I was last in Zimbabwe in 2006. I often went on holiday in Zim as a child, so I decided part of my honeymoon in ‘06 would include Zimbabwe. I’ve been following the latest Zim elections and what a tale of woe…
I’m absolutely disappointed with the MDC. Even if Comrade Bob hadn’t stuffed ballots, disenfranchised a million voters, it is thought that he’d actually win, such his manipulation behind the scenes (and overtly) has been. Mind you, he now gets a 2/3rds majority. He learnt the violence in the last elections would be counter-productive now, so these elections have been peaceful; to sell to the world how free & fair they were. Even as the AU & SADC say (prematurely it must be said) it was free & fair, the machinations before the polls were not! Blatantly so!
I also discovered that the Zim dollar isn’t in use anymore (this is the currency that reached trillions nominally). I remember the informal money-changers when crossing over from Zambia into Zim. Trying to convince me to buy disused bundles of Zim dollars (they had just lopped off several zeros a month before and I was aware of this). I had purposefully procured singles and US$5 bills in England, going to several banks to get them and raising a few eyebrows when I specifically requested nothing larger than a 5 US$ bill. Once across the border, the street was littered with currency. I picked a few up. Never seen notes with so many zeros and completely worthless. I used South African rands and US$ instead.
5 years on since the last elections when the MDC managed a SADC-brokered coalition deal after protesting the unfair elections, the Zim dollar is only on sale to tourists as mementos. Want a trillion dollar note?Apparently foreign currencies are now in use, most commonly the US dollar notes/bills with South African coins! About R10 (rands) to the US dollar, therefore 1000ZAR cents to the US$. Very strange.
Anyway, Bob is 89, turning 90 in February. There’s a power-struggle behind the scenes to replace the ol’ codger, scoundrel, corrupt dictator or whatever name you’d like to throw at him, ’cos he aint gonna last another bloody 5 years ! I hope.
OmqR-IV.0 over 10 years ago
I was last in Zimbabwe in 2006. I often went on holiday in Zim as a child, so I decided part of my honeymoon in ‘06 would include Zimbabwe. I’ve been following the latest Zim elections and what a tale of woe…
I’m absolutely disappointed with the MDC. Even if Comrade Bob hadn’t stuffed ballots, disenfranchised a million voters, it is thought that he’d actually win, such his manipulation behind the scenes (and overtly) has been. Mind you, he now gets a 2/3rds majority. He learnt the violence in the last elections would be counter-productive now, so these elections have been peaceful; to sell to the world how free & fair they were. Even as the AU & SADC say (prematurely it must be said) it was free & fair, the machinations before the polls were not! Blatantly so!
I also discovered that the Zim dollar isn’t in use anymore (this is the currency that reached trillions nominally). I remember the informal money-changers when crossing over from Zambia into Zim. Trying to convince me to buy disused bundles of Zim dollars (they had just lopped off several zeros a month before and I was aware of this). I had purposefully procured singles and US$5 bills in England, going to several banks to get them and raising a few eyebrows when I specifically requested nothing larger than a 5 US$ bill. Once across the border, the street was littered with currency. I picked a few up. Never seen notes with so many zeros and completely worthless. I used South African rands and US$ instead.
5 years on since the last elections when the MDC managed a SADC-brokered coalition deal after protesting the unfair elections, the Zim dollar is only on sale to tourists as mementos. Want a trillion dollar note?Apparently foreign currencies are now in use, most commonly the US dollar notes/bills with South African coins! About R10 (rands) to the US dollar, therefore 1000ZAR cents to the US$. Very strange.
Anyway, Bob is 89, turning 90 in February. There’s a power-struggle behind the scenes to replace the ol’ codger, scoundrel, corrupt dictator or whatever name you’d like to throw at him, ’cos he aint gonna last another bloody 5 years ! I hope.
Zanu-PF & Mugabe suck piles.