MDC-T president Thokozani Khupe has commended the government for reintroducing the Zimbabwe Dollar and banning the use of foreign currency for domestic transactions.
In a statement through her spokesperson, Khalipani Phugeni on Wednesday, Khupe, however, expressed her worry that the measures could fail and spark citizen protests. She said:
The struggles of earning an income in RTGS, in a US$ economy is not an exclusive burden of teachers but indeed of all Zimbabweans.
In this regard, the government can be commended for having a listening ear and taking swift action in responding to the cries of our people.
Listening to Finance Minister (Mthuli) Ncube, one did not get the sense that there is a long term plan with a defined path to some end goal.
But for the sake of our country, the hope is one is wrong and indeed the Minister has ‘struck gold’ through this policy change and the raft of measures yet to be announced.
… The few locally produced products will skyrocket beyond the reach of ordinary folks and the mischief which this policy shift seeks to curb will come back with a vengeance, which will be fertile fodder for our youths to fill the streets in protest of the hardships.
The government on Monday promulgated Statutory Instrument (SI) 142 of 2019 which abolished the multi-currency regime as the economy was gradually dollarizing, a situation Harare authorities were not prepared to countenance.
The move has been met with relief by some citizens who have no access to foreign currency while opposition political parties believe that the policy paves the way to Armageddon.