Zimbabwe needs own currency, says Prophet Makandiwa

United Family International Church (UFIC) leader Emmanuel Makandiwa on Friday night gave a tub-thumping sermon in Mt Hampden, encouraging the country to move towards adopting its own currency rather than taking solace in either the US dollar or the bond notes.

This comes as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has revealed that $50 million worth of bond notes will go into circulation by the end of the year as part of strategies to curb the crippling shortage of the US dollar.

The country's economy has been on a downward spiral owing to mismanagement by President Robert Mugabe's government and the situation has reached debilitating levels with the capital Harare, being rocked by a series of violent protests between the police and protestors who want the nonagenarian to leave office.

"We have to have our own local blessing . . . someone asked me about the introduction of bond notes but I believe in our own currency . . . the US  dollar life is good yes, but we cannot say God has blessed you as a nation until you have your own currency . . . that is the blessing of God . . . we have to have our own currency," Makandiwa said.

Previously, Makandiwa has also delivered a prophecy about the Zimbabwe cash shortages in 2011.

The charismatic preacher, who commands a strong following in the country, told the thousands of people who were gathered in Mt Hampden that God had told him to change the venue for the Judgement Night 4 conference soon after last year's edition.

" . . . God showed me all this . . . we knew this was going to happen, soon after Judgement Night 3 we had a meeting . . . a looking back meeting . . .we set this date August 26, and God told me you are going to do it in the midst of a mist . . . I saw tears, people were crying and He said to me change the venue, go far away from the mist.

"I knew this before Judgement Night 3... there is smoke everywhere but there is a blessing in this place, the blessing upon this nation is about to manifest," Makandiwa said.

The previous three editions of the Judgment Night sermons, which have seen record crowds thronging the giant National Sports Stadium in Harare, was shifted to the church's headquarters in Mt Hampden some 18km out of the capital city.