The Herald (Harare)
3 November 2008
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe faces some tricky decisions this week; cash withdrawal limits clearly have to be raised, but the questions are by how much and how often.
[ See Article ]
what tricky or rational decisions has the RBZ done? Why should they worry about decisions? Chibhubhubhu chega chega
Here's the crux of it. Mugabe, through the RBZ, gets a cut on every single transaction in Zimbabwe. That's why the whole country is going down the toilet.
Neither farmers, nor miners can sell their products to anyone but the government, at government prices. Then Mugabe sells the products abroad for foreign exchange and pockets the difference.
The RBZ forces anyone who uses a bank to submit to the same scheme. Money goes in at one rate, and comes out at another lower rate. The difference is skimmed off to pay for the plasma TVs and foreign cars given to anyone, such as judges and legislators, whose loyalty has to be bought.
It's a devious plan that's actually worked for a very long time. It's like the mafia, but it's all legal in Mugabe World because he wrote the laws making it so.
Except now they've gotten too greedy, and started stealing money from foreign aid organizations. And that may just be the straw that broke the camel's back, because multi-national organizations demand transparency in order to operate multi-nationally; so that everyone trusts each other. And Mugabe and Gono's scheme only works when it's not examined too closely in the light of day. Let's see their lame excuses when they can't cover the losses.
Here's an idea for RBZ - Stop stealing foreign currency from foreign NGO's!
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/03/africa/zim.php
Money deposited by foreign NGO's w/ the RBZ is now suddenly "unavailable"?
It's bad enough for ZANU-PF/Mugabe to rape and pillage the people of Zimbabwe, but now to steal from the people trying to feed the starving masses?
Is there no depth to which ZANU-PF/Mugabe not stoop to clutch at power? My guess is no.......