Speaking in a video published on Youtube by ZBC news, President Emmerson Mnangagwa told people that no country functions well without its own currency. He cited the continuous increase in prices of goods almost overnight and connected the continuous price increases to the use of the parallel market exchange rate in pricing decisions.

He then continued by pointing that in the near future we shall have own currency that will be legal tender. Pointing out that citizens may have their foreign currency but the only acceptable legal tender in shops will be the new currency that people shall be informed about.

For those who are counting this is the third time, an appropriate government official has made mention of the introduction of a new currency. The previous two occasions it was finance minister Professor Mthuli Ncube. The first mention coming before the introduction of the RTGS dollar and the second coming after it.

Mnangagwa’s explanation of the currency problem in the country, of course, ignores some fundamental truths about the reasons foreign currency is required in the nation. This, of course, has more to do with the crowd he was speaking to and the purpose of the speech.

He didn’t shed any detail as to who will tell us about the new currency but this is highly likely to be the RBZ Governor John Mangudya, Mthuli Ncube or both. Mthuli Ncube made mention in a cabinet briefing earlier this week of an upcoming midterm budget statement slated for July. So this may give us more insight into it. We would hover be more likely to get direction towards year end.

The presidents’ remarks will likely mean little to Zimbabweans as they have seen an administration make a shambles of a bond note that was introduced at parity to the US dollar with backing from Afreximbank. The same administration introduced a new currency, RTGS dollar which only four months is battling for dear life on both official and parallel markets. Surely another currency is not what we need.