Seeking to curb inflation, which reached 191% in June, the Central Bank of Zimbabwe announced on Monday it will soon start issuing gold coins.
The government in Harare hopes this will reduce the demand for US dollars and at least slow down the further debasement of the local currency.
The Central Bank governor, John Mangudya, said the coins should become available in late July via local banks and currency exchanges.
Named Mosi-oa-Tunya, after the Victoria Falls, they will contain one troy ounce of gold and serve as legal tender, convertible into cash locally and internationally.
The Central Bank governor, John Mangudya, said the coins should become available in late July via local banks and currency exchanges.
The gold coins will be available for sale to the public in both local currency and US dollars and other foreign currencies at a price based on the prevailing international price of gold and the cost production.
The Central Bank hopes that using the coins as a store of value will reduce the demand for US dollars, which Harare blames for the ongoing collapse of the national currency, known as the Zimdollar or zollar (ZWL).
Meanwhile, Mangudya has outlined plans to treat the American dollar as legal tender for the next five years. Last week, the Central Bank raised interest rates from 80% to 200%.
The move comes as both the US and China are showing renewed interest in Zimbabwe – most notably for its deposits of lithium, the largest in Africa and fifth-largest worldwide.
The Bikita mine in the Masvingo province sits on an estimated 11 million tons of the metal most commonly used in batteries.
China’s Sinomine Resource Group recently bought the mine for $180 million and announced last month it would invest another $200 million to expand operations.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden has nominated a veteran diplomat who served in Ukraine, Great Britain, and Turkey as the next American ambassador to Zimbabwe.
Pamela Tremont’s current posting was as chargé d’affaires in Sweden, during which the traditionally neutral country was advised to join the military NATO alliance.
The original Zimbabwean dollar, introduced in 1980, started out on par with the US currency but traded 100:1 by 2000, after it announced its independence from Britain.
By the time the fourth iteration of the Zimbabwean dollar was abandoned, in September 2009, the IMF forced it to trade at 300 trillion ZWR to one US dollar.
Zimbabwe Independence Day started in 1980, after South-Rhodesia gained independence from the British, taking the name Zimbabwe.
The day marked the end of racial segregation after a protracted war of liberation that claimed many lives. In the ninety year span that Zimbabwe was a colony, it was administered by the British South African Company (BSAC) under the name Rhodesia and the Responsible Government under the name Southern Rhodesia.
Both administrative systems were under the British monarchy. In 1965, Zimbabwe became autonomous and was led by a white segregationist government after Ian Douglas Smith made a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from Britain.
This was after the British government had made majority rule a condition for the independence of Rhodesia from Britain. Smith followed the UDI by declaring Rhodesia a Republic, which however, did not have international recognition.
From June 1979, the Republic of Southern Rhodesia was replaced by Zimbabwe-Rhodesia after Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa won the first majority elections.
Lacking international recognition, after about three months, the country was taken back into the hands of Britain, as per the Lancaster House Agreement which was meant to facilitate transition.
The country once again became a British colony known as Southern Rhodesia.
In the April 1980 elections, Robert Mugabe, head of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) won the majority and became the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwean independence is celebrated on 18 April each year and Robert Mugabe has been at the helm since 1980, until he passed away at the age of 95 in September 2019.
Thousands of mourners sang the praises of Robert Mugabe on Saturday at the official funeral ceremony for the Zimbabwe’s founding president in Harare.
A military brass band led family members, officials from the ruling Zanu-PF party and foreign dignitaries from across Africa on a short parade across the grass of the national stadium in front of the coffin, which was draped in the national flag.
RT.com / ABC Flash-Point Africa News 2022.
I believe it’s time for normal hard working Americans to gather together and start deciding what they want to do with their part of the continent after the rest of us burn that flag for the last time. Allies in the UK are limping, Europe is only a fake friend because once the dollar crashes you’ll realize that the euro was no different. And the number of countries calling bullshit on your idea of (so called) freedom are mounting fast.
http://images.bidorbuy.co.za/user_images/506/720506_090324141957_rise1aa_(632_x_1060).jpg
Now it is a positive move. But what would be far more positive for this country is to introduce a currency backed with a small amount of gold, platinum, rhodium and other precious metal. This country should be very rich. Except for that it is ruled by colonial bandits.