Business Man Turned-Politician Challenges Legality Of RTGS Dollars In High Court

Whilst we are still struggling to come to terms with the reintroduction of the Zimbabw Dollar, one politician has decided to challenge the introduction of RTGS Dollar, the predecessor of the Zimbabwean Dollar.

In February, RBZ combined bond notes and coins and RTGS balances to come up with the RTGS dollar as a way to manage the currency market. To be able to do this, President Mnangagwa invoked the Presidential Powers Act which legally made the RTGS dollar a de facto currency.

It is these powers which the leader of Zimbabwe Free Zimbabwe Congress, Joseph Busha is saying that are unconstitutional. His argument is that if the Presidential Powers is unconstitutional, then the Statutory Instrument which was used to introduce the RTGS dollar is not valid and ultimately so is the Zimbabwe dollar not a legal tender.

Accordingly, Mr Busha is asking the court to invalidate all the actions that were done based on the RTGS dollar to be invalidated- which means that he is asking the court to declare that the Zim dollar is not a legal tender since its made up of RTGS dollars. Part of Mr Busha’s argument as reported by The Standard read:

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.

Mr Busha’s is not the first politician to go before the courts with this kind of case. In March, another Member of Parliament sued President Mnangagwa for introducing RTGS dollars through using unconstitutional powers. What are the chances that Mr Busha arguments will convince the court to invalidate both the introduction of the RTGS dollar and Zimbabwe dollar?

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