Dear Governor

I write this open letter to you with a lot of grief. My wife suddenly fell ill in the early hours of December 3 and needed immediate specialist attention. A well-wisher rushed us to Harare Central hospital. After four hours of waiting for the doctor, my brother offered to foot the bills for a private doctor. He rushed into town, collected bank details from a well-known private clinic and made a bee line for the bank to make an RTGS as the cut-off time drew nearer.

Getting cash was out of the question. You are well aware of the severe cash shortage in the country. The private clinic insisted that no payment, no treatment. There was a winding queue at the bank for RTGS transactions. Just after 1200, my brother phoned to say he couldn’t beat the RTGS cut-off time. I could feel tears swelling in my eyes as I watched my deaf wife writhing in pain, with my four-year-old son looking at her confused at why nobody was interested in assisting her.

I prayed that at least the doctor at the general hospital would turn up. He finally did and I was relieved. But it was short-lived. He looked at my wife and wrote a couple of tests that were required urgently to diagonise the cause of the illness. None of these tests could be carried out at the hospital because the machinery was not working. He recommended Paracetamol to reduce the pain.

That day was the longest in my life. The following day, we were at the bank by 0330hrs but already there was a queue. When the bank opened its doors five hours later, pandemonium ensued and the queue became useless. My brother did however manage to submit the RTGS on time but I couldn’t get cash, so we left the bank and rushed to the private clinic. If we thought our misery was coming to an end, we were wrong! The clinic told us they would only attend to my wife after the RTGS had cleared - their contention being that some RTGS transactions were taking as much as 72 hours. My wife died the following day without receiving medical attention!

Burying my wife was not easy either. The funeral parlour also insisted on the RTGS clearing first. We couldn’t buy enough food for the mourners as the vendors at Mbare musika do not accept RTGS.

When I was browsing the internet this week, I saw an intriguing Poll on ZBC’s NEWSNET website (www.newsnet.co.zw), “Who do you blame for the cash shortages?” The answers: RBZ - 73.95%, Banks - 3.54%, and Forex Dealers - 22.51%. This actually provoked me to write this open letter to you.

I would be naive to blame you for everything that befell my dear wife. She died mainly because the National Payment System has collapsed. Nobody has faith in it anymore. That is why everyone wanted to see money in their account before assisting. We couldn’t get cash. The facilities to take care of my wife’s illness were there, and money was there from relatives, but it was locked up in the banks!

It is extremely naive for RBZ to blame parallel market activities for the shortage of cash and the collapse of the national payment system. Zimbabweans are not that stupid. It is a shame that you, as governor, have decided to behave like opposition politicians, who oppose everything for the sake of opposing, no matter how good it is. Everyone thinks RBZ should have acted long ago, but you, because “they” said it first, will not act, otherwise people will think you are dancing to their tune!!! SHAME!!

You blame parallel market activities for the cash shortages! Z$58 trillion in circulation only translates to an average of less than ZW$6m per individual, enough for transport fares for one week only, lunch excluded! How many items can you buy with ZW$6m? The majority of business in Zimbabwe is from informal traders. Do you really expect these people to use plastic money? Have you ever tried to install a ZIMSwitch POS at Mbare Musika?? Does it not make sense to you that since more than 80% of Zimbabweans are not in formal employment, it means the majority of this 80% is involved in informal trade. This translates to more than 50% of the cash outside the formal banking system because there are no banking facilities customised for informal traders.

Are parallel market activities responsible for the near-total collapse of the Zimswitch? The more than 72 hours needed for RTGS?

You always hide behind the so-called “barons” that only exist in your hallucinations! Ghosts that invade your dreams because of the subconscious realisations that you are traumatising the innocent man on the street. Once again, let me reiterate that Zimbabweans are not that stupid. Take them for granted at your own peril.

In our neighbouring countries (Zambia and Malawi), reports say currency in circulation is the equivalent of more than US$200-300 million (using an open exchange rate used in their country).

I once admired you, “our Governor”, for your rare courage to speak out against corruption. You really used to “take the bull by the horns”! But your biggest weakness is that you sometimes become hysterical, loose focus, lock your logic inside a safe and like a charging bull, trample on the defenceless!

Yours in grief,

TN

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