Lloyd Mbiba
NO matter how one tries by all means to ignore it the phenomena manifests patently like an image reflected back by a mirror.
Artery after artery in the central business district it is flagrant that the spectacle is everywhere. It is like a fashion craziness, an obsession of some sort such that an outsider will be easily forgiven for concluding that this is some form of employment, weird as it is. But, lo and behold, it is a reality that people daily contend with as they battle the hustle and bustle of living in a country that is a sick and lumber man of the region. Socially, politically and economically all is in lassitude and this sad reality expresses itself in a unique way, queues.
Daily, long suffering Zimbabweans, queue almost for everything as they battle even to get basic and essential goods. Workers, private or public, queue to access their hard-earned cash which comes in drips and drops even factoring that the local currency is close to worthlessness. The elderly also snake along banks walls as they seek out their monthly pension payouts. Cash is hard to access in large quantity and the apex bank insists that this measure is to curtail the runaway inflation. In 2008, during the cataclysmic meltdown of the Zimbabwean dollar punctuated by record inflation the then central bank boss, Gideon Gono took to quantitative easing via the print machine to keep the State on its knees and not feet. Ironically, a decade later the State is apprehensive towards quantitative easing but still inflation is galloping to extra-terrestrial levels.
Supermarkets and commodity shops charge more for electronic or mobile transfers and this makes hard currency attractive. Informal traders and black-market merchants—who run the economy— frown upon electronic money local colloquially termed RTGS. All this means that people have to cope with bank queues as a daily routine.
Zimbabweans are also struggling to access foreign currency sent overseas via a phalanx of financial services companies. Daily people trek to companies such as World remit and Mukuru to get the US$ sent by loved ones to mitigate the sufferings and hardships in the country. Shockingly, the same forex becomes a burden as it is not easily accessible.
Citizens also queue for long hours waiting for the buses and commuter omnibuses only allowed to ferry commuters in urban areas.
Every first week of the month supermarkets and any merchants of Zesa tokens are flooded by people who want to purchase power.
Wherever a cheap essential food commodity is spotted in supermarkets people crocodile scrambling to purchase.
The queuing demon has become a second nature such that it has become part and parcel of the citizens’ consciousness.
This is how terrible living in Zimbabwe is and one is directed to Ngugi wa’ Thiongo’s Wizard of the Cross.
In the dystopia, the senile dictator of Uburiria orders state security apparatus to investigate how queuing came about because all over the land people were lining. Outside Parliament, supermarkets, tuckshops, industries and growth points there were queues. After an unexpected ignominy in front of global finance missionaries who were invited to witness the launch of the weird modern day tower of Babylon, the despot orders a crackdown seeking to shift the blame of the collapse of the nation from his administration to perceived regime change proponents.
The demon of queues is a manifestation of a failed state which is nothing but a banana republic and a burden to everyone including those governing it. The malaise in all the facets of life is clear cut evidence of entrenched structural problems rooted in unresolved political question stemming from contested legitimacy and emasculation of dissenting voices. The demons also shine light to the disregard of the sacrosanct human rights, the corruption of the doctrine of separation of powers and the rule, of not law, but by law. The hegemony relies heavily on the coercive apparatus to suppress people thus ensuring their stay in power and looting of state resources.
The wicked irony in all this is that the very creators of the mess who planted, watered and harvested all the evils are the very same people on the long end of the stick, living the good life and enjoying all the fruits of kleptocracy and plutocracy. Putting on designers’ suits, wheeling in flamboyant sports cars and sedans, eating all the fancy things one can imagine and plundering the national purse the patrons do not suffer from the queuing demon nor do their families.
The people must tackle the queuing demon headlong sacrificing their fake comfort in snaking along supermarkets and perceiving a purchase of a good as victory. If it a victory it is a pyrrhic one. People, churches, youths, civil society and the opposition should introspect in retrospect and find a way forward to deal with this demon. Otherwise if they do not do this they might as well start queuing for Christmas shopping now.
took to quantitative easing via the print machine to keep the State on its knees and not feet. Ironically, a decade later the State is apprehensive towards quantitative easing but still inflation is galloping to extra-terrestrial levels.
Supermarkets and commodity shops charge more for electronic or mobile transfers and this makes hard currency attractive. Informal traders and black-market merchants—who run the economy— frown upon electronic money local colloquially termed RTGS. All this means that people have to cope with bank queues as a daily routine.
Zimbabweans are also struggling to access foreign currency sent overseas via a phalanx of financial services companies. Daily people trek to companies such as World remit and Mukuru to get the US$ sent by loved ones to mitigate the sufferings and hardships in the country. Shockingly, the same forex becomes a burden as it is not easily accessible.
Citizens also queue for long hours waiting for the buses and commuter omnibuses only allowed to ferry commuters in urban areas.
Every first week of the month supermarkets and any merchants of Zesa tokens are flooded by people who want to purchase power.
Wherever a cheap essential food commodity is spotted in supermarkets people crocodile scrambling to purchase.
The queuing demon has become a second nature such that it has become part and parcel of the citizens’ consciousness.
This is how terrible living in Zimbabwe is and one is directed to Ngugi wa’ Thiongo’s Wizard of the Cross.
In the dystopia, the senile dictator of Uburiria orders state security apparatus to investigate how queuing came about because all over the land people were lining. Outside Parliament, supermarkets, tuckshops, industries and growth points there were queues. After an unexpected ignominy in front of global finance missionaries who were invited to witness the launch of the weird modern day tower of Babylon, the despot orders a crackdown seeking to shift the blame of the collapse of the nation from his administration to perceived regime change proponents.
The demon of queues is a manifestation of a failed state which is nothing but a banana republic and a burden to everyone including those governing it. The malaise in all the facets of life is clear cut evidence of entrenched structural problems rooted in unresolved political question stemming from contested legitimacy and emasculation of dissenting voices. The demons also shine light to the disregard of the sacrosanct human rights, the corruption of the doctrine of separation of powers and the rule, of not law, but by law. The hegemony relies heavily on the coercive apparatus to suppress people thus ensuring their stay in power and looting of state resources.
The wicked irony in all this is that the very creators of the mess who planted, watered and harvested all the evils are the very same people on the long end of the stick, living the good life and enjoying all the fruits of kleptocracy and plutocracy. Putting on designers’ suits, wheeling in flamboyant sports cars and sedans, eating all the fancy things one can imagine and plundering the national purse the patrons do not suffer from the queuing demon nor do their families.
The people must tackle the queuing demon headlong sacrificing their fake comfort in snaking along supermarkets and perceiving a purchase of a good as victory. If it a victory it is a pyrrhic one. People, churches, youths, civil society and the opposition should introspect in retrospect and find a way forward to deal with this demon. Otherwise if they do not do this they might as well start queuing for Christmas shopping now.
