Zimdollar, the way to go

currently a thousand and eight hundred times stronger than the so-called hard currency, the United States dollar, is massively scientifically factual and as really practical as Zimbabwe’s confirmed huge yet to be exploited gold and other precious minerals deposits.
Yet a Mr Takunda Mugaga(The Herald 13 December, 2011) says and would want us to believe that, “The US dollar is a strong currency and this is why it is demanded worldwide”, “Our capacity utilisation as a country currently stands at 57 percent and it is still not practical to reintroduce the Zimdollar”, he concluded.
Two important questions which Mr Mugaga and everyone else of like mind should convincingly answer are: First of all, isn’t it more an economic fact that currently, gold is more on demand worldwide than the US dollar? Isn’t the strength of the US dollar currently only left in the hearts of the irrational? This question obviously exposes Mugaga’s assertion as purely outdated sentiment. Secondly, is a descriptive analysis of our sub-capacity production something we Zimbabweans should be seized with or shouldn’t Mr Mugaga and others give us an objective prescriptive analysis of how to attain 100 percent capacity utilisation or according to Mr John Mushayavanhu, how the country should curtail imports by boosting exports, given the current circumstances where the so-called Office of Foreign Assets Control has gone on the rampage to illegally help itself on foreign funds. Zimbabwe is a developing world country and for it to experience rapid growth and development it has to go back to the basics. An economy can only develop on one fundamental condition that the three principal economic agents, households/consumers, producers and government, think and behave rationally.
It is irrational to still religiously think and behave on the basis of the belief that the US dollar is currently a very powerful currency just because public information in western capitals asserts so, when in fact closed door sessions of the so-called G8 or G20 have themselves already secretly dumped the dollar out of realisation that statistics practically indicate its value against an ounce of gold deteriorating from an average US$450 ten years ago to the present average US$1 800, hence the frantic efforts in every country except the naive African, to amass as much gold as is possible.
While to some degree it’s true some Zimbabweans now have a terrible Zimdollar phobia, it is the duty of any responsible policymakers, the media and good economists, to tell the public the truth that gold is a commodity of stable God-given value and does not increase in or lose value since its creation.
The equation above simply explains that, rather it’s the US dollar and all its naive satellite currency zones that are in free fall (depreciating fast), not otherwise. Why, like a fly, follow a corpse into the grave?
We are desperately aiming at exporting all our gold and other precious minerals only to be left clutching to the now more and more defunct “US Dollar Bearer Cheques” with which, because of its ever continuing deterioration, we cannot go back to import machinery and equipment for any decent recapitalisation programme of our three pillars of the economy, agriculture, mining and manufacturing.
It is therefore very sad to hear an educated former Chamber of Mines president some time back, lamenting that the mining industry needs US$6 billion for retooling, when the country’s geology contains upwards of US$10 trillion worth of gold and platinum.
The point here is, lets acquire the tools with payment in ounces of gold and platinum. Nowhere is it a sin in the bible, nor is it illegal according to international trade statutes, to settle our import bills in ounces of gold. After all it is the de facto world reserve currency at the moment, hence, contrary to Mr Mushayavanhu’ assertion, Zimbabwe has always had a huge more than adequate import cover. Only fear and ignorance in some of us in decision-making positions has been the stumbling block.
And the economy cannot afford another blunder in wasting resources importing coins from the US, South Africa or planet Mars, when we should have easily used the already existing universally and legally accepted Zimbabwean coins as change tokens. Under such a system, 1 Zimbabwean cent is equivalent to 1 US cent and the issue of an exchange rate does not arise since coins are strictly for local transactions.
When all is said, it is very practically feasible to reintroduce the Zimdollar on the basis of the foregoing equation. After all, if ours is a multicurrency system, let the Zimdollar and BRICS basket of currencies freely participate.

l Buxton L Munhuwa is principal consultant, Southern Business and Economic Consultancy.