Zimbabweans are counting their toes as inflation soars more than 130%

Battling rampant inflation, Zimbabweans are counting their toes as they struggle to buy food for their families.

An internet rumour blazed through the country that desperate people were selling their toes for cash.

The false report became so widespread that the country's Deputy Minister of Information Kindness Paradza visited street vendors in central Harare earlier this month to debunk it.

One-by-one the traders took off their shoes to show that they had all 10 toes, as Zimbabwe’s state media recorded the digital investigation. Paradza declared the toes-for-money story a hoax, as did local and foreign fact-checkers.

Police later arrested a street vendor who now faces a fine or 6 months in jail on charges of criminal nuisance for allegedly starting the story.

It’s starkly true, however, that Zimbabweans are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. Since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Zimbabwe’s inflation rate has shot up from 66 per cent to more than 130 per cent, according to official statistics. The war has exacerbated inflation rising around the world. 

In Zimbabwe, the impact of the Ukraine war is heaping problems on the already fragile economy. The war “coupled with our historical domestic imbalances, has created challenges in terms of economic instability seen through the currency volatility and spilling over into price volatility,” Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube told Parliament in May.

Teachers “can no longer afford bread and other basics, this is too much,” tweeted the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe in early June.

The three largest teachers' unions are demanding the government pay their salaries in US dollars because their pay in local currency is “eroded overnight.” “Because of high inflation, the local currency is collapsing,” economic analyst Prosper Chitambara told The Associated Press. “Individuals and companies no longer trust the local currency and that has put pressure on the demand for US dollars. The Ukraine war is simply exacerbating an already difficult situation.” Many fear Zimbabwe could return to the hyperinflation of 2008 which reached 500 billion per cent, according to the International Monetary Fund. At that time, plastic bags full of 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollar banknotes were not enough to buy basic groceries.