Zimbabweans endured hours in long queues at banks on Tuesday as a cash shortage forced limits on withdrawals, with the country in the midst of an economic crisis.
”Things have gotten worse since the weekend,” said an official at a bank in central Harare where a queue of waiting customers snaked outside the building.
Bankers blamed the shortages on a drastic cut in allocations from the central bank, but Governor Gideon Gono denied the charge.
”We have pumped in a lot of money in the form of this support and that support … but you find the situation where there is no cash,” Gono told a news conference.
”So we have taken the view that we will watch and see. It’s not like we can’t do anything. We can, but surely to what extent? We need to sober up as Zimbabweans.”
Banks were dispensing half the daily cash limits to customers.
”We have decided to limit withdrawals so that everybody at least gets some money,” one banker said.
Between May and September 2003, the country experienced critical cash shortages that saw customers queuing for hours to withdraw their savings.
The Southern African country is in the midst of an economic crisis, characterised by the world’s highest rate of inflation — currently at nearly 8 000% — shortages of basic foodstuffs like sugar and cooking oil, and mass unemployment.
Gono also spoke out against a crackdown in June against businesses accused of profiteering, saying it hurt ordinary citizens when shops ran out of stocks.
”We don’t want a return to the three-month period of madness between July and September when the real casualty was the man on the street.
”We are living in a hyperinflationary environment and we urge stakeholders, our politicians, to tell consumers the truth, that things cannot remain the same forever.”
In June, the government ordered businesses to halve the prices of goods, accusing them of fuelling inflation and working in conjunction with President Robert Mugabe’s foes in the West. – Sapa-AFP