ZANU PF Resolves To Scuttle Reserve Bank Reform

Finance Minister Tendai in parliament: His proposed Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Bill now faces certain death after ZANU PF announced over the weekend that they will oppose that Bill unless it is amended to their liking. The ridiculous claims from ZANU PF are that the Bill targets an individual (Gideon Gono) and have, therefore, nothing to do with reform of the institution itself. They have also expressed alarm at Tendai Biti's characterisation of the Bill as a "transitional mechanism". As a result of this, ZANU PF sees regime change skeletons in all manner of closets!



Harare, Zimbabwe, 15 November 2009

ZANU PF MPs have now openly come out to say that they will scuttle the Reserve Bank Bill being proposed by Finance Minister Tendai Biti of the MDC.

They claim the bill is aimed at an individual and not the institution. In addition, they are arguing that it puts too much power in the hands of the Minister and is contrary to regional best practise, which is to give the Central Banks of the region autonomy.

"ZANU PF has taken the position that it will oppose the Bill," says Paul Munyaradzi Mangwana, the one ZANU PF Member of Parliament who is emerging as de facto leader of the party in parliament. "It is a contentious, unconstitutional, undemocratic and autocratic Bill and the worst piece of legislation that a country can ever come up with."

It does not help that Tendai Biti himself said during his second reading of the proposed Act that he is "uncomfortable" with the powers of the Finance Minister as contained therein.

This has now been jumped on by ZANU PF, who have since sent proposed amendments to Biti for inclusion in the Bill with the threat that unless these are incorporated, the Bill will be defeated by ZANU PF in parliament.

Of course, ZANU PF fails to understand that most improvements in society are achieved after seeing individual exploit loopholes in laws that govern society. Moves are then made to ensure that no subsequent individual in the same position will ever have the opportunity to do the same.

After seeing President Roosevelt elected back into office four times, for instance, America then proposed a Presidential term limit because they realised how not limiting presidential terms could result in one-man rule for as long as that man lives. This is not good for injecting new ideas and for the progress of any nation.

So the amendment to the RBZ Act is informed by the desire to never again have a clueless Reserve Bank Governor driving up inflation by acting as if he is the Prime Minister of the country, a co-dictator with Mugabe who does pretty much as he pleases even when his actions result in the untold suffering of the people.

It is worth remembering that Gideon Gono started his tenure as Reserve Bank Governor with a lot of goodwill. He was praised highly when he managed to bring down inflation temporarily. The praise went to his head and, subsequently, he turned literally the whole nation against him by his own actions.

Failure to be transparent, focus on scoring political points at the expense of the convenience of the public all led to him being seen as evil, to the extent that old women were asking in my hearing if the man was a witch.

As Zimbabweans struggled with inconvenient "bank notes" that could not be changed because of the lack of small denominations, as they struggled to buy things that did not exist in the shops and as they formed huge queues at the banks in order to get to their money because Gono's limits on withdrawals made it impossible for them to live, more and more Zimbabweans started hating the man.

He continued regardless, never deviating from a course that was killing the people of Zimbabwe, with sick people failing to access their money and dying as a result. He behaved like a heartless ogre and, at the end of the Mugabe era, he may become the only Central Bank chief in history to get a public lynching.

ZANU PF want him to stay on and they will fight to make sure this happens

Comments

  1. I believe there is a time for politics and a time for national interest. I am certainly no big fan of Biti as Finance Minister but I believe his proposed Bill is progressive. ZANU PF is simply being selfish and misusing its leverage.

    Our Central bank has no credibility due to its failures and lack of legislation. I don't see what anybody stands to gain by refusing to reform this organisation?

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