News:Government urges Constitutional Court to dismiss Mujuru's bond notes challenge
<vote /> Government has urged the Constitutional Court to dismiss the bond notes challenge by Zimbabwe People First leader Dr Joice Mujuru, saying it lacked merit and was premised on speculation. The Constitutional Court will on September 28 determine whether or not the politician should be granted direct access to the apex court. Dr Mujuru listed President Robert Mugabe, Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr John Mangudya and the Attorney-General Advocate Prince Machaya, as respondents in the constitutional challenge.
In a notice of opposition filed by the Government lawyers on behalf of the respondents it was argued that Dr Mujuru should have waited for the issuance of the notes in order to firstly ascertain the legality of the move. Part of the opposition notice reads,
The application is itself speculative as there are no bond notes in circulation. It is accordingly not in the interests of justice that applicant be granted direct access to the Constitutional Court as the cause of action is purely speculative. The bond notes have not yet been introduced and as such there is no way one can simply argue that they are illegal.
Government contends that the bond notes will not be a new form of currency to be used in the country but just a representative of a currency already in circulation,
The introduction of bond notes does not violate the Constitution to the extent that bond notes will be a surrogate of United States currency which will be kept in reserve by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and to which the bond notes will be bonded. As such, the bond notes will not be a currency in their own right but merely representative monetary instruments of a foreign currency which is legal tender in Zimbabwe.
The lawyers also argued that the central bank has authority to issue such monetary instruments in terms of Section 7(1) (d) of the RBZ Act.
Read More: The Herald
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