Opposition Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) vice president, Tendai Biti, has said the Nelson Chamisa-led government will re-dollarise.
He made the remarks while addressing scores of CCC supporters who thronged to the White City Stadium, Bulawayo for the party’s campaign for the 26 March by-elections and 2023 harmonised elections. The former Finance Minister said:
USA! The next president of Zimbabwe is Advocate Nelson Chamisa and under a Nelson Chamisa government, we’ll bring back the US dollar. The civil servants, the civil servants, the civil servants will be paid in US dollars, the doctor will be paid in US dollars, the teacher will be paid in US dollars, the war veteran will be paid in US dollars, the nurse will be paid in US dollars, the Kombi driver will be paid in US dollar. We will make Zimbabwe great again. Zikomo Kwambili.
Zimbabwe adopted a multicurrency system in 2009, shortly before the Government of National Unity, following the collapse of the local unit.
The Southern African country recorded a record high inflation of 231 million per cent, as per official records, rendering the Zimbabwe dollar worthless.
The government ditched the multicurrency system in June 2019 and reintroduced the Zimbabwe dollar.
The Zimbabwe dollar has been shedding value against other currencies thereby eroding workers’ salaries and their buying power.
Workers have been pushing the government to re-dollarise and pay them in United States dollars as was the case prior to October 2018.
Authorities are adamant that Zimbabwe will not re-dollarise as the country cannot grow its economy on the basis of a foreign currency which it does not have control over.