Mboweni gave Zimbabwe unacceptable conditions, says Mnangagwa

South Africa's former Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni gave Zimbabwe several conditions which were deemed unacceptable for Zimbabwe to Randify the economy.

The government chose the rand as the country's reference currency but did not randify the economy.

Revealing how they ditched the idea of using the Rand in an interview with the Editor of New Africa magazine, Vice President Emmerson Mnangwagwa said, "At first we thought we could use the South African rand. So we sent our central bank governor, Gideon Gono, to see his counterpart in South Africa, Tito Mboweni. Mboweni was the governor of the South African Reserve Bank and the first black to hold the post. But he gave us several conditions, which, when we looked at them, we said no, we cannot accept. So we looked at the regulations of both the Bank of England and the American Federal Reserve."

In a tweeter war with Professor Jonathan Moyo, Mboweni tweeted: "A couple of years ago‚ I was instructed to work on an economic revival program for Zim together with Gono‚ Trevor and Herbert Murerwa. It came to nothing because of people like the supposed Prof. Meanwhile back at the ranch‚ Zimbabweans are suffering. That's the reality".

The US dollar and the rand have, however, been the two major currencies in use in the country. The move was part of efforts to achieve economic liberalisation to pull the economy out of the present challenges.

South African President Kgalema Motlanthe gave Zimbabwe the green light to adopt the rand as standard currency to address the prevailing economic challenges and to assist the inclusive government.