Living in Zimbabwe is extreme sport! Our gold backed currency has fallen and just like in the past, salaries, savings and profit margins have been wiped off.
Last Friday (Sept 27th, 2024), the central bank devalued the local currency, ZiG by more than 40 percent, leaving many counting their losses.
We are one of them.
The timing could also not have come at a better time, month-end, when people had been paid using the old official rate only for their earnings to be cut in half.
Before last Friday, the official rate was US$1 to ZiG$13.4 then out of the blues, the government devalued the currency and pegged the rate at US$1 to ZiG$24, arguing that the move was meant to curb the black market and to cushion major retailers.
Many citizens are crying fowl and feeling hard done, especially those who had been paid in the local currency.
In fact most employers, including the government pay salaries in both US dollar and the local currency, and with the latest devaluation, the ZiG earnings were heavily eroded.
Take this scenario, if one had been paid ZiG$1000.00 last Thursday, that was equivalent to US$74.60, then a few hours later the money was equal to US$41.60, which is a drastic fall within a few hours and a loss never to be recovered.
As one economist said, this is ‘playing with people’s lives’.
And indeed they are playing with our lives because as indicated earlier, we are also counting our losses and still having chest pains because of this devaluation.
We had received some payment in local currency which was enough to buy 50 bags of stockfeed but now we can only buy 25 bags with the same amount, imagine the pain we are going through, also knowing that we won’t be able to cover that gap of the other 25 bags.
No wonder someone once said, living in Zimbabwe really requires a heart of steel.
But of course, this does not apply to everyone. For people like controversial businessman, Wicknell Chivayo, Zimbabwe is a land of milk and honey, where money grows on trees.
On Monday, he blessed Daisy Mtukudzi, the widow of the late music legend, Oliver Mtukudzi, with a brand new Toyota Fortuner as a tribute to Mtukudzi’s contribution to the arts and music industry of Zimbabwe.
Chivayo, who is currently embroiled in a Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, multi-million dollar scandal continues with his lavish lifestyle and dishing out cars with no care whatsoever.
And to him, this car, despite its high cost is just a small token of appreciation.
“Please accept this small token of appreciation for your late husband’s significant and priceless contribution to the music. Enjoy your new car……” he wrote on social media.
