Currency Chaos

Bank governor Gideon Gono this week knocked three zeros off all banknotes to help consumers with hyperinflation of nearly 1200 percent.
MDC shadow Finance minister Tapiwa Mashakada said slashing zeros would not help as the real crisis was an illegitimate government that had failed to govern.
“The MDC believes it is not the zeros that must go. Mugabe is the big zero and he must go,” he said.
Pandemonium greeted the new currency. Barclays Bank and Beverly closed their doors; Standard Bank traded but advised their clients to write cheques using the new denominations with the endorsement “Revalued” on the cheque. Zimbank simply traded as normal – refusing to issue the new currency. Major firms closed for the day to try and sort themselves out before reopening. Others refused to accept cheques
and the “old currency” which technically now is illegal tender. Others simply continued trading as if nothing had happened.
Everywhere the business community was trying to sort out what to do – close their accounts, take stock, get balances from the Bank and then reopen with a new set of accounts and data on their computers. How to work the new numbers with cheques still coming in and both types of currency in circulation?
Economists report that the parallel market has gone crazy, with the Zimdollar trading at 80 000 to 1 on the Rand, 750 000 to 1 on the US dollar and over a million to the pound Sterling. “It is still moving and goodness knows where it will end,” said one.
Meanwhile Zakeus Chibaya reports from Masvingo that several people carrying large amounts of money have been arrested by police in confusion over the new currency.
And 24-hour road-blocks have been mounted on all roads leading to main towns. Buses are being thoroughly searched by heavily armed police, apparently in a move designed to pre-empt any mass protests. – Own correspondents