Remembering “Black Friday”

… and the imprudence that led a nation’s economy astray.

I write this particularly for the young ones, who were too young to know and those who do not remember, so that they are able to see the bigger picture and more importantly, that our problems as a country did not begin with sanctions.

One Friday, mid-November in 1997, I arrived at the famous steps at the Law Faculty at the University of Zimbabwe, where my friends and I often sat, discussing various issues while recovering from the usually heavy lunches. The steps were also a vantage point, since students from the Faculty of Commerce used that route.

When I arrived, I announced to my friends that the dollar had collapsed in a manner that had never been seen before. I had heard it on the afternoon news. We were getting towards the end of our academic journey and many of us were looking for jobs. It was quite a shock.

We were not sure what that all meant but we all agreed that it was a disaster. A few months later, in 1998, Harare and other cities would be rocked by serious demonstrations as people protested at the decline of living standards and the rise in the cost of living. The day that the dollar collapsed has since been referred to as Black Friday. It was a dark day. And the dollar never recovered. If the dollar dies in 2008, it went into hospital on 14th November 1997.

We also agreed that this drop had resulted from the lack of prudence by Government when it decided to pacify war veterans who were demanding compensation by paying out Z$50,000 per person and other benefits. This money was not in the budget. The government just took what it found in the coffers and paid out the war vets. It was a disastrous decision.

Not long after that the Government deployed our troops into the DRC, under the auspices of defending that country’s sovereignty. Needless, to say that was not budgeted for too and it was a massive drain on the economy. To date, there is no public information on how many troops went there and how many lost their limbs and lives in that war. There is nothing whatsoever on how much the country used to finance that war. There is no accountability, no. If you ask them, they will tell you long tales about national security.

All this was before the land reforms and well before the sanctions. Kids who were born in 1997 are 17 years old now and next year they will be eligible to vote. All they have ever known about the troubles in their country is sanctions, sanctions and sanctions. The fiscal imprudence of their leaders, such as what caused what is often referred to as Black Friday, is something they may never know.

They may have heard about and felt the collapse and subsequent disappearance of the Zimdollar in 2007-2008, but they probably don’t know that the first real collapse which triggered the downfall happened when they were safely ensconced in their mothers’ wombs. And it happened not because of sanctions but because of inept leadership – the same leadership that insists on continuing at the helm today and tomorrow.

And in case you haven’t noticed, today is the anniversary of Black Friday. And, as it happens, The Herald for the first time in a very long time, has written a story that would qualify it as a newspaper of record, because it is accurate, objective, factual and does not spew the usual propaganda about sanctions and all. But then, how do you write about sanctions on events in November 1997?

wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk