FEW people attended the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Amendment Bill hearing led by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Finance and Economic Development in Harare yesterday, where residents urged the government to call for a referendum to determine the use of the surrogate currency.
By OBEY MANAYITI/NUNURAI JENA
About 30 people showed up at a local hotel, prompting the committee’s chairperson David Chapfika to raise concern over the poor attendance.
He said people must take the opportunity to put forward their concerns as silence would not add any value.
However, some of the contributors said the country was so divided over the use of bond notes and to put the matter to rest, authorities should make people decide through the ballot box.
Others said they feared the country might be plunged back into the hyper inflationary era as they did not trust the central bank anymore, while others raised concern over the poor quality of the notes.
In Chinhoyi, residents on Friday blasted the government for engaging them when the bond notes had already been introduced.
Most residents took turns to vent their anger on parliamentarians for conducting hearings on a Bill that “was partially passed into law through a presidential decree”, rendering the exercise academic.
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Lawrence Mlambo took aim at the committee, saying they were only conducting the hearings so that they could get money for Christmas.
“You want us to debate what you call a Bill when it is already law and we are already using the bond notes,” he said.
“To tell you the truth you are here for allowances to enable you to buy Christmas groceries for your families, not to seriously consider the so-called Bill.”
Another resident, Munashe was blunt, telling committee members that they had divorced themselves from the people because of “small allowances” from the executive.
Martha Munondo of Chinhoyi said the coming of bond notes was timely since the United States dollar was now elusive.
“Some of us are happy with the bond notes because the US$ is now very difficult to get, leaving us poorer than before” said Munondo.
The meeting, which was badly advertised, was attended by 23 people only.
