Ruth Shave

[Hopewell Chin’ono @daddyhope]

Dear @ReserveBankZIM

Wake us up when the ZiG, Zimbabwe’s local currency, can be used to pay for passports. If we can apply for passports and pay with the ZiG, please wake us up.

Also wake us up when the ZiG can be used to pay customs duty. If I bring my car from South Africa or London and the duty is US$10,000 or the equivalent, wake us up when that can be paid in ZiG, our own local currency.

Wake us up when we can buy flight tickets to South Africa, London, America, or Dubai using the ZiG. If we can do that, please wake us up.

Wake us up when we can pay our taxes in ZiG. If someone sells property and owes the government tax, wake us up when that tax can be settled in ZiG.

You understand the point I am making. When a government refuses to fully accept its own currency, that currency will never stabilise or become widely accepted. A functioning currency must be usable for major state obligations and transactions.

When a local currency cannot be used to access foreign exchange, cannot easily be officially exchanged for other currencies such as the US dollar, the pound, or the rand, and has no real exchangeability, it cannot gain credibility. If I cannot take my ZiG to Travelex at Heathrow and exchange it, then that currency will struggle to have any international or local value because we are an importing nation. We import even tooth picks and toilet paper.

The deeper problem is that the owner and custodian of the currency, the government of Zimbabwe itself, refuses to accept it for key payments such as passports, fuel, customs duties, and many other obligations that are too numerous to list.

So the propaganda that the currency is doing well is largely directed at people who do not understand how currencies work. It is embarrassing that the central bank and the government continue repeating this narrative when everyday reality shows something different.

If I go into South Africa today as a Zimbabwean with a Zimbabwean passport, any hotel expects me to pay in rands because that is their national currency and it functions properly.
But if a South African tourist arrives in Zimbabwe today and checks into a hotel, they are asked to pay in foreign currency rather than in ZiG.

That contrast tells you everything you need to know about the current credibility and usefulness of the ZiG.