Back to Index

Calls for exemption from the daily withdrawal limit by the MPs a disgrace
Zimbabwe Youth Forum
October 08, 2008

The Youth Forum is deeply disturbed by recent calls by Zimbabwean Members of Parliament at a local city hotel during their induction ceremony where they demanded to be exempted from the RBZ fixed $20 000 daily withdrawal limit. While the Youth Forum does not and has never condoned shortsighted and ill-informed RBZ policies we feel that the Honorable Members could have seized the opportunity to call for the overhaul of the Zimbabwean financial sector which has seen people failing to access their hard earned cash.

The call by the MPs to be given a privilege to withdraw more money than ordinary people leaves us to think that Mps are now representing their personal interests at the expense of the electorate. It is our modestly considered view that honorable members should fight to see that queues are a thing of the past and that the RBZ is completely revamped not to agitate for half baked reforms that will see them getting an advantage over the suffering masses of the country. We feel that its time the elected MPs show solidarity with the oppressed masses by joining the long queues for them to have a feeling of the severity of the economic situation.

Such calls for special treatment at our local banks make us feel that our elected representatives have considered the prevailing economic hardships hard to turn around. We feel that this is time for the MPs to show leadership by being in solidarity with the workers who cannot make it through the month and the patient who dies because they can't get money to buy scarce medicines. We deserve an explanation as to how cash barons changing money in the streets get access to such huge bricks of brand new crispy bank notes when the daily withdrawal limit is $20 000. It is not unusual to see a street money changer with more than $1 billion (revalued) of crispy bank notes daily, an amount that requires more than a century (100years) of continuous daily withdrawals. The period required to get such an amount of money quadruples the average life expectancy of an ordinary Zimbabwean. This only goes to show the levels of corruption that have besieged our economy.

Media reports indicate that MPs where arguing that they need to use their personal withdrawals to assist their constituencies in times of grief. We belief that their duty is to create an enabling environment through advocating for appropriate reforms that will see equal opportunities for all in our communities. To this end they should see that reforms are urgently made to ensure that the financial sector performs normally.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP