Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has
declared bond notes legal tender amid charges by experts that the
intervention was unconstitutional.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) announced in May that it would introduce the currency linked to the US dollar.
The announcement at the height of
serious shortages of the dollar in the country sparked a flurry of
lawsuits challenging the legality of the bond notes.
Measure of doubt
President Mugabe’s decision to use his powers to declare the notes legal tender is seen as an attempt to block court challenges.
“It has been decided that the
legality of bond notes as legal tender in Zimbabwe should be put beyond
any measure of doubt,” Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa said in a
statement on Tuesday.
“It is to this effect that the
president has today gazetted statutory instrument 133 of 2016 President
Powers (Temporary Measures) Amendment of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Act
in issue of bond notes regulation 2016.
Powers regulations
“The measures that have been
gazetted under presidential powers regulations will fortify and underpin
the existing legal framework for the issuance of the bond notes.”
However, former Finance minister Tendai Biti immediately dismissed President Mugabe’s intervention as illegal.
“The use of a presidential decree
to enact law is unconstitutional, authoritarian and contemptuous of
parliament,” Mr Biti, now practising as a lawyer tweeted.
“They are tearing the constitution (sic),” he added.
Call elections
Former Education minister David
Coltart suggested Mr Chinamasa avoided using parliament to push through
the law because the bond notes were not popular even among ruling
Zanu-PF party legislators.
“Zanu-PF knows they cannot not use
parliament to force through the bond notes law because it will reveal
just how unpopular they will be even within Zanu-PF,” he tweeted.
In 2013, President Mugabe used his powers to call elections without reforms. At that time, Mr Chinamasa was
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