EDITORIAL COMMENT: Deal ruthlessly with currency manipulators, speculators

ACTIVITIES of speculators and currency manipulators have pushed the country’s economy to the brink, evoking painful memories of the dark days in 2008 when Zimbabwe recorded astronomically high levels of inflation with attendant price hikes, shortages of basic commodities and fuel among others.

The black market is back with a vengeance and hoarders of cash are making a killing on the parallel market where they are operating with impunity right under the noses of authorities. Their activities are directly responsible for the panic buying of goods and the flight of capital from the formal banking system.

To say they are economic saboteurs would be an understatement — they are a threat to national security. Government should deal ruthlessly with these malcontents by arresting them, passing deterrent sentences and confiscating their ill-gotten gains.

The country’s economy is in a mess because of people who seek to reap where they did not sow by simply manipulating currencies. As long as such people are allowed to go about their nefarious activities, the task of rebuilding this country will be an arduous one.

There are reports that most of the bigwigs behind the black market are senior officials in Government, making the job of curtailing the vice very tough.

Police have been rounding up osiphatheleni (illegal forex dealers) but the fines they pay for the crime are very minimal and they soon return to their trade undeterred. The fines are a slap on the wrist for their handlers who make a lot of money on the streets.

We are glad that Government seems to be making headway in identifying the ring leaders behind the black market and very soon high profile arrests will be made. We are also gratified to note that President Mnangagwa has taken a keen interest in arresting the flourishing parallel market activities.

Yesterday, the President said he will invoke the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act to introduce tough regulations to bring currency manipulators to book.

In his weekly column in The Sunday Mail, the Head of State and Government said it was inconceivable that rampant black market activities were thriving without complicity of high-ranking State officials.

Information gathered so far, he said, indicated that there was “an intricate network of currency speculators mostly in high places and in places of trust”.

Further, police said they had made arrests of illegal currency dealers who were linked to prominent people, and would soon make the findings of their investigations public.

In his column, President Mnangagwa said: “Considering that more than $9 billion is passing through different electronic platforms and leaving an ‘electronic trail’, it is inconceivable that these illicit transactions have and can ever go on undetected or unnoticed. It simply cannot be.” President Mnangagwa revealed he had tasked his top legal advisors to craft comprehensive legislation to plug loopholes that allowed black marketeers to operate with impunity.

“Currently, we have no legislation to deal with currency manipulators. We therefore need urgent and robust measures to deal with this financial menace.

“Accordingly, I have now instructed the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to work closely and expeditiously with the Attorney-General in order to produce a new set of regulations which will be promulgated under temporary law-making powers which I, as President, am allowed by the Constitution.

“These regulations will remain in force for a statutory period of six months, during which a Bill will have to be processed for consideration by our Legislators,” President Mnangagwa said.

We welcome the new measures set to deal with black marketers and urge authorities to expedite the crafting of the requisite legislation to operationalise them.

Government needs to send a strong message that it does not tolerate economic saboteurs and is serious about rebuilding the economy through honest hard work and productivity in industry.

We hope the drivers of black market activities have been put on notice and will henceforth stop their illicit trade.

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