Zimbabwe dispatches: the value of money
Updated on 03 February 2009
Overnight all our money became worthless again when the Reserve Bank governor, Gideon Gono, removed 12 zeroes from the currency, writes Helen from Zimbabwe.
One trillion dollars has become one dollar and Gono smirked as he said: "Yesterday's trillionaires, I am sorry, will not be able to buy their favourite drink today."
Sweating profusely throughout the presentation of Zimbabwe's latest monetary policy, Gono was at pains to explain that Zimbabwe had not "dollarized" (US dollars) but instead had legalised the use of multiple currencies in Zimbabwe.
If we had "dollarized", Gono said, then we would need permission from the owners and printers of that currency.
A ten trillion dollar note
Gono announced the introduction of a "new family" of bank notes ranging from one dollar (which was 1 trillion) to 500 dollars (which was 500 trillion) but paid little attention to the fact that you cannot buy anything in Zimbabwe dollars anymore.
Everything from fuel to food, clothes, spare parts and equipment is charged in any of the multiple currencies now in circulation - except for Zimbabwe dollars.
Everything from fuel to food, clothes, spare parts and equipment is charged in any of the multiple currencies now in circulation - except for Zimbabwe dollars.
We might have the highest inflation and fastest shrinking economy in the world but everyone has mastered the art of switching between US dollars, British pounds and South African rand and can do calculations and conversions almost instantly.
The Reserve Bank governor said that civil servants are going to be paid in US dollar "vouchers" which they will be able to exchange, not for real bank notes, but for food at some shops which are yet to be identified.
He did not say if civil servants would be able to access medicines, board buses or pay for other essential non food items with Zimbabwe government US dollar vouchers. The balance of their salaries, Gono said, will be paid in Zimbabwe dollars.
This news is going to come as a hard blow to civil servants who are already very disgruntled at the way they have been sidelined from the multiple currency explosion that has engulfed the currency in the last six weeks.
Three weeks after government schools should have opened, children are still outside playing on suburban streets and parents are utterly distraught. One parent told me what happened at the religious mission school where his child is a pupil.
The teachers and parents had a meeting, agreed that fees would be submitted in foreign currency and teachers paid in US dollars and everything looked set.
The complete collapse of Zimbabwe's education system is just one of scores of disasters needing urgent attention of the new unity government which is not even sworn in yet.
The school opened and lessons started but two hours later a car drove up. Men in suits emerged and said they were CIO (Central Intelligence Organisation) and that they also needed foreign currency.
A little while later the teachers were called to an emergency meeting. Then the school bell rang, classrooms were emptied and the teachers went home.
Another parent whose child is at a mission school told how teachers were offered 1,000 South African rand a month (US$100) but refused to work for such a small amount and so no lessons are underway there either.
A parent from a rural government school said that he had paid the requested US$30 as school fees but that no teachers had turned up for work.
Another said his young teenage daughter came home with mud on her clothes and blisters on her hands. Teachers had not arrived at the school but the headmaster had given children manual gardening chores rather than let them go home.
The girl cried as she told her Dad that all she wanted was to get books, go to lessons and learn for her O-levels, not cut grass, pull out weeds and clear drains and paths around the school.
The complete collapse of Zimbabwe's education system is just one of scores of disasters needing urgent attention of the new unity government which is not even sworn in yet.
