The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s new sheriff, John Mushayavanhu is the gift that keeps on giving.
On Wednesday, at the post Monetary Policy Review breakfast held in Bulawayo and hosted by the Zimbabwe Independent, the governor revealed that a lot of shenanigans were happening at the central bank.
These shenanigans include the fact that the central bank was funding the now defunct forex auction market with foreign currency using liquidity generated from quasi fiscal activities.
This comes as he also revealed that there was nothing backing bond notes or the ZiG’s former self, the Zimbabwe dollar, yet for years we were told that was the case. We were even told that the currency was supported by actual foreign currency from the African Export-Import Bank. So, what happened to all that money?
Also, Mushayavanhu opened the bank’s vaults showing the country only had 1,5 tonnes of gold with another one tonne reportedly being kept outside Zimbabwe.
Why this is significant is because Zanu PF spokesperson Chris Mutsvangwa earlier this week alleged that the country had even more gold that was sold off by a former RBZ governor and Minister of Finance with the blessing of a former president.
While Mushayavanhu is obviously trying to get the market to trust him and his tenure as the head honcho of the central bank by revealing all of these things, he is directly or indirectly revealing the government's hand in the hole Zimbabwe finds itself in.
He is saying out loud what has been whispered that the individuals within the government have plundered the country’s resources.
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What is important here to note is that the government needs to explain what it did with the country’s assets because we need answers.
We need answers as to how people tasked with protecting the country’s wealth are losing so much of its wealth.
I know that the authorities will not give those answers so all we can hope is that the governor continues to be open about these shenanigans and how they have imperiled the country.
This is because with all this information, we now know that we have done much more damage to ourselves than the so-called sanctions imposed by the West.
Authorities have used the sanctions excuse to justify their own inequities and excuses as to why after four decades of self-rule, as a country we have nothing to show for it.
