Authorities in Zimbabwe have arrested dozens of opposition activists before the launch of controversial “bond notes”, which the government hopes will inject desperately needed cash into the failing economy of the former British colony.

Many ordinary people fear the bond notes will trigger economic chaos, wiping out savings and livelihoods.

Those arrested include Patson Dzamara, a high-profile opponent of President Robert Mugabe and the ruling Zanu-PF party, who was found at a local hospital 24 hours after the car in which he had been travelling with another activist was discovered burnt out.

Dzamara, who appeared to have been badly beaten with sticks or rods, according to pictures posted on social media, was one of the coordinators of a coalition of opposition groups that had pledged to “shut down” major cities in Zimbabwe on Friday to protest against corruption, alleged human rights violations and the bond notes.

His brother, Itai, has been missing since being abducted by unidentified men in March last year. Officials have said they are doing all they can to locate him.

The British ambassador to Zimbabwe, Catriona Lang, said on Friday the UK was “very concerned by reports of abductions of civil society activists”. She said: “Rule of law, and freedom of expression [are] crucial for Zimbabwe’s future.”

The EU said it had “received reports indicating that some social activists have been abducted and brutalised by unknown persons in the run-up to [Friday’s] demonstrations” and called on the authorities to protect its citizens from abduction and torture “regardless of their political opinions”.

Zimbabwe has been hit by successive waves of unrest in recent months, prompted by a deepening economic crisis, cash shortages and persistent high unemployment. The government has been repeatedly forced to delay salary payments to teachers, doctors, soldiers and administrators. The country is also suffering a severe drought and is threatened by famine in some parts.

The central bank says bond notes are meant to ease crippling cash shortages, but this is stoking concerns it could open the door to rampant printing of cash, as happened in 2008. The introduction of the US dollar as the official currency in 2009 halted the sky-high and accelerating inflation, but the government is now short of cash.

Zimbabwean banks are limiting daily withdrawals to between $40 (£32) and $100 and some firms have struggled to repatriate dividends and pay foreign debts.

Observers say the pressure on Mugabe, Africa’s oldest leader, and the Zanu-PF party is immense. Officials have previously described the protesters as terrorists and have blamed foreign powers for sabotaging the economy and stirring unrest. Ignatious Chombo, Zanu-PF’s administration secretary, accused western embassies in Harare and opposition parties of trying to cause anarchy.

Political violence in Zimbabwe has increased dramatically, with record levels of assault, abduction and torture. About 654 cases of political violence were recorded by local NGO the Counselling Services Unit in 2016, as of 21 October, compared with 476 cases in the whole of 2015. The CSU found that assaults were overwhelmingly perpetrated by the state’s security forces– including police, military and the secretive Central Intelligence Organisation.

Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, will seek re-election in 2018. Zanu-PF retained power after elections in 2013, which were tainted by allegations of vote-rigging.

Tendai Biti, an opposition politician, said the bond notes would be a disaster. He said: “We are already in a disastrous situation. We are in a deep recession. If you add bond notes there will be the return of the black market, hyperinflation. It will be a dog’s breakfast.”

HARARE: Prominent Zimbabwe lawyer Fadzayi Mahere was among a number of anti-government activists arrested on Friday in central Harare - even though they weren't actually marching against President Robert Mugabe's government, the #ThisFlag protest movement said.

Critics of Mugabe had planned a march to demonstrate against the bank notes his central bank is intent upon introducing later this month - but police turned out in force to stop activists taking to the streets, it is understood.

Mahere and others were "sitting quietly" when they were arrested in Africa Unity Square, which is near parliament, according to @ThisFlag1980, the protest movement begun by a Harare pastor earlier this year.

They were later taken to Harare Central Police Station, eyewitnesses say.

Mahere, a Cambridge - and University of Zimbabwe- trained lawyer, posted a selfie earlier on Friday with the words: "We come in peace! Africa Unity Square #comethrough."

In a separate incident that has raised widespread concerns, activist Patson Dzamara (the brother of missing activist Itai Dzamara) was abducted and assaulted hours before the demo was due to start, lawyers say. He was on Friday receiving treatment in hospital.

The EU delegation to Zimbabwe released a statement saying acts of "intimidation, violence, abduction and torture" have significantly increased in Zimbabwe in recent months.

HARARE: In Zimbabwe, where worthless $100 trillion (80.36 trillion pound) notes serve as reminders of the perils of hyperinflation, President Robert Mugabe is printing a new currency that jeopardizes not just the economy but his own long grip on power.

Six months ago, the 92-year-old announced plans to address chronic cash shortages by supplementing the dwindling U.S. dollars in circulation over the past seven years with 'bond notes', a quasi-currency expected at the end of November.

According to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), the bond notes will be officially interchangeable 1:1 with the U.S. dollar and should ease the cash crunch. The central bank also promised to keep a tight lid on issuance.

After a 2008 multi-billion percent inflationary meltdown caused by rampant money-printing, many Zimbabweans are sceptical. The plan has already caused a run on the banks as Zimbabweans empty their accounts of hard currency.

Internal intelligence briefings seen by Reuters raise the possibility that the bond notes, if they crash, could spell the end of Mugabe's 36 years in charge.

A Sept. 29 Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) report revealed the powerful army was as unhappy as the rest of the population with the new notes and had told Africa's oldest leader to "wake up and smell the coffee".

"Top security officers have told Mugabe not to blame them if Rome starts to burn," the report said.

Reuters was unable to determine the author of the report. It is also unclear if Mugabe has seen the report, whose final audience is not specified. Mugabe's spokesman did not respond to requests for comment, nor was the CIO available.

But the report offers a rare glimpse into the thinking of Mugabe's security forces - the backbone of his power – and their concerns about the implosion of what used to be one of Africa's most promising economies.

"Mugabe was openly told that the bond notes are going to cause his downfall," the report said.

WAITING FOR THE DROP

The notes' first test will come in the informal foreign exchange markets on the streets of Harare.

If they fall heavily in value, they are likely to unleash an inflationary spiral that could bleed the banking system of its last few dollars and wipe out Zimbabweans' savings for the second time in less than a decade, economists say.

The same happened in 2008: powerful individuals with access to dollars at the official 1:1 rate were able to buy bond notes at a discount on the unofficial market and then convert them back to dollars at face value.

"You start with one dollar, then you've got 10, then you've got 100, then you've got 1,000 – and it's not even lunchtime," said John Robertson, one of Zimbabwe's most respected private economists.

In Harare's chaotic Road Port bus station, the main terminus for those heading to and from South Africa, Zimbabwe's biggest trading partner, some bus operators are fearing the worst.

Required to pay nearly all their expenses - fuel, road tolls and police bribes in Zimbabwe and South Africa - in hard currency cash, they are particularly exposed.

"It's like being on death row. You don't know when the hangman is going to open your cell door," said ticket-seller Simba Muchenje, pulling a wad of worthless 2008 Zimbabwe dollars from his briefcase and tossing them onto the counter.

"It's just taking us back to the bad old days."

In interviews, none of eight money-changers trading South African rand and U.S. dollars said they would accept bond notes at their $1 face value because of fears of immediate depreciation. The rand and the U.S. dollar have become Zimbabwe's currencies since the local dollar was scrapped in 2009

"The banks may say 1:1, but here we say 2:1. We can't afford to pay the same as the banks. I'm running a business, not a bank," said Patience, a 32-year-old money-changer.

REASSURING WORDS

Given Zimbabwe's recent history of hyperinflation, the RBZ is keen to allay fears the printing presses are about to go into overdrive, and that the bond notes are a roundabout route to a new Zimbabwe dollar.

"The introduction of bond notes does not mark the return of the Zimbabwe dollar through the back door," it said in a statement on its website.

Instead, the bank has presented the notes as a 5 percent "export incentive" - a top-up added by the central bank to the accounts of those receiving foreign exchange either from overseas remittances or via farming, manufacturing and mining exports.

They will also be backed by a $200 million "loan facility" from Afreximbank, a Cairo-based lender owned by the African Development Bank and dozens of African governments and central banks. Afreximbank declined to comment.

Given monthly exports of roughly $250 million, the 5 percent 'top-up' suggests a monthly liquidity injection of just $12.5 million, or $1 for every Zimbabwean.

In public statements, the RBZ has given assurances it will not exceed the $200 million issuance ceiling.

But it has not clarified how bond note balances will be recorded in U.S. dollar accounts, nor how ATMs will distinguish between greenbacks and bond notes when they issue cash.

"Upon withdrawal, banks have an option to pay in any one of the legal tenders," the RBZ said.

RBZ Governor John Mangudya missed a scheduled interview with Reuters and did not respond to emailed questions.

NO DOLLARS, NO FUN

Few Zimbabweans interviewed believed the RBZ would stick to the issuance limits, especially while a large current account deficit continues to suck dollars out of the country.

After the bond notes’ announcement, #ThisFlag and #Tajamuka, social media campaigns targeting the new system, drew the biggest anti-Mugabe protests in a decade before being crushed by riot police and the CIO.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands across the country queue through the night to empty their accounts the moment their pay or pensions arrive, exacerbating the liquidity crunch. Banks have responded with daily withdrawal limits: $100 one day, $50 another, none another. Customers have no idea until the banks open their doors at 8 a.m.

"Sometimes you get to the end of the queue and there's no money," said industrial fitter Edmund Panganai, 40, outside a CABS building society branch in Harare. Every month, it takes him at least seven nights of queuing to get his hands on his pay.

In Harare, where most U.S. dollar bills are stained deep brown with grime, a crisp 2009-edition $100 note is now worth as much as $115.

Conversely, the plastic and mobile money introduced to ease physical cash shortages is depreciating, forcing vendors to charge a 10-15 percent premium.

One prostitute, who had been relying on e-wallet payment systems such as Ecocash, run by mobile firm Econet Wireless (ECO.ZI: Quote), said she and other sex workers were turning away customers without hard cash.

"Ecocash? No thank you. Dollars, dollars, dollars," said Patience, a 22-year-old working a Harare street corner. "No dollars, no fun."

ARMY RATIONED

Combined with unemployment at 90 percent and a government budget crunch that has seen delays in payment of state wages, the discontent is also pervading the army.

The Sept. 29 CIO report said soldiers had applauded the social media protests because they had led to an improvement in daily rations.

"Before the demonstrations government had stopped supplying them with breakfast. At lunch they were being fed with sadza (maize meal) and cabbage without cooking oil. Mugabe instructed for the army officers to be given descent [sic] meals so they will rally behind him," the report said.

Other intelligence reports from late September and early October suggested Mugabe was having doubts about the bond notes. Reuters was unable to confirm this.

"The issue of the bond notes is giving Mugabe sleepless nights," one said. "Mugabe is serious [sic] thinking of delaying the introduction of the bond until January next year."

Another report said army officers were frustrated with pay delays and withdrawal limits.

"They are very angry as they are failing to access their money from the banks and do not want to be issued with bonds," it said.

"These junior and middle-ranked officers reckon that Mugabe has failed, hence he needs to step down for new blood to replace him."

VETERANS AT WAR

In July, veterans of the 1964-1979 liberation war that brought Mugabe to power broke ranks, accusing him of "dictatorial tendencies" and blaming him for the "serious plight" of the economy and discord in the ruling ZANU-PF party.

"We are dedicated to stop this rot," they said in a statement.

As fears over the bond notes have grown and the battle to succeed Mugabe has intensified, they have continued to flex their muscle.

"Once you go wrong with us, you automatically go wrong with the whole state apparatus," veterans leader Chris Mutsvangwa told Reuters.

The veterans enjoy warm ties with the army and security services, and want Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former security chief nicknamed "The Crocodile", to take over from Mugabe, political analysts say. On the other side is a faction attached to Mugabe's 51-year-old wife, Grace.

Mugabe responded to the growing pressure on Nov. 19 with an address in which he admitted fallibility and gave a rare hint at retirement.

"If I am making mistakes, you should tell me. I will go," he said, before adding: "Change should come in a proper way. If I have to retire, let me retire properly."

Zimbabwe has experienced erratic rainfall in the last two years making it difficult for prison farm managers to grow crops that meet the dietary needs of the inmates.

This video highlights how the ICRC has been working with prison authorities to help them diversify the types of crops they grow to ensure that the food supply of prisons is not hindered by changing weather and climatic patterns.

Crippling cash shortages surfaced in the first quarter of 2016 and in May the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe announced the introduction of bond notes as a corrective measure.

Several dates to introduce the currency have come and gone. Bond notes are not a legal tender that can be used for transactions outside of Zimbabwe. However the bond notes are being given the same value as the US dollar.

The bond notes' value is derived from a $200 million (189 million euro) bond facility guaranteed by the Egypt-based AfreximBank.

According to Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor John Mangudya, the bond notes are an export incentive for exporters to earn foreign currency the country is in dire need of.

"People are confusing that the bond notes are coming here to cater for cash shortages, no. There is no relationship. This is an export-incentive scheme," Mangudya said.

It is now common in homes and on public transport for fierce debates on the bond note currency to break out. In some incidences the debates even resulted in open fights.

The message of such heated debate is loud and clear: citizens do not trust the government. Many fear the return of the Zimbabwean dollar, which lost value and hit inflation figures that went over the million percent mark.

Mounting challenges

Citizen's movements have fiercely resisted the introduction of the bond notes. Street protests and court challenges have been mounted but the government is not backing down.

President Mugabe used his presidential powers on Oct. 31 to amend the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Act, designating the new notes as legal tender that will be equivalent to the US dollar.

Zimbabwean human rights lawyers have asked the High Court to strike down the decree. In a court application, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights {ZLHR) asked the court to set aside Mugabe's decree arguing that the veteran leader had no authority to do so.

ZLHR lawyer Dzimbahwe Chimbga said that presidential powers should only be used in emergencies and that the bond notes law was not an emergency since the government first announced their introduction in May.

"The President has avoided the parliamentary route as provided by the Constitution. He seems to suggest that this is an emergency that requires him to trigger the presidential powers regulations," Chimbga said. "He can no longer do that in light of the new Constitution. The Presidential Powers Act is unconstitutional," Chimbga added.

The high court is yet to rule on the matter.

 Camping for cash

The arrival of the bond notes has triggered a panic for cash withdrawals. Long lines at banks have become the order of the day.

In some instances people are even camping overnight at banks to get cash and some banks have imposed daily maximum withdraws as low as $30 (28 euros). Many Zimbabweans are now withdrawing their US dollar savings and stashing it at home

Speaking to DW in the capital Harare, some of the people who were sleeping on the pavement of a bank said that they have no confidence in the soon-to-be-introduced currency. 

"I want to collect my money. There is no need for me to keep it in the bank. It is pointless. I will not have my money again if left in the bank," said Simba Chitembwe, a 35-year-old security guard.

"We now have the fear of bond notes if we do not take our money as US dollars, we are not going to get it as US dollars but in bond notes. So I have to take out my money and stock it at home," said Lloyd Chaona, a 30-year-old forklift driver.

Opposition leader and former finance minister during Zimbabwe's unity government, Tendai Biti, described the insistence on introducing bond notes as an impending disaster.

"We are eating that which we are not producing. The answer is not a monetary solution. The answer is a supply-side solution. Our people have to start producing," Biti said.

Evidence Kanyombo is 18 years old and unemployed. He spends his days searching for water for his mother and siblings in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, and that has almost become a full time job. He turns on the shower tap but not a single drop comes out.

"It's not working, the pipes haven't had water in them for a while and have rusted. I don't ever remember taking a shower," he says.

Bathing out of a bucket has become a way of life, not just for him, but for most Harare residents.

Zimbabwe is suffering from one of its worst droughts in decades and earlier this year, a state of emergency was declared.

This has made the situation worse for hundreds of thousands of Harare residents who have not had a regular water supply for many years.

"It is possible to use only two litres of water to bath depending on how much you can limit yourself," Mr Kanyombo says with a slight laugh.

"So eight 20-litre buckets of water can last for three days depending on how carefully you use it."

Virgina Nyika and her household try to keep a bucket of water for every occasion

Several plastic buckets are found in almost every home in Harare - from high-end bathrooms in affluent homes to kitchens in the townships.

Virginia Nyika, a mother who shares a house with her extended family, is frustrated.

"It's reality, but a painful one," she says.

"We are used to life without running water. My husband, my three children and I live in two rooms at the back of the house. We have 15 plastic buckets and one 200-litre water container.

"My sister and her family has six buckets, 11 containers and two 200-litre drums. The man who rents a room in the same house has about 12 buckets. My children don't know what it's like to take a shower," she explains.

Harare experiences regular water shortages because the public supplier, the Zimbabwe National Water Authority, lacks funds to treat water and has also been unable to maintain its aging water pipes.

This has compelled some residents to dig shallow wells and boreholes to cope with the dire situation.

But some of these wells have dried up due to the drought.

Tense scramble for water

The low-income suburb of Mabvuku is one of Harare's driest areas.

Long lines of buckets and water containers can often be seen at community boreholes, where they have been left as position holders.

There have been stories of physical fights breaking out in the tense scramble for water.

According to one witness, police officers have had to step in to restore order on a number of occasions.

Some are cashing in on the situation by making water deliveries to residents

But where there is adversity there is also opportunity.

Anna Malikezi is who of those who spends long hours manually pumping water into buckets.

"I sell water to people who aren't able to wait in the queue. I can earn about $7 (£5.6) a day. I am able to take care of my family with that money," Ms Malikezi says.

But the daunting task for Ms Malikezi is that she has to get to the borehole at 01:00 to secure her place in the queue.

Water has become one of Harare's most prized commodities.

In the affluent suburbs, water tankers roam the streets delivering water to homes and businesses.

A delivery of 5,000 litres of water costs $50 (£40) with people often spending $100 a month for the service.

The same volume of water from the Zimbabwe National Water Authority would cost just 10% as much - if it was actually available.

City authorities say they are trying to be fair by limiting rationing in poorer communities.

Wealthy suburbs can go without water for up to a week.

Harare City spokesman Michael Chideme points out that the city gets most of its water from dams, which have been badly affected by the drought.

The Harava Dam, about 20km (12.4 miles) south of Harare, has seen better days.

Mr Chideme noted that the dam, which is almost dried up, was one of two that used to supply 90m cubic litres of water a day to the Prince Edward treatment plant.

Now the treatment plant only gets 15m.

The drought has also led to huge crop failures and animal deaths. About a quarter of the population needs food aid.

Though the current rainy season has started off patchily, weather experts are predicting heavy rains, which the city authorities hope will mean the dams will fill up once more.

Until then, Mr Kanyombo and many others in Harare will have to continue their quest for the precious resource.

ZIMBABWE is committed to protecting children from all forms of commercial sexual abuses that are on the rise in Africa’s travel and tourism industry, a cabinet minister said Friday.

Tourism minister Walter Mzembi was quoted by state news agency New Ziana as saying that the increase in travel and tourism in Africa had multiplied chances for children to be subject to travelling sex offenders.

Mzembi made the remarks while launching a global report on sexual exploitation of children in the sector.

"It is my commitment ... to bring together all stakeholders from the public and private sectors and the civil society to ensure that as we welcome tourism and travel in our beautiful countries, our children are protected from any form of commercial sexual exploitation," he said.

The global report was produced through a research commissioned by ECPAT, an international non-governmental organization seeking to end child prostitution, child pornography and trafficking of children for sexual purposes.

The report found that sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism was on the rise in Africa.

The explosion of the internet and mobile technology has been blamed for affording perpetrators anonymity and hidden pathways to groom children and seduce them via social media and internet games, the report noted.

According to the Zimbabwe Republic Police Victim Friendly Unit, a total of 7,279 cases of sexual offences against children were recorded between January and September this year.

Meanwhile, Childline, an organization that offers counselling to abused children in the country, says at least 6,810 cases of child abuse were reported to them between January and June this year, a 56-percent increase year-on-year.

Zimbabwe will start issuing on Monday $10 million in so-called bond notes, a parallel currency the government is introducing to alleviate a severe shortage of U.S. dollars in the country, the central bank said Saturday.

The bond notes, whose impending introduction was announced several months ago, has led to at times violent protests, as many Zimbabweans fear that they are a first step by the government to start issuing its own currency again.

The Southern African country started using the U.S. dollar in 2009, after years of hyperinflation severely devalued its own Zimbabwean dollars. At its height, the central bank was issuing $100 trillion notes, which at the time barely paid for a bus ticket.

Although Zimbabwe officially accepts a basket of foreign currencies—including the South African rand, the British pound and the euro—dollars have become the dominant tender.

However, in recent months Zimbabwean banks have been running out of U.S. dollars, leading to tight withdrawal limits and long lines in front of ATMs.

The central bank said that initially it will issue $10 million in $2 dollar bond notes, along with $2 million in $1 dollar bond coins. Bond coins have been in circulation for more than a year, but until now the largest denomination was 50 cents. The bond notes are pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar, the bank said.

In total, the central bank has said it would issue $200 million in bond notes, which is says are backed by a credit facility from the African Import and Export Bank.

The central bank sought to alleviate concerns that many businesses won’t accept bond notes amid fears that they will quickly lose on value.

“The Reserve Bank has engaged and agreed with the Retailers Association of Zimbabwe, fuel companies, representatives of the various business associations and the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe on the use and acceptability of bond notes as a medium of exchange in the country,” it said.

Harare - "That's the wrong one!"

Zimbabweans on Saturday looked over to Cuba, where Fidel Castro's death has just been confirmed, with (mainly) one thought in mind: when will President Robert Mugabe die too?

After all, Mugabe at 92 is two years older than his friend and ally Castro was. And the Zimbabwean leader's health has, like Castro's, long been the subject of speculation. 

Tweeted one Zimbabwean, expressing a sentiment that was, apparently, widely shared: "Castro dies and God is just ignoring Zimbabweans' prayers just like that. Everyone dying except that one guy." 

It was a regret that was echoed outside Zimbabwe, with @Munexy in Pretoria saying: "So Fidel Castro finally dies, time for Mugabe to go as well."

Zimbabwe's long-running economic and political crisis has been felt well beyond its borders, with well over a million Zimbabweans (out of a population of between 13 and 14 million) now living outside the southern African country. Britain's Daily Mail writer Guy Adams tweeted: "Good news about Castro. One brings two, so how about Mugabe?"

See all tweets below.

There were of course Zimbabweans who did not see Castro's death as an opportunity to hanker after Mugabe's. The longtime Zimbabwe leader (he has been in power since independence in 1980) still has many supporters inside the country: a by-election was on Saturday being held in Chimanimani, a mountainous district in eastern Zimbabwe, that Zanu-PF is widely slated to win (though independent observers have noted intimidation of voters in this constituency). As Cuba did in the 1960s, Mugabe launched a controversial agrarian reform programme in Zimbabwe starting in 2000.

@TitusGwemende paid tribute to Castro's support for African liberation movements, saying: "Without Fidel Castro, many African countries would have found it harder to execute the liberation struggle. We are grateful." 

Development and governance expert Brian Tamuka Kagoro said: "We don't idolise Fidel Castro, we remember his solidarity with the peoples of Africa and our liberation and development efforts."

Zanu-PF officials expressed sadness over Castro's death, with higher education minister Jonathan Moyo calling him "The Giant." Psychology Maziwisa, a ruling party MP said Castro would be "sorely missed."

Mugabe and Castro: a long-running alliance

Mugabe met Castro in Ethiopia in 1978: the pair firmed up plans for Cuban advisers to train Zimbabwean troops based in Mozambique, Angola and Ethiopia.

Thereafter Mugabe made at least seven visits to Cuba, including trips in 2002, 2005 and 2009.

In May 2015, Zimbabwe state media claimed Mugabe was "a hero in Cuba".     

French magazine JeuneAfrique called Mugabe "Africa's Castro" in 2015.

Harare:  Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai has told President Robert Mugabe to step down and pave way for fresh elections amid a worsening economic crisis in the southern African nation.

Zimbabwe is currently facing a critical cash shortage, massive unemployment and food insecurity, as it also battles to clear a foreign debt overhang of over $8bn.

Tsvangirai told his party supporters on Saturday at a rain-soaked rally in Harare that Mugabe should relinquish power "immediately", saying the veteran leader was a stumbling block to the country's economic turnaround.

"You (Mugabe) have failed so you must step down immediately to pave way for new blood. You must feel for the traumatised people of this country," said the main opposition leader amid applause from thousands of his supporters.

For his part, Mugabe recently told some veterans of the country's liberation war that he was not going anywhere.

Mugabe, who won the disputed 2013 polls to end a unity government he formed with Tsvangirai in 2009 following another contested plebiscite, has vowed to stay in power, saying he has an electoral mandate to govern Zimbabwe.

"If the people say continue (to lead) I will continue. If our party (Zanu-PF) says continue, I will continue," said Mugabe.

Meanwhile, Tsvangirai said he was not prepared to form another government of national unity (GNU) with Mugabe, as the country's economy continues to shrink.

"Some people are talking about forming a second GNU; No. I am not going to be part of another GNU; what we want as the MDC are electoral reforms before the 2018 elections so that we hold elections that do not breed a predetermined outcome".

Harare - Long queues outside ATMs. Security guards confirming that those machines that are already empty "won't be stocked until Monday."

A banking official speaking privately of "truckloads" of bond notes on the move before the weekend.

Zimbabweans are in panic mode following Saturday's announcement that the central bank is to rail-road through the introduction of this controversial currency-that-isn't-a-currency, starting with 10 million new notes on Monday. "But I thought [bond notes] weren't coming yet," wailed one business-owner.

With the dark days of hyperinflation and rampant currency printing only eight years ago, Zimbabweans aren't ready to have any hope in these new notes  - even if bank chief John Mangudya says he's staking his career on them.

Here are five reasons NOT to trust Mangudya on bond notes:

1. Mangudya's bosses have bonuses to find...

No doubt with an eye on elections in 2018, President Robert Mugabe overturned a decisionby his finance minister Patrick Chinamasa not to pay civil servants' bonuses at the end of this year.But where's the hard cash coming from to do so? The authorities already struggle to pay civil servants their regular salaries each month. Chinamasa did NOT rise to the bait in parliament this week and admit that bonuses would be paid in bond notes. But that's the suspicion. And how do the authorities plan to pay the "thousands" of new soldiers they're currently recruiting?

2. ... and debts to pay off

As anyone who lived through the first inflationary crisis in Zimbabwe will tell you, there are some advantages to "Monopoly money". If the authorities force shops, businesses and lending institutions to carry on accepting plastic money linked to bond-note filled accounts (and there are already signs that they will), then suddenly paying off a mortgage or a loan becomes very easy. Gushungo Holdings, the parent company of the Mugabe family's Alpha Omega dairy was reported in June by the Zimbabwe Independent to have a debt of $20m. 

3. There should never be trucks full of bond notes.

Mangudya has gone on record saying that there will only be $75m worth of bond notes circulating by December and that these should have minimum impact. Monday's release is of 10 million US dollars worth (supposedly) in denominations of $2. They should barely fill ONE 12 metre-long lorry.

Here's the math: if the bank wants to introduce 10 million worth of bonds on Monday in denominations of 2, that means it'll be pushing 5 million new bills into circulation. An average briefcase can hold about 10 000 separate bills (if they're brand new and tightly packed). 500 briefcases can hold 5 million notes, give or take some depending on the size of the case. That's all the money the authorities should be distributing - about five pallets full of bank notes. Less than a large lorry could hold.

True, the trucks transporting Monday's bond notes may only be taking small amounts of bond notes each (and they'll also be distributing new bond coins in denominations of 1 US, which will massively add to the weight). But the potential for over-printing is there.

4. Too many mixed messages

Bond notes are not a currency, Mangudya insists. Bond notes are a currency, says VP Emmerson Mnangagwa (http://www.news24.com/Africa/Zimbabwe/zims-vp-suggests-bond-notes-will-be-a-currency-contradicting-central-bank-report-20161007). Your bank account won't be converted into bond notes, says the central bank. Oh but when you try to withdraw money from your US-dollar account at the ATM some of it (or all of it?) will come out in bond notes, says Mangudya (http://www.news24.com/Africa/Zimbabwe/zim-atms-to-dispense-bond-notes-and-us-dollars-reports-20161125). Over-keen headlines in the state press this week ("Exporters back bond notes", the Chronicle said on Wednesday) look dodgy. There are big trust issues here. 

5. The past is (not) a foreign country 

These new notes look remarkably similar to the old Zimbabwe dollar bills. And we all know what happened to THEM.

An insert in Sunday's state press shows the designs, complete with the familiar balancing rocks and the Zimbabwe bird. Remember Hector's granny, the brave Zimbabwean woman who phoned in to a radio station during an interview of protest pastor Evan Mawarire just as he was coming to prominence in May? (He's now in exile). Hector's granny spoke of losing her pension because of hyperinflation, and aroused the sympathy of many.

As Zimbabwe stands on the brink of bond notes, there will be many who fear her words will be prophetic.

After months of speculation, on Monday morning Zimbabweans finally get to see what a bond note looks like. The pseudo-currency will come in denominations of $2 and $5, and have an official value of 1:1 with the US dollar.

As the government explains it – and especially Reserve Bank Governor John Mangudya, whose brainchild this supposedly is – the bond notes will solve Zimbabwe’s crippling liquidity crisis, which has seen cash begin to disappear from the economy. In theory, bond notes can be used in lieu of the US dollars on which Zimbabweans have relied since 2009, when the Zimbabwean dollar was officially abandoned following levels of hyperinflation last seen in Germany’s Weimar Republic.

But those US dollars are fast running out. Part of the problem is that Zimbabwe imports most of what it consumes, so businessmen keep sending dollars outside of the country; another part is the notes that remain are so old and tatty that they are beginning to disintegrate.

A normal solution to this kind of problem would be to request a fat loan from the international community. This option is not really available to Robert Mugabe’s administration, which remains an international pariah. Efforts to access funding from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have been stymied by the regime’s signal failure to implement meaningful economic reforms.

Plan B is bond notes. In isolation, the idea is not terrible. Bond coins – locally-minted coins that have replaced US cents – are already in circulation, so that goods don’t have to be sold in $1 increments. They have been accepted without a fuss. So why not do the same thing, just on a larger scale?

A crucial element to the plan is that bond notes will not be forced on anyone. They will be introduced into the economy by way of a 5% “export credit”: anyone who exports $100 will get a $5 bond note bonus from the government. And, according to Reserve Bank spokespeople, the bond notes will be redeemable for real US dollars at the fixed 1:1 exchange rate at any time.

So far so good. But Mugabe’s government has failed to take into account one crucial factor which looks likely to derail the entire project: trust.

All currencies are based on trust. Those little pieces of paper we carry around in our wallets have almost zero intrinsic value. They are only as valuable as we believe them to be; and as valuable as government guarantees them to be.

Therein lies the problem. Few Zimbabweans have any trust in Mugabe’s government, especially on economic matters. And who can blame them? When Mugabe began printing money in the mid-2000s, to fund his upcoming election campaign, he triggered perhaps the most severe economic collapse in post-colonial African history. Savings evaporated, pensions were wiped out, productive businesses went bankrupt. People starved. People died.

In Harare, earlier this month, I asked every person I transacted with whether they would accept the new bond notes: taxi drivers, street vendors, hotel owners, supermarket cashiers, minibus drivers, vegetable sellers. The response was universal, and unequivocal: NO. In this response lies the seed of a new hyperinflation crisis. Don’t expect bond notes to hold their value – or, ultimately, any value.

Nor did anyone seem to believe that the bond notes would be introduced in the orderly, measured way described by the Reserve Bank. People seemed convinced that their hard-earned US dollars would be replaced without their consent. “I’m trying to withdraw my US dollars, because I think they will put bond notes in my account instead,” said a security guard I spoke to outside a major bank. “I can’t pay my rent with bond notes.”

Most concerned are civil servants. The government is the largest employer in the country, and it has been struggling to make payments to staff all year. Will it start paying staff in bond notes? Already, reports have surfaced that soldiers are first in line to receive bond notes, and that defence force boss General Constantino Chiwenga has been visiting barracks to try to defuse potential unrest.

If Zimbabwe’s government really is planning on paying its soldiers in their new pseudo-currency, it would be a sign of how desperate Mugabe has become. Any dictator knows to pay his soldiers first – in real money – or else.

Amid the economic doom and gloom, Zimbabwe’s increasingly vocal – and increasingly unified – civil society senses an opportunity. Organisations like #ThisFlag and Tajamuka are planning a series of protests against the bond notes. They are convinced that bond notes are another government scam to fill the coffers of the political elite, at the expense of the country, but they also hope that the economic crisis may hasten Mugabe’s departure.

They might be right. The old man is looking weaker than ever, and the vultures are circling. And if there’s one thing we know for sure, it is that none of his enemies can be bought off with bond notes.

In Zimbabwe, where worthless $100 trillion notes serve as reminders of the perils of hyperinflation, president Robert Mugabe is printing a new currency that jeopardises not just the economy but his own long grip on power.

Six months ago, the 92-year-old announced plans to address chronic cash shortages by supplementing the dwindling US dollars in circulation over the past seven years with 'bond notes', a quasi-currency expected at the end of November.

According to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), the bond notes will be officially interchangeable 1:1 with the US dollar and should ease the cash crunch. The central bank also promised to keep a tight lid on issuance.

After a 2008 multi-billion percent inflationary meltdown caused by rampant money-printing, many Zimbabweans are sceptical. The plan has already caused a run on the banks as Zimbabweans empty their accounts of hard currency.

Internal intelligence briefings seen by Reuters raise the possibility that the bond notes, if they crash, could spell the end of Mugabe's 36 years in charge.

A September 29 Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) report revealed the powerful army was as unhappy as the rest of the population with the new notes and had told Africa's oldest leader to "wake up and smell the coffee".
"Top security officers have told Mugabe not to blame them if Rome starts to burn," the report said. Reuters was unable to determine the author of the report. It is also unclear if Mugabe has seen the report, whose final audience is not specified. Mugabe's spokesman did not respond to requests for comment, nor was the CIO available.

But the report offers a rare glimpse into the thinking of Mugabe's security forces - the backbone of his power - and their concerns about the implosion of what used to be one of Africa's most promising economies.

"Mugabe was openly told that the bond notes are going to cause his downfall," the report said.

The notes' first test will come in the informal foreign exchange markets on the streets of Harare.

If they fall heavily in value, they are likely to unleash an inflationary spiral that could bleed the banking system of its last few dollars and wipe out Zimbabweans' savings for the second time in less than a decade, economists say.

The same happened in 2008: powerful individuals with access to dollars at the official 1:1 rate were able to buy bond notes at a discount on the unofficial market and then convert them back to dollars at face value.

"You start with one dollar, then you've got 10, then you've got 100, then you've got 1,000 - and it's not even lunchtime," said John Robertson, one of Zimbabwe's most respected private economists.

In Harare's chaotic Road Port bus station, the main terminus for those heading to and from South Africa, Zimbabwe's biggest trading partner, some bus operators are fearing the worst.

Required to pay nearly all their expenses - fuel, road tolls and police bribes in Zimbabwe and South Africa - in hard currency cash, they are particularly exposed.

"It's like being on death row. You don't know when the hangman is going to open your cell door," said ticket-seller Simba Muchenje, pulling a wad of worthless 2008 Zimbabwe dollars from his briefcase and tossing them onto the counter.

"It's just taking us back to the bad old days."

In interviews, none of eight money-changers trading South African rand and US dollars said they would accept bond notes at their $1 face value because of fears of immediate depreciation.

The rand and the US dollar have become Zimbabwe's currencies since the local dollar was scrapped in 2009. "The banks may say 1:1, but here we say 2:1. We can't afford to pay the same as the banks. I'm running a business, not a bank," said Patience, a 32-year-old money-changer.
Given Zimbabwe's recent history of hyperinflation, the RBZ is keen to allay fears the printing presses are about to go into overdrive, and that the bond notes are a roundabout route to a new Zimbabwe dollar. In public statements, the RBZ has given assurances it will not exceed the $200m issuance ceiling.

But it has not clarified how bond note balances will be recorded in US dollar accounts, nor how ATMs will distinguish between greenbacks and bond notes when they issue cash.

After the bond notes' announcement, #ThisFlag and #Tajamuka, social media campaigns targeting the new system, drew the biggest anti-Mugabe protests in a decade before being crushed by riot police and the CIO.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands across the country lined up through the night to empty their accounts the moment their pay or pensions arrive, exacerbating the liquidity crunch.

Banks have responded with daily withdrawal limits: $100 one day, $50 another, none another. Customers have no idea until the banks open their doors at 8 am.

In July, veterans of the 1964-1979 liberation war that brought Mugabe to power broke ranks, accusing him of "dictatorial tendencies" and blaming him for the "serious plight" of the economy and discord in the ruling ZANU-PF party. "We are dedicated to stop this rot," they said in a statement.

As fears over the bond notes have grown and the battle to succeed Mugabe has intensified, they have continued to flex their muscle.

"Once you go wrong with us, you automatically go wrong with the whole state apparatus," veterans leader Chris Mutsvangwa said.

The veterans enjoy warm ties with the army and security services, and want Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former security chief nicknamed "The Crocodile", to take over from Mugabe, political analysts say. On the other side is a faction attached to Mugabe's 51-year-old wife, Grace.

Mugabe responded to the growing pressure on November 19 with an address in which he admitted fallibility and gave a rare hint at retirement.

"If I am making mistakes, you should tell me. I will go," he said, before adding: "Change should come in a proper way. If I have to retire, let me retire properly." 

ZIMBABWE launched a "bond notes" currency which held its value against the U.S. dollar on Monday, despite warnings that it could cause hyperinflation and suggestions it could bring down President Robert Mugabe.

The bright green bond notes, introduced by the southern African nation's central bank to try to ease a shortage of dollars, were accepted by most businesses and black market traders.

At the Road Port bus station in the capital Harare, an informal foreign currency market, traders said the $2 bond notes were trading, as planned by the central bank, at 1:1 with the dollar.

That will provide some relief for Mugabe as many Zimbabweans fear the bond notes will quickly lose value and some have staged protests. Internal intelligence briefings seen by Reuters also raise the possibility that the bond notes, if they crash, could spell the end of the 92-year-old leader's 36-year rule.

Undeterred by a heavy downpour, illegal currency dealers swarmed round a Reuters correspondent's car offering to exchange bond notes for South Africa's rand or U.S. dollars, Zimbabwe's currencies since the local dollar was scrapped in 2009 during a battle against hyperinflation.

"For now it is the same rate whether it's bond or U.S. dollar, my brother. We will see in the next few days whether it changes," said Tatenda, a currency tout who declined to give his surname.

His business card, which gave only his first name and mobile number, summed up the lot of most of Zimbabwe's 13 million people since the multi-billion percent inflation of eight years ago wiped out the nation's savings.

"Hustlers for life, if you can't beat them, join them," the card read. "Money don't change us, but we are money changers."

Formal businesses were told they had to accept the notes as legal tender. Most did so though Zimbabweans circulated one cellphone video clip of a teller at South African supermarket chain Pick n Pay refusing to accept a $2 bond note.

There was no immediate comment from the company.

"ILL-CONCEIVED"

At independence from Britain in 1980, Zimbabwe was regarded as one of Africa's most promising prospects. But its economy has nearly halved since 2000 after the violent seizure of white-owned commercial farms and disastrous printing of money.

The secrecy of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) around the release of the notes, including its failure to publish security features or say where they are being printed, has heightened fears it will print more than a stated $200 million issuance limit.

On Sunday, before the notes were introduced, pictures of them were already circulating on social media.

The RBZ first announced plans to introduce the bond notes in May to address the chronic cash shortages and supplement the dwindling U.S. dollars that have been in circulation for the past seven years.

However, the announcement was followed by a run on the banks as Zimbabweans tried to empty their accounts of hard currency.

"People are skeptical because of what happened to our old currency in the past when the money lost its value. That is why they think it could happen again," said 36-year-old street hawker Tennison Tigere, after withdrawing $50 of bond notes.

On Monday, Prosper Mkwananzi, spokesman of social media movement #Tajamuka, which has organized some of the protests against Mugabe, was arrested while speaking to journalists about the bond notes.

"We believe that it is ill-conceived and will not resolve the crisis in the country. It is actually daylight robbery," said Mkwananzi, before being whisked away by a dozen anti-riot police at an open space in central Harare.

Even if they do not depreciate in value, many economists say the bond notes will serve only as a sticking plaster for an economy with a $250 million-per-month trade deficit.

In addition to weak exports, Zimbabwe has had to deal with a devastating drought that has left millions facing hunger and boosted the need for food imports.

Zimbabwe is $1.6 billion in arrears to the World Bank and African Development Bank, outstanding debt that prevents Harare from securing any extra financing from the two institutions or the International Monetary Fund.

She was the only woman in a prison for men. She was locked up in solitary confinement.

And she began to sing. Comforting songs in the morning, revolutionary and motivational songs in the afternoon.

That’s how democracy activist Linda Tsungirirai Masarira kept her spirits up during her 18 days in solitary at Chikurubi Maximum Prison in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare.

She’d been hauled off to prison in July after participating in a nationwide strikeand a series of anti-Mugabe street protests.

Masarira is a 35-year-old widowed mother of five. She is a former train driver and labor leader at National Railways of Zimbabwe, till she was fired last year for leading a campaign to demand the payment of back salaries.

Masarira took to activism because she wants change in Zimbabwe and the departure of 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe, who’s been in power since independence from Britain in 1980. Masarira says autocratic leaders and a crippled economy are not what Zimbabwe needs, and she blames Mugabe.

“We cannot just sit back and watch our lives go down the drain at the expense of just a few elitists who think they’re demi-gods,” fumes Masarira. “Enough is enough. We want to reclaim Zimbabwe.”

The protests that Masarira took part in were organized by Zimbabwean hashtag opposition movements like #ThisFlag and #Tajamuka, Masarira’s own group. Tajamuka” means outraged, angry and defiant in Zimbabwe’s dominant Shona language.

She says she was assaulted and manhandled by the police when she was detained.

“They denied me bail. I still remember the prosecutor saying: ‘This woman is a state security threat. We cannot allow her to walk in the streets of Harare, because she is trying to cause despondency and take over power from Mugabe,’ ” says Masarira.

Masarira became a full-time activist “because there are gross violations of human rights in Zimbabwe and I kind of realized if I didn’t speak, no one else was going to speak out. I don’t even have any weapon, except my voice and my brains.”

She says, “People were silent, people were afraid.”

Masarira is not. She tells NPR she’s been outspoken since her school days in Harare, where she was the self-appointed protector of the oppressed and the terror of bullies and would-be bullies.

”I used to stand up and fight. I was actually one of the most feared girls at our school. All the boys were scared of me, because I would beat them up when they tried to pour scorn on some girls,” she remembers and adds, smiling, “Maybe activism just comes naturally with me. I was born to fight for others.”

While in prison from July to September, Masarira was transferred to Chikurubi Maximum Prison, after being accused of inciting female prisoners at the separate women’s jail to protest against poor living conditions, food, health and sanitation.

“Those were the things that really pained me,” she says. “This is supposed to be a correctional service, yes, but when you degrade a person to these levels, what are you trying to do?”

“Prisons in Zimbabwe are just like a death trap,” she says, “where you just wait for your day to die.”

Masarira says it’s up to the youth to bring change. “We just try to seek out the opportunities to try to remove this evil regime from power, because it has made us suffer for the past 36 years. We’ve realized the political parties have failed. That’s why we’ve decided on the citizen’s movement.”

A number of young people, including Masarira, have emerged as committed freedom campaigners in recent months in Zimbabwe. They’ve been out on the streets, organizing online and pop-up anti-government street protests and demanding Mugabe’s departure. And a number have now spent time in prison.

While in solitary confinement, she read and wrote to fill the long hours. At Chikurubi prison, the men were downstairs and Masarira held upstairs, on her own, she says.

“It was very lonely the first and second day, but I had to stay positive,” she says. “I expected this when I went into activism. I told myself what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger, and I got stronger.”

So she sang to keep herself company, while the authorities taunted her that she would be in prison for a long time.

And then she laughs out loud and sings “Sunungura Zimbabwe.”

”Means like ‘Free Zimbabwe.’ I’ve got a passion to free Zimbabwe. And I used to sing that song a lot. All the male prisoners when they heard it, they’ll say like “Ah, Sunungura Zimbabwe.” It turned out that the male, inmates could hear her voice reverberate around the prison.

Asked whether this revolutionary song dated back to Zimbabwe’s war of liberation from white minority rule or was from more recent opposition to the Mugabe government, Masarira replied: “Most of the songs I sang are actually more recent songs that we composed, considering the situation that we’re in. We actually thought the liberation war was to bring in black leadership that would care for blacks.

But, she says, the new black leadership oppressed its fellow black citizens even more than during than white colonial and settler rule.

Then came freedom from prison, followed by a spell in the hospital to treat a chest infection. And then, one would expect, an emotional reunion with her family – her five children and her mother, who cared for some of them while she was in jail.But Masarira told NPR last month, “To tell you the truth, I’ve only seen one of my children. I can’t go home, because, there are always different cars parked outside my house, inquiring where I am, why I haven’t been home.”

She knows of four or five activists who were abducted and beaten after their release from prison and, as others have told NPR, injected with an unknown substance.

But Linda Tsungirirai Masarira says they won’t give up.

”We will not be silenced. We will fight on. I am fighting for my children’s lives, for my future, for my fellow Zimbabweans’ future.”

Riot police in Zimbabwe fired tear gas and beat up opposition protesters marching Wednesday through Harare against the new "bond note" currency, an AFP reporter said.

Zimbabwe's central bank on Monday rolled out the "bond notes" -- equivalent to the US dollar -- to ease critical cash shortages, despite fears of a return to the hyperinflation that wiped out many people's savings in 2009.

About 100 activists from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the pressure group Tajamuka were chanting anti-government songs when police moved in to disperse them.

The protesters also carried placards denouncing the economic policies of President Robert Mugabe, 92, whose 36-year authoritarian rule has come under increasing public criticism this year.

"Bond notes = Toilet tissue" read one placard, as others declared "No To Bond Notes" and called Mugabe "a limping donkey".

Police confronted the marchers with tear gas and water cannon, and beat up several of them with rubber truncheons.

Some shops in the capital's central business district pulled down their shutters as police chased after the demonstrators.

"We are not going to embrace bond notes," Hardlife Mudzingwa, a spokesman for Tajamuka, told AFP.

"They are being used to mop up the US dollars that people have in their accounts so that top government officials can import their personal goods."

Many cash machines now disperse half US dollars and half bond notes.

Economy in crisis

Zimbabwe abandoned its own dollar currency in 2009 after hyperinflation hit 500 billion percent.

The adoption of foreign currencies like the US dollar and the South African rand brought relative economic stability.

But the gains were soon lost as the government pursued aggressive policies that scared off investors, including indigenisation laws forcing foreign-owned companies to sell majority stakes to locals.

The country's economic decline has worsened in recent months with banks running out of US dollar notes, forcing desperate depositors to sleep overnight outside bank entrances to try to withdraw money.

Many of the remaining businesses in Zimbabwe have ground to a halt, with unemployment at over 90 percent and the government repeatedly failing to pay soldiers and civil servants on time.

The proposal to introduce "bond notes" was a driving force behind series of anti-government street protests this year, but Mugabe's ruthless police force have crushed the wave of dissent.

The new currency, which closely resembles the former Zimbabwe dollar, comes in $2 notes and $1 coins, while a $5 bond note is expected shortly.

The public reception has been mixed, with many Zimbabwe suspicious that the bond note will not hold its value to the US dollar, and others reluctantly accepting that the new notes give them some access to cash.

Some shops and fuel stations have been refusing payment in bond notes despite official orders.

The government said the new notes will be backed by a $200 million support facility provided by the Cairo-based Afreximbank (Africa Export-Import Bank).

Zimbabwean opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Secretary General, Douglas Mwonzora has said that party leader Morgan Tsvangirai's ill health "is no cause for concern". 

Tsvangirai disclosed in June that he had cancer of the colon. He has been getting chemo treatment in South Africa. 

Speaking during an interview with News24, Mwonzora said Tsvangirai was responding well to treatment. 

"His health is no cause for concern at all. He has been receiving treatment in South Africa since June and is responding well to the treatment," Mwonzora.

He said that the MDC leader was ready for the 2018 presidential election campaign.

Lengthy absence

"His illness will have no impact on his ability to campaign for 2018 elections. Many leaders across the world have ruled with an illness and still succeeded. We are aware of the concern but he will be fit for the campaign and the office," Mwonzora said.

Tsvangirai on Saturday addressed what was termed a "shutdown" rally in Harare, which was attended by thousands of his supporters. 

This was his first public appearance after a lengthy absence.

He told his supporters that he was not prepared to form another government of national unity (GNU) with President Robert Mugabe, as the country's economy continued to shrink.

"Some people are talking about forming a second GNU; No. I am not going to be part of another GNU; what we want as th eMDC are electoral reforms before the 2018 elections so that we hold elections that do not breed a predetermined outcome," said Tsvangirai.

Harare - Zimbabwe's finance minister Patrick Chinamasa says he knows that brand-new "bond notes" aren't meeting the demand for cash, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

Chinamasa told parliament that Zimbabweans' needs for cash "will be met in due course", the Chronicle reported.

President Robert Mugabe's central bank injected 10 million "bond notes" and two million "bond coins" into the system starting Monday, to local and international criticism.

Advertised as a bid to stimulate exports, bond notes are a surrogate currency just as Zimbabwe's bearer cheques were from 2003 to 2009. Overprinting back then sparked hyperinflation and widespread shortages: the central bank insists that will not happen this time.

Seventy-five million bond notes (officially at parity with the US) are due to be put into the system by the end of the year. 

Long queues 

"We're aware that the 12 million bond notes issued aren't meeting demand. The RBZ didn't want to create a situation that was inflationary," Chinamasa was quoted as saying. 

In the last two days, at least one bank has cut the amount of US they are allowing customers to take per day - although the amount of bond notes remains the same. One well-known high street bank - which is also present in South Africa - was allowing withdrawals of $100 and 25 take-it-or-leave-it bond notes on Monday, albeit with long queues. 

By Wednesday the limit had dropped to $50, but still 25 worth of bond notes. Plastic and online payments are an option for some (but far from all) transactions in Zimbabwe.

The privately-owned Newsday said the minister vowed to "punish shops found rejecting the bond notes".

Police have not given permission for the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions to hold anti bond note marches on Thursday.  A small protest in central Harare on Wednesday was quickly broken up by police with water cannons on Wednesday.

Zimbabwean  riot police used water cannon on Wednesday to scatter 20activists protesting about the introduction of “bond notes”, a new domestic currency they say could touch off uncontrolled money printing and a return to hyper inflation.’

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe launched the notes on Monday with the goal of easing chronic cash shortages and supplementing the dwindling US dollars in circulation.

In Harare, 20 youths from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) tried to march through the streets waving placards saying “No to Bond Mugabe” and “No to fake money“, but were met by a phalanx of riot police.

Having failed to stop the launch of the bond notes, which many Zimbabweans fear will erode US dollar savings, some people have tried to undermine the physical integrity of the $2 notes and $1coins.

Cellphone videos have circulated online of people rubbing the bright green $2 bond note against a sheet of white paper to leave a green smudge that they say demonstrates the poor quality of the ink and printing.

A Reuters experiment with a note also left green smears.

Critics in Zimbabwe’s small but vibrant social media community have pounced on the smudges as symbolic of the real value of the “bollars“.

They are officially exchange a bleat 1:1 to the US dollar but many people believe they will quickly start to depreciate.

“We are witnessing one of the biggest scams in history . . . Who just prints paper and determines its value?“ Claude JrK tweeted.

The Reserve Bank has asked the public to report people who deface, disfigure or illegally exchange the bond notes.

Although it hopes the bond notes will ease shortages of cash, bank queues lengthened yesterday as workers and government employees sought to withdraw monthly salaries.

Taxi driver Adrian Nyakusvipa said the new currency had brought no relief to his painfully slow business “We thought there would be a difference after the introduction of bond notes but nothing has changed so far,” he said.

“I have been parked here since morning without ferrying a single customer.”

Standing in line outside a bank in the capital, Lynely Mabona worried the new currency could be used to wipe out her US dollar bank balance.

“All I want is to get as much of my US balance as I can out of the bank,” she said.

Some banks had already run out of US dollars and were giving out only bond notes.

Across Harare, a popular saying became the common refrain: “We have no choice but to dance to the tune being played.”