Zimbabwean currency changed for the second time in two years

Zimbabweans wishing to make cash withdrawals have, since the middle of November, been forced to queue at banking halls for several odd hours, some of these in vain, as both commercial banks and building societies had been hard hit by the cash shortages, which Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor, Gideon Gono, on Friday blamed on hoarding of bank notes by illegal foreign currency dealers linked to government ministers and other “known” influential members of President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU (PF) party.
Banks have also reduced their daily maximum withdrawal limits from the usual Z$20 million to Z$5 million a day for both individuals and companies.
This is only enough for one meal in Zimbabwe nowadays.
This becomes the second time in two years that Zimbabwe changes its currency. The RBZ was forced to “re-value” the country’s currency in August last year, after the dollar had taken a battering from regional and international currencies due to hyper-inflation.
The currency “re-valuing” exercise, dubbed “Operation Sunrise”, saw three zeroes being slashed from the old generation of bearer cheques when new ones were introduced.
Zimbabwe, which is in its seventh year of an economic crisis that has largely been blamed on Mugabe’s skewed governance policies, has not had a substantive currency since 2003, when the central bank introduced alternative promisory notes known as “bearer cheques”,  ironically to address another critical cash shortage which had gripped the country.
The cheques’s lifespan, which was initially meant to be six months, has been extended for the past four years, as the country’s economic crisis continues to worsen.
Gono, who had initially ruled out introducing new currency until early next year, was last month forced to change that stance, when the cash shortages worsened, and threatened to give his countrymen a short period of transition to the new currency.
Sources within the central bank, on Saturday afternoon revealed that the bank had already hired vehicles from security companies, which will transport the new bank notes to banking institutions outside the capital Harare to smaller towns, while security forces have also been deployed to escort these vehicles and man roadblocks on major roads, in a bid to arrest people carrying large sums of money.
“The introduction of the new money will be announced on national television on Sunday evening and people will be given seven days in which to deposit the bank notes they have at their respective banks. An individual will be allowed to deposit Z$20 million a day for seven days,” said a senior official at the central bank.
Police and army officers in the country’s second biggest city of Bulawayo also confirmed that they had been deployed at various strategic points to perform various duties in “Operation Sunrise Two”.
“Yes, our officers have been deployed to take part in the government operation to introduce new currency, which begins on Monday. That is all I can tell you at the moment,” confirmed police deputy national spokesman, Chief  Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka.
Gono would neither confirm nor deny the reports.
However, economic commentators still argue that the currency change will only usher in convenience in the use of bank notes in the country, but will not address inflation.
“This will only make people easily do their transactions in a more organised and easy manner and will also address the current cash shortages. Machines have also been failing to cope with the the several zeroes and this will help in this aspect, but this will not cure inflation, which is our main problem,” said Bulawayo-based economic commentator, Eric Bloch, who is also in the RBZ advisory board.
Some analysts said that the country would have to change its currency again next year, if no stringent measures are made to address runaway inflation, which currently stands at 15 000 per cent, according to official figures, while some say it could be far more than this, at about 30 000 per cent.