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Desperate Zimbabweans queue for cash

HARARE - Zimbabweans desperate to get their hands on scarce local currency spent Tuesday lining up by cash dispensing machines after plans for banks to open on Christmas Day were scrapped.

The lack of currency in the inflation-ravaged southern African country has meant many Zimbabweans were unable to travel home for the holiday period or buy Christmas presents.

‘I am still hoping that maybe I might get something to spend this holiday, but it is now late to find some Christmas goodies,’ said Augustine Mukaranga, one of dozens of customers standing in line by a automated teller machine (ATM) outside Barclays Bank in downtown Harare.

Banks have been limiting withdrawals for several weeks and many ATMs have simply dried up. When word gets out that a particular branch is dispensing notes, big queues rapidly around around the machines.

The situation has been exacerbated by the recent announcement by central bank governor Gideon Gono that bearer cheques for 200,000 Zimbabwean dollars would be scrapped at the year’s end, prompting a rush to exchange the currency.

Another woman queueing outside the Barclays’ branch where security guards had just filled up the ATM said that she had been unable to buy a bus ticket to her ancestral home in Gutu, a rural area to the south of the capital Harare, where she had hoped to spend Christmas with her family.

‘I’ve been here for hours because I don’t have anything. I am hoping to get the money so I can get home at some stage over the holidays but I am not expecting that it’s going to happen,’ said the woman on condition of anonymity.

Gono blames the currency shortages on foreign exchange currency dealears, so-called ‘cash barons’.

The central bank has set up a hotline and is offering rewards for information leading to the prosecution of anyone violating the currency exchange laws.

‘The Reserve Bank urges all patriotic Zimbabweans to remain united as the nation wages war against those who have chosen to make Zimbabwe suffer at the expense of their selfish and unlawful gains,’ the bank said in a statement on Tuesday.

Gono had indicated that banks would be open on Christmas and Boxing Day, but this was later scrapped as banks opened for longer hours on Monday.

In a bid to ease shortages, the central bank has also directed banks to give priority to individuals, ahead of companies.