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Posted on by Connor Donevan
Claire Harbage NPR
A money trader holds bundles of money on the street in Harare.
It's a little over 8 am on a Wednesday morning in downtown Harare, and Brandon Moyo is already lining up for ATM for more than four hours already. He hopes to withdraw $ 20 – but this is not promising. There are more than 20 people in front of him and bank officials have already warned that they might run out of money before getting to the front.
Moyo comes from a small farming town located about 65 miles from Harare. He says banks in his city usually have no cash in recent days, so he takes a bus to the Zimbabwean capital twice a week to wait in a line like this. He has to pay for this trip in cash, and if the bank runs out before he can get it, he must spend the night sometimes until he can try again.
Zimbabwe faces a serious shortage of cash over the last two years. years, a symptom of the country's larger and longer economic crisis. After Robert Mugabe was ousted by the military last November, his replacement, Emmerson Mnangagwa, said Zimbabwe was now "open to business". But the inflow of funds into the country is complicated and access to physical currencies has not improved. the change of leadership.
At another bank at the end of the street, Rumbidzai Chihera is also waiting in a line of ATMs. She sells chickens for a living, but no matter how much she earns, she is limited to the amount of money available at the bank. She says her bank has let her withdraw $ 100 a week, but in recent months this limit has dropped to $ 40.
"It is very painful to expect your money, especially if it is the money for which you have worked. She said to Shona, "We have the impression of continuing to withdraw when we should go ahead."
The cash flow problem comes from a mbadive hyperinflation that Zimbabwe in the years before 2009. At that time, the Reserve Bank printed notes with a value of 100 trillion Zimbabwean dollars – reported at around $ 300 at the time.
Zimbabwe finally abandoned its currency in favor of the US dollar and several other currencies.But while the country has slipped into a growing trade deficit and a lack of foreign investment, US dollars have become increasingly difficult to find in the country. The central bank therefore introduced in 2016 notes called "bonds", worth 1 dollar in the country, but worthless outside Zimbabwe
The bonds leave the ATM machines and are ut in most cash transactions. According to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, more than 96% of transactions occur through plastic money or mobile banking systems.
But money is essential to buy commodities in the markets. – where they are much cheaper – or public transport. And a recent two-day crash of the most popular mobile banking system in Zimbabwe has shown how precarious it can be to depend on electronic payments.
A flourishing black market has developed around cash. Throughout downtown Harare, you can find money traders – people who can trade currencies for Zimbabwean bonds for a price.
In an area of the city of Copacabana, sidewalks are crowded with shoe sellers. clothes, wallets. Silver merchants – men and women – line the streets, sitting on cartons of milk and leaning against shop windows, holding thick stacks of money: US dollars, bonds Zimbabwean, South African rand, Zambian kwacha. When the cars pbad, the money merchants run to the ticket offices, hold up tickets and shout unofficial exchange rates, competing for the best deal.
Much of the goods sold on the street are bought in neighboring countries. then brought back to Zimbabwe to sell for profit. But the only way to buy anything across the border is with the foreign currency – the money – which is where money traders come in.
A black sedan gets up and the pbadenger's window rolls down. A man is sitting inside, pegs in the dollar bills – 20, 50, 100. He calls Alec Javial Karim and was a banker until in 2003, date to which he resigned and started trading money on the black market.
"The banking system is paralyzed, people are fleeing the banks," he said with a shrug of the shoulders.
He explains that the money at his feet comes from people in the diaspora, who send foreign currency to family members still in Zimbabwe. has a relative there – so when they receive [cash] they do not take money at the bank, they come to the black market where there are lucrative rates, "he says. On the black market, you can get 70 per cent more US dollar notes than in a bank, where they have to respect the individual exchange rate.
The reason everyone has a parent "This is because millions of Zimbabweans have left the country as a result of the economic downturn – jobs are scarce and money is tight. The largest Zimbabwean diaspora community is located just across the southern border in South Africa and in Johannesburg, there are entire Zimbabwean expatriate districts
in a barbecue restaurant in Yeoville, a suburb of Johannesburg. Zimbabwe: Remember Ndebele, 28, is a city chef who moved to South Africa nine years ago to support seven family members in Zimbabwe and says he is sending about 40 % of his income across the border.
"I would love to go back there," he says with a big smile. "They can have this currency, you know?"
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