'Deal ruthlessly with illegal forex traders' - first deal with Banks for NOT trading

No pain no gain! Is a phrase that has been abused in Zimbabwe to get the poor to give up the little they have for a better tomorrow that is always a day away. After 38 years of these empty promises the powers that be are still at it!

"Some pains are just but a necessary evil and ought to be lived through than avoided if the benefits are to be harnessed in totality. Joys of motherhood come with excruciating pain, sweating and energy draining pregnancy, but at the end of it all is the feeling of fulfilment and self-actualisation," wrote Caitlin Kamba on Bulawayo24.
 
Yeah, yeah, we have had it all before. Before the adopting of each of the five-year Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes in 1990 and 1995 the nation was told to tighten its belt for the economic hardship and that the economy will emerge strong - the joys of motherhood.
 
To start with the country was in economic trouble hence the need to adjust; we would not have needed to adjust anything if Zanu PF had not messed up. At the end of each five years the country's economy was worse and not better; the only people who benefited are the ruling elite who were loosen their belts as their piled up the fat from all the good living.

Zimbabwe is not going to register any meaningful economic recovery as long as the country remains a pariah state ruled by incompetent, corrupt and vote rigging thugs. The regime has failed to get money from the IMF, WB, etc. and so it is taxing the country's 75% already living on US$1.00 or less a day. The money will be used to buy new cars, charter planes, pay overseas hospital bills for the ruling elite, etc.

"It is also prudent to remember that a revolution like Greek god, Kronos, the revolution devours its own children. Regardless of political affiliation all economic evils ought to be done away with. In the same manner Intermediary Transitory Tax (ITT) is affecting everyone so should the economic reforms take the same route. The cash barons and illegal foreign currency dealers as well as touts of various sizes and forms ought to be dealt with ruthlessly," says Kamba.

This is just nonsense. People are not depositing any of the US$ they earn in the Bank because they deposit US$ and are forced to withdraw Bond Note. They need US$ to pay for imports, Zimbabwe imports almost everything now, and they source the forex from wherever they can and pay the premium rate; they have no choice.
It is all very well for the authorities to insist the 1:1 US$ to Bond Note exchange rate and have done nothing to ensure the Banks has the forex to pay all their customers in US$.

It is typical of tyrannical regime to criminalise innocent people. Zimbabwe scrapped Z$ making a basket of foreign currency legal tender. The Bond Notes, RTGS, eco-cash, etc. were added into the basket. Anyone could pay for any good and services in anyone of these foreign and local currency and there has been a preference to deal in one or currencies over the others and hence the premium charge. No one is committing a criminal offense by trading in any of the currencies. The call to have any such traders "dealt with ruthlessly" is therefore totally irresponsible.

Criminalising trade in the legal tender forex will only reduce the number of traders to the benefit of the rich and powerful who always step in and take over charging even more for the service!

Zimbabwe's economic mess is a result of the country's up-side down and back to front and downright idiotic policies that has result in the criminal waste of human and material resources. No country on earth can sustain, much less thrive, $15 billion in diamond revenue being swindled. Yet this is what has been happening in Zimbabwe and our GPD is only $13 billion.

Zimbabwe must first address its corrupted system of government to make sure the criminal waste of resources through gross mismanagement and rampant corruption are dealt with first. The ruling elite's appetite for wealth is insatiable. All attempts to revive the economy without first addressing the waste have been futile because the ruling elite have only stepped up their wasteful ways confident there was more wealth where that came from.

Only a first class village idiot will belief that ITT taxing the now filthy poor to bankroll the extravagant lifestyles of the filthy rich will, somehow, uplift the poor out of poverty! "Self-actualisation!" Indeed!