Harare residents sleep in bank queues as cash shortage intensifies

By Tererai Karimakwenda
19 November, 2007

On Thursday last week scores of soldier hoping to receive their salaries and bonuses were forced to go to banks as early as 3am. But many left empty handed as the cash ran out.
The shortage of actual hard cash in Zimbabwe has reached such critical levels that the Reserve Bank is reportedly failing to supply the banks with enough to cover salaries.

Our Harare correspondent Simon Muchemwa has been making the rounds in the central business district of the capital and reports that people are sleeping in bank queues trying to be first to get the scarce notes. Unfortunately many are being turned away without any luck.

Muchemwa said soldiers and other uniformed officials have been taking advantage of their status and skipping to the front of the queues. People who have tolerated this so far seem to have lost their patience, and riot police have been brought in to control some situations.
The nation’s economy is crumbling at the fastest rate in the entire world, particularly for a country not at war. The latest figures leaked from the Central Statistical Office, show that prices were up 136% in October alone. Economic experts put the inflation rate close to at least 15,000%.
The experts accuse government of pursuing stop-gap measures that will have no effect on the economy. Along with the opposition and civil groups, they insist the only solution is wholesale constitutional change and a resolution of the broad political crisis.