Charity Maodza Correspondent
What the country is experiencing today is nothing new. It is an old script. It always starts with a viral and alarm-ridden social media message spelling doom for the economy that prods a panicky society to naively stampede to the shops to hoard basic commodities, leading to critical shortages.

This is how the parallel market is born. Yes, we have been on this road before. Those who experienced the artificial shortages of 2008, will recall how the black market was selfishly brought to life by economic saboteurs in cahoots with opposition mandarins, who wanted to hamstring the economy for their economic and political gain.

During that hard-to-forget year, it all started with rumours swirling that goods would disappear from shops and people should grab whatever they can to prepare for the cold winter ahead. The rumours became the seed for the harmful parallel market.

This seed was subsequently watered and fertilised by people who acceded to the rumour and broke into panicky buying and unprecedented hoarding of goods, which expectedly led to the disappearance of commodities from supermarket shelves. The seed developed roots when economic vultures and saboteurs set up the black market, where commodities were traded at steep prices that were largely out of reach for many.

All this became a precursor to a biting economic phase that left many physically and psychologically emaciated. Viewed against the latest developments in the country, the above brief description of the genesis of the 2008 economic crisis would bring an eerie sense of deja vu to the attentive.

Protagonists of the current assault on the economy are cheaply seeking to justify the façade as a product of market forces, which is totally misleading. The same economic saboteurs are actively behind the disappearance of cash in the country as they have mopped up all currencies, which they now trade on the parallel market.

When the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) initially introduced the first tranche of Bond notes, the same forces spread rumours that the cash injection would trigger inflation and urged consumers to stock up on basic goods. With the RBZ planning to inject another batch of Bond notes, the vultures are at it again. Theirs is economic terrorism modelled to effect regime change.

In line with the declared western bid to make Zimbabwe’s economy scream, the forces want to trigger an artificial shortage of commodities in a bid to incite people into the streets in an Arab Spring-like uprising. The plan is well-choreographed to asphyxiate the economy by spreading economic terror messages that will trigger pandemonium and economic paralysis.

Already, political vultures such as the Tajamuka group have registered plans to piggyback on the artificial economic sideshow by calling for demonstrations against government. Since Zimbabweans have trodden this road before, what should they do to circumvent it and not be fooled again?

The answer is simple. People should stop fertilising the black market seed by refusing to pander to the whims of those behind the economic terror messages. People should shame economic terrorists by remaining calm and continuing with their day to day lives.

People should also desist from hoarding goods or panic buying as this will create artificial shortages that serve the political goals of the saboteurs. People should also not play into the hands of saboteurs by desisting from spreading toxic economic rumours either orally or on social media.

This entails avoiding the forwarding of malicious messages or images that fuels the assault on the economy. Government should also come in to cleanse the streets of foreign exchange agents on the black market and apprehend those found selling goods on the parallel market without licences. Government should also craft legal instruments that empower the police and judiciary to successfully bring economic saboteurs and terrorists to justice.

As highlighted above, the seeds of the black market have been sown in Zimbabwe and it is now up to the ordinary citizens to either fertilise them or to uncover them and cast them away. Instead of abetting the unrelenting regime change efforts to make the economy scream, people should rather ignore them as they are like the morning dew that easily gives way to the rising sun. The latest attack on the economy should not be seen in isolation of the existing illegal sanctions that are designed to bring the economy to its knees.

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