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Now Zimbabweans have to queue to queue
By
Mary
Revesai
A STUDY conducted
in the United States more than a decade ago estimated the cost to the
American economy of alcohol abuse and alcoholism at $246 billion.
The study was conducted by the National Institute on Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse, which took into account such factors as loss of earnings, health consequences and cost of treatment, burden on employers and households and crime-related activities.
With queuing having become an almost enforced addictive activity in Zimbabwe, where ordinary people spend hundreds of hours in queues to do things that are routine in other countries such as shopping, depositing or withdrawing money from the bank etc, it would be interesting to quantify its impact on productive pursuits.
This is because
as the shortages of almost everything, but particularly cash, worsen,
there is a new twist to the art of queuing. In the past, people have
resorted to leaving their cars in petrol queues or paying touts to keep
their places in queues for various services so that they could do other
things in the meantime. They may need to revise their strategies because
queuing has become more complex and time consuming of late.
Now Zimbabweans have to queue to queue! How so, the un-initiated may
wonder. This is because the shortages, especially of cash at banks,
have become so dire that crowd control techniques are called for. Security
guards now issue pieces of paper with numbers to forestall queue-jumping
and other frustrated behaviour with a potential to ruffle feathers among
people with frayed nerves and short tempers caused by the indignity
that now accompanies the business of living from day to day.
What this means
is that upon arrival at a bank, a foreign currency outlet or a supermarket,
one has to join a queue to be issued with a number before joining the
actual line in which to be served. In other words, people now have to
queue in order to join a queue! This is an extremely stressful way of
life and a scientific study would definitely establish how this is affecting
people’s health and how much productive time is wasted and other
repercussions.
A description of how my day panned out last Saturday will give an idea
of what an ordeal it is to live in today’s Zimbabwe. I got up
early with the intention of getting into town before banks opened. I
needed to withdraw some cash from my bank and, therefore, got up at
the crack of dawn.
My plans were forestalled before I even got out of the house. A plan to fill the bath while I made the bed gave me the first indication that all was not well. Not a drop of water was coming out of the taps and so it meant I had to solve the problem of how to bath and make breakfast.
There is a tap in
my neighbourhood that has a time lag allowing it to continue spouting
the precious liquid long after the rest have dried up. Bucket in hand,
like a rural dweller on her way to the nearest borehole, I rush out
confidently thinking I am the earliest bird. My heart drops upon realising
I have not beaten anyone – the queue is already a mile long and
soon the tap runs dry too.
One can get by without eating but bathing is another matter. I have
a brainwave – rush to the neighbourhood shop which opens early,
to buy some bottled water. I reckon that if I get at least two bottles
containing two litres each, I can get a decent wash. But, horror of
horrors! As I approach, I meet some similarly affected residents already
coming out of the shop with their emergency supplies of expensive water.
My plans to get
four litres soon fly out of the crowded shop’s windows. At about
$12 million per bottle, I realise I have to settle for one bottle of
two litres and invoke the miracle of Cana when Jesus changed water into
wine. Only this time, I needed the amount increased so that I had enough
for a bath. Mission somehow accomplished, I rush into town to a branch
of my bank in the “third world” part of the central business
district of Harare that is usually quieter.
I cannot believe my eyes. A longer queue is snaking round the block
with a shorter one forming in another direction near the door. This
is the line for getting a number to join the proper queue. I am number
177 and despite hope springing eternal in the human breast, I realise
the odds are insurmountable. I nevertheless join the queue and persevere
for half an hour during which I barely move. What happens at smaller
branches is that when the cash runs out, tellers wait for depositors
to complete transaction before they can serve withdrawers. But in today’s
Zimbabwe, when one needs bundles of notes to buy a few items, very few
people can make substantial deposits.
I decide to take a break from the queue and try to establish whether
there is any place in downtown Harare where I can find water to fill
a couple of bottles I have brought. It may be hard to believe, but the
whole of town has no water. By the time I return to the bank, it is
almost closing time but the queue is still as long as it was earlier.
It means all of
us will spend the weekend without any money to buy basic necessities.
When I get home in the evening, there is still no water and I join millions
of other frustrated residents in cursing under my breath at the ineptitude
of the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) which has taken over
the management of water affairs from city councils.
Then there is a bombshell on Sunday. The state newspaper, The Sunday
Mail, carries a story headed “ZINWA TO CUT SUPPLIES FOR ONE WEEK”.
The statement is issued by the general manger of the parastatal, Lisbern
Chipfunde, who explains that the problems are due to power cuts at the
main waterworks.
Zimbabweans have endured all kinds of deprivation but a lack of water in the whole of the city threatens to be a new ball game. The government of President Robert Mugabe, however, remains supremely relaxed and confident that despite this untenable state of affairs, which is replicated in every town and every sector, it will win the forthcoming elections resoundingly. But with the level of discontent simmering throughout the country that can only happen because as expected, the polls will be rigged.
Mary Revesai is a New Zimbabwe.com columnist and writes from Harare
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