Breakfast at Zimbabwe’s Holiday Inn Hotel is US$45 or R855, that is super crazy expensive.
Hopewell Chinono has revealed.
He said the hotel is a victim of the warped economic policies of the Government of Zimbabwe where the exchange rate system is fixed and indirectly determined by the government.
Chinono revealed that two weeks ago he was in South Africa at @StandardBankZA where he explained that Zimbabweans are keeping their money at home and not in the bank because of the dysfunctional exchange rate system.
The managers at @StandardBankZA couldn’t understand why it is the case because they were using the South African standard where everyone receives their money through their bank account and keep it there.
He said he encouraged them to review some of the demands they put on Zimbabweans who are borrowing in South Africa because the Zimbabwean banking system is not similar to theirs.
The dysfunctional exchange rate system is chasing away both local and foreign investors, and it is making it difficult for Zimbabweans to borrow investment funds outside Zimbabwe.
Furthermore, Chinono wondered how one can come and set up a business in a country where breakfast is US$45, and how do you borrow money internationally and bring it home where the exchange rate is fixed.
So this breakfast story at Holiday Inn is a reflection of fundamental problems that are deep rooted in the economy, problems that are so profound that they are affecting not just Zimbabweans at home, but Zimbabweans abroad too.
He went on to say it is a mess, but one that can be changed only if the government is serious about fixing the economy.
Chinono said taking spouses for breakfast at the Holiday Inn is US$90 and for his South African followers that is R1,710 if two people are going to have breakfast at Harare’s Holiday Inn.
Meanwhile breakfast at the Holiday Inn Jesmond in London where workers are paid more, and electricity, water and the breakfast ingredients are more expensive is only US$12.80 or R243.
