Cash Crisis for Christmas

From The Standard, 23 December: Gono labelled 'No. 1 saboteur'

By Ndamu Sandu and Jennifer Dube

Reserve Bank governor, Gideon Gono was labelled the biggest economic saboteur, as thousands of Zimbabweans yesterday endured a nightmarish start to the Christmas and New Year's holidays in long queues for cash. The cash crisis, in its second month, continued unabated yesterday with account holders failing to access their money.... The critics said it was "very cruel" of Gono to plunge the ordinary people into the crisis in a miscalculated move "to fix" people whose identity he knew. In a televised interview on Wednesday, Gono said of the $67 trillion in circulation, the RBZ could only account for $2 trillion, leaving the remainder in the hands of cash barons, among them top politicians and businesspeople. "I know three quarters of them but professional ethics do not allow me to name them...If challenged I would name them," Gono said. But Chibebe said the governor could afford to dilly-dally because the politicians were not being affected by the crisis. "I am yet to see any minister queuing (for cash).... Against all odds, ZBH's FM station at 8am yesterday declared Gono, its "Personality of the Week". But very few people shared State-owned network's adulation of the central bank czar. "I have been to four shops in Avondale," said a Mabelreign parent, who said she and her children were determined to vote in next year's elections. "They will not accept cheques. I cannot get cash from the banks. If I use commuter buses, will they accept cheques?... Assuming that the money was shared equally among the 12 million population, each citizen, including the newly-born babies, would get less than $6 million each and that could hardly buy three square meals!

From ZENIT (Rome), 21 December: South African prelate urges welcome of Zimbabweans

Recalls Christian obligation to aid needy

Johannebsurg – The Christian obligation of South Africans is to welcome those fleeing the escalating crisis in Zimbabawe, said the archbishop of Johannesburg. ... Archbishop Tlhagale urged South Africans to make an adjustment to their lives by welcoming Zimbabweans and assisting them as much as possible. He said even small gestures of welcome and compassion will make a difference.

Grim tales from Zimbabwe

From The Los Angeles Times, 21 December: Grim tales from Zimbabwe

continued from yesterday...

On the road from Harare to Bulawayo, there's a hill named Heroes' Acre where famous veterans from Mugabe's triumphant uprising against Ian Smith's white minority regime in the 1970s are buried. Driving by, I feel a twinge of curiosity to see the soaring North Korean- designed obelisk within, but entry requires a special government permit. Locals shrug at my interest and say the place usually is deserted. But occasionally there are jealous fights in the ruling party over who deserves to be buried there. The many roadblocks on the way are mostly a means for underpaid police to extract bribes. Lately most can't even find cars or fuel to man the barriers. But roadblocks do get more serious if the government has a big campaign on, like Operation Murambatsvina (Clean Out the Filth) two years ago, when the military invaded townships and razed nearly every shack.

The Mugabe government said that it cut crime and made everything clean and tidy. But it targeted areas that had voted for the opposition. In the townships then, the air was full of the dust of demolitions. The route from Harare to Bulawayo looked like a road out of a war zone, with desperate people pushing carts piled with belongings. One evening during the operation, I was stopped at a roadblock as I was leaving one of the affected areas. I'd carelessly slipped notes of interviews into the pages of a guidebook, in between brochures and maps. The police ordered us out of the car and began to search the vehicle. They carefully searched the pockets, the trunk, my rucksack. They lifted up the seats. One officer picked up the book with my notes and began flipping through it. I had to look away. For a moment I felt a tiny whisper of the fear that Zimbabweans live with, like a fine invisible web that sticks to everyone. But when I glanced back, he had placed the book back in the car.

... In a nearby village, two policemen ask for a ride. My activist friend agrees with obvious reluctance. On the road he berates them for arresting and beating people for no reason, brushing aside their ineffectual protestations of innocence. The activist asked not to be identified, fearing repercussions that might make it difficult for him to work. Like everyone, it seems he has something to fear. The elite fear losing their privileges and wealth, or being arrested as traitors should they fall out of favor. Dealers and retailers fear jail for black market profiteering, or for violations of strict foreign exchange laws and price controls. Opposition and human rights activists fear being arrested, beaten, tortured or "disappeared." People believe the secret police are everywhere, eavesdropping on every phone call, inspecting every e-mail. As vast as Mugabe's security apparatus is, the fear of it is even larger. People walk on a knife-edge. Even giving birth is something to fear.

decline and absurdities that would be comical if they weren't so tragic

From The Los Angeles Times, 21 December: Grim tales from Zimbabwe

By Robyn Dixon

Everywhere you travel in the country there is evidence of decline and absurdities that would be comical if they weren't so tragic.... Nothing is simple in Zimbabwe. I'd planned to leave by 8. Problems getting diesel (and Max's elastic idea of punctuality) meant it was lunchtime before we got on the road. But once the car has rested awhile, Max starts it up and decides we can limp along after all. The music of the cicadas almost drowns out the tinny vibrations of the tape player. Zimbabwean artist Oliver Mtukudzi is singing a ballad in Shona called "Bvuma": "Accept that you are old. Accept that you are worn out. . . . Don't deny it, you are finished." It could have been written for Max's car. Or is it about the country's all-powerful, 83-year-old president, Robert Mugabe? The roads of Zimbabwe sing their own haunting lament for a people and their suffering.... Life here is full of Catch-22 dilemmas that would strain credulity if they were fiction: It costs more to go to work than you can possibly earn, for example. There is no economy to speak of, either, just the black market, where even the government gets its dollars..... Reporting is difficult here. Because the government rarely issues journalist visas to foreigners, most of us work undercover, risking jail.

So when I had asked some church activists who knew where people were most hungry to take me to Nkayi, they told me, horrified, that it would be impossible. Everyone would ask who the white woman was. I'd be watched. The authorities would be summoned.... Everywhere you go in Zimbabwe, there are snapshots of decline. On the dusty roadsides, elderly women struggle along with huge branches on their heads, hewn from the bush. A pickup heads out of town, hazard lights blinking, a makeshift coffin in the back and mourning, threadbare relatives cramped around it in the cold wind. Along the road from South Africa, SUVs tow trailers swollen with loads as large as elephants: consumer goods unavailable in Zimbabwe's bare shops. The stores are so empty that the government statistician says it's impossible to work out the inflation rate. (Independent economists estimate that it is between 40,000% and 90,000%.) Given the depth of the economic crisis, it's difficult to see how anything works.

The answer is in a Zimbabwean turn of phrase, "We'll make a plan," which can mean growing your own vegetables, going to the black market, bartering, bribing an official, stealing from your workplace and selling the goods, buying what you need in South Africa or Botswana, or holding down several jobs to make ends meet. A journalist more than doubles his salary by making candles on weekends. A Reserve Bank employee buys and slaughters cows on the side. A sign writer sells sandwiches cobbled out of difficult-to-come-by bread. Teachers, who can go to South Africa with no visa, bring back cooking oil, the staple called maize meal, flour and sugar to sell. In Harare, the capital's thin veneer of normality and air of placid self-satisfaction have been scraped away over the last few years. Often the elevators in its few modest skyscrapers don't work. I wait in the rain in a gasoline queue with Mtukudzi singing a song about a fractious old man who has lost everyone's respect. A little girl with an orange umbrella dances in the downpour.

Comment from The Zimbabwe Independent, 21 December: Beyond human rights violations

Alex Magaisa

Received wisdom attributes the collapse of Zimbabwe to rampant abuse of human rights. So pervasive is this view that the language of human rights dominates every facet of discourse on Zimbabwe. That the human rights perspective is so dominant is testament to the great efforts of the human rights movement both in and outside Zimbabwe. The result is that challenges to the power and legitimacy of the Mugabe regime are invariably predicated on human rights violations. That may well be true but to the extent that it obfuscates other grounds upon which the authority of the regime can be effectively challenged, the human rights narrative has been limiting. In other words, it is important to appreciate that there are other ways of attributing the collapse of Zimbabwe, beyond the human rights narrative. One of these ways is to understand the collapse as a failure of resource management by an inadequate regime. ...

Whereas….

From SW Radio Africa, 19 December: Cooking in queues as cash shortages worsen

By Lance Guma

Several families are leaving their homes armed with portable paraffin stoves to cook meals in the long snaking queues at the bank. The country is in the midst of a major cash crisis with the central bank failing to provide enough notes to meet demand. Pishai Muchauraya an opposition official in Manicaland said it’s now a common practice to see people cooking food to eat whilst queuing up to withdraw money. Teachers who work in rural areas and travel to the cities to get their money are some of the most affected groups. Banks are only allowing customers to withdraw Z$5 million per day whilst a trip for some could cost as much as Z$6 million…..

From Reuters, 20 December: No quick end seen to Zimbabwe cash

By Nelson Banya

Harare - Zimbabwe's move to introduce higher denomination banknotes to end cash shortages fall short of solving the crisis, analysts said on Thursday, as consumers besieged banks ahead of the Christmas holidays. The southern African country is facing an acute economic crisis blamed on President Robert Mugabe's policies, marked by the world's highest inflation and shortages of fuel and food. Official inflation is nearly 8,000 percent, although independent economists say the figure could be double that. In a televised address on Wednesday, Zimbabwe's central bank Governor Gideon Gono introduced higher value notes in Z$750,000 ($25 at the official exchange rate and $0.47 on the black market), Z$500,000 and Z$250,000 bills to help ease a cash crunch that has seen long queues at banks. Gono - who blames the shortage of banknotes on rampant black market trade - said the central bank would withdraw the Z$200,000 note, previously the highest note in circulation and mostly used by illegal foreign currency traders, with effect from Jan.1. Analysts said the new banknotes, the highest of which cannot buy a loaf of bread costing at least Z$800,000, were only a temporary solution. "It's just a temporary measure...the huge demand for cash will always be there as long as inflation remains high and there is more activity in the informal economy, as opposed to the formal sector," said Best Doroh, an economist at ZB Financial Holdings. "Short of dealing with that, any solution is going to be short-lived."….

Zimbabwe gets bigger bank notes

From The Cape Argus (SA), 20 December

Reserve bank governor blames crisis on corruption

Zimbabwe's top banker has announced the immediate introduction of higher denominations of bank notes in a bid to tackle cash shortages fed by runaway inflation. With inflation estimated at over 10 000%, the highest in the world, Zimbabweans face a bleak festive season. The economy took a turn for the worse this year when basic commodities disappeared from shop shelves after the government ordered businesses to slash their prices by 50% in July. Although commodities are available again, they are no longer affordable to most consumers. Professional "queueists" spend long hours standing in line for commodities which they then sell on the black market. With effect from today, 250 000, 500 000 and 750 000 Zimbabwe dollar notes will come into circulation, while from the end of the year, the Z$200 000 notes introduced last July, will cease to be legal tender.....

Zimbabwe - Land of Contrasts

On December 7 the Minister of Information and Publicity, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said the Zimbabwean government will invite the foreign media as part of its policy to show the world the "true Zimbabwean story". He added that the government had not banned any foreign journalists from coming into the country, but was wary of some that twisted the Zimbabwean story after "misrepresenting themselves" to the authorities, as it is not possible to get a journalist visa. At the same time there is a blacklist of websites that includes amongst others CNN and the American Embassy in Zimbabwe. I believe most news about Zimbabwe describe only part of the real situation. Nevertheless I also disagree with what the government sees as the true story. Therefore I will try paint a more holistic picture of Zimbabwe.

Collapse

This country somehow reminds me of the book Collapse by Jared Diamond.

Driving around Zimbabwe you see lots of wilderness in rural areas. Most of that used to be productive farmland owned by white families. Their ancestors probably never bought that land. But all that counts today in Zimbabwe is that lots of food had been produced on this land which is now lying idle. Instead cutting down trees has become a common habit in order to have firewood when there is no electricity as it often is the case. Those whose cannot afford firewood burn plastic to prepare their food.

Additionally huge areas get burnt down for hunting purposes. That makes the landscape look quite cheerless.

In September the police were occupied with curbing a situation of civil unrest - trying to stop a hungry crowd of desperate people from killing 'for the pot' an adult giraffe that had wandered into a township near Harare. In November poachers shot dead three black rhinoceroses - a species listed as the most highly endangered large mammal on Earth - on a private conservancy.

Zimbabwe is one oft the most isolated countries in the world. And there is more isolation still to come. In the last few month China has announced it will end its development aid to Zimbabwe by the end of the year, and Zambian Airlines and British Airways have announced to stop flying directly to Harare, Ethiopian Airlines have been trying to pull out and the US and Australia have put travel bans on more Zimbabweans.

It really feels like collapse when you know that Zimbabweans used to produce enough food for the whole country and for export while Zimbabwe is now importing the majority of basic goods. And it really feels like collapse when you see that nobody is looking after the roads, farms, fences and electricity lines anymore and instead these everything that is portable gets nicked. And it really feels like collapse when you sit at dinner in the evening with a candle on the table as the only light in the room, not because you want to but because there is no other choice.

Masters of Inventiveness

In September the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) issued a joint report on Zimbabwe’s food security, predicting that people at risk of severe food shortages will peak at 4.1 million in the first three months of 2008 – more than a third of Zimbabwe’s approximately 11.8 million inhabitants. It is estimate that since 2000 about a quarter of the population, or three million people, have left the country for neighbouring states, such as South Africa and Botswana, or further afield for Britain and Australia.

Driving through the darkened streets of Harare at night – for there is no electricity – you see hundreds of people walking purposefully at three o’clock in the morning. They are the few who need to get to work. Wages don't rise fast enough with inflation and the unemployment rate is over 80%. They take up their positions on street corners waiting for a passing car or pick-up truck. There is no petrol, and regular bus services are already a distant memory. Everyone in Zimbabwe understands life is difficult. As dawn breaks over the capital, many people – the mothers and unemployed – start forming long queues that wind around entire blocks of the city. Go to any Zimbabwean town these days and you’ll find these lines everywhere, like an invasion of giant pythons slithering into every supermarket door. There must be a rumour in Harare that there might be bread or sugar arriving in this particular supermarket. People will still be waiting many hours later. If the long awaited bread or sugar or cooking oil arrives policemen will come and jump to the top of the queue and loot the food. On the black market there is lots of sugar and cooking oil – for ten times the official price. But that is too much for the majority of Zimbabweans. A senior teacher earns about the equivalent of US$10 a month at the unofficial exchange rate.

Once one of the richest countries in Africa, Zimbabwe has become a hunter and gatherers economy. Meanwhile, other domestic and economic activities must wait. What time do they have to go to school? Learn new skills? Earn an income? Lives have gone backwards in time. You see people walking for miles, wheeling barrows, buckets on their heads, and plastic bags in hand. Like the “bag ladies” in the former Soviet Union, they are always on the ready just in case something turns up. But it seldom does. People are starving. The evidence is in the hospitals where tiny babies lie dying in their cots. Many children arrive with grandmothers. Grandmother or child-headed families are a growing social phenomenon in Zimbabwe today, often the result of the Aids epidemic. In other cases – if parents still have the energy and the means – they flee abroad to look for food and to send back money. Buses loaded with people and luggage wait for days around petrol stations. When fuel eventually arrives, they lurch off, swaying precariously under the weight of so many passengers, on the journey to the border with South Africa.

Among the refugees, there are doctors, engineers, agricultural experts, Zimbabwe’s brain draining to South Africa’s growing economy. Zimbabweans have long since given up hope that the South African leader – Thabo Mbeki – will put pressure on Robert Mugabe to reform. Thanks to the ingenuity and tolerance of people still in the country and the remittances sent back by those who have left, Zimbabwe’s death throes could last a long time yet.

I asked some rural families what they prefer - the times when there were still white farmers or now. They all preferred the old times because it was a lot easier to find work on farms, food and wages were higher. I am sure they do not want the old times back, just times when they could find jobs and food. That is how bad it has become.

Daily Struggles in Zimbabwe – for Everyone Rich and Poor

Cut off number one. You wake up in the morning on a beautiful quiet day, no sound of the radio, television or fridges running. You know the electricity is off. In some areas there are schedules to power cuts that never work out. In some aren't. Power cuts last from ten minutes to two weeks and you never know how long it takes until the power comes back on. Theatres are postponing performances due to “ridiculously long and unpredictable power cuts, with no light at the end of the tunnel”, as I recently read on the theatre notice board. At least you don't have to worry about defrosting your fridges regularly. The power cut situation also gives you days off work, because the computers will not work without ZESA, the national electricity supplier. It makes you go and search for petrol to keep the generator running and gas to keep the gas stove working or cut down trees in order to have firewood. It prevents any business from working efficiently, does awful things in hospitals, makes you happily running to the kettle to make coffee when the power comes back on or when you manage to go to the movies and watch the whole film. Besides there are not only power cuts, there are also various stages of having more or less full power with, for a spoiled European sense, various funny outcomes (no lights but the kettle works, lights but no fridges, one plate of the stove working or hours until the kettle is boiling). You develop a sense for the noise when the "ZESA is back". Roaring fuses, a distant alarm going off or the fridge starting to make noise again. And there are always lots of rumours why you do or do not have power, starting from being on the same grid as an important minister and ending with something being broken down but ZESA does not have enough foreign exchange to import the spare parts. Recently a study found out that electricity fosters development. Yes it does!

Cut-off number two is water. Almost every household has dozens of buckets, containers, pots or plastic bins - anything that can hold water. You keep storing water, just in case. Again cut-offs last anything from one day to one month. No one has that many containers.

‘Thank you Mr President for wrecking the country, because you made me rich’, says a businessman who sells borehole pumps and generators.

The Other Side of the Coin

What the Zimbabwean upper class says: Zimbabwe used to be heaven and now it is not anymore. It is not that bad, but there is no light at the end of the tunnel. They ship food, spare parts and everything else they need from overseas in big containers or go for regular shopping trips to South Africa. They are generally about 10-20 centimetres taller than people from poor areas, who suffer from malnutrition.

In this country that is screaming for decay everywhere you can still go to a fitness centre and do aerobics. The power might go off in the middle of the course, but then a powerful generator will start so that you can finish your hour of fitness.

There are Western looking Pizza Take Aways, but it is very Zimbabwean inside. The choice is usually Magherita or Hawai without pineapples and bring your own plate because they have run out of cardbox boxes, alu foil or anything to take the pizza away in.

No queuing at supermarket doors, this is how rich people get their milk. Here is one example. Imagine a rich suburb, a gate, a guard: "no through road, only for cardholders”, maximum security outside minimum security inside. Inside no fences and no walls around nice villas to make people feel free from all the “bad locals” hanging around in this country.
You go there to pick up milk that you ordered knowing a secret phone number. The inhabitants of this rich suburb are selling the milk on the black market. You struggle to convince the guard to let you in and then you see the nice ladies, dressed in expensive designer clothes, driving impressive cars and they ask in horror: "What, you don't even live here? You will have to see if we will have enough for inhabitants of this area. If not, we cannot sell it to outsiders as we might not have enough for ourselves." You join all the other housewives and gardeners waiting. You draw a number like at a European employment agency. When the milk finally arrives, everyone queues happily according to those numbers. They check if everyone is in his place and then it starts. When it is your turn you go to the first desk, say your name and the lady will check if you are on the orders list. You give her your number, get another piece of paper, go to the next desk to pay and then you finally get your milk. The only problem is it takes about two hours.

A Short Introduction Mugabenomics:

Shop owners are guilty because they did not sell food at low prices. That is why the government had to cut the prices down. But then neither the industry nor the government can fill the gap because they have no fuel. And they have no fuel because of the “smart sanctions” that Western countries are imposing on Zimbabwe.

In September the Minister of Energy and Power Development, Mike Nyambuya, said the government is encouraging all Zimbabweans to reduce the number of cars on the country’s roads and get used to being pedestrians to save the scarce fuel there is. “In most developed countries, especially in Western Countries company executives wearing expensive suits use public transport or walk to work but here in Zimbabwe one person wants to have 10 cars on the road each day,” Nyambuya said.

This logic creates some irregularities. For example in August, price control authorities banned a public livestock auction at Zimbabwe’s main agriculture show, fearing it would make a mockery of price controls on beef that have forced meat off the shelves across the country.

Smart sanctions seem to be the cause of all the bad in the world's fastest-shrinking economy and that’s what you hear every day, over and over again.

The state central bank announced measures in October that it said would help to restock empty store shelves by the end of the month. “I leave you with a promise most basic goods should and will return to the shelves in the next three weeks,” Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono said on state television. At the beginning of the next month we had to find out that fabric softener and pool acid are considered basic goods.

Recently I learned something from an interview with the president in the newspaper. When the government of Zimbabwe took away the white farmers’ land, initially they wanted to compensate the farmers, not for the land, but for the infrastructure they had built on the land. But then the British government stopped giving budget support to Zimbabwe and so the government of Zimbabwe was not able to pay for the compensations anymore. So it is in fact the fault of the British that the farmers did not receive any compensation. So the former farmers should in fact address the British government with their complaints. In fact most people believe what the state controlled media says, because there is no alternative.

There was a major outcry in October when war veterans, villagers, and Zanu PF supporters blocked the eviction of a white farmer. Three weeks later some Zanu PF leaders said they wanted farm seizures halted because food is still being produced on these farms. Meanwhile there are varying proposals about imported goods, which comprise the majority of stock in most businesses. Imported goods have been ordered off the shelves and welcomed in the past.

Zimbabwean election campaigns have a strange dimension. In some rural areas, people are denied the opportunity to get the maize for allegedly supporting opposition political parties. They are told to get food aid from Tsvangirai, the political leader of the opposition party. Food Aid is not allowed in those areas until after the next elections. Starving the population is a means to make them vote for the right party next time. And people in rural areas know exactly why and when this happens.

Zimbabwe is in the grips of a severe economic crisis and battling the highest annual inflation rate in the world at something between 8 000 and 15 000%. The Statistical Office claims that there are so few goods left in shops that it has become impossible to ensure the data's accuracy.

Hyperinflationary countries usually print huge amounts of banknotes with rapidly increasing numbers of zeroes. Zimbabwe however has created a new surprise: exponentially rising prices, a severe cash shortage, and virtually nothing to buy in the shops because price controls have destroyed the retail trade. For month and month the government is alternatively announcing a new currency soon or a million Zimbabwe dollar note. Nothing has happened so far. Rumours rate from a broken down printing machine waiting for spare parts to a Christmas surprise operation Sunrise II. (In July 2006 Zimbabwe lopped off three zeros from its currency in a programme dubbed "Sunrise).

Just when life could not become any harder for Zimbabweans, who are already having to cope with food and fuel shortages and rocketing prices, local banks have run out of notes. Long queues of people waiting outside banks to draw cash have added to the everyday queues outside supermarkets and petrol stations for the past three weeks. Again the ingenuity and tolerance of Zimbabweans has bred a new kind of dealer, providing cash for a commission.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono has assured the nation that the central bank will remedy the situation before Christmas, on the 13^th of December. So far nothing has happened.

A Comment on the EU-African Summit

The Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said shortly before the summit, that Mugabe might divert participants from essential issues. Why is Zimbabwe not an ‘essential issue’? In contrast Mugabe suggested his invitation to the summit amounted to the failure of an allegedly "sinister campaign led by Britain to isolate us".

The day after the EU-Africa summit ended, Zimbabwean state-controlled media branded German Chancellor Angela Merkel a "racist" and a "fascist", for her comment that the situation in Harare "damages the image of the new Africa". Minister of Information Sikhanyiso Ndlovu was quoted saying by the state-run Herald "Zimbabwe is not a colony of Germany. This is racism of the first order by the German head of state."

Mugabe is not the world's only tyrant and not even the worst. Nevertheless, he has killed more black Africans than even the apartheid regime in South Africa. His slaughter of 20,000 civilians in Matabeleland in the 1980s was the equivalent of a Sharpeville massacre every day for over nine months. Mugabe could be lawfully prosecuted for crimes he has aided and abetted in Zimbabwe.

Mugabe remains in power after 27 years, at the age of 83. It seems true that evil men live long but that is because every day an evil man lives is like eternity to the oppressed. Neither South Africa’s "quiet diplomacy" nor Western restrictions on money-laundering can influence a man who is cocooned in delusions and treated with deference by his neighbours. As the former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan recently said: "Africans must guard against a pernicious, self-destructive form of racism that unites citizens to rise up and expel tyrannical rulers who are white, but to excuse tyrannical rulers who are black."

While most Zimbabweans continued their desperate scramble to eke out a living last week, 10000 of the country’s ruling Zanu PF party ignored the economic and political abuses of President Robert Mugabe’s 27-year reign to, once again, anoint him their presidential candidate for next year’s elections. They came in Hummers, Mercedes-Benz MLs and BMW 7- series wearing Gucci, Georgio Armani, Hugo Boss and suits from London’s exclusive Savil e Row and gorged themselves at a lavish banquet. All to honour a man who has beggared his country. Mugabe and his young wife arrived at the City Sports Centre in Harare in a newly imported, armour-plated black Mercedes-Benz S600 - sporting a number plate reading ZIM-1.

Why are we not stopping this? And how could we stop this? What can outsiders do? Any aid or support from foreigners or white Zimbabweans, no matter how small-scale it is, is watched critically by local authorities and police. They are present virtually everywhere and without their knowledge and permission it is not even possible to interview a single person, take one picture of an unspectacular suburb or give assistance to anyone. An even if you would be given plenty of rope, what could you do that really helps Zimbabweans?

From the News: Nice meeting

From The Sunday Times (SA), 16 December: Zanu PF sticks to the script

They came in Hummers, Mercedes-Benz MLs and BMW 7- series wearing Gucci, Georgio Armani, Hugo Boss and suits from London’s exclusive Savil e Row and gorged themselves at a lavish banquet. All to honour a man who has beggared his country. While most Zimbabweans continued their desperate scramble to eke out a living this week, 10000 of the country’s ruling Zanu PF party ignored the economic and political abuses of President Robert Mugabe’s 27-year reign to, once again, anoint him their presidential candidate for next year’s elections. Under a leaden sky, the 83- three-year-old Mugabe and his young wife, Grace, arrived at the City Sports Centre in Harare in a newly imported, armour-plated black Mercedes-Benz S600 — sporting a number plate reading ZIM-1. While the first couple made their way into the hall bedecked with portraits of Mugabe, no- one, not even Mugabe’s trusted lieutenants, was allowed to park next to his vehicle. In fact, a sentry stood guard over it for the duration, occasionally using a cloth to wipe off raindrops that dared to fall on the vehicle.

Disdaining the designer gear so beloved of the party’s elite, Mugabe and Grace sported Zanu PF regalia emblazoned with his face . Their appearance at Zanu PF’s special congress sent delegates into a frenzy, causing them to chant "Gushungo, Gushungo", Mugabe’s tribal name. With his eyes firmly focused on the elections in 2008, Mugabe did not waste time when given the podium. He immediately dangled the black economic empowerment carrot in front of the impoverished party faithful. "We have given you land, now we want you to have majority stakes in the mining sector, which is still in the hands of imperialists," Mugabe told party supporters, causing delegates to chant Mugabe’s name and proclaim that he was a godsend, and the only person fit to rule Zimbabwe. "You must not be used as fronts by whites when we give you shares in these mining companies. We want blacks to at least own 51% shares in all the foreign mining firms," he continued. ...

Two sides of the coin

From The Times (UK), 10 December: Robert Mugabe left isolated as European leaders attack his misrule in Zimbabwe

.... Mr Mugabe, 83, appeared to be isolated after only one African leader, President Wade of Senegal, 81, spoke out in his defence. A younger generation of African leaders simply referred to the Zimbabwe problem and insisted that African efforts to mediate led by Thabo Mbeki, the President of South Africa, would soon bear fruit. Mr Mugabe said that the "trumped-up charges" by "Gordon’s gang of four" showed the arrogance of the Europeans. He said: "They criticise Zimbabwe and human rights in contradiction to the positions of the SADC [Southern African Development Community of 14 nations] and the African Union. Does the German Chancellor believe she has better knowledge of Zimbabwe than SADC?" Mr Brown was not present but he had "megaphones who speak not from their own hearts but say what No 10 Downing Street will be pleased to hear," Mr Mugabe said. "Britain are the masters of Germany." By the time that Baroness Amos, the British representative, spoke towards the end of the summit and detailed the low life expectancy in Zimbabwe, Mr Mugabe had left the room. But he was there to hear Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy representative, rebuff the "gang of four" claim and insist that Europe was united in condemnation of Mr Mugabe’s policies. ....

From AFP, 10 December: Merkel's comment on Zimbabwe fascist: official

Harare - Zimbabwe branded German Chancellor Angela Merkel a "racist" and a "fascist", for her comment that the situation in Harare "damages the image of the new Africa", state-run media reported Monday. Minister of Information Sikhanyiso Ndlovu lashed out at Merkel for her comments at the recent European Union-Africa Summit in Lisbon, saying: "She should shut up on Zimbabwe or ship out. Zimbabwe is not a colony of Germany. This is racism of the first order by the German head of state," Ndlovu was quoted as saying by the state-run Herald. "President Robert Mugabe is no doubt an indisputable icon of African nationalism, pan-Africanism, a revolutionary and liberator of Zimbabwe together with late (vice-president) doctor Joshua Nkomo." He said Merkel had "dirty hands" and was not qualified to comment on Zimbabwe. Ndlovu said Merkel had demonstrated her "Nazi inclinations" when she banned the Scientology Church in Germany and stopped Hollywood star Tom Cruise from shooting a film on Klaus Schenk von Stauffenberg who tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944. ...

From ZWNEWS, 9 December: Beach greeting

Passengers arriving in Lisbon by air have been greeted by a huge banner as their plane crosses the Portuguese coast. The banner banner was spread out on a beach under the flight path, telling airline passengers about Robert Mugabe´s crimes against humanity. The ribbon, measuring some 30 x 10 metres, reads "Mugabe You Would Be More Welcome at The Hague." The Portuguese government has given permission for the banner to be flown over Lisbon towed behind an aeroplane.

Comment from Business Daily (Kenya), 5 December: Why Mugabe must be forced out

By Kofi Bentil

President Robert MugabeDecember 5, 2007: African Union leaders meeting their European Union counterparts in December are supposed to represent our future but when it comes to Robert Mugabe they are stuck in an ideological time-warp: Mugabe is a freedom-fighter and Zimbabwe is a victim of Western depredations, including threats to boycott the meeting. Even democratically-elected Ghanaian President John Kufuor, chairman of the African Union, recently observed equivocally: "When the leader of the opposition gets beaten up, for good or ill, naturally all concerned should be worried." At least Mugabe is honest: "Some are crying that they were beaten. Yes you will be thoroughly beaten. When the police say move, you move. If you don’t move, you invite the police to use force," he said about trade-union activists arrested in September last year.

......

Many also shared Mugabe’s economically-ignorant call for self-sufficiency. But no developed country is self-sufficient in commodities (nor even most manufactured products) and we Africans cannot live on a diet of cocoa beans and tea: selling it is much more profitable. Manufacturing and adding value are great economic aims but they do not happen successfully by government decree - right now, Africans suffer heavy import tariffs for essential inputs (such as fertilizer) and medicines, state control of exports, lack of property rights, obstacles to private enterprise and a ubiquitous corrupt bureaucracy. Yet our leaders do not accept that the key to our future is allowing our people to create wealth: we cannot free ourselves from poverty without economic freedoms such as property rights, the rule of law and free markets.

But the Mugabe version remains attractive because we all like to believe that our failures are someone else’s fault. And Mugabe remains in power after 27 years, at the age of 83. It seems true that evil men live long but that is because every day an evil man lives is like eternity to the oppressed. Neither South Africa’s "quiet diplomacy" nor Western restrictions on money-laundering can influence a man who is cocooned in delusions and treated with deference by his neighbours. .....They should make Mugabe unwelcome at civilized meetings like the EU-AU summit in Lisbon and put legal pressure on him by consensus, as West African leaders did to force out Charles Taylor in Liberia. They should heed the call of Ghanaian former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan who said recently: "Africans must guard against a pernicious, self-destructive form of racism that unites citizens to rise up and expel tyrannical rulers who are white, but to excuse tyrannical rulers who are black" Before embarrassing themselves again, our leaders must come to their senses and join the huge majority of Africans who reject the barbaric Mugabe: by embracing economic freedoms to save their own countries, they would offer hope to Zimbabweans for the day after Mugabe.

Mr Bentil is a lecturer at Ashesi University

From Reuters, 6 December: Man accused of using money as calling cards

From correspondents in Harare

A professional hunter has been arrested on suspicion he turned Zimbabwean bank notes into business cards and handed them out at a tourism fair. Zimbabwe is struggling with the world's highest inflation rate of about 8000 per cent because of an economic crisis and it is hard to buy anything with its smaller denomination "bearer cheque" bank notes. Harare police said today they had arrested Denis Paul, a 41-year-old professional hunter and lodge owner from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city, on charges of defacing bank notes. ....

And that is what it leads to. Thank you EU!

From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 4 December: Spain calls for Mugabe to stay away from EU-Africa summit

Madrid - Spain backed Britain on Tuesday in calling for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to stay away from a European Union-Africa summit in Lisbon this week. "We would all prefer that he does not take part because he will not bring much and he would be a media distraction," Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told reporters. "What is important is to discuss subjects in depth and that his presence does not take up all the headlines." ... he might divert participants from essential issues.

Zimbabwe should be an "essential issue"!

From News24 (SA), 4 December: Mugabe won't listen

... During a state of the nation address to Zimbabwe's parliament on Tuesday, Mugabe suggested his invitation to the summit amounted to the failure of an allegedly "sinister campaign led by Britain to isolate us"....

From SW Radio Africa, 4 December: Students arrested, assaulted for wearing Learnmore Jongwe T-shirts

Police in Kwekwe on Sunday arrested and severely assaulted five student leaders for wearing T-shirts with a portrait of the late MDC spokesman, Learnmore Jongwe. Mehluli Dube, Laswet Savadye, Whitlow Mugwiji, Stephen Chisungo and Gordon Mukarakati were arrested at a police roadblock while travelling from a Zimbabwe National Students Unions (ZINASU) leadership-training workshop in Bulawayo. Police accused them of inciting public disorder by wearing Jongwe’s T-shirts and detained them overnight at Kwekwe Central Police Station

From Associated Press, 3 December: Airline fees doubled, black market dominates in Zimbabwe

Harare - The state airline doubled its fares Monday and the cost of a new Zimbabwe passport went up thirty fold. Spiraling prices also saw restaurant and bar prices double over the weekend, and prices were sometimes raised during a restaurant meal. Waitresses in a sports club advised patrons to place their orders before a price hike came into force an hour later and some restaurants began accepting American currency as chronic shortages of local cash worsened. (...)The central bank has not officially devalued the local currency but has said imported luxuries for the upcoming Christmas period can be sold at an exchange rate equivalent of 850,000-1, less than half the black market rate. (...)After an absence of five months, cigarettes have reappeared in stores after the price doubled to about 50 US cents a pack, still among the cheapest tobacco products in the world at the black market exchange rate, but the most expensive at US$40 a pack at the government's official exchange rate. A senior teacher earns about the equivalent of US$10 a month at the unofficial exchange rate....

I am leaving the country. But not forever, determined to come back. Shame hey!

Would you believe...

After powercut number four today, the lights sort of went on again, well on and off and on and off again. Now the lights in the cottage are working, but not in the main house. However one plate of the stove is working in the main house, but not in the cottage. And neither do the fridges.

Small quiz for Mr Gono

First there was no cash

Then you couldn't swipe anymore

Then the banks ran out of chequebooks

How are you supposed to pay for your shopping?

Now African Airlines pull out

From the Mail & Guardian (SA) published:Mon 26-Nov-2007

Suspending daily services between Lusaka and Harare from December 1

Harare - Zambian Airways is to halt direct flights between Harare and Lusaka next month as the route is no longer profitable, an airline official said on Monday. Zambian Airways chief executive officer Mutembo Nchito said the last flight on the Harare-Lusaka route will be on November 30.(...)

From the News: cash dealers

From IRIN (UN), 23 November: Of cash and dealers

Harare - Just when life could not become any harder for Zimbabweans, who are already having to cope with food and fuel shortages and rocketing prices, local banks have run out of notes. Long queues of people waiting to draw cash have been a common sight outside banks for the past two weeks.(...) The crisis has inevitably bred a new kind of dealer, providing cash for a commission. They include bank tellers who moonlight as currency sellers after work, illegal foreign currency dealers, shop managers and even sports administrators, who receive cash after matches. "Sometimes these people ... charge you as much as 40 percent of what you need, meaning that if you ask for Z$200 million, you can only receive Z$120 million," said John Kangai, a self-employed carpenter. "People are taking advantage of others because of the prevailing economic crisis, but that is not fair. I am struggling to make ends meet and the greedy are seeing an opportunity in the crisis to make quick and lazy money." (...)While individuals cannot draw more than Z$5 million, companies have to contend with a maximum withdrawal of Z$20 million, which used to be the limit for persons making ordinary withdrawals. (...) Eric Bloch, an economist and consultant to the RBZ, said the cash crisis was mainly due to hyperinflation. "Inflation is so intense that people need up to six times the amount of money that they required a month ago to buy the same commodity. On the other hand, the RBZ has stopped printing more money because, I understand, their printing machine has broken down," Bloch told IRIN. Zimbabwe's inflation rate is officially pegged at almost 8,000 percent - the new rate has yet to be announced - but various independent economists have put inflation at nearer to 15,000 percent. (...)

Pomona Rubbish Dump

For a few month now, rubbish collection is nonexistent in our area. So we drive our rubbish regularly to the dump. Today it was my turn.

I felt like in a documentation film. Lots of people seem to live in between the little hills of rubbish. Here and there you see small piles than seem to be their shacks or a few maize plants. Some of the "hills" are slowly burning away. As soon as you stop the car a crowd of angry looking dirty people comes running to see what you have brought. The smell almost makes you faint. You can hardly open the door as people are pushing towards the car trying to grab everything that is inside.

From the News: New Currency coming soon

As most people suspected already, because of cash shortages...

From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 21 November: Inflation-hit Zim to issue new bank notes

Harare - Zimbabwe will soon issue new bank notes, for the second time in as many years, to try to control rampant inflation and curb black-market trade, central bank Governor Gideon Gono said on Wednesday. The Southern African country is in the grips of a severe economic crisis - blamed on President Robert Mugabe's policies - and battling the highest annual inflation rate in the world, at nearly 8 000%. Zimbabwe lopped off three zeros from its currency in July 2006 and phased out old notes within three weeks in a programme dubbed "Sunrise". "The general public, as well as the financial sector, are hereby forewarned that Sunrise Two is now imminent," Gono told reporters. "The Reserve Bank has now put in place all the machinery to enable the implementation of a short and precise changeover programme, which would be completed in a matter of a few days."

Gono declined to say exactly when the currency change would take place and how many zeros would be dropped. "The actual changeover will be done without prior notice beyond what we are saying here." He added that Zimbabwe's inflation would not deter the central bank from effecting a currency change. "Last time we removed three zeros. But they've returned. Now we are determined not to allow them to return," Gono said. "Some have said we are in a hyperinflationary environment and can therefore not bring in a new currency. Nothing could be further from the truth." Zimbabwe has, in recent weeks, seen long queues at most city banking halls due to cash shortages, which Gono blamed on black market foreign currency trade. Gono had announced earlier this month the central bank would defer the introduction of new bank notes until 2008, but said he was forced to change the plans due to a resurgent black market. (...)

From the News: Suddenly!

From The Herald (state owned newspaper), 21 November: Imported goods welcome

By Walter Muchinguri and Martin Kadzere

Importers of basic commodities have been encouraged to continue bringing in such goods, as they were crucial in bridging the supply gap while local companies resuscitate operations. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the National Incomes and Pricing Commission said imported goods were welcome into the market but should be realistically priced so that they remain affordable to consumers. RBZ Governor Dr Gideon Gono yesterday said the NIPC was recently caught off-guard when it gave businesses an ultimatum of up to November 22 to clear their stocks of imported goods or be forced to sell them at prices below the official exchange rate. The NIPC, chaired by Mr Godwills Masimirembwa, had issued the ultimatum, saying that it would factor the official exchange rate in coming up with pricing models for imported goods. Dr Gono said there were no intention to ban imports of basic commodities but, however, encouraged businesses not to profiteer. (...)

Popular Court Cases

· Steel an animal and return it: 9 years in jail

· Threaten your girlfriend and cut her face with a machete, result in stitches: so and so many hours community service

· Kill someone while drunk driving: 50 dollars. (Note: I have never even seen a 50 Dollar note in this country)

No cash available

This is obviously a new political strategy, maybe to bring inflation down: There is no cash available anywhere, not at the banks either.

From AFP, 21 November: Cash problems cause long queues in Harare

Harare - Zimbabweans endured hours in long queues at banks on Tuesday as a cash shortage forced limits on withdrawals, with the country in the midst of an economic crisis. "Things have gotten worse since the weekend," said an official at a bank in central Harare where a queue of waiting customers snaked outside the building. Bankers blamed the shortages on a drastic cut in allocations from the Central Bank, but Central Bank Governor Gideon Gono denied the charge. "We have pumped in a lot of money in the form of this support and that support... but you find the situation where there is no cash," Gono told a news conference. "So we have taken the view that we will watch and see. It's not like we can't do anything. We can, but surely to what extent. We need to sober up as Zimbabweans." Banks were dispensing half the daily cash limits to customers. "We have decided to limit withdrawals so that everybody at least gets some money," one banker said. (...)

Half the daily limit, that's 10 million = half a crate of beer

Unique Zimbabwean Wallet

handpizza

Yesterday evening I experienced a very typical zimbabwean situation. Me and a friend wanted to go and get pizza to take away. So went into the takeaway place. The choice was Magherita or Hawai without pineapples but no cardbox boxes, alu foil or anything to take the pizza away in.

Why am I still surprised by things like that?

Small things that make you happy

We had a party Friday night at our place. Just as the first group of guests arrived, they stopped puzzled outside the kitchen door in complete darkness with the fuses making an aweful noise. That is, we had just gone to switch the generator off and the mains on because the power was back. ... and stayed for the whole party.

Antelope Park

Went to Antelope Park for the weekend, which is amazing! Walk with lions, swim with elephants, see all the game you can imagine and get bitten by mozzies.

They breed lions to release to national parks ... and on Sunday morning a group of wildlife guards left to track a wild lion that was seen on a farm nearby.

Antelope Park

Antelope Park

Antelope Park

Farewell Party

Farewell Party

New Inflation stories

From Bloomberg, 16 November: Zimbabwe's inflation soars to 14,841% on food, fuel

By Brian Latham

Zimbabwe's inflation soared to 14,841 percent last month as food and fuel shortages deepened a crisis in the world's fastest-shrinking economy. Inflation accelerated from 7,982 percent in September, said an official at the Central Statistical Office in the capital, Harare. There are so few goods left in shops that it has become impossible to ensure the data's accuracy, said the official, who declined to be named in line with the agency's policy. (...)

From The Times (UK), 17 November: Cash runs out in land where the bus fare is 1.6 m dollars

Other countries stricken by hyperinflation have coped by printing vast quantities of banknotes with rapidly increasing numbers of zeroes. In Zimbabwe, however, the phenomenon of "Mugabenomics" has delivered a three-headed monster - exponentially rising prices, a critical cash shortage, because the Government regards adding new rows of zeroes on the banknotes as an admission of defeat, and virtually nothing to buy in the shops because price controls have destroyed the retail trade. The Z$200,000 (7p) note, the highest, has almost disappeared. (...)

From The Zimbabwe Independent, 16 November: $1 million note on the way as cash crisis worsens

Paul Nyakazeya

Cash shortages worsened this week amid speculation that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe was working on plans to introduce higher denominations of bearers' cheques. Businessdigest understands that the central bank is finalising the introduction of $500 000 and $1 million notes. The new bearer's cheque notes are likely to be introduced early next month. (...)

From the news: Going back in time

From Associated Press, 16 November: Mugabe, top politicians paid woman now accused of fraud in fuel-from-rocks claim

Harare - President Robert Mugabe has said ministers at a Cabinet meeting he chaired agreed to pay two head of cattle and three buffaloes to a woman who claimed she could produce gasoline out of rocks, the official media reported Friday. Mugabe later order the woman's arrest on fraud charges. (...)