By bus, train or internet ... ZAHIRA KHARSANY JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Mar 08 2008 06:00

Zimbabweans in the diaspora are crucial to preventing a meltdown of Zimbabwe’s economy. It is estimated that more than US$1-billion finds its way into Zimbabwe each year, sent in as hard currency by nationals living abroad, principally in South Africa and the United Kingdom.

About US$500-million of this arrives via Zimbabweans now living in South Africa. As professionals continue to move out and more remittances come in, this figure is rising. Most of the money -- in rands or US dollars -- leaves South Africa informally, via taxi and bus services, traders and friends.

If adversity is the mother of invention, Zimbabweans in the diaspora -- from Johannesburg to London -- have found ingenious ways to get everything from baked beans to beauty-treatment vouchers back home to family and friends whose access to goods and services is paralysed by hyperinflation.

For the basic necessities, there are buses that leave at 3pm each week day from a bustling depot at Park Station in Johannesburg's CBD, carrying "Big Five" bags stuffed with groceries, toiletries and money -- rands, not Zim dollars.

For the internet savvy who can afford to pay for goods in British pounds, online shopping has taken off in a big way. United Kingdom-based sites such as Mukuru.com, ZimCargo.co.uk and YesZim.com have made it easy for Zimbabweans in Europe and other parts of the world to send money, groceries and even fuel home.

These sites offer a range of goods and services, from the basic to the extravagant. At YesZim.com, online shoppers can pay in advance for their friends back home to have a meal at a restaurant in Harare.

The Sitar, noted for its "fine Indian dining", costs £8,50 per person. On payment, a voucher number is SMSed to the payer's cellphone, with instructions to give it to the maître d' on arrival. Bon appétit!

On Mukuru.com -- set up by four young Zimbabweans now living in the UK -- you can send petrol or diesel to the fuel-starved folk back home by simply selecting the number of litres you wish to buy, clicking "calculate" and adding the amount to your shopping cart. An overnight money transfer (of rands or United States dollars) to Harare and Bulawayo is also a mouse click away.

The old-fashioned bus method of transporting goods to Zimbabwe is not quite so glamorous (you can't send someone a facial, for instance) but for the basics it is just as effective.

Arriving at the Park Station bus depot on a rainy Wednesday last week, it was a struggle to find Zimbabweans prepared to talk to a reporter: even from the relative safety of South Africa, people are reluctant to talk in case their families back home are victimised.

Finally, with the help of a friend to translate for me, I found someone willing to share his experience, though not his real name. John* (23) has lived in Johannesburg for just less than a year: he sells ice cream for Nestlé from a bicycle with an ice box.

John is one of the many Zimbabweans who send groceries home once a month -- if possible.

Into the ubiquitous giant plastic bag (either the global tartan or the "Big Five", which sports pictures of the appropriate animals) John packs sugar, mealie meal, salt, powdered milk and a range of canned foods. "This way my family will get a variety of the food groups -- I think they are now tired of eating vegetables only," he says.

John will pay between R70 and R100 to send the loaded bag home unaccompanied. "For every R100 worth of cash we send home they [the bus companies] charge us R20." He says he is happy with the 'courier' service he receives. "The drivers do not steal. They are honest drivers; I trust them."

One commodity Zimbabweans in Johannesburg who use buses don't send back home is petrol -- it's just "far too dangerous to send on a bus". However, John's "care bag" includes paraffin, as there is no electricity in Harare where his family lives.

Bus drivers transport passengers and goods from Johannesburg to Harare via Musina and the Beitbridge border. Some travel to Bulawayo, Masvingo and Kwe Kwe.

Harry* (42), a driver on one of the many buses leaving for Zimbabwe from Park Station, says the road trip to Harare can take up to 18 hours. The journey is often slowed by time-consuming customs controls, missing passenger passports and bus permit checks. But Harry says bribery along the route is neither expected nor received.

Zimbabweans across the world are trying to make life work the best way they can, for themselves and for their loved ones inside the country.

Being forced to source and send money and goods to Zimbabwe may not be a long-term answer to the problem, yet there remains a sense of hope that things will "turn around".

By now we have been joined by a few of John's friends, who are more willing to speak than others I approached. All voice John's hope to return to the land of their birth. "I love my country, it's beautiful … I'm only here because I need the money. But if you work hard you'll get where you want to be."

* Not their real names

In fond memory of the blue bills
An ominous looking email popped up on my computer this week, calling for "a minute of silence". I opened it with a sense of unease: had someone died?

Not someone, exactly, but the news wasn't good, reports Percy Zvomuya. The email's opening line was "a minute of silence for the fallen heroes". The "departed" were bank notes from Zimbabwe's heady days in the 1980s and early 1990s.

There they were, images of real money that now only exist in the nation's memory bank.

There was the blue Z$20 note, which was popularly known as the nzou (indlovu) because of the image of the elephant on it and, perhaps, because of its elephantine buying power: in 1980 the first Zim dollar was worth one-third more than the US dollar.

There was the red Z$10, the green Z$5 note and the blue Z$2 -- the very first victim of the chop. It was replaced in the 1990s by a coin when inflation started to rise and keeping it in circulation became too expensive.

I sighed, a watery film collecting in my eyes. The email took me back to three weeks ago, when I was in a taxi on my way to the East Rand. As I looked for my fare among the notes in my pocket, I came up with a Z$10-million note that a cousin had given me as a souvenir.

The girl next to me cast surreptitious glances at it. "Do you want it?" I asked in a moment of rare generosity. She looked at the proffered note quizzically and nodded hesitantly. Her face was creased with doubt. "I mean it," I told her. Finally she took it, looking at it queerly and turning it over, as if it was not money at all. "Is this really money?" she said.

I advised her to take it, remarking, with a straight face, that it's not every day a stranger offers you millions. She laughed and asked: "So how much it is worth?" I was expecting the question. "Well," I said my voice trailing, "last time I checked it was worth R1,23. That was like two hours ago when my cousin gave it to me."

When Terence, my cousin, gave me the note it had a sad story behind it. "You know what? In Zimbabwe you don't go in the morning into a shop intending to buy something and then go later in the day expecting it to be the same price."

Strange to think that it's not only the Lotto making new millionaires. After all, I met a stranger in a taxi -- I admit she was rather pretty -- and gave her Z$10-million.

Looking at the email again, how I longed for those blue elephant days.

Hyperinflation: Zimbabwe dollar timeline

1980: First Zimbabwe dollar is introduced at same value as Rhodesian dollar -- worth a third more than the US dollar.

2003: To cope with rising inflation, high-denomination traveller's cheques begin to replace conventional banknotes. Bearer cheques with a limited lifespan are then introduced in denominations of up to Z$20 000.

2006: With continuing inflation the second Zimbabwe dollar is introduced. Three zeros are removed to redenominate the currency and one revalued dollar equals 1 000 old dollars. Bearer cheques with denominations of up to Z$100 000 are issued.

Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono names the revaluation exercise "Operation Sunrise" and it is completed on August 21. To the benefit of the Reserve Bank, an estimated 22% of the old dollar money supply was not redeemed.

2007: In February, the Reserve Bank declares inflation to be "illegal" and outlaws price rises between March and June. Company executives are arrested for raising product prices. In December, bearer cheques of Z$250 000, Z$500 000 and Z$750 000 are released.

2008: Bearer cheques of Z$1-million, Z$5-million and Z$10-million are issued. The annual rate of inflation rises above 100 000% for the first time.

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