Most shops and vendors selling various wares in Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo, are now pegging their goods in United States dollars instead of the depreciating local bond.
Some businesspersons, vendors and others with shops and stalls in the city’s central business district told VOA Zimbabwe Service that the Zimbabwe dollar is now unusable.
Pretty Mpofu, who sells clothes and other goods at an open market in the city, said, “We no longer use the Zimbabwe dollar here. All this started when the government announced that we can now peg prices of our goods in United States dollars. The local bond was already being discarded by many people. As we speak right now one United States dollar fetches ZWL$700 in the black market.
“This means that if one accepts the local bond one ends up with lots of useless notes which can’t buy anything anymore. As a result, we are no longer accepting the Zimbabwe bond. If one accepts it, one ends up with huge loses because you need thousands of Zimbabwe dollars to purchase very few goods.”
She said the current situation signals the end of the Zimbabwe bond. “In simple terms, the bond is gone. Forget about it. It’s now some kind of manure.”
Business executive Anglistone Sibanda of Green Afrique Technologies said the majority of companies have stopped accepting the Zimbabwe dollar for trading purposes.
“We are all now using the United States dollar when buying and selling goods. The Zimbabwe bond is no longer usable. It’s the end of it (bond),” said Sibanda, who noted that the country has not yet reached hyperinflationary pressures of 2008, which resulted in Zimbabwe abandoning its currency for the U.S. dollar.
“Goods are there in our shops but the problem is in getting the United States dollar. The majority of people in Zimbabwe earn their salaries not in U.S. dollars but local bond. So, the poor person is the one who suffers at the end of the day.”