Zimbabwe Absurdity

The rains have arrived. They are about on time too. There was a storm this afternoon, more noise and wind than rain but still I can appreciate the coolness after a blistering hot start to the month. The crickets are out in force and amazingly so are the frogs. The power is off too so I am typing this by laptop battery, illuminated by LED lanterns consisting of a bank of 24 LEDs powered by a lead acid gel cell. I have 3 of them but I can see that I will have to invest in a couple more. They are not that cheap at $35 each but well worth it; there is nothing more depressing than sitting in the dark wondering when to go to bed. At least when I’m not typing a blog (it will have to wait for some power to be uploaded) I can read. I rely on Terry and Suzanne to keep me in reading material which they source in Botswana and South Africa.  I gave up my subscription to Newsweek some time back as they were all getting stolen so I do appreciate the ones they bring back together with copies of The Economist and the South African Mail & Guardian. My Scientific American, Cross Country (paragliding magazine) and National Geographic still seem to get through.

The serious publications have all been heavy on environmental/energy issues recently. It seems that South Africa’s programme of nuclear development has hit cost overruns and has fallen foul of the political upheavals there. The USA and the UK are also going the nuclear route with the UK also committed to other resources such as wind (they have a lot of it). Here in Zimbabwe we are a bit further behind. Our main source of hydro power is Kariba Dam, built in the 1960s. Shared with Zambia, there is not much further potential for development and for many years now the lake has not been at capacity. Our other main source of power is Wankie thermal station which is built on a colliery of the same name with vast potential but due to disastrous financial “policies” of the current government little maintenance has been done and now it totters along from one breakdown to the next. The rest of our power needs are imported from South Africa and Mozambique but these are restricted by our ability to pay and their own requirements. So we endure numerous load shedding cuts and like now, faults.

Any economic recovery in Zimbabwe will have to include plans for rehabilitating the power supply. Nuclear of course is way too expensive so it’s likely to be more of the same i.e. thermal and hydro. The Zambezi still has plenty of hydro potential and I believe that a number of sites have been surveyed both up and downstream of Kariba. In the 1980’s there was a major campaign on to thwart the go-ahead on construction of a dam in the Mupata Gorge downstream of the Mana Pools National Park. Mana would have been flooded and the conservationists argued that there were better sites to be exploited upstream of Kariba. It was put on hold though I suspect the reasons were financial. Solar power had huge potential in Matabeleland (not for nothing was Bulawayo nicknamed “skies” by the locals) but of course the technology is still expensive and not that efficient. So for the meantime we will continue to burn coal and contribute to global warming. Sometimes I’m glad I don’t have children; I don’t think I could ask them to inherit this mess.

We are conditioned to shortages in Zimbabwe but this was one I could have done without.

Yesterday was pay day for my labour force and patience and understanding are not qualities they have in abundance if at all. OK, so I was a day late but I’d spent most of the day installing a new borehole pump and motor and having had to fork out US$275 for switchgear that was worth about $75 and endure most of the day in the blazing October sun my patience was in short supply too. I would have thought that as we’d agreed to pay them in hard currency and goods (food, soap and other essentials) they would have been feeling more than a bit secure and grateful. Apparently not. They wanted the money and they wanted it now – explaining that it was not going to devalue between now and Monday met with determined misunderstanding (going from multiple zeros to double digits did not help either). The sticking point was this; I did not have the exact change to pay them, so could they not wait until I could find it? Apparently not. Harsh words were exchanged and a strike threat made. I was more than happy that they go on strike – they would not get paid for work not done and we are not exactly busy. It is the first time I have seen the senior foreman angry. Eventually everyone dispersed and I came home and fumed. This morning I decided that we would just have to pay to the nearest round figure and so be it if we owed them a few dollars or they owed us. I had to use US dollars and where they were not enough, South African rand which fortunately convert at 10 to the US dollar. This is all highly illegal of course as we are not officially allowed to deal in forex and the Revenue Authority could crucify me if they felt like it. It is of little consolation that “everyone is doing it” but therein lies the reason for the shortage of small foreign currency denominations; they are all keeping them back for just this purpose! Go to a supermarket with too big a denomination and you will be refused service or asked to buy additional goods.

I asked my friend Terry the other day how he thought the forex was physically coming into the country. He assumed that it was by courier – people coming in to visit their relatives. It would never make it past the Postal system! I guess that means that we will be short for the foreseeable future as it will always be too little because we produce so little of anything that generates forex so we are going to be dependent on the couriers.

I have just come from the bank where after a month of weekly applications I have managed to draw 400,000 Zim dollars (about 20 US). That’s quite a lot better than the daily corporate allowance of 10,000 which they would have charged 50,000 for me to draw. The notes are new 50,000 dollar denominations. And I mean new. I can still smell the distinctive new ink smell. The quality is still the same; really poor.

Inflation was officially at 215 million percent last week which means in reality it is a lot higher – I have seen reports in the billions. Life as such still goes on though, so to see what keeps me entertained in the evenings please check out the HIFA website.

Because of my disability I walk visually; on a dark night when I have no verticals or horizontals to refer to I fall over very easily. It does have a few advantages. I walk with my eyes on the ground more than most so find things. I have picked up two tweezers for my Swiss army knife and the other day I found a needle in the gym. Hey, that is no small deal! I am sure needles can be bought in Zimbabwe but the haberdashery next to the bank has long since closed so I am not sure where to find one now. I had carefully stashed the needle in the top of the pin box in the foam provided but somehow it had fallen out and try as I may, I could not find it. I just had to put up with not doing up the top button on my shirt.

Finding a meat supply is quite a bit easier. There are at least three organizations/outlets advertising on the gym notice board including one that only does 30kg packs of chickens! Beef seems to be about US$6 per kg and chicken 6 depending on the cut. Also on offer are houses on the South African coast, bush tours, second had vehicles and sexy lingerie (presumably new)! Shops – who needs those. We have become a nation of traders, albeit backyard, out-of-the-kitchen traders.

I have borrowed Robert Guest’s “The Shackled Continent” which addresses why Africa is the only continent to have become poorer over the last 30 years. Yes, Zimbabwe gets a sizeable mention though that was back in the nostalgic days of mere 100% inflation, quite what he makes of the mulit-million percent inflation that we have now I would like to know. Curiously he is hopeful that Africa can solve its problems but as I am only 40 pages in I have not come to that part yet. Our salvation looks no closer than last month.

There are more notes out; a $10000 and a $20000. I saw one of the 20’s yesterday – it was an appalling attempt to copy the “real”, i.e. not bear cheques, money already in circulation. The paper was not even security paper. It doesn’t matter that much to me except that I need to get hold of some to finish paying wages. I have been to the bank every day this week but either there were about 400 people also queing or if not there was no money anyway. The curious thing is there are lots of people in town openly trading Zim dollars for real money. Apparently they have lots too, though I have chosen to buy off a friend who is a bit more discreet. I can only assume that our esteemed Governor of the Reserve Bank, Gideon Gono, is up to the same old tricks, buying real money off the street and just printing as fast as he can. At least one of my black customers yesterday agreed and called him a thief in Shona.

Fortunately almost all of my customers are now paying me in US dollars which makes life MUCH easier! No more panicking while the money devaluates (although the money in my account is pretty much out of reach and value). So today I celebrated by doing some grocery shopping in one of the many “outlets” that have popped up in people’s garages etc. selling imported foodstuffs, alcohol and amazingly in the one I went into, lawnmowers. I treated myself to a case of 24 cans of beer (and a few other things) that at US$25 was not too expensive. Tomorrow I must go to another which is a bit better priced on other groceries.

It took a lot of pleading and three hours in the bank on Thursday before I could withdraw 100000 Zim dollars )(about US$200) for wages. I had put in the applications up to 2 weeks previously but the bank was just not getting cash. I offered my senior foreman US dollars but he was surprisingly reluctant; I guess that he didn’t want the hassle of changing the money. I told him to try offeringthe US dollars instead. He eventually took them.

I see that the withdrawl limit has gone up to 20000 local dollars as from Monday. Will this mean that it will be any easier to draw money for wages? I am not really sure but I do know that the exchange rate for cash will start to run again – actually it already has just based on the information!

Walking into the cafe where I am writing this I notice a local paper had listed all the retail and wholesale outlets that have been granted licences to trade in forex. It was not a cheap exercise. 20000 US dollars for a retail licence! I believe most of the supermarkets have been granted licences. I guess a bit of competition and increased availability is a good thing but it is certainly out of the question for me; that sort of money is just way beyond my budget and at last most of my customers are paying in real money anyway. Will this mean a clamp down on those of us who cannot afford the licences but trade in real? I guess they will at least threaten a clampdown.

Even my customers who trade only on the local market are offering real money. Yesterday one of the biggest TOLD me he was going to pay in “real”. Actually, I wouldn’t have minded Zim dollars. At least it would have solved the wage issue for a while!