Cathy Buckle's Weekly Letter From Zimbabwe !

Red Jelly
Saturday 1st September 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

When you arrive at a shopping centre these days you are immediately bombarded by Zimbabwe's new mobile shop keepers. They come in all ages and sizes: men, women and teenagers. There are some of the usual, expected gaggle of street kids, vegetable vendors and beggars but this new breed are people doing serious business for serious amounts of money. Most of them have mobile phones with ear pieces, are wearing dark or mirrored sunglasses and can calculate huge sums of money before you've even worked out how many zeroes there should be on the total.

There is little point going into the supermarkets because two months into the government's control of prices, there is almost nothing left to control. Staple foods have disappeared completely, tinned and dry goods, dairy produce, perishables, toiletries, soft drinks - all are gone. The most common sight in supermarkets now is empty shelves, freezers and fridges, massive queues for bread and employees wandering around chatting amongst themselves with nothing to do. This week, for some obscure reason, red jelly powder is plentiful in my local shops, but very little else. And so shopping in Zimbabwe has taken to the pavements and alleyways. The black marketeers don't display their goods, they just rattle off the lists of what they've got: sugar, flour, rice, cooking oil, margarine, eggs, cigarettes, soap, washing powder. When you say what you want (or rather what you can afford) they disappear into alleyways, flats and nearby offices and emerge with the groceries concealed in dirty plastic or old newspaper. One quick peep under the filthy wrapping, money handed over and you're done, stone broke but with one item in hand.

The prices on the black market are astronomical, usually at least ten times more than the stipulated figures and if Zimbabweans were poor before the governments' price controls started, they are much, much worse off now. Most people are simply going without the usual requirements of a balanced diet and are barely existing on what little they can find and afford. The black market dealers are, so far, getting on with their business completely unhindered by law enforcers - despite the regular and visible presence of numerous Police on our streets.

The black market dealers are the new warlords in our neighbourhoods - they are in control - of goods, availability and prices. They are fast becoming the nouveau riche of Zimbabwe and in just a few weeks have amassed vast fortunes. They have no overheads. They don't pay rates and levies, don't pay taxes or VAT, don't have employees and so don't pay wages or make contributions to medical and social welfare schemes. The black market dealers also pay nothing towards the maintenance of the roads, pavements and alleyways where they conduct their business and so the deterioration of infrastructure increases.

The leaders in our government, who clearly do not shop at the same supermarkets as the rest of us, continue to be unwilling or unable to see this diabolical state of affairs. This week came the announcement that using the Presidential Powers Act, the price controls have been extended for another six months: no increases in the prices of goods, services, salaries, charges, wages or school fees. The black market dealers, and their behind the scenes backers are laughing all the way to the bank.

Until next week, thanks for reading,
love cathy.