Queues for cash outside banks in Zimbabwe

Desperate Zimbabweans queued for hours outside banks today in the hope of being able to draw out cash before shops close for Christmas in a country crippled by economic and political crises.

With cash itself in short supply, the central bank has supplied new high denomination notes, the largest worth 750,000 Zimbabwe dollars but banks still could not cope with the demand for cash after six weeks of acute shortages.

Some branches stayed open throughout Sunday for the first time in an attempt to deal with the rush.

The maximum allowed in one day, is 50 million Zimbabwe dollars – around €17.

At the main Mbare long-distance bus terminal in the capital, thousands waited for buses for traditional trips to home villages but the queues were smaller than previously amid soaring fares and acute shortages of food and fuel continued.

Power and water cuts occur daily across the country caused by shortages of spare parts, equipment and hard currency for electricity imports.

Several suburbs in Harare, the capital, entered a 17th day without power today and swathes of the central business district, including the state power utility’s headquarters, suffered intermittent cuts.

The internationally-known Harare Club cancelled its Christmas lunch during a six-day cut and even President Robert Mugabe’s official residence went without power from the for more than a week. Mugabe also has a private mansion on the outskirts of the capital.

Hospitals have not been spared and officials at the main blood bank said some stocks were thrown away after a generator powering its refrigeration broke down.

Official inflation was given in September at about 8,000%, the highest in the world, but independent estimates put it nearer 100,000%.

Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of the region and one of the world’s top exporters of tobacco until the government seized white farmlands that were given mainly to cronies of Mugabe, creating food shortages and a crisis that led a third of the population to flee the country.