Anxiety grips Zimbabweans as new currency directive decimates savings
The shadow of the economic meltdown in 2008 looms large as local savings slide
Harare — They say lightning never strikes the same spot twice but for Desmond Sibanda, a 38-year-old Zimbabwean, calamity struck again this week when the government — for the second time in 10 years — made a policy pronouncement that wiped out part of his life savings. At the height of the economic meltdown in 2008, the cash-strapped Zimbabwean government invaded all US dollar-denominated accounts to pay off debts and finance imports. Sibanda’s holding of $15,000 was one of those raided. His plan to buy a semidetached house in the high-density suburb of Mkoba, in Zimbabwe′s third-largest city of Gweru, was stopped dead in its tracks when the government, without notice or consultation, gave the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) access to foreign-currency-denominated accounts. "I had the equivalent of $15,000 in my account but my bank, CBZ (Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe) said all accounts had been frozen. Weeks later I returned to the bank only to be told that all they could do was give me...
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