This is Zimbabwe's bond note. Officially, it's pegged to the US dollar one to one. Both are legal tender here, in a country that doesn't have its own currency. The street money changers in the capital, Harare, are selling at $1 US to 1.45 bond notes. That's because of a lack of US dollars and because of a lack of trust in the surrogate notes. Even some of the changers hate the situation.
The bond note has failed our country. Things are worsening in the streets. Business is not working. Why? Because we don't have - we don't have real currency. This is not real currency.
Daily life in Zimbabwe means tight limits on cash withdrawals, queues at the bank, and a hustle to find petty cash. Free and fair elections are seen as essential for attracting foreign investment and resolving the currency crisis.
For your normal business, people running a retail operation or a local manufacturing operation, it's very difficult to supply raw materials, access to capital equipment, and so on. It's all held up by the shortage of foreign exchange.
At Harare's sprawling Mbali market, the country's huge informal economy is on display. You can buy everything here, from floor polish to fish, clothes to coal. As well as bond notes, mobile eco cash payments can be made in most places, even to buy fruit and veg. But the conversion rates for electronic money are even worse.
We would prefer a stable currency I mean, to make life easy. Rather today, you are buying your currency at such a rate tomorrow it's another rate. You know, pricing system it's so difficult that every day, you know, say after about a week, prices are going up and down. It's not easy.
Temptation sells charcoal as a cheap alternative to electricity for heating and cooking. Like most traders here, she'd prefer a stable one-to-one exchange for dollars, bonds, and eco cash. And she hopes something will change after the election.
It's difficult. Life is very difficult here in Zimbabwe. We need something better, something better than this.
Back in downtown, Cleveland says he's fed up with scraping a living this way. He doesn't believe Zimbabwe can count on the bond note.
Vote for someone who is ready to arrest this crisis in Zimbabwe. Because we cannot progress as a country with these bond notes. We will be creating more problems for ourselves and the future generation.
