Banking authorities raised the daily withdrawal limit in Zimbabwe, prompting tens of thousands to line up in desperate hopes of getting enough cash for groceries before spiraling inflation eats away more of the currency’s value.
New rules went into effect the day Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe returned from the UN, allowing withdrawals of up to 20,000 Zimbabwe dollars (US$35). The old 1,000 Zimbabwean-dollar limit was barely enough to buy a newspaper.
The limit and the fact that Zimbabwe has the world’s highest inflation rate, officially 11 million percent, unofficially much higher, has meant long lines at banks most days.
PHOTO: EPA
But Monday was extraordinary. Mothers with babies strapped to their backs arrived at bank doors at dawn. Police vainly tried to stop the crowds from blocking traffic, but there appeared to be more police and uniformed soldiers in line to get cash than on duty.
Lovemore Matombo, head of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, said if politicians did not take action soon to ease the suffering of workers “we will go onto the streets.”
He called for the limit on withdrawals to be removed altogether, but central bank officials say that could spark a run on banks that would ultimately worsen the cash shortages.
On Saturday, central bank governor Gideon Gono vowed to keep printing money, a practice critics say has fueled inflation.
As the lines disrupted traffic in Harare, Mugabe returned from a 10-day trip to the UN, promising a new coalition government will be named soon.
Getting the long-promised government up and running is seen as a first step to addressing the country’s growing economic and humanitarian crisis.
But with his absence, a power-sharing deal he signed with his longtime rivals in the Movement for Democratic Change has stalled.
The two sides have been unable to agree on which party should control key Cabinet posts, among them the Finance Ministry.
Looking fit even at 84, Mugabe was greeted by about 1,500 singing, dancing well-wishers at the airport.
“We never said there was a deadlock. But we will be setting up a government this week, toward the end of the week,” he promised, warning US Ambassador James McGee, an outspoken critic, to stop “interfering” in domestic matters.
Mugabe’s rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, who is to be prime minister in the unity government, said during the weekend that a new power-sharing government must be formed within days to avert a humanitarian crisis.
Under the power-sharing deal, Mugabe’s party gets 15 Cabinet seats and 16 go to Tsvangirai’s party and a smaller breakaway opposition group led by Arthur Mutamabara.
Mugabe remains president and head of the Cabinet. As prime minister, Tsvangirai heads a new council of ministers responsible for government policies.
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, blames Western sanctions for Zimbabwe’s economic collapse. But critics point to his 2000 order that commercial farms be seized from whites.
The often-violent seizures disrupted the agriculture-based economy and much of the land went to Mugabe loyalists instead of the poor blacks he said he wanted to help.
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
At first, Francis Ari Sture thought a human was trying to shove him down the steep Norwegian mountainside. Then he saw the golden eagle land. “We are staring at each other for, maybe, a whole minute,” Sture said on Monday. “I’m trying to think what’s in its mind.” The bird then attacked Sture five more times on Thursday last week, scratching and clawing the 31-year-old bicycle courier’s face and arms over 10 to 15 minutes as he sprinted down the mountain. The same eagle is believed to be responsible for attacks on three other people across a vast mountainous area of southern Norway
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for