Zimbabweans facing return of hyperinflation

AS TENDAI, a slight 27-yearold man, queued to get his first passport, he was clear about what he wanted it for: to find work.

“Maybe South Africa, or the UK or the USA. Anywhere,” he told those waiting alongside him outside the government office in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare.

Zimbabwe needs young people such as Tendai to stay and help bolster the country’s ailing economy. Instead, with inflation in the southern African country now the highest in the world, he is desperately trying to leave.

Thousands of people across Zimbabwe are facing a similar dilemma after inflation hit almost 200 per cent in June, raising the spectre of the record-breaking hyperinflation seen in 2008 under dictator Robert Mugabe.

The Zimbabwean dollar has already lost more than two thirds of its value against the US dollar since January amid a perfect storm of rising fuel and fertiliser prices linked to the Ukraine war and bills for repairs to essential infrastructure.

Some government critics say inflation is soaring because of government mismanagement and corruption. Harare says it is hamstrung by unnecessary sanctions by the United States. But either way, salaries are becoming meaningless, savings are being wiped out and fresh economic collapse looms.

At Harare’s largest state hospital, one nurse, who asked not to be named, said she and her colleagues were now holding daily protests to demand a pay rise to deal with the cost of living crisis.

“It is not enough for rent and transport to get to work. We also have to pay school fees and food,” she said.

Nurses at the shabby but scrupulously clean Parirenyatwa hospital near the city centre earn the equivalent of about £240 per month.

They want to see that raised to £700, and have taken to singing, shouting slogans and waving placards before their shift each morning to make their point.

They are not alone. All of Zimbabwe’s public sector wants to be paid in US dollars that are in short supply, leading to waves of protests and strikes. Most civil servants receive the bulk of their salaries in Zimbabwe dollars, and that local currency is devaluing every day.

But with people’s incomes worth less and less, the telltale signs of a growing catastrophe can be seen on the shelves of supermarkets in Harare’s wealthier suburbs.

“People are not buying as they did earlier this year,” said a manager at a shop in the upmarket Newlands area, where a handful of people could be seen shopping.

“We see people concentrating more on essential items, such as bread and milk,” she added.