Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Terrence Mukupe has said that Zimbabwe should adopt the South African Rand as its official currency. Mukupe said that this would help to stabilise the economy and ease the cash shortages. However, Mukupe admitted that Zimbabwe would find it very difficult to join the Rand Monetary Union due to the fact that it did not have its own currency. to Said Mukupe,
It’s a good thing to join the Rand Monetary Union as a temporary measure, the same way we adopted the bond notes to stabilise the economy.
The problem why we can’t join the rand union. it’s not that we don’t want. but what people forget is that you can’t join without your own currency. Because you come up with your own currency then they determine how much of your it you have in circulation. Then the amount of money you have in circulation is then somehow backed by the rand and the South African rand can then come into your country and float freely.
That it means is that as a country you now have access to deeper financial markets in South Africa such as bond markets which we don’t have here.
The Rand Monetary Union is made up of South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland. There have been numerous calls by various sectors for the government to adopt the Rand in order to make Zimbabwean industry more competitive.
