opened Mabvazuva Satellite Clinic in
Epworth Ward 7, meant to take the pressure off Epworth Clinic, which is due to
be upgraded to a District Hospital.
“When I opened the clinic, I was with my deputy, who
happens to be Health and Child Care Minister. He said he will equip the clinic
with beds and he also said he will recruit nurses to work within the facility,”
said President Mnangagwa.
In her remarks, Cde Makari thanked the people of Epworth
for voting for her during the polls.
She organised a two-day feast for her constituency, with
the rally being the kick-off event.
Cde Makari had sourced seven beasts of cattle to be
slaughtered as relish during the festivities, but ZANU PF added 10 beasts.
“We had a two month campaign, going against someone who had
been in office for three years. We told Epworth that their issues need ZANU PF
and the Presidium, not these fly-by-night parties. This is just a taste of what
is to come in 2023, we expect that after the census we will have about 200 000
people in Epworth and you can count all of those as your votes, President,” she
said.
She said her constituency still had a long list of needs
which included schools, boreholes, a publicly owned mortuary. She also appealed
for Epworth to be accorded town status.
Cde Makari prevailed in the March 26 by-election, taking
back the seat that the ruling party had lost to the opposition in 2018. Sunday
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