The Times
September 10, 2007
David Charter in Viana do Castelo
Gordon Brown has thrown
plans for a summit of African and European leaders
into turmoil by vowing to
pull out if Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe takes part.
The Prime Minister,
normally keen to promote Africa, believes that his
boycott would be followed
by several European allies and is hoping that the
threat will stop Mr Mugabe
from being invited.
But it has left Portugal, holders of the rotating EU
presidency, in a
quandary. Some African leaders have said that they will not
attend if Mr
Mugabe is banned. Formal invitations to the gathering in Lisbon
in December
will be sent out this month and the Portuguese are struggling to
find a
solution to save the summit. If the meeting collapses Mr Brown could
find
himself blamed for setting back Europe's relations with Africa, while
China
is stepping up its business dealings with the continent.
A
previous attempt to hold an EU/ Africa summit failed in 2003 because of a
row over Mr Mugabe and there are a host of key isues on the table, from
climate change to migration and the humanitarian crisis in
Darfur.
The Prime Minister is eager not to find himself in the same
position as Jack
Straw who, as Foreign Secretary, shook hands with Mr Mugabe
at the United
Nations in New York in 2004.
Mr Brown's threat was
delivered to EU foreign ministers by David Miliband,
the Foreign Secretary.
He was "clear that there is serious business to be
done at the EU/Africa
summit and it would be overshadowed by a Mugabe
circus," a source said.
Zim Online
Monday 10 September 2007
By Justin
Muponda
HARARE - Zimbabwe's half-year budget announced last week and
demands by
ministries, which were seven times what they were allocated by
the finance
minister, were a stark reminder that President Robert Mugabe
could not end
an economic recession, analysts said.
Government
ministries had requested supplementary funding of $255 trillion
but Finance
Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi only gave them $37.1 trillion.
Economic
analysts said the demands by the ministries reflected the
seriousness of
Zimbabwe's economic rot and raised serious questions over the
government's
official inflation data.
"The demands are frightening when you compare to
the original budget
estimates for 2007," John Robertson, a Harare-based
economic consultant
said.
"But this really shows the magnitude of
deep-seated inflation is and is
testimony that the government has failed to
bring inflation under control,"
Robertson said.
In the original 2007
budget, former finance minister Hebert Murerwa had
projected total
government spending this year at $6.2 trillion but by June,
94 percent of
that amount had already been exhausted, leaving ministries and
state
departments broke.
Analysts have warned that government spending was too
high and that there
was little money being channelled towards infrastructure
development.
Crumbling infrastructure is one of the hallmarks of the
economic crisis.
Several dams like Kunzvi, the Gwayi-Shangani remain on
the planning phase as
water shortages worsen in all urban centres while
major road networks take
years to complete but the government moves with
speed to buy new imported
cars for senior government officials.
In
his mid-year budget, Mumbengegwi again showed the government's appetite
for
spending when he announced that 69 percent of the supplementary funds
were
for recurrent expenditure, mostly salaries.
This would further drive up
inflation, according to economic analysts.
Official inflation stood at 7
600 percent in July and is the highest in the
world although private
economists say the figure is double that. The
International Monetary has
projected that Zimbabwe's inflation will hit 100
000 percent by the end of
this year.
The analysts said Mumbengegwi had offered no solutions to put
the economy
back on the rails and was mum on growth forecasts.
Mugabe
has previously said the economy had turned a corner but events on the
ground
showed otherwise. The 83-year-old President has defended his
policies
-including the land seizures and now plans to localise all
foreign-owned
companies - and instead says Western sanctions are responsible
for the
economic meltdown.
"You can say for certain that the wheels have
completely come off. The
government would need some miracle to put the
economy back on the rails," a
bank executive in Harare told
ZimOnline.
Mumbengegwi's devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar to $30 000
against the
United States dollar did not soothe an industry already working
with a black
market rate above $250 000. Foreign currency is readily
available on the
black market.
A new round of company closures is
looming due to worsening foreign currency
shortages and a government
directive in June to cut all prices by half as a
desperate measure to
control inflation.
Most supermarkets are empty after consumers went on a
buying spree following
the price freeze. Manufacturers have sharply reduced
production and the
arrival of commodities like bread, sugar, maize-meal and
cooking oil at any
shop is met with stampeding consumers.
Analysts
say in the absence of reforms to return Zimbabwe to its bread
basket status,
the government would continue to print money. Mugabe and
central bank
governor Gideon Gono have in the past to printing cash.
With important
elections set for March 2008, state expenditure would rise
even further,
analysts said, but adding that the government was not putting
measures to
grow the economy but relying on falling revenue and printing
money.
"Government spending is too high but traditionally spending
increases even
more ahead of elections. So this is what we are seeing but I
have no doubt
that in the absence of foreign funding the government's only
tool is the
printer," John Makumbe, a University of Zimbabwe senior
political lecturer
said. "They will print more money."
International
donors have turned their backs on Harare over differences in
policies,
including Mugabe's seizure of productive farms from whites to give
to
blacks. This had worsened the crisis and a drive to raise funds from
Asian
friends under a 'look east' policy is yet to yield results.
The economic
crisis has raised political temperatures and on Saturday the
Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions slammed Mumbengegwi's supplementary budget
and
announced a two-day stay-away to protest the deteriorating economy,
among
other things. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Monday 10 September 2007
By Farisai
Gonye
MUTARE - Senior ruling ZANU PF party officials in the eastern city
of Mutare
are diverting thousands of litres of fuel allocated for the
party's
activities to the lucrative parallel market, ZimOnline heard at the
weekend.
A ZANU PF provincial meeting held in Mutare last week heard that
war
veterans had alleged that senior party officials and Cabinet ministers
were
diverting fuel allocated for the party's activities to the lucrative
parallel market.
The provincial meeting had been called to take stock
of the state of the
party ahead of key parliamentary and presidential
elections next year.
Sources in the ruling ZANU PF party told ZimOnline
at the weekend that
debate over the alleged fuel scam took centre stage and
discussions relating
to the party's electoral campaign for next year had to
be shelved as a
result.
The war veterans, a key cog in ZANU PF's
election machinery, said they had
evidence that top party officials and
Cabinet ministers had sold thousands
of litres of fuel allocated to the
party on the parallel market.
Zimbabwe has grappled with persistent fuel
shortages over the past seven
years because it does not have foreign
currency to import the commodity.
Senior government officials and those
close to the seat of power have been
accused of diverting fuel onto the
parallel market where it is sold for at
least three times the normal
price.
At the stormy meeting, Vladimir Mukwada, an influential war
veteran in
Mutare, led the call to have senior party officials arrested over
the fuel
scam.
"What is happening in Mutare is a reflection of the
rot in ZANU PF. People
in ZANU PF are fuelling black market activities. We
have their names and we
are prepared to name and shame them," Mukweda told
the meeting.
The war veterans leader offered to name the senior party
officials involved
in the scam but was stopped from doing so by Manicaland
provincial governor
and ZANU PF provincial governor Tinaye
Chigudu.
Chigudu refused to take questions from ZimOnline adding that it
was an
"internal" party matter.
Last Tuesday, Mukweda is said to have
approached the police to prod them to
investigate the matter, the sources
said.
Contacted for comment at the weekend, Mukweda said: "It's an
internal party
discussion but we want those responsible for looting party
resources
irrespective of their rank to be arrested because they are
destroying ZANU
PF."
President Robert Mugabe has in the past repeated
accused his senior party
officials and government ministers of being corrupt
and fanning illegal
activities around the country.
But the 83-year
Zimbabwean leader, who faces his biggest electoral test next
March from the
main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party,
has failed to
discipline his ministers and senior party officials. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Monday 10 September
2007
By Farisai Gonye
HARARE - Senior
Zimbabwean ruling party officials have hounded a
Chinhoyi magistrate into
releasing eight party supporters accused of
murdering a villager who led
others in resisting the eviction of a white
farmer.
Sources
told ZimOnline at the weekend that magistrate Archibald
Dingani and senior
provincial prosecutor Edson Muchinjikwa were ordered by
senior politicians
in the province to release on bail eight men arrested for
the murder of
Nation Musamiwa of Hurungwe.
A resettled farmer, Musamiwa was shot
and killed by ZANU PF supporters
on 30 August while resisting the invasion
of Songalala Farm owned by Peter
Stigolf.
The eight - Jethro
Ncube, Walter Hwaira, Wise Nzou, Brazil Nyani,
Kingstone Gomo, Stephen
Bafana, Francis Tsikira and his son Wisdom - wanted
to invade Songalala Farm
in Hurungwe West district to pave way for its
takeover by a senior ZANU PF
official whose name ZimOnline could not
establish.
Musamiwa and
his group contended that Stigolf and 10 other farmers in
the area should not
be evicted as they had been instrumental in assisting
the new farmers and
villagers from nearby communities with agricultural
expertise, machinery and
utilities such as transport.
Court documents show that the eight
were armed with two pistols and a
rifle when a scuffle took
place.
Prosecutors say it was Ncube's rifle that pumped two bullets
into
Musamiwa's head.
The sources said Dingani and Muchinjikwa
were last Monday forced to
free the eight ZANU PF supporters on Z$15 million
bail each following a
weekend during which they received phone calls from
politicians ordering
them to "allow the case to die a natural
death".
Only the High Court has the power to hear and set bail for
murder
suspects in Zimbabwe.
"Eventually the two gave in
because they also feared for their lives,"
according to a source who
requested he was not named for security reasons.
Muchinjikwa and
Dingani refused to comment on the matter.
One of the senior
politicians mentioned as having pressured the court
officials was local
government minister Ignatius Chombo, who denied the
charge at the
weekend.
"I don't know what you are talking about," Chombo said
before
switching off his phone.
Justice minister Patrick
Chinamasa said he was not aware of the case
but insisted that nothing like
that could have happened, describing Zimbabwe's
judiciary system as a
"model" for the rest of the world.
"That is news to me. But that
would be very unlikely of our judiciary
because it operates independently of
political or any other influence. We
are a model (judiciary)," Chinamasa
told ZimOnline.
The shooting of a fellow supporter highlights what
sources say are
deepening divisions within President Robert Mugabe's party
over the
continued eviction of the few remaining white farmers.
Many ruling ZANU PF party supporters and ordinary Zimbabweans want an
end to
the continued eviction of the few white farmers still remaining on
their
properties seven years after Mugabe ordered the compulsory acquisition
of
farms from the whites.
The strongest hint of the divisions was last
week when Vice President
Joseph Msika ordered land reform minister Didymus
Mutasa to halt fresh farm
seizures.
But a clique that includes
top military leaders and led by Mutasa
himself wants all whites to be
removed off their farms and has been using
war veterans and young soldiers
to invade the farms over the past three
months.
Mutasa has
vowed that there would no white farmer owning land in
Zimbabwe by the end of
this year. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Monday 10 September 2007
By Grace
Kwinjeh
"It acquires foreign securities in the European markets, and goes
off to
spend the week-end in Paris or Hamburg. The behaviour of the national
bourgeoisie of certain under-developed countries is reminiscent of the
members of a gang, who after every hold-up hide their share in the swag from
the other members who are their accomplices and prudently start thinking
about their retirement," Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the
Earth.
JOHANNESBURG - Recent revelations of vast fortunes amassed by
former Kenyan
President, Daniel arap Moi and his family during his
twenty-four year rule,
make an interesting parallel of what we could end up
with in Zimbabwe.
What I found most interesting are the vast amounts that
the two Moi sons
Philllip and Gideon are worth - a startling 930 million
pounds.
Taken in view of the current contentious debate on the targeting
of the
children of Zimbabwe 's ruling elite living or studying in the region
and
abroad, I want to warn that Kenya's story may well be
Zimbabwe's.
If the above prophesy by Fanon is being fulfilled, then the
elite is 'is
playing to lose.'
The Moi family has denied the
accusations made by a risk consultancy group
Kroll which has exposed a web
of shell companies, hidden trusts and front
men used to channel vast amounts
abroad.
Both Kenya and Zimbabwe have adopted the International Monetary
Fund-sponsored Structural Adjustment Programmes, which promote
neo-liberalism through free market programmes and policies.
A
relationship that developed between the governments and the international
institution led in both countries to high unemployment, social upheavals,
government corruption and a growing parasitic middle class - an area I wish
to deal with in this article.
Like in Kenya, the Zimbabwe story is no
different. The 'kleptocracy' has had
its whole hands and arms in the cookie
jar.
The British government under the European Union's Common Position
has so far
located 42 bank accounts and a paltry 172 000 pounds, belonging
to targeted
Zimbabwean officials.
Meanwhile, the Australian
government has targeted the children of the elite
on its banned list, whose
student visas have now been revoked.
Among these are Reserve Bank
Governor, Gideon Gono's twins who have been
studying tourism and hospitality
at Melbourne 's La Trobe University. This
programme is available in
Zimbabwe.
The first case on why the children of senior government
officials studying
abroad should go back home is a moral one.
Senior
Zimbabwe government officials must pay for the manner they have run
down the
once brilliant education system.
The education system has collapsed.
Children go to school to pass away time,
not for grades. Morale is
low.
The elite's children cannot enjoy the luxury of a decent education,
at the
expense of the hardworking, tax-payers and suffering masses. That is
wrong.
Education is a human right and should be treated as such.
The
elite's children represent a legacy of 'kleptocracy' often a hallmark of
most dictators.
It also has everything to do with dealing with
corruption, one of Africa 's
biggest scourges and how cronyism tends to
reproduce itself through children
of ruling elites and their
allies.
So far the ZANU PF elite in typical Moi style has managed to
conceal a good
part of its loot internationally, through the use of front
companies, front
persons and its children.
The international
community has paid lip service to tracing and freezing the
hidden loot.
Capital flight has been rife, they have assets all over the
world and more
here in South Africa.
It becomes a class issue when only the children of
the bourgeois escape the
torn books, absent teachers, dilapidated buildings
and empty laboratories
into neighbouring countries and abroad to receive the
finest education.
The consolidation of the unequal power relations
continues with the state
callously reproducing the less educated children of
the working class at the
lower strata of society readying them to be
exploited by their more educated
and wealthier counterparts - the elite's
children.
Zimbabwean teachers country-wide have this week threatened to
go on strike
if they are not awarded a 400 percent pay increase. It makes
sense.
What does not make sense is when a teachers' salary is only worth
a pupils
pair of school shoes.
The situation gets more ridiculous,
when the President of the country, the
chief 'kleptocrat' announces a price
and wage freeze just before schools
open.
What better way to
demoralise both teacher and pupil! Neither can afford the
transport fares,
let alone a decent meal at lunchtime.
The second argument is an economic
one. Zimbabwe is faced with a serious
foreign currency shortage.
It
does not make economic or political sense that the 'kleptocrats' should
continue to drain our foreign currency reserves while the country
suffers.
Where are the senior government officials getting the foreign
currency to
sustain their children in top class education systems
abroad?
Furthermore, externalisation of foreign currency is illegal in
Zimbabwe.
This begs the question of how the elites are paying fees for their
children
in foreign currency?
One South African rand is worth 35 000
Zimbabwean dollars on the parallel
market. Who is paying for all
this?
Still on the economic considerations, how does it happen that the
country
fails to pay for more than 36 000 tonnes of wheat, which could have
eased
the current bread shortages but is able to pay one institution, the
University of Kwazulu-Natal over 7 million rand a year for beneficiaries of
Mugabe's Presidential Scholarship Fund?
On the list of 30
beneficiaries are Mugabe's niece and nephew, Chipo and
Hilary Matibili, both
studying in programmes that are not only available at
tertiary institutions
in Zimbabwe, but the amount being spent on them can
actually go a long way
in revamping the University of Zimbabwe alone to the
benefit of over 10 000
of its students.
So yes, both the children of the 'kleptocracy' and the
stolen loot must go
back home, to Zimbabwe. Perhaps the children can be
inspired to join us in
the struggle for a democratic Zimbabwe, where access
to education will not
be class issue.
* Grace Kwinje is the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party's
deputy secretary for
international relations. She writes in her personal
capacity.
ZimOnline welcomes opinion columns from Zimbabwean
politicians.
The main feature of today's
Vigil was our participation in a worldwide
protest to raise awareness of the
plight of Zimbabweans struggling for
freedom and democracy. The protest was
organised by the International
Literature Festival of Berlin which selected
poems and prose written by
Zimbabweans to be read in public in more than 40
countries. The readings
were also to be broadcast around the world. Some
of our event was recorded
by Tererai Karimakwenda of SW Radio Africa. He
also interviewed the
participants. Some of the most famous writers in the
world have supported
this event, including Margaret Attwood, Andre Brink, J
M Coetzee, Don
DeLillo, Gunter Grass, Nadine Gordimer, John Updike and Mario
Vargas Llosa.
The readings were introduced by Chipo Chaya who said Vigil
supporters knew
at first hand of the pain of our people. The first reading
was Elinor
Sisulu's introduction to a new edition of "Gukurahundi in
Zimbabwe: A Report
on the Disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands
1980-1988". (The Vigil
was well-represented at the launch of the book at
Chatham House, London, on
Tuesday.) Elinor Sisulu said 'Speaking about
Rwanda, South African President
Thabo Mbeki said: "A time such as this
demands that the truth, the whole
truth and nothing but the truth should be
told. It should be told because
not to tell it is to create the conditions
for the crime to recur."' Her
essay was read by Patson Muzuwa, Ian Pocock
and Rejoice Mahwada.
It was followed by Soneni Baleni reading a poem by
Chenjerai Hove - "Nights
with Ghosts - A Child's Letter from the Rubble"
(written after Operation
Murambatsvina, in which the Zimbabwe government
destroyed 700,000 houses).
"dear samueri, my friend, i will never see you
again; maybe i will. but i
shall not know until father finds us a new
address. addresses! we have none
anymore. we are of no address. now that i
have written this letter, where do
i post it to? shall i say, samueri, care
of the next rubble
harare?"
Phyllis Magagada read two poems by
Chirikuré Chirikuré: "Salt" ("Don't think
that I am mad - You and I know who
is mad - Don't think that I can't plan -
We know who the poor planner is")
and "Let's cry with Hope".
Our final readings were three poems by
Dambudzo Marechera: "Oracle of the
Povo" read by Fungayi Vincent Mabhunu,
"Rats for Sale" ("Show me another.
Okay. Now, this one is the sly type. It
eats colonialism so that it can shit
in pure malice on its own") read by
Netsai Matambanadzo and "In Jail the
only Telephone is the Washbasin Hole:
Blow and we'll hear!" read by Ethel
Zowah.
Between the readings there
was singing led by Dumi Tutani and Tracy Sibanda.
There was no way we
could overcome the noise from a busy London thoroughfare
but there was rapt
attention for the readings and many passers-by become
deeply involved
including a man from the DRC who was initially very hostile
but was won over
after a good talking to.
We were glad to have with us two young men,
Stendrick Zvorwadza and Justin
Shaw-Gray, just over from Zimbabwe. They
told us about their work for a new
organization called "Restoration of Human
Rights in Zimbabwe" (ROHRZim).
They explained that their aim was to work
with people to counter the fear of
the intimidatory tactics of the
authorities. This fear needed to be removed
for opposition to the Mugabe
regime to be effective. They have already had
some success - Stendrick has
personally intervened when people were being
beaten and given other people
courage to confront the authorities. He says
even some of the police were
won over.
News of our friends in Bristol: they report that they are still
protesting
regularly on the street with their banners and information and
are
fundraising for Zimbabwean causes.
A special word of thanks to
Caroline Witts who comes all the way from Devon
whenever she can and was
rewarded today by being asked to spend the whole
Vigil at the front table
dealing with passers-by while we were involved with
the readings.
For
latest Vigil pictures, please see the link in the updates column.
FOR THE
RECORD: 119 signed the register. Supporters from Bedford,
Birmingham,
Bolton, Brighton, Canterbury, Corby, Coventry, Exeter, Hastings,
Leeds,
Leicester, Liverpool, Luton, Manchester, Plymouth, Sheffield,
Southampton,
Southend, Stoke-on-Trent, Wigan, Wolverhampton and many from
London and
environs.
FOR YOUR DIARY:
- Monday,
10th September 2007 -Central London Zimbabwe Forum. A
special planning
meeting for the 5th Anniversary of the Vigil and social
event. We need lots
of help so those who would like to be involved in the
organisation of this
event please come. We are sharing the platform with
Jenni Williams of
WOZA. The usual forum venue is not available so we will
be meeting at the
Strand Continental Hotel (first floor, main bar), 143 The
Strand WC2R 15A.
From the Vigil, a 10-minute walk along the Strand away from
Trafalgar Square
after Waterloo Bridge but before Somerset House. Nearest
underground: Temple
(District and Circle lines) and Holborn (Piccadilly and
Central
lines).
- Saturday, 13th October, 2 - 6 pm. Zimbabwe Vigil's 5th
Anniversary
followed by a social event.
Vigil co-ordinator
The
Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place
every
Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of
human
rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in
October
2002 will continue until internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections
are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
Click here to see photos of the event
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Kuda Shumba goes at one speed: fast. He prides himself on being able to get hold of almost anything, and he's open for business day or night.
Shumba spends his days on a motorbike sniffing out almost-impossible-to-find items such as sugar, cooking oil, bread, margarine, or cellphone SIM cards, risking years in a dank prison if caught.
His markup: 500 percent-plus.
His cellphone is his lifeline. He gets calls from a couple dozen contacts who tip him off when a scarce commodity - which nowadays in Zimbabwe includes all basic needs - is about to appear in a store. Then he swoops in.
Store supervisors and other staff members sell most of what they have to people such as Shumba, pocketing a cut.
"I get them from the back door. You can't get them straight," he said. "I feel happy because I can get things fast and resell them quickly. That's my advantage: I'm fast. You have to be fast."
In this country suffering from hyperinflation, where the black market value of 1 million Zimbabwean dollars is $5.50, the underground dealers are the bane of the government.
But President Robert Mugabe's increasingly draconian efforts to control the lurching economy by imposing price controls was a gift to them, triggering severe shortages.
Agriculture in Zimbabwe, once Southern Africa's breadbasket with a thriving tobacco industry, has gone into decline since early 2000, when Mugabe allowed the seizure of white-owned farms, many of which ended up in the hands of ruling party cronies. Production plummeted, investors fled, and the country has been struggling with severe shortages ever since.
Price controls meant some businesses had to run at a loss, so even more goods disappeared from the shelves. Although the government recently has increased some prices, the state-run newspaper Herald reports that widespread shortages persist.
"I can make a lot of money because the government is saying people have to sell this at 50,000 [Zimbabwean dollars], so businessmen are no longer buying these things for resale," Shumba said. "I'll make a lot of money, 30 million-plus" a month.
On the black market exchange rate, that would be $166. It's a handsome salary compared with the 2 million Zimbabwean dollars a month, or $11, he would be making as a clerk, a post he abandoned several years ago because of the low pay.
Tall, wearing neat jeans and a crisp black jacket, Shumba, 34, carries a briefcase and looks like a businessman or shop owner. He's deeply religious and active in his church, but he has a motto in Zimbabwe's dog-eat-dog economy: Never give anything away.
When there is no meat in the shops, his wife and children eat meat. He has luxuries that none of his neighbors can afford: a laptop computer, satellite TV, a DVD player.
"You can only afford those things if you're a black market guy," he said. "They're not for people on salaries."
But on other shelves, cakes, cookies, dog food, and chocolate are piled up, at prices few people can afford.
When staples arrive, the anxiety turns to panic, and sometimes violence.
When people see a queue in Zimbabwe, they join it and ask questions later. According to local news reports, a queue to buy sugar snaking for 900 yards erupted into pandemonium in late July in the eastern town of Marondera. A security fence was toppled and a woman sustained a broken leg in the crush before police with dogs were called.
Days earlier, two people were seriously injured when a truck carrying cornmeal was mobbed in Bulawayo.
But business has never been so good for Shumba, who sells his goods secretly at night from his home or delivers to special customers. He might be one of Zimbabwe's economic winners, but he seems wired, constantly on edge, fingering his cellphone ceaselessly and shifting nervously at questions about business.
Some months, he sells half a ton of sugar, more than 300 gallons of cooking oil, and 100 dozen loaves of bread, which he gets from retailers and manufacturers.
"If you want to be a dealer, you have to know a lot of guys in different sectors. If you want something from supermarkets, you go and see the manager there," Shumba said. " You give him something so that when he gets in some sugar or cooking oil, he'll phone you."
Among his customers are white businessmen who rely on him for SIM cards, identification and memory cards for cellphones that are difficult to procure. He splits the 14 million dollars, or $77, a month in SIM card profit with a friend in a phone shop.
With shortages, black market prices are way up, reflecting the real inflation rate here. The risks have increased as well.
So Shumba has a little insurance policy. He bribes the police chief in his area 500,000 to 1 million Zimbabwean dollars - about $2.70 to $5.50 - every few weeks and offers him a gift of sugar, oil, or cornmeal from every delivery.
Zimbabweans privately curse the black marketers, but no one is ever rude to Shumba's face.
"People know what I do," he said. "They don't comment on it because they all want something from me.