The news of the Zimbabwe election sham is common knowledge.  The fact that the dictator and his clique are ruling the country by fear is also common knowledge.

What does not seem to be reaching the headlines properly is the rate of inflation in Zimbabwe.

There is total financial chaos in Zimbabwe.

There is a cash shortage crises in Zimbabwe.

There is an IT meltdown in Zimbabwe.

Companies have had no choice but to take matters into their own hands, and reduce figures by taking off zeros.  Documents then carry a note of multiply by 1 000 or a 100 000.  Scales, cash registers etc display the same notices.

I was told earlier today that most banks (with the exception of five, including RBZ, of course) have been forced to knock off six zeros on the amounts recorded in their systems because their IT systems just could not cope anymore.  They hit crunch time. (more…)

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x1000 and x1,000,000 : everyone in Zim will know what this means.

It appears on signs everywhere on cash registers, scales and invoices. What this means is that you take the amount displayed or recorded and multiply by one thousand (add three zeros) or one million (add six zeros) and that’s the figure you pay.

This is the simple, quick way of coping with the ever increasing zeros being added to our currency by hyper-inflation.

It does not, however, resolve how the computer systems will cope. I know I have mentioned this problem before but during those early mumblings I was still a bit naive! We have become programmed to cope with a crisis as it arises and then move forward, but this crisis is never ending and many people have found themselves in PC-system HELL!

Like for example, in the business where I work the maximum data field in the accounting programme is 999,999,999,999.99 , so anything above that has to be divided into lots not exceeding that amount. They are then referenced accordingly and processed by multiple line entry.

Although this is tedious, it works, and that’s how we coped with the zero-problem.

Now, however, (just a few weeks after this first happened), the line entries are no longer being divided by 2 or 3. Today we have an entry which we have to divide 31 times. We then have to do a cash-flow and bank reconciliation matching all the line entries.

Our accounting staff are no longer ‘coping’ and one of our team broke down recently and cried, saying she felt like she was going to have breakdown because her workload has increased 10-fold. I have huge sympathy because I feel the same.

My usually tolerant patience levels have deteriorated drastically. My brain cells… well, no comment.

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Everyone in Zimbabwe is well aware of inflation and to some degree, has become savvy with their finances.

The main rule is to spend your money as you receive it – even if it means spending it on items you may not need - because of the rate of depletion of our dollar (or bearer cheques as we no longer have actual dollars and cents). This is the only way to survive.

Then: don’t lend, don’t borrow, don’t purchase on credit, don’t pay in advance or don’t even pay a deposit in advance of delivery. These things just don’t work.

But even for the financially savvy, the rate of inflation during the month of May has been staggering.

The drop has been so hard and fast, prices are just a blur of zeros. Many of my friends have said that they often just trust the cashiers when making payments because adding, subtracting, multiplying, counting out handfuls of cash and then trying to check your change is an impossible task to do on the spur of the moment.

You cannot budget ahead and go into a store with the correct cash – inflation does not allow for this luxury.

Time is money.

Last week I hesitated on the price of a spare part for my car. On Monday 19th May I was quoted $35 billion (which looks like this $35,000,000,000-00). On Friday 23rd May I phoned the supplier again to find the price had now gone to $58 billion ($58,000,000,000-00). I rushed down to the store not realizing that they closed at 4pm. Yesterday morning, Tuesday 27th May, I contacted them again and they quoted me an additional $5.8 billion on Friday’s price. (Remember that this time-delay has been during a weekend and Monday was a public holiday, so store has been closed since the last quoted price).

The value of cash withdrawals is restricted by the banks (as per instruction of Mr Gono). I cannot withdraw enough cash to pay for items like my much-needed spare part.

So in addition to this morning’s increase, the supplier has told me that I must add 20% of the value of my purchase onto the payment as I am paying by cheque.

Are you keeping up?

The part now costs 76 billion, five hundred and sixty million dollars ($76,560,000,000-00).

The supplier is calling this additional charge ‘administration expenses’. They explain that it takes the banks 3 to 4 days to clear a cheque and present it in their account. In that time, they lose money. So much so that they cannot replace their stocks. The supplier either transfers the cost to me or he goes under.

The banks cannot keep up, suppliers cannot keep up, customers cannot keep up, wages cannot keep up! The hole is getting deeper and deeper.

I have used the cost of a spare part to illustrate what is happening in our country.

Food costs are increasing at the same rate.

Gono has totally lost control and as the rate of the dollar literally drops by the minute, the suffering increases by the minute.

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Yesterday we heard reports of army jets flying over Harare and this morning there were large groups of army soldiers marching through the centre of Bulawayo.

The threat is ever present.

I doubt that these open displays of intimidation are as effective against the people as they were seven years ago. The soldiers voted with us and they know we won and we know we won. The ironic thing about this is that we march together but the old man just will not accept it.

There is not much talk anymore of whether the results will be announced or not. The process seems pointless (albeit necessary) when the answer is clear for all to see. The only talk now is of the way forward and the SADC meeting. (more…)

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During the past few weeks I have endless calls from friends and family who live in our surrounding countries and abroad. Everyone asks the same thing, “how are you?”

The past two weeks have been an emotional roller coaster for us all and Saturday will mark the second anniversary since we went to the polls. The passing of time feels much longer.

In the run up to elections there was an electricity in the air. Everyone was positive… our chance for change was coming and was imminent. D-day came and there was a happy vibe… the world kept telling us that the solution was in our own hands. This was OUR day to bring about change and we will show the world.

And then the waiting begun. (more…)

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Today we awoke to the introduction of two new bearer cheques. This was the state propaganda’s big news of the day, not election results as you would imagine.

One cheque is to the value of ZWD25 million and the other for ZWD50 million. Today’s parallel market exchange rate (it changes all the time) is 1USD = ZWD42 million.

A loaf of bread, when available, now costs about ZWD30 million but as usual there’s a catch: by the time you get to the front of the queue the price may have changed!

Jokes aside, the introduction of these new bearer cheques does not help the collapsing computer systems, cash registers and shop scales. There are too many digits and zeros for the systems to cope with.

Many companies now present invoices that simply read “multiply by 1000” in an effort to keep up.

Just today my bank informed me that they can no longer deal with accounts that have a balance of ZWD1 trillion or over; as a result, they have to split current accounts.

I now hold four work accounts instead of the one that I had on Monday.

I also pay four times more bank charges, but I guess that that’s necessary for the banks as they will have to employee more staff to keep up with the managing of these accounts. That’s no joke!

The only comment I heard this morning about the new bearer cheque was that ‘we are sick and tired of these bearers and want our new government who will give us back real notes and coins’.

Maybe tomorrow’s headlines will have some real news to report? We can’t go on like this. Something has to change.

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Zimbabwe has long been touted as Africa’s paradise and at first glance it is. Local business executives like to say “third world does not mean third rate in the various conferences that dot the annual business cycle” There are harrowing tales coming out the country though that make it sound like fiction from the stone age. There are stories of modern households cooking on firewood, the steady hum of generators becoming a way of life in a few of the houses in the affluent areas, while darkness is a norm in the rest of the country. School regularly talk about losing dozens of teacher at a time and so it goes on. None of the stories are more harrowing than those that come of the medical arena. In the immediate post independence period for about ten years, Zimbabwe was the envy of Africa. Today all that has changed.

An emergency takes place on a Sunday morning. The inefficient cell phone network means that the definition of an emergency has to change. A person who is about to collapse should ideally give a couple of hours notice otherwise they might die where they fall. The reason is simple: emergencies are not allowed anymore by the crumbling telecommunications system. A busy signal is far more likely to occur than the sighting of a soccer ball on a soccer pitch. When eventually, a report is made, whoever rushes to the scene of the accident has to hasten slowly because of the gaping potholes, fit to hide a baby giraffe, that now pock mark the streets of Harare, once the sunshine city of Africa. If you summon an ambulance, you’d better have cash on you otherwise ask to use the neighbour’s car. More often than not, the relatives of the victim do not have the cash because it is simply not available in the country and the next door neighbour does not have fuel because he parked his car a while back. There is no fuel in the country except for company cars.

By some miracle, the family and the patient make it to the hospital. By this time after several frustrating tries, it has been established that the only hospital with a working generator is a private one. There happens to be a country wide power outage and the government hospitals have run out of fuel for their generators. This is real life. So, on the advice of a relative or a doctor friend, it is off to the private hospital. On admission, the family is immediately required to pay over a billion Zimbabwe dollars. That is more or less the monthly salary for a middle manager in a company that pays its staff well. For some reason, emergencies target people who earn half that amount and so the mother of the patient pleads before a stoic hospital administrator who is employed to run a business. Human nature prevails and a promise to make good on the money in the morning or some sort of surety by end of day is elicited. The favourite form of surety is foreign currency which the family will of course pop over to the bank and fetch. Alas it is a Sunday and besides neither the mattress at home nor the bank has any foreign currency in it! An hour or so later, the nurse emerges from the emergency room to announce that the patient needs to move to Intensive care and the administrator whips out his scientific calculator (otherwise he cannot fit in all the zeros) and he immediately announces a further charge of $5 billion. The mother of the patient collapses on the spot while the uncle takes over. Phone calls are made to friends, relatives and bosses in that order. The school fees for the children and the grocery shopping and rent will have to wait. The children, school and landlord will have to understand that the family was faced with an emergency.

The hospital gives the family time to decide whether to risk transferring the patient to a government hospital because suddenly the power is back on or to stay. They call the ambulance people and they are told the ambulance will not make an appearance without someone having gone to their offices round the block to pay a cash sum of $300 million and the family must secure a doctor to receive the patient on arrival. The family do not know any doctors, they do not have the numbers of any doctor and the doctors are on strike for higher wages anyway! The mother collapses again and the family scold her for adding to every one’s stress. Nerves are frayed and this is taking place at reception in full view of the public. Private grief is not allowed in Zimbabwe. Public humiliation is. Human nature takes over and a junior doctor calls a mate who remembers his hippocratic oath and agrees to leave the school of medicine pub and receive this patient.

Money is borrowed and the ambulance duly arrives. At the government hospital the admissions lady, miserable at having been given the job to dwell with ‘township people,’ takes her time and asking questions in English like “next of kin” words that the poor people cannot understand. She sighs audibly, mutters under her breath and takes her sweet time attending to them, taking their $5000 million admission fee and sending them on their way half an hour later.

This is normal in today’s Zimbabwe. We have not spoken about the cost of prescription medicine, the state of the government hospitals and the unavailability of drugs. Just a day in the life of a person who has to rush a relative to hospital. We did not get the patients comments. They died before we could talk to them after writhing in pain for hours.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, health

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Do you remember we blogged about this last week?

We’re hearing more stories from a range of people that the government is stockpiling seed, fertilizer and scotch carts, as well as forcing ranchers to sell heifers at ridiculously low prices. This all points to a serious strategy to buy votes.

To pay for the goods, the government simply prints more cash so the whole exercise goes back to the question who is paying and at what cost?

As usual Zanu PF gives with one hand and takes with ten.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, elections, rigging, fraud, corruption

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I am told by a reliable source (I always wanted to use those words - but unlike our state controlled press which uses them all the time, my source is reliable) that the government is busy purchasing between 50 to 100 000 scotch carts to hand out to rural farmers before elections.

Free and fair elections Zanu PF style.

We’ll have to watch this space and see what happens.

If they do hand out carts, I wonder if the farmers will be allowed to keep them. It was computers for rural schools (some that had no electricity) during the 2005 elections, and we all laughed then at the way grand presentations were made in front of the press before the computers were whipped away and grandly presented at another rural school. Unsurprisingly, once whipped away they didn’t ever get back to the original school.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, elections, rigging, electoral fraud, Zanu PF

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It’s 5.30am. Tomorrow is Easter Friday. I have been awake for hours reflecting back to Easter 2005. Resurrection, new life, hope (false hope maybe, but hope all the same) - these were things we had at this time last year as we were preparing for elections which took place on 31 March. The chance of a fair election was as slim as a pin, but we had an opportunity to vote and we were all united against the regime. Does anyone out there remember ‘Freedom Day’? How ironic and cruel it all seems now.

So another year on and where are we now? The opposition party has become self involved with in-house fighting while the dictator (remember our common enemy?) builds ground, not in the manner that is strengthening our country, but in a way that is further oppressing the people. It does not matter who is right and who is wrong, the fact remains that the MDC has neutralised themselves. We now head into elections with three contesting parties instead of two. We are no longer one strong force against the regime but have taken to turning against each other instead. The good, the bad and the ugly? Or is it the good, the good, and the ugly? For years a new leader was promoted and now the same people who spent their energy promoting, have changed direction.

Zimbabweans are left confused. Trust is broken.

Looking back a year in time for me just brings feeling of anger and disappointment. To hear comments like there is no ‘short term’ solution just adds salt to the wound. mugabe celebrates 26 years of ‘independence’ next week (another ironic dagger given that the anniversary is the day after Easter Monday). Where does ‘short term’ come into this picture? Some say that we would be hypocrites to replace one dictator with another, but is it not hypocritical to have given hope and then taken it away? Was it all just a waste of time? Have I just been blindly naive?

Everyone knows that politics is a dirty game - there is no room for idealism. After all, what is democracy if its not 51% of the people telling the other 49% what to do? Politics is about compromise, which is where the opposition has slipped off the rails. The people who promote themselves as our leaders should consider the fact that we do not have 10, 5 or even 2 years to start again. Both sides of the opposition (how ridiculous does that sound!) have lost yet another battle. People are dying NOW! Hope is fading fast.

As I write this, I know that this is the way it is but still I cannot end on such a negative note.

I am very tired. But we have to have hope.

Technorati Tags: Easter, Freedom, MDC, mugabe, independence, Zimbabwe

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My friend told me how her brother (who lives in Harare) took his 7 year old daughter to an orthodontist yesterday. He was informed that they do not accept medical aid and that he would need in the region of $35 million CASH for the appointment and compulsory x-ray. He was quoted a further $380 million for one set of braces for his daughter. He cannot afford the appointment fee, let alone the x-ray and braces. He has been paying medical aid (private hospital cover) for his daughter since she was born. Not much good now when some medical practitioners are refusing to accept it because they do not want to have to wait for the medical aid companies to reimburse them. He asked if they would give him credit facilities and was turned down. Cash upfront or nothing.

With the value of our dollar literally deteriorating by the day, fees charged have to be paid on the day of service or else the practitioner loses money.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, inflation, health, orthodontist

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The defeat of another lost election, Operation Murambatsvina, the shambles within the MDC, and the highest inflation rate in the world (estimated by economists to now have reached 1000%) has left most Zimbabweans dazed. Unemployment rates are high and, as a result, theft of anything and everything is rife. We regularly experience power cuts - those caused by faults and breakage, and also as a result of load shedding because the government cannot pay the bill. Some residential areas still have no water.

Looking back over this year of blogging, it’s very sad to remember the many friends and business acquaintances we have lost over a period of just 12 months. Every week there is another garage/boot/household goods sale - another family selling up and moving on. It’s abnormal to have to say goodbye to so many people who have become part of our lives.

People living outside the country often say things like ‘in our country this would not happen’, or they ask, ‘why do the Zimbabwean people not do something?’ People living in normal environments just cannot understand why things have not changed, and everyone has a piece of advice on how to make things happen.

I wish it was as easy to solve as it is to say it, but that’s just not reality. Believe me, if Zimbabweans knew how, we would have done it; if it was possible, it would have happened. No one wants to live the way we do, and no one knows better than Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe how desperately change is required. It’s hurtful in a way to be treated like ‘fools’ - as if we are somehow responsible for what has happened because we are ‘accepting’ this.

Zimbabweans are a peaceful people. A friend of mine said the other day that the problem was that so many of us had been naively trusting of a government that had ‘liberated’ us from a terrible colonial past. She asked me: “Is a child responsible when a parent that it trusts beats it?” That same government went on to spend 25 years lining their pockets while ordinary citizens were left dealing with steadily increasing unemployment, inequality, poverty and hunger. The government has us by our throat: it controls the newspapers, radio and television channels as well as the police force and army. Now the government wants to control the internet and email too. How do we share ideas or communicate with each other when information is so controlled? A person can be arrested and held for days without charge in our country. In Zimbabwean prisons, as well as out, people are beaten, intimidated and tortured.

Most Zimbabweans now live from day to day, trying to make ends meet. When you battle to feed yourself and your family just one meal a day (if you are lucky) then how do you possibly find the strength to fight a ruthless, cruel regime? Living is a fight for survival.

So, why do I stay in this country that has deteriorated so badly? Because I was born here, because my children were born here, because my extended family live here, because this is my home. We continue to live in the hope that something will change. Evil never prevails.

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Five years ago my friends sold up their house and downsized to a small cottage. Unable to work due to illness and unable to maintain their home, they were left with no choice. They decided that they would invest the money received from the sale of the house and, because they were no longer receiving an income, they would live off interest received from that investment. Their pension, which they paid into religiously every month of their working lives, is now worthless: they get a monthly payment of $40 000 - just enough to purchase half a loaf of bread. They did not have any children and have no living relatives.

Although they battle to pay their monthly expenses, they felt confident that they would be able to financially support themselves for the rest of their lives. They had steered well clear of all the ‘dodgy’ banks that have been springing up over the past few years and instead of taking any risks, they put their whole life savings in the trust of a well known, well respected financial management company.

This week, disaster struck! Notice was given by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe that Sagit Finance House Limited is closed, pending liquidation. My friend was unconcerned as she had not banked with them. And then, she received a phone call to inform her that her money was placed by her investors into an account at Sagit. All transactions have been frozen. Their money is gone! The management company is apologetic. Someone else told me how she had tried to console another pensioner who had also lost everything: “He was sobbing hysterically. I could not get him to stop crying,” she said.

In the past there have been stories of old age pensioners committing suicide. They would rather die than become a burden to anyone. Pride and dignity get in the way, and many choose to suffer, rather than ask for help. I worry about my friend’s future.

In a bid to help her understand, I tried to find out what had happened. I am not a financially minded person at all, but I saw red when I read the public notice printed in the newspaper. It states:

1. SFH has a capital deficit of $93.06 billion
2. Identified potential shareholders are debtors with non-performing loans
3. 95% of a total loan book of $123.79 billion comprise of non-performing loans
4. The institution has been siphoning depositors’ funds to underwrite convoluted non-banking business
5. SFH made a loss of $106.10 billion for the year ended 31/12/2005

Maybe I have a simplified understanding of what that advert means but the facts seem pretty clear to me. Non-performing loans of (95% of) $123 billion, of which ‘most are insider loans’, and a financial loss of $106 billion. I am sure any 10 year old child can work out that there is a problem there. ‘Unorthodox insider dealings’ has to be the understatement the year!

How can this happen? Who is ultimately responsible for allowing this bank to continue operating under those conditions? Where is the security net? Where the hell was RBZ and Gideon Gono when this hole was being dug? One of mugabe’s election campaign promises was ‘no safe havens for corrupt bankers’. His big threat certainly seems to have had no effect on stopping the corruption but then again, it’s a case of follow my leader isn’t it?

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, pensioners, pension, hyper inflation, banking, poverty, corruption, gideon gono

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Last week the weather turned cold, and windy. For a few days the wind blew very hard. Trees were uprooted and branches fell - onto ZESA power lines of course! ZESA stands for the ‘Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority’ but is now more commonly known as Zimbabwe Electricity Sometimes Available.

After the storms, the sometimes available joke was no longer a joke because, as some residents found, electricity was just ‘unavailable’. Too add insult to injury some residential areas still have no water as well. No electricity also means no boreholes - the pumps don’t work - so those people who fall back on their boreholes during times like these were also trapped.

Gas is not available in the country due to a lack of foreign currency so no one could resort to using their gas stoves (assuming they were extremely lucky and actually owned one!). So … no fridges, no stoves, no geysers, no kettle, no tv or radio, no clothing irons.

A friend of mine risked putting on an unironed shirt two weeks ago and is now suffering the consequences. This damp weather is ideal for ‘putsi’ flies which lay their eggs on damp clothing. Their eggs bury themselves into your skin and the maggots grow inside you . Painful, itchy and downright disgusting! Ironing clothes would normally kill any eggs.

Over the weekend, a local supermarket was forced to sell off all perishable items at two for the price of one because their freezers were defrosting.

In some areas the street traffic lights are still down making getting to and from work a nightmare. The wiring on many street lights is also broken.

Without electricity (lights, security alarms, electric fencing security gates) even the wealthier people who can afford this sort of security have been left completely vulnerable to the thieves who have been breaking into houses at night.

The black market rate of forex went through the roof last week in an all record high. The talk on the street is that ZESA is purchasing forex on the black market as the government cannot supply any. Supply and demand pushes rates sky high.

Will this vicious circle ever end?

Sokwanele note: here’s a link, for audiences unfamiliar with putsi flies, to an article that includes a lengthy description on what they’re like.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, ZESA, electiricty, power supply, inflation, forex, foreign currency

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‘Let’s build bridges, President tells UK‘– yes, that’s right, that headline was in the state-controlled Herald newspaper. Can you believe it?

And recently, an article on the front page of the Zimbabwe Independent that’s titled ‘Mugabe advisors push for Blair talks’. The article states

“Mugabe last Thursday gave the clearest signal yet that he was prepared for talks with Blair when he told Pocock he should help ‘build bridges between the two countries’”.

True to form, mugabe seems to think that he can be a rude, insulting individual one minute, and then be friends the next.

Has the mug forgotten that his whole election campaign revolved around poking fun at Tony Blair, in fact even going so far as to call his own election campaign the “Anti-Blair Campaign”?.

Has the mug also forgotten how he called Blair a ‘bliar’ :

“The Blair I know is a bliar. He goes telling lies to the rest of Europe that the problem here is the lack of democracy … lack of human rights, lack of transparency”.

Or even better than that, when the mug called Tony Blair an “international terrorist” and likened him to Adolf Hitler:

“Must we allow these men, the two unholy men (Tony Blair & George Bush) of our millennium, who, in the same way as Hitler and Mussolini formed [an] unholy alliance, formed an alliance to attack an innocent country?”

And of course, we will never forget the old quote of “So, Blair, keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe,” that Mugabe thundered in front of world leaders.

Old mugs has such a way with words. I think he has already put his foot in it, don’t you?

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, Britain, Mugabe, Tony Blair, propaganda

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