Published by the government of Zimbabwe
1 December 2008
Harare — The decision by the Reserve Bank to switch from daily to weekly withdrawal limits should go a long way in allowing most people reasonable access to their bank accounts without having the bulk of the productive workforce standing in long queues every day to take out what soon becomes a pittance.
The switch in the system, along with a significantly higher withdrawal limit, starts on Thursday this week.
We hope that all commercial banks and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe will make a special effort to clear the first rush on Thursday and Friday and then look at ways of having predictable levels of withdrawal, preferably through ATMs, from then onwards.
With so many so short of cash, and everyone now paid their November salary, there will obviously be a very high demand for cash on the first day of the new system, and banks should plan that they can allow all their account holders to access the first week's withdrawal, at least by close of business on Friday.
But once this week's withdrawal has been made, a different system could be put in place until things settle to normality or near-normality.
The first published suggestion for weekly limits, rather than daily limits, came from one of our Herald readers. He further suggested that account holders could be split into equal groups depending on their account number (last digits of account numbers should be randomly distributed) and assigned one or two days a week when they could queue for their cash.
We hope this would not be necessary, and that after the first rush people will drift in during the next week without huge queues.
But there is a distinct chance that there will be a rush every Thursday for cash and banks will be overwhelmed on that day with little business for the rest of the week.
If that does happen, then it should be simple to divide customers up and assign every person one suitable day and perhaps leave one day at the end of the week when all those who were unable to go on "their" day can go.
If this is planned, then perhaps we could start with Monday next week as the start of the first cycle.
It will also be necessary to rotate which group hits the bank on a Monday so that everyone at some stage during the month is on the first day.
The long queues for cash, the loss in production with the daily limits, and the knowledge that people are cheating, have all made tempers shorter and life harder.
The Reserve Bank has done a lot with the switch to weekly withdrawals to shorten queues, so long as banks work out fair ways to cope, and has started making inroads into the cheating.
It has already told those investing on the stock exchange that they are welcome to do so, so long as they use their own money and not the RBZ's money by passing rubber cheques expecting to pay back a couple of days later from profits while their bank manages with unsecured accommodation from the RBZ.
It is trying to tighten up on the cheating on medical and prescription bills, but needs to think of a way there that those who need the extra cash can get it fairly easily and quickly, before prices rise, while the cheaters are excluded.
Perhaps for a start those on chronic medication could be registered with the RBZ and be allowed to buy their monthly supplies of drugs with less hassle.
The problems of German sanctions on the cash presses are appreciated, as is the hypocrisy of a company that started its relationship with this country by busting the sanctions imposed against the UDI regime, but there needs to be continuous efforts made to think of sorting out the honest from the cheats, and making life easier for the ordinary honest worker.
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