Government has threatened to name and shame alleged brains
behind Zimbabwe’s verdant parallel market which it says was fuelling the spike
in the prices for basic goods and services.
Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa told journalists at
a post-Cabinet briefing on Tuesday that authorities were aware of who the real
buyers of foreign currency on the parallel market were and how they were
pushing rates high.
“You think those young people without shoes are the ones
who are behind the parallel market? It will be folly to believe that. We know
that there are big people behind them. I think it is time we start to deal with
that and expose who are these people,” she said.
By Tuesday, the US dollar was selling for ZWL$7,3 on the
electronic money transfer platform and ZWL$5,8 for the bond notes.
Mutsvangwa said although the law that criminalises dealing
in foreign currency without authority and carrying a 10-year jail sentence was
in operation, arresting those on the streets, who she said were just agents,
would not end the parallel market.
The run-away exchange rate has sent tremors down government
corridors with fears that it could collapse the economy with most traders
reluctant to conduct business, while those doing so were demanding hard
currency.
Mutsvangwa said dealers were pegging the US dollar rate to
the Old Mutual implied rate to determine the exchange rate for the US$ against
the RTGS dollar.
“We can’t be pegging the rates against an international
multinational group that is in business and has no interest of the people. It
is time we look at this issue very carefully and protect our people,” said
Mutsvangwa.
This is not the first time that President Emmerson
Mnangagwa’s regime has threatened to name and shame who it has termed economic
saboteurs.
Last year, politicians and businesspeople who allegedly externalised
over $1,3 billion during former President Robert Mugabe’s era were named, but
just a few returned the money before the expiry of the set deadline.
Before the naming and shaming, speculation was rife that
ousted allies of Mugabe were among those who externalised funds from the
country, with government officials blaming this on cash and foreign currency
shortages in the country.
But the list contained largely importing businesses that
had not acquitted their import papers with the central bank as well as some
Chinese nationals.
After the naming, no one was prosecuted for the alleged
acts. Newsday
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