Mangudya, Chinamasa lied over bond notes

Tendai Biti Former Finance minister has accused his successor, Patrick Chinamasa and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor, John Mangudya of lying that the bond notes were meant to address the cash crunch, yet it was a clandestine way to replace the $1,8 billion illegally withdrawn from the central bank's Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) balances to monetize government expenditure.

Biti, leader of the opposition People's Democratic Party, told delegates at a Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition public meeting in Harare last week that the proposed $200 million bond notes were being introduced to cover the shortfall caused by the illegal transaction.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe has contracted a private company in Germany to print bond notes that have sparked public outrage since their introduction was announced earlier this month.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Exchange Control director, Morris Mpofu assured miners that government which has been accused of seeking to bring back the local currency covertly through bond notes would not force central bank to print more cash than necessary.

It had now not revealed who would be printing the notes.