SW Radio Africa (London)
Tichaona Sibanda
11 November 2008
The country's currency plunged to a new record low on Monday, trading at an average Z$28,4 quadrillion to the U.S. dollar and triggering massive price increases.
Analysts said the latest rapid weakening of the currency was being driven by SADC's ruling on the impasse between ZANU PF and the MDC. A huge demand for hard currency has also contributed to this massive financial crash.
Prices of basic goods, most of which are now imported, have gone up sharply since the disputed March 29 election in which Mugabe's ZANU-PF lost its parliamentary majority for the first time in 28 years.
The hyperinflation is now estimated at over a quintillion percent, although no one really knows.
Most Zimbabweans are switching to barter and the Zim dollar is virtually useless. The South African rand and the US dollar are now the most common forms of currency. For the many who are unable to access forex, this means they will be unable to survive.
Our Harare correspondent Simon Muchemwa told us recently that purses and wallets have become redundant; people are now using shopping bags, suitcases, sacks and other large containers to carry cash. Bank tellers are hidden from view by huge piles of the increasingly worthless currency.
Nearly all businesses have stopped accepting cheques for payment - creating an absolute nightmare for everyone, because of the absurd cash withdrawal limits at the banks.
And because of the SADC ruling, there seems to be no end in sight to the nightmare.
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Tati tadii? nemadinga atungamidzwa neSADCC hapana chichabuda.
No, there is no end in sight for the nightmare.........
QUADRILLION? Let me get this straight, that's 1000 times a TRILLION!
What's QUINTILLION? I can't even concieve of the concept of such a number.
A single piece of toilet paper is now worth more than the Zim Dollar!
But according to Comrade Mbeki there "is no crisis". SADC apparently believes this too, because they have to know that MDC-T will not join a unity government under the conditions imposed upon them that do not reflect the will of the Zimbabwean people!
There is no end in sight, and no one is coming to the rescue of ZANU-PF/Mugabe's criminal regime. ZANU-PF/Mugabe don't care, because they can plunder all the foreign currency they need from the NGO's who deposited their foreign food aid dollars (U.S.) with the ZBC.
No end in sight indeed!
so if I had say $2 USD, would there even be enough currency printed to exchange my $2 for?
Shows what faith the world has in the Mugabe regime.
ah imi is this going to end or WHAT??? are you telling me the world cant do somthing or they are enjoying this so that they will have somthing to write in their history books and make money....How can people talk of Quadrillions,,vakomana hei..yah gore rino vanhu vachatamba muridzo.
Tonderai, the world is just as outraged and can do something, but you all have made it clear that you want Africa's problems solved by Africans alone. To you all, the West is"the wicked West who wants to re-colonize Zimbabwe" and Mr Tsvangirai, the last hope for Zimbabwe in my opinion, is even tagged "the puppet of the west." So it looks like only the murderous dictators like Mugabe and the useless men of SADC are the only accepted ones. Even YOU are critical of the world when you say "they are enjoying this so that they will have something to write in their history books and make money." Not nice. So there you have it.
From the U.S.
No one here is "enjoying" the ongoing catastrophe in Zimbabwe, but we are outraged by what Comrade Bob (in his infinite revolutionary wisdom) has done to Zimbabwe!
I do not know anyone in or from Zimbabwe. I do not have any investments in Zimbabwe. I "do not have a dog in this fight" as the saying goes.........
But, I am outraged that the people of Zimbabwe are made to suffer almost inhumane degradations.
First, I was outraged against the ludicrous levels of inflation and 80% unemployment. Next, I saw that 40% of the population has left the country. But every time I learned something new about Zimbabwe, I became upset!
Maybe I was upset because the Army, Police, CIO and "War Veterans" began robbing, raping, torturing & murdering people who were thought to be the political opposition of ZANU-PF. Maybe it was because the exit polls from the individual polling stations in Zimbabwe showed that MDC-T "HAD" actually won an outright majority in the March '08 elections, but 5 weeks later the ZEC announced they had not. Maybe I was disturbed by the Army, Police, CIO and "War Veterans" setting up "re-education" camps in the lead-up to the June elections. Maybe I was disturbed by the Army, Police, CIO and "War Veterans" demanding that the ballots of their forces be submitted for ZANU-PF/Mugabe, or maybe that ZANU-PF/Mugabe "then" made Army/Police/CIO/"War Veterans" "available" inside polling stations to "help" citizens with their ballot selections...................
Isn't a ballot for an election sacred? No one has the right to stand inside a polling station to "help" another person vote!
Zimbabwe is a failed-nation under the stewardship of ZANU-PF/Mugabe.
ZANU-PF/Mugabe's revolutionary slogan should be "The revolution has failed, Long live the revolution"!
They are not good for much else!
"Total Empowerment!" To starve, to be beaten, to be raped, to be imprisoned without charge......
That's my new closing line.......... "Total Empowerment!"
Psalms 50:21 says, "These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you". Friends do not be cheated. God is not a man that He should lie. What he said He will do, what He promised He will fulfill. I am sure that all these have been happening some thinking that God does not see some of the grave things done to innocent people. God says, "These things you have done and I have been silent!" I want to warn those who think that they are dispensable that God is going to catch up with you.