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Zim economic crisis deepens
13/05/2008 07:12 - (SA)
Harare - Before Zimbabwe's disputed elections in March, Zim$2bn could get you a room in a five-star hotel. Today, Gabriel Matope hopes it will buy him two litres of cooking oil - if he can find some.
More than six weeks after the poll and ahead of an expected run-off in which the opposition wants to end President Robert Mugabe's 28 years in power, Zimbabwe's economic crisis is deepening every day and pushing ordinary citizens to despair.
Hope giving way to resignation
Hopes for change were giving way to resignation as citizens wondered whether the run-off - for which a date had still not been set - could actually end the turmoil.
"We continue to wait: for elections, for results, for cash at the banks, to buy groceries ... for everything we wait. But, for how long?" asked Matope, an unemployed mechanic, as he queued to withdraw money at a bank in central Harare.
Economic meltdown
Zimbabweans hoped the March 29 elections could help end their country's economic meltdown, which triggered inflation of 165 000%, 80% unemployment, severe food and fuel shortages and a flood of refugees to neighbouring states.
Instead, prices skyrocketed in the stalemate since the poll and reports of politically motivated attacks were spreading.
Bread, which was no longer available in most shops, cost
Zim$15m before the election and was now at Zim$200m.
Fuel costs doubled. Bank note shortages meant queues for cash spill out onto the street.
Popular uprising unlikely
Analysts said they doubted a popular uprising in response to the turmoil but said more and more Zimbabweans were clamouring to get out of the country - exacerbating a drain of skilled and manual labour that had already taken a hefty toll.
Mugabe's government accused businesses of profiteering as
part of a Western plot to unseat him.
'No economy to speak of'
Central Bank Governor Gideon Gono said he feared there may
be no economy to speak of if the run-off results are disputed.
Official results showed opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai
beat Mugabe for the presidency in the first round, but not by
enough votes to avoid a run-off.
The MDC which said it favoured a free market economy, would do away
with government controls and promised to reverse moves by
Mugabe to give majority shares in foreign-owned business to
locals.
Mugabe blamed the West and its "puppets" in the
opposition for the economic rot.
- Reuters
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Zimbabwe Special Report
