GOVERNMENT\u2019s decision to scrap the multi-currency regime that had worked for a decade was a mistake, former Finance Minister and MDC vice president Tendai Biti has said.<\/p>\n
Biti was addressing a party campaign rally ahead of this weekend\u2019s by-election in Harare\u2019s Glen View South constituency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey removed the US dollar, why remove it without conditions to bring back your own currency? You do not have foreign currency reserves,\u201d Biti told party supporters last weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cGDP this year will be in -14 percent, inflation is back and now stands at 700%, look at the price of petrol and bread.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prices of fuel have been going up on a weekly basis and Biti argued this was a sign of failure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere in the history of the country have you seen a country that raises the price of petrol weekly.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo in MDC we want to make it very clear; we are going to restore the US dollar as the currency of this country. We are also going to remove Mthuli Ncube (Finance Minister)\u2019s taxes, there is no such economics in the world where if you want money you overtax your citizens,\u201d said the former Treasury chief.<\/p>\n
\u201cZimbabwe is now the most over taxed country in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biti said since President Emmerson Mnangagwa took over from the now late former President Robert Mugabe in 2017, he has taken the country back to 1931.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Zimbabwe population is suffering from a man-made disaster created by Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa.<\/p>\n
\u201c85% of Zimbabweans are living in extreme poverty surviving on less than US0. 35C,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Mutare where I was last week, they are no longer having sadza because the bucket of maize is now going for $30 and even here in Glen View. No Zimbabwean is now able to have a plate of sadza because of the cost of living is now very high.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cSchools are opening next week and most schools have raised their fees, at home residents are experiencing 18 hours of load shedding. Never in the history of this country have people suffered the way we are suffering today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GOVERNMENT\u2019s decision to scrap the multi-currency regime that had worked for a decade was a mistake, former Finance Minister and MDC vice president Tendai Biti has said. Biti was addressing a party campaign rally ahead of this weekend\u2019s by-election in Harare\u2019s Glen View South constituency. \u201cThey removed the US dollar, why remove it without conditions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":13280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[458,225,88,150],"class_list":{"0":"post-13278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-economy","9":"tag-biti","10":"tag-finance-minister","11":"tag-mdc","12":"tag-ncube"},"yoast_head":"\n