Review & Mail

Read Back Page

Read News Read News

Monday 9 May 2022 __

LABOUR ED moves to
OF LOVE avert winter
of discontent
China explains how it gifted Zimbabwe with new
Parliament building: Page 3 Chris Mahove

President Mnangagwa may have just
averted what would have been the set-
ting in of a winter of discontent beginning
with a stay-away this Monday.
At the weekend, the Head of State an-
nounced a raft of measures to restore
confidence in the economy and ensure
macro-economic stability against a back-
ground of what appeared to be a slide to-
wards national discontent.
Pricehikes, inflation and transportprob-
lems that the country witnessed over the
past few weeks set the country on a slip-
pery slope, with opposition forces touting
a protest "shutdown".

However, on Saturday Mnangagwa

moved to forestall the planned agitation.
He announced measures that among
other things, seek to instil discipline and
a level playing field in the pricing of goods
and services in the market under a dual
currency system.
He acknowledged that the continued
depreciation of the domestic currency
against the US dollar, if left unchecked,
couldlead to the reversal of economic sta-
bility gains achieved since the introduc-
tion of the foreign exchange auction sys-
tem in July 2020.
President Mnangagwa’s announcement
comes after Zimbabweans had raised
concern over the rise in month-on-
month inflation, from a monthly average
of 4.5% seen in the past 12 months to 15.5%
in April 2022, which had resulted in the
skyrocketing of prices of basic commod-
ities.
The situation had caused discontent
among workers, businesspeople, peas-
ants and students alike, who had ex-
pressed the need for quick-fix solutions
to save the country from sliding back to
the 2008 era of hyper-inflation, shortages
and empty-shelves.
Some civic society organisations had
called for a nationwide stay-away Mon-
day to protest what they termed the gen-
eral deterioration of the economy.
But President Mnangagwa moved in to
quell the situation, assuring Zimbabwe-
ans that economic fundamentals to sup-
port a stable domestic currency were
currently in place as evidenced by the
amount of foreign currency being gener-
ated in the economy against the quantum
of local currency deposits.
“For instance, the countrygenerated for-
eign currencyin excess of US$9.7 billion in
2021 compared to US$6.3 billion recorded

in 2020, showing an TO PAGE 5