His application comes when the government has also introduced Statutory Instrument 142 of 2019 which bans the use of all foreign currencies for domestic transactions. The SI makes the RTGS dollar and bond notes the only legal tender in the country.
The RTGS dollar was introduced in February through the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act.
Busha Statutory Instrument 33 of 2019 which was used to introduce the currency outlawed as he claims that it was inconsistent with the constitution. He also wants the court to give an order invalidating any reference or actions based on the RTGS currency.
Busha also argued that converting people’s bank balances from United States dollars to the electronic currency was unlawful. He argued:
It gives the first respondent (Mnangagwa), the president, powers which the Constitution specifically and purposively does not give him.
The powers of the president are set out in section 110 of the constitution and none of those powers entitle him to legislate.
It being subsidiary to the constitution, the Act cannot validly expand the powers of the president beyond what the Constitution confines them to.
The Free Zimbabwe Congress leader wants Mnangagwa to pay the costs of the suit.
More: The Standard