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By Wisdom Mumera.

Harare, Zimbabwe. (News Of The South) – The Zimbabwean government has been accused of being the chief culprit in the unravelling cash crisis bedevilling the Southern nation which has seen banks running out of cash threatening the total collapse of the formal economy.

Robert Mugabe’s 36 year rule faces a déjà vu of greater proportions since the 2008 situation when a similar experience threw the country to the dogs.

Banks no longer have cash to dispense and long queues have returned as people rush to take out their monies fearing total losses due to collapsing banks.

In an effort to deal with the situation the Reserve Bank has announced the imminent coming of Bond notes, augmenting already circulating bond coins, a stunt which has only served to reinforce the public’s fear that the trillion-hyperinflationary Zim dollar of 2008 is returning.

Writing in his weekly column economic expert and MDC member Eddie Cross has explained that the situation is a direct product of illegal government activities.

“In the first 4 months of 2016, the banking system has come perilously close to collapse and we need to ask why? What has changed so drastically that an otherwise sound financial institution like CABS
suddenly has no money?

“You find no credible explanation in any of the statements made by the Minister in recent days or in the Reserve Bank statements. Sure they are trying to make a case for pointing to illegal outflows, the
massive current account deficits and money laundering using neighbouring States currencies but these just do not cut the ice”, he says.

Cross however contends that the government has itself been involved in nefarious activities which have emptied the coffers of the RBZ leading to the dryness of coffers.

“I think that the real reason is that they have been robbing the bank.

In 2015 the RGTS system (money transfer through the banks) handled $45 billion -$170 million a day. This demonstrates the speed at which money circulates in any economy”.

“What happens in this system is that when you fill in RTGS form at your local bank, the bank processes the documentation and sends it, with a wire transfer of funds from your account to the Reserve Bank.

In 2015 your money sat there for an average of 3 days before onward transfer to your supplier/creditor”.

“Now I believe that the only credible explanation of the sudden cash shortage is that when Chinamasa cannot balance his books at the month end and needs cash he has been dipping into the RTGS account at the Reserve Bank and replacing the funds with a simple IOU”.

“This is patently illegal and puts every bank at risk because, when the commercial bank takes real dollars out of your account for transfer you expect to deliver at the other end”, Cross says.

In January this year the RTGS system slipped slightly with a few days additional delay and few complained. In February it got worse, in March and April still further delays until the whole system was close to collapse suppliers asking where their money was.

Currently delays are over one month in many cases and the Reserve Bank has begun- way before the recent announcement last week, to prioritise payments to protect essential supplies.

Fuel is number one and University fees are at the bottom. Since the cash shortages hit the drought afflicted country, banks have instituted withdrawal limits.

“The economy has voted against the ZANU PF led government and this is reflected in the rapid and dramatic decline in revenues to the State.

The answer to this is a change of government and new leadership”, charged Cross.

Wary of the banks after the debacle of 2014 when 9 banks failed people are not banking and are taking their money out of the banks a scenario which has put the entire banking industry at risk.

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