Zimbabwe blog: 'nothing has changed'
Updated on 30 September 2008
On the day the maximum daily withdrawal allowance rose to twenty thousand Zimbabwe dollars the banks had no money to give, writes Zimbabwe blogger Helen.
The day Mr Mugabe and his delegation of more than 40 officials got back to Zimbabwe after attending the 63rd UN General Assembly in New York, there was a huge buzz of excitement in the country.
While Mr Mugabe's return means that there may finally be a start to implementing the power sharing deal, that wasn't the cause of the excitement.
Mr Mugabe and his 40 travelling companions returned on the same day that the maximum daily withdrawal allowed from banks by individuals had increased from one thousand to twenty thousand Zimbabwe dollars. (Twenty thousand dollars on the black market presently buys 21 British pence in Zimbabwe).
After weeks of only being allowed to draw out one thousand dollars of our own money, this twenty fold increase is a life saver for desperate Zimbabweans.
At 8am, bank opening time, there were already many hundreds of people queuing outside all the banks and building societies.
People said they'd been waiting in line for over 3 hours, since before sunrise. None of the ATM cash dispensers were functioning and rumours were rife about what was going to happen.
No one knew where the banks were suddenly going to find enough bank notes to fill this massive demand since we've had a crippling shortage of bank notes for many months.
By 8.30 am there were scenes of utter chaos everywhere. Driving had become impossible as crowds of people trying to get into banks swelled into multiple thousands.
Queues had disintegrated into great crushes of men and women who filled pavements and spilled out into car parks and onto main roads throughout business centres.
Hooting politely or honking angrily made no difference at all; people had been waiting since before dawn to get a fraction of their own money and they weren't moving but as the minutes ticked by the numbers grew but still nothing was happening.
Queues, if you could call them that, wound round and round and back on themselves until a sea of people were squashed up against each other.
Repeated attempts to get into any of the banks was a waste of time. It was standing room only and many hundreds of people were already crammed into banking halls.
Queues, if you could call them that, wound round and round and back on themselves until a sea of people were squashed up against each other and the physical temperature of so many bodies was palpable.
Worse though, no one was moving, none of the lines were shortening and it soon became obvious that no one was being served. There was no money to withdraw!
Police in uniform, soldiers in camoufalge and large numbers of youth militia, commonly called Green Bombers, tried to jump the bank queues they way they always do but this time it was to no avail.
Despite the 20 fold withdrawal increase there was no money to be had. None of the banks or building societies in the town had received any money from the Central Bank in Harare and by 10 am it was all over. Gradually the word got out, and people believed it - go home, there is no money!
Meanwhile Mr Mugabe was in Harare addressing a crowd of women attired in clothes adorned with his face. In a charcoal suit with a purple, polka dotted tie and wearing tinted glasses, Mr Mugabe spoke mostly in Shona.
"Nothing has changed", he said to the cheers and ululations of the women. "We shall pursue our policies.... our land..... our sovereignty... nothing has changed!"
