Shouting matches and even physical fights break out each time a mini-bus pulls up to drop off passengers at a crowded bus stop in downtown Harare. It’s all about not getting short-changed.
Hyperinflation forced Zimbabwe to trash its worthless local currency three years ago in a move that brought much-needed relief to the crippled economy, but created a surprising new headache: a lack of coins.
“Change is a big problem, and at the same time passengers are impatient with us. I have been slapped a few times for not having change for them,” bus conductor Walter Chakawata said.
Photo: AFP
The US dollar and the rand from South Africa are Zimbabwe’s main adopted currencies, but the greenback is preferred and all prices are pegged to it.
However, there is not enough US small change in circulation. The result is that prices are either rounded off — making goods and services more expensive — or customers brace themselves for a fight to get their change.
The average city commute costs US$0.50, but the dearth of coins means passengers — handing over bills — are always owed change. Some bus drivers pair the passengers, handing them a dollar bill in change and leaving the two riders to sort the rest out themselves.
SWEETS
Often their only alternative is to buy an item worth a dollar that they can then share — a packet of cookies, a pie or anything they agree to.
However, that has not gone down well with many, who feel obliged to make an unnecessary purchase. Others complain it forces them to spend time with a total stranger. Or what if one is in a hurry? And in a country where many live on less than US$2 a day, US$0.50 still remains a decent sum, not to be wasted.
The fights have at times turned deadly. Last year, independent papers reported that a state security agent pulled out a pistol and shot dead a bus conductor after he failed to give him change.
In another incident, a conductor and passenger scuffling over change fell into a ditch with live electricity cables and were both electrocuted.
Initially, drivers issued credit notes in the form of coupons, but they were not universal and only valid on specific routes.
Bus operators also ran into problems with fake coupons, on some days accumulating nothing but paper slips and not enough cash to pay for their fuel.
To get round the problem, a South African 5 rand coin has become widely accepted as equivalent to US$0.50, for the purposes of public transport, regardless of the actual exchange rate.
This in turn has prompted entrepreneurial-minded young men to smuggle in coins from South Africa to sell to bus conductors.
“We have agreed with the kombi [minibus] drivers to split the dollar into rand, so they come here to get change,” said Felix Munonyanya, a boilermaker who found the trade lucrative enough to quit his job of six years to sell rand on the roadside near the main working-class suburbs of Mbare and Highfields.
Not all merchants buy coins, however. Ice-cream and yoghurt vendor Locadia Chimimba conceded that “the situation is better these days because you can buy change if you want,” but she herself does not and still asks customers to buy more to make up the difference.
In supermarkets, when the grocery bill does not add up neatly to a round figure, shoppers are offered sweets, match boxes, chewing gum and even condoms to compensate.
Credit notes have been another option, but Zimbabweans complain they are often printed on thermal paper that fades easily.
AIRTIME
The country’s mobile phone services have stepped into the picture, offering airtime in lieu of change. Dubbed Yo-Time, supermarkets can instantly credit a customer’s pre-paid mobile with any value from US$0.10 to US$50.
“When we realized there was a problem of change, we thought, why not have it paid out as airtime so that people were not forced to buy sweets,” Yo-Time’s creative director Walter Chipangura said. “We were getting tired of sweets!”
So far, all sides seem pleased.
“It has reduced the pressure. There used to be lots of shouting,” said Farai Doka, manager of Spar supermarket in the middle-class Kensington suburb.
Authorities considered importing US coins, but the idea was dropped when shipping costs proved too expensive — costing US$2 for a batch of coins worth US$1, experts said. Two years ago bankers imported 8 million rand worth of coins, but these were rejected by retailers as they haggled over the exchange rate.
Ecuador, which also uses the US dollar as legal tender, uses coins of its own currency in place of US cents. However, trying to mint and re-introduce Zimbabwean dollar coins is likely to bring back painful memories and meet resistance.
During the economic meltdown, it took sackfuls of notes just to buy groceries and millions lost their savings as the currency became worthless overnight.
“For me, I never want to see the Zimbabwe dollar again,” said Patrick Nyakodzwe, selling airtime scratch cards and packets of biscuits for 1 rand each near the city’s Copacana bus stop.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last