The Herald SMS
I AM very uneasy with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe allocating hard currency. We have been on this road before and everything ended in grief as arbitrage and rent seeking behaviour triumphed in an environment of overly restrained market forces. The RBZ should instead run a currencies market and auctions, which will benefit those that earn hard currency and spur them to increase production, increase exports and earn more hard currency.
Let the markets decide. Do not distort them.
That will reduce the opportunities for destructive market distortions and rent seeking behaviour for the banks are not immune.
We need to be innovative and not fall back to the tried, but tired Rhodesian formula.
Let us maintain the multi-currency strategy.
It is a winning one as long as Government pays its salaries in a basket of currencies anchored by a closely managed local one so inflation is kept below 6 percent. — Raise Badza, Gweru.
*** ZANU-PF national secretary for Administration Cde Ignatius Chombo is right. The problem with ZimPF members is that they realised their mistakes after being thrown out of the ruling party and lost benefits flowing from being a member of the party. We meet daily some of the expelled members and financial stress is beginning to show all over their lifestyles, with others getting their properties attached. The interesting thing is they all want to come back to ZANU-PF. — Dzingirai Chideme, Harare.
*** The Harare City Council should also be seen to adopt measures that help raise income to enhance its ability to offer services.
Previous councils were business minded and that explains why there were money raising ventures like Rufaro Marketing.
There are also a lot of areas in which council can court partners to do business and raise more funds.
Some of the pitfalls facing council, like failure to pay its workers, whom it owes six months’ salaries, are due to lack of innovation.
The city should also fight corruption among councillors and its workers to instil confidence in ratepayers. — Ruth Chiripanyanga, Harare. Readers are invited to send comments and feedback to: 0777 116 611; 0733 983 038 or 0714 111 101. All SMS contributions must include the sender’s name or pseudonym as well as town or home area. Since The Herald is published in English, we would prefer our readers to write in English — Editor.