Harare – As Zimbabwe plunges into its worst economic crisis in a decade, gas lines are snaking for hours, prices are spiking and residents goggle as the new government insists that the country – somehow – has risen to middle-income status.
After ousting the repressive Robert Mugabe almost a year ago following more than three decades in power, and peacefully electing President Emmerson Mnangagwa in July, many hoped the country would emerge from turmoil and return to prosperity.
Instead, it appears to be imploding in the days since the new finance minister announced a "stabilization program."
Over the weekend long lines for fuel reappeared, sometimes stretching for several kilometers.
Anxious residents rushed to stores, where prices skyrocketed for dwindling stock and shop workers began removing price stickers.
People have started joining any line in sight.
The important thing is to get in the queue, there might be something there," said Yvet Mlambo, a resident of the capital, Harare.
Even beer is rationed, to some outrage.
But the new currency shortage has forced most people to use a surrogate currency called bond notes, bank cards and mobile money, all of which are devaluing quickly against the U.S. dollar on the black market.
But Zimbabweans have reacted angrily to one of the new measures, a tax on transactions conducted with mobile money and bank cards.