Mugabe lets locals take care of water supply

from SWRadio africa

Robert Mugabe’s regime decided Thursday to restore management of water supplies to local authorities from next month, after the disastrous period in which the government parastatal, Zinwa, failed to supply clean water to many cities and towns resulting in the worst cholera outbreak in Africa for 15 years.

In a speech to parliament during presentation of the Budget in Harare, acting Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the government had ‘noted Zinwa’s incapacity to deal with the water crisis.

It was in 2005 that the government decided to hand over water management to Zinwa.

...

The government U-turn to give water management back to city councils will come as a huge relief to millions of urban residents who have long been critical of Zinwa’s inefficiency to deal with the water crisis.

The new Zim currency: Petrol coupons

From Zimbabwe Today:

They are using petrol coupons and bartering things instead of using money...

"...Leading auctioneers Hammer and Tongues are putting cars and other valuable goods up for knock-down sale. And the official currency for the event is the petrol coupon....

But that auction is not the only aspect of life in Zimbabwe which is being run on the barter system..

Workers in private businesses and state departments are also being paid, at least in part, in essential food stuffs, while in their dealings with the public many companies are accepting monetary payment only in US dollars - a practice that remains illegal.

Private schools, currently sending out invoices to parents, are quoting their fees in petrol coupons. One school I know of is asking for petrol coupons to the value of a hundred litres per term. These the school authorities will exchange for hard currency on the black market.

For a while, then, the petrol coupon may seem to be helping stabilise commercial life here. But not for long. Already the value of a coupon is beginning to soar...."

Banknote paper shortage causes trouble

from the Zimbabwe Times

HARARE (Los Angeles Times) - It has come to this: Zimbabwe is about to run out of the paper to print money on.

Fidelity Printers & Refiners, the state-owned company that tirelessly churns out bank notes for the Robert Mugabe regime, was thrown into a crisis early this month after a German company stopped supplying bank note paper because of concerns over Zimbabwe’s recent violent presidential election, widely seen as fraudulent by international observers.

The printing operation drastically slowed. Two-thirds of the 1,000-strong workforce was ordered to go on leave, and two of the three money-printing shifts were canceled.

The result on the streets was an immediate cash crunch.

“If you think this currency shortage is bad, wait two weeks. By then it will be a disaster,” said a senior Fidelity staffer, who spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity because he would face dismissal for talking to a Western journalist. The paper will run out in two weeks, he said.....

one million percent inflation

from the AP:

...Independent finance houses said in an assessment Tuesday that annual inflation rose this month to 1,063,572 percent based on prices of a basket of basic foodstuffs. Economic analysts say unless the rate of inflation is slowed, annual inflation will likely reach about 5 million percent by October.

As stores opened for business Wednesday, a small pack of locally produced coffee beans cost just short of 1 billion Zimbabwe dollars. A decade ago, that sum would have bought 60 new cars.

And fresh price rises were expected after the state Grain Marketing Board announced up to 25-fold increases in its prices to commercial millers for wheat and the corn meal staple....

Zim to start using S African Rand?

Zimbabwe's inflation-ravaged economy could be rescued by switching to South Africa's currency in exchange for political concessions by President Robert Mugabe, South Africa's Sunday Independent newspaper reported yesterday.

Quoting unnamed sources, the paper said the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was working on a plan to extend the rand monetary union to Zimbabwe, which would help stabilise the economic crisis in the country, where inflation has rocketed to 4,500%.

The monetary union, under which currencies are pegged to the rand, consists of South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland. The plan would also involve the central banks in South Africa and Botswana injecting huge amounts of funds into their counterpart bank in Zimbabwe, the paper said.

Huge rise in Zim inflation

Zimbabwe's rate of inflation surged to 3,731.9%, driven by higher energy and food costs, and amplified by a drop in its currency, official figures show.

April's inflation rate jumped up from the 2,200% recorded last month, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) said.

The announcement came after Zimbabwe's government created a commission charged with finding a way to curb the country's spiralling cost of living.

There is high unemployment, and fuel and food shortages across the nation....

Living in Mugabe's Zimbabwe

"...

I am buying bread at 6,000 Zimbabwean dollars ($0.34 at current black market exchange rate) for a loaf and two litres of cooking oil for 120,000 Zimbabwean dollars ($6.70).

I was only taking 500,000 Zimbabwean dollars ($28) home a month. But even that is no more. As of yesterday, I was laid off from my clerical job.

And now, because this is Zimbabwe, I know that I am not going to get another job.

I live in a rented flat with my wife and family and so I am still thinking of what I can do to carry on living and paying the rent. Maybe I will sell some of my furniture.

The whole Zimbabwe situation is not pleasing at the moment. Not at all. Everything costs so much, most have so little and everywhere there are secret police. We are not free anymore.

I was born in Mutare [eastern city on border with neighbouring Mozambique] but moved to Harare a few years back to find work after my parents passed away.

I remember how beautiful our country was in the 80s.

Finding gold

My gran used to give me 50 Zimbabwean cents to go buy bread, butter and milk - all that for so little! It was easy to live well.

Mugabe is already a hero and he always will be

And when we were at junior school, five cents in your pocket could get you sweets to last the whole week. I tell you, finding a five cent piece on the pavement was like finding gold!

Now if you see a 1,000 Zimbabwean dollar note on the floor, you just keep walking. You don't stop. It is nothing - no-one will even pick it up.

Back then, after independence, we all loved President Mugabe. But now we don't. The only ones that do are those who benefit from his rule.

I don't mind if Zanu-PF stays as the ruling party, I really don't. I just want there to be change at the top.

Price of maize increases in Zim

The cost of maize, a basic food staple, in Zimbabwe will rise seven-fold, the country's government has announced.

The price of a 10-kilogram bag of the grain will now cost more than 41,000 Zimbabwe dollars (16 cents), from just over 6,000, a minister said.

The huge rise in the price of maize comes after inflation in Zimbabwe reached 2,200% in March....Agricultural Minister Rugare Gumbo said the big price rise reflected pay rises for farmers to support maize production.

You think Zim's 1500% inflation is bad? Think again

..."Between October 1, 1993 and January 24, 1995 prices increased by 5 quadrillion percent. This number is a 5 with 15 zeroes after it. The social structure began to collapse. Thieves robbed hospitals and clinics of scarce pharmaceuticals and then sold them in front of the same places they robbed. The railway workers went on strike and closed down Yugoslavia's rail system.

The government set the level of pensions. The pensions were to be paid at the post office but the government did not give the post offices enough funds to pay these pensions. The pensioners lined up in long lines outside the post office. When the post office ran out of state funds to pay the pensions the employees would pay the next pensioner in line whatever money they received when someone came in to mail a letter or package. With inflation being what it was, the value of the pension would decrease drastically if the pensioners went home and came back the next day. So they waited in line knowing that the value of their pension payment was decreasing with each minute they had to wait.

Many Yugoslavian businesses refused to take the Yugoslavian currency, and the German Deutsche Mark effectively became the currency of Yugoslavia. ...

(headsup from Improbable research)

Inflation now 4000 %

INFLATION will reach 4 279 percent in Zimbabwe next year, a senior International Monetary Fund official has forecast.

This is significantly higher than Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono's hopes for inflation to slow to 50 percent in 2007 and below 10 percent by 2008.