Addressing a financial markets conference in Harare yesterday, former finance minister and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Tendai Biti said President Robert Mugabe rejected proposals to adopt the South African rand as the primary currency in July 2010.
Said Biti:
So I went to my principal on July 10, 2010, Mugabe, and said (I used to call him sekuru) ‘Sekuru (grandpa), I think this (rand adoption) is a good idea’, (we used to be good friends) but nationalism came in the way. The simple question from him was: ‘Why should we use another person’s currency?’ And I said but the United States dollar is another person’s currency and nationalism just came in the way. Part of our problem is that we have to understand the importance of transitioning from certain values. Nationalism liberated us, but it was never designed to run economies.
More: NewsDay