About That $200 Zimbabwe Bank Balance

So Finance Minister Tendai Biti said yesterday said that Zimbabwe’s bank balance was a measly $217.

This of course has become the rage of social media that a whole country could have that little money in its bank account. Cue the usual talk about where the diamond money is of course throw in our favourite word, corruption.

Taken out of context $217 context is a dire amount for a country to run especially when you think of the fact that the government has running costs it needs to service such as toilet paper and the like.

What Minister Biti simply failed to do was to create context. With context there would be very little alarm. In fact in reality you wonder if was necessary to say it in the first place. However having been said one has to be fully aware of the backdrop.

Biti was speaking about money for elections and that time was needed to beef up our coffers if we were indeed planning to have elections this year and that July would be a time when one would look at having elections. Maybe the good minister is playing politics here.

Also if one runs a company it is possible to have a bank balance that low. They call it cash-flow. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you are going to close down tomorrow.

This is not to say things are rosy here but the sensationalism shows how much people love bad news about Zimbabwe.

Having said that, Biti should know discretion an exercise it. It’s like a father telling his kids that he only $5 left in his bank after paying school fees and the sort.