Back into the economic abyss
Bread is rationed, prices are rising by the hour, and motorists queue for fuel all night in Zimbabwe’s worst economic crisis since the most chaotic days of the Mugabe era.
Ten weeks after President Emmerson Mnangagwa promised a new era of growth and stability, the economy is imploding.
At a supermarket in the capital, Harare, the manager has decided to shut up shop rather than continue trading. The country’s surrogate currencies – bond notes, bank cards and phone app accounts – are falling in value so fast that cash taken at the till will not be enough to restock the shelves.
A bottle of cooking oil that cost US$4 (NZ$6.20) only 10 days ago is now US$15 (NZ$23). Price tags are a thing of the past.
‘‘We don’t want to sell anything at the moment,’’ the manager said. ‘‘If we put the prices up to cover costs, it would become ridiculous and people would get angry. It’s better to close, protect the stock and see what happens.’’
Memories remain of Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation a decade ago, when a rubbish bag stuffed with Z$100 trillion banknotes could buy only a few basic groceries.
People are joining any queue in sight. ‘‘You ask what the line is for later. The important thing is to get in it, as there might be something there,’’ Yvet Mlambo, a shopper in Harare, said.
Bread, bottled water and even beer are being rationed at a time when the capital faces a cholera epidemic that has claimed about 50 lives and spread to rural areas.
Pharmacies are empty, and the shortage of medicines is severe. Panic is mounting about whether people’s savings are again about to be wiped out.
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube has told citizens to expect pain as he announced plans for a 2 per cent tax on money transfers and a ‘‘stabilisation programme’’ to cut government spending after decades of recklessness and corruption.
Riot police are back on the streets for the first time since the disputed elections in July, and dozens of people were arrested on Friday as they tried to protest against the crisis. The government has used the cholera emergency to ban demonstrations but the atmosphere remains tense.
‘‘We’re suffering the effects of many, many years of misgovernance. We’ve been living beyond our means, and it has come to a crunch,’’ Ashok Chakravarti, an economist at the University of Zimbabwe, said.
The appointment to Mnangagwa’s cabinet of Ncube, a technocrat with no allegiance to the ruling Zanu-PF party, was welcomed internationally.
He is giving priority to the repayment of foreign debt that Zimbabwe had defaulted on for nearly two decades, but analysts are now asking: ‘‘With what?’’
A report on July’s presidential election by the European Union Election Observation Mission, which was published this week, cast more doubt on Mnangagwa’s victory, saying that the results ‘‘contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability’’.
A clean bill of health for the former Mugabe enforcer, who rose to power in a soft coup last November, was cited as a prerequisite before he can hope to get more financial help from the West.
‘‘How can we suffer like this again?’’ an off-duty soldier demanded as he queued for fuel in Harare. ‘‘Perhaps Mugabe wasn’t so bad after all.’’
Lawyers say police arrested dozens of trade union members ahead of planned protests on Friday over the economic crisis.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said police arrested Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions members in Harare and the cities of Mutare and Masvingo. The lawyers called the arrests a pre-emptive strike on the protest against ‘‘disastrous economic policies’’.
There was a heavy police presence in Harare after the government banned the protest. The lawyers’ group said a magistrate dismissed a challenge of the ban.
The government calls the economic problems temporary and a necessary pain in rebuilding the country.
How can we suffer like this again? Perhaps Mugabe wasn’t so bad after all. Off-duty soldier queueing for fuel in Harare