They need a police presence because their promises are all lies

Yesterday was another day of chaos in Zimbabwe. Riot police were present from early in the morning, with their water cannons (hopefully cholera free!) at the ready.

Yesterday was the day that the daily withdrawal limit was increased from $500,000.00 per person per day to $100,000,000.00 per person, per WEEK.

Obviously, there was not enough cash to go around, and the regime knew that beforehand, hence the presence of the police. They were expecting unrest. As usual, they were unable to fulfill the promise that they had made. They came prepared.

My friend Simon spent Wednesday night in a queue. He arrived at the bank at 6pm and was handed his number – 120 in the queue.

He said people did not leave the bank after being handed their numbers because if they left, shenanigans took place and they would come back to find new numbers had been issued in their absence (bank, police & security staff are renowned for taking bribes to allow people to the front of the line).

People slept on the sidewalk, on the sides of the road, in the parking bays, and under trees and shrubs of neighboring areas. There are no toilets. There is no running water. This, when we are in the midst of a cholera epidemic.

By mid-day, and after waiting in line for 18 hours, the bank had run out of cash. In total, they served 70 customers. As I write this, Simon is still in line. He was forced to go home in the evening, as he had no food or water. He had arranged with the person next to him that they would hold each others place in line so that they could both take a break.

A work colleague was in the same line. She was number 743. She told me that there were over a hundred people behind her.

At a rate of 70 customers per day, that bank would take 12 days to serve the initial queue. By that time, the first customers would have returned as the withdrawal is per person, per week. The story is the same at every single branch of every single bank, country wide. Empty promises. This is why the police need to be there.

And today the powers-that-we-don’t-want-to-be have stated that on Monday the limit will be further increased to $500,000,000 per day. More empty promises.

This entry was posted by Chipo on Friday, December 5th, 2008 at 2:04 pm. You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.