HON. BITI: Hon. Speaker Sir, I rise on a matter of privilege in line with Standing Order 68 (d) of the esteemed rules of this august House...
HON. BITI: Hon. Speaker Sir, I rise on a matter of
privilege in line with Standing Order 68 (d) of the esteemed rules of this
august House. My point of privilege
relates to the enactment by the Minister of Finance and Economic Development,
of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) (Legal Tender Regulations) published as
Statutory Instrument (SI) 142:2019. The
native fact of this SI is to officially de-dollarise and adopt in Zimbabwe as
the sole legal tender, the Zimbabwean Dollar (Z$). This is such a matter of public importance in
that it touches on the political economy of our country; that is the politics
of our country, the economics of our country and indeed the law of our country.
On the law,
I want to bring your attention to the provision of Section 44 (2) of the
Reserve Bank Act of Zimbabwe which introduced the regime of multiple currencies
in 2009. Section 44A (2) makes it clear
that the tender in Zimbabwe of the British Pound, the Euro, the United States
Dollar, the South African Rand and the Botswana Pula in any transaction shall
be deemed to be legal tender. That being
so Hon. Speaker Sir, and Section 44A (2) being an Act of Parliament, the
Minister of Finance cannot in a Statutory Instrument repeal an Act of
Parliament – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] –
THE HON.
SPEAKER: Order, order! Can you wind up?
HON.
BITI: So quite clearly Hon. Speaker Sir,
Statutory Instrument 142:2019 is ultra vires the provisions of Section 44A (2)
of the RBZ Act, so it is wrong on the law.
On economics Hon. Speaker Sir, a currency is a relationship
between your exports and your imports.
As long as you have got a deficit in your current account, I submit that
we do not have the current account; we do not have the reserves that are
necessary to support our own currency.
Thirdly, more than anything else, a currency is subject to
political confidence. This country
suffers from kwashiorkor of political confidence. There is absolutely no confidence in this
currency. So, I submit Hon. Speaker,
that SI 142:2019 is a disaster; that the attempt to de-dollarise this country
is a disaster. The Minister must as a
matter of urgency repeal SI 142:2019. I
thank you Mr. Speaker.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS
(HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Mr.
Speaker. I just rise to make a
correction. All Statutory Instruments that
are published, stand referred to Parliament and Parliament will scrutinise them
through the Parliamentary Legal Committee and if they believe that there is
something wrong, they issue an adverse report and then Parliament will
debate. So, I am actually surprised
that, my colleagues, Hon. Members who are very much aware of this process want
to debate it. Mr. Speaker Sir, what I am
saying is the correct procedure.
A Statutory Instrument is not referred to Parliament before
it is published. It takes effect the
moment that it is published and it stands referred to Parliament and once the
Parliamentary Legal Committee has sat and issued an adverse report, then it
will be debated. So, I submit that it is
very premature for Hon. Members to start attacking it now before it has been
scrutinised by the Parliamentary Legal Committee - [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible
interjections] -
COMMENTS