Charles Dickens in his book A TALE OF TWO CITIES WRITES ,”it
was the best of times ,it was the worst of times..”In the Zimbabwean scenario
this seems to be a very apt description.
First Tesla Ever To Be Imported Into Zimbabwe |
It definitely seems like the best of times to the people who
have access to external funds and possess the coveted US dollar,they certainly are enjoying the
deteriorating economic situation where thye surrogate Bond note has been in
free fall against the Us dollar.By all accounts fortunes are being made on the
parallel market where huge among are changing hands at the drop of a hat and
the money changers are laughing all the way to their house safes. Since they crash
of the bond note ,most of those with ready cash have been on spending sprees
with reports that imports of vehicles have been on an all-time high. There are
reports that one one even had the cash to buy and import a Tesla,which is
probably the first of its kind in Zimbabwe.The shopselves have been stripped of
all the basic essentials as peo[ple stock up fearful of a further crash of the
bond note which will render it useless.In most of thye peoples minds this is a
precursor of the crash of 2008,when
Zimbabwe suffered from hyper inflection and most shops did not have anything to
sell.
For most of the long suffering citizenry ,who suffer from
unemployment which hovers in the 80% ,the times are the worst of a very bad
situation.No sooner had the country gotten rid of the despot Mugabe and fresh
hope wafted through the land than 7 of their fellowmen fell at the hands of the security forces that were supposed to protect them.Now the crash
of the bond note against the US dollar has triggered panic among the people as
they watch in horror as cooking oil and sugar disappear overnight from
supermarkets and the the bond note becomes almost useless since most of the
businesses do not want to accept the note.Prices are pegged against the US
dollar which is in very short supply and long winding queues of people waiting
for a chance to buy bread or fuel become a permanent feature of the body
politic in our beautiful land.For most motorists sleeping in the queue for a
chance to buy some fuel is now the norm.The public transporters have also
jumped on the band wagon and have hiked the fares.Noone
can really blame them as the prices of fuel have gone up twice in the past week
alone.
Fortunately sanity seems to be returning as the government
authorities have announced that imports on all the basic commodities which are
in short supply have been lifted and companies and individuals with spare cash
can import these immediately. Maybe the times will change for the better for
both those who have the means as well as those who are not so well off.
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