VP Chiwenga Says ZiG “First Post-independence Local Currency”
Vice President Constantino Chiwenga has claimed that the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) currency is Zimbabwe’s first post-independence currency, reported CITE.
Chiwenga said the “bond”, that is the Zimbabwe dollar, was inherited from the colonial government, therefore, Zimbabweans and the international community should fully embrace the structured currency.
The Vice President also warned speculators who he accused of attempting to destroy the new currency that their businesses could be shut down or could face arrest.
Since independence in 1980, Zimbabwe’s currency has undergone many revisions and re-denominations, and the ZiG is the country’s sixth attempt to relaunch its local currency.
Delivering his main speech at the International Business Conference held on Wednesday at the 64th edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) in Bulawayo, Chiwenga said there is no going back on ZiG. He said:
Given these boundless benefits, I therefore call on the public, the private sector, households, labour and businesses, civic society and the international community to fully embrace and support the ZIG.
Chiwenga surprisingly claimed that the Zimbabwe dollar was inherited from the colonial government. He said:
We have done away with the ‘Bond’ which had been inherited from the time of Rhodesia when after declaring the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI ) they were given sanctions by the United Nations Security Council which is why they came up with the bond.
The Bond did not come with Zimbabwe, it came with the Rhodesia Bond, that red note which you used to see so the Bond is away. We now have our Zimbabwe currency, support it!
The Real-Time Gross Settlement dollar (RTGS) dollar was introduced in 2019 and merged the surrogate bond note and electronic dollars.
The bond notes were initially issued in 2016 to alleviate currency shortages and were officially traded at parity with the US dollar.
More: Pindula News
