Harare — CARMAKER, Henry Ford, once said: "A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business." With Zimbabweans' obsession to make money, most people would probably disagree with Ford. After all, anyone with money is revered and commands respect.

But if the truth be told, Zimbabweans have no choice but to agree with Ford's prognosis. After all the country's economy had witnessed a rare phenomenon only a few months ago when rent seekers started making money from nothing. A term was even developed for it, "burning".

People made money, trillions of Zimbabwe dollars ballooned to sextillions. Some people could not even access their bank balances on automated teller machines because they could not accommodate all the zeroes.

Queues to withdraw the money became the order of the day. Banks extended working hours to enable people to withdraw their money. Some had up to 120 accounts with one bank. Others had more than one account with each commercial bank.

All that is gone. Banks have laid off staff. They have shut down some branches. When you walk into a bank today, the first thing you ask is whether there is money or not because the banks are so empty you might think they are not in business.

Illegal foreign currency dealers have disappeared from the streets. But having led such a good life before, their eye is always trained on the market. The hounds are back on the streets. This time, they are cashing in on the rand, which has been appreciating against the United States dollar.

When the use of multiple currencies was legalised in February this year, the rand was trading at R10 to the greenback. It was a simple formula, convenient and easy to calculate. Even when the rand fell to over R11 to the greenback, people continued to trade at one-to-10 except in a few cases where people preferred the dollar.

Trouble came when the rand started appreciating against the US dollar and fell below nine-to-one. Shops, particularly in Bulawayo -- where the rand is the currency of reference -- started changing the US dollar at nine-to-one.

Consumers were on the losing end because they were paid in US dollars. Instead of the civil servants allowance of US$100 amounting to R1 000, it fell to R900. There was no outcry. But the rand continued to appreciate to below eight-to-one. Shops reduced their rate to R8,50 to the US dollar.

Some even went down, especially when one wanted cash.

One building society was even reported to be paying civil servants R750 for their allowance. Technically, the building society was right because it had to charge the official exchange rate and deduct its commission.

But what hurt most people was that the move appeared discriminatory. It was hurting only the people in Bulawayo and not those in the capital where trading is conducted in the US dollar. Goods in Bulawayo, therefore, became more expensive because people were getting less for their money.

At face value, the figures appear small, but things have changed; R250 is a lot of money. You can buy a loaf of standard bread a day for a month. You can pay bus fare for the entire month and have enough change to buy bread for more than a week. You can buy 25 litres of fuel. You can pay a term's school fees for your child.

Though Bulawayo papers or reporters have written stories about how the people in the second city were being disadvantaged, the government has done nothing to address this issue. As a result, illegal foreign currency dealers are back on the streets.

They may be small players, but ask any person from Bulawayo, he or she will tell you that "osiphateleni" destroyed the nation. People watched the Zimbabwe dollar collapse and, ultimately, disappear from the market without saying a word. Zimbabwe is witnessing a similar thing slowly happening to the greenback.

In the past, the common argument was: Why bother? No one listens. The country has a new political dispensation. People in the inclusive government should listen to the people.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai reluctantly joined the government though most of the conditions demanded by his Movement for Democratic Change had not been met because he did not want people to continue suffering.

Those in Bulawayo are now suffering. The inclusive government has liberalised the market. It does not want to interfere with the market. But every game has its own rules and people must play by those rules.

The same applies to Zimbabwe. There should be no free for all. Someone has to show that he or she is in control. Speculative behaviour must be rooted out before it gets out of control.

Zimbabweans have become used to making money out of nothing and will exploit any opportunity that arises. People who sell air-time are already into the game and so are those who sell newspapers and fuel. The cross-rate is reportedly R10-to-one, but you find people cashing only US dollars.

The rands have disappeared. Let's nip the speculative behaviour in the bud before it grows out of proportion. Granted, one can never kill the black market, but technically, a country is reported to have no black market when the official rate is similar to the black market rate. That is what the powers-that-be should strive for.

The country had achieved that during the first quarter of the year, but is now allowing this to slip away. Someone ought to act. Now!