Where exactly do you begin commenting on something so stupid? The part that gets me is the money was “payment for my house.” If so, it must beat Bill Gates’ all to hell.
Zimbabwe: Businessman Loses $1,2bn Cash in Fire
A businessman lost $1,2 billion cash in a fire that gutted a room he had booked at Ngundu Rocky Motel, 100km south of Masvingo along the Masvingo-Beitbridge Highway at the weekend.An electric fault is believed to have caused the fire that destroyed two rooms and property worth billions of dollars. Electricity had been intermittently switching on and off for the entire day and crackling sounds could be heard from the electricity meter box, each time the intermittent outages occurred. Workers at the motel owned by Bulawayo businessman Mr Jonathan Gapare also said that at times sparks could be seen whenever the lights were switched on. Willias Shumba, the owner of Yatko Investments, an indigenous company based in Chiredzi, escaped the blaze after he had left the room to have some food and booze when the fire started. “I have been using this lodge on my business trips for three years now, but for all this time I had never been allocated room 2. The loss of my money is a very bitter pill to swallow as it was payment for my house, which I had sold in Chiredzi.
“We met at this motel with the buyer who was coming from Beitbridge because it was a central locati on for both of us. In the afternoon he came and handed me $1,2 billion in cash and we were meant to meet again to finalise the transfer of ownership during the week. “I then left the cash on the bed and went out to get some food and beer as there was nothing to eat at the lodge because there was no electricity. “I guess that is why I am still alive to talk to you now. On my return there were still no lights so I carried on drinking in my car and I fell asleep,” said Mr Shumba, as he related the ordeal. The manager of the motel, who refused to divulge her name, cried loudly during the fire as she thought that Mr Shumba had been trapped in the room.She heaved a sigh of relief when a shocked Mr Shumba dashed out of his car and headed for the blazing room screaming, “Mune mari yakawanda mumba umo” (There is a lot of money in that room). Later Mr Shumba narrated how he got to know about the fire. “I was surprised when this lady yanked the door of my car open and said thank God y ou are still alive because my room was in flames. Then it slowly dawned upon me as my drunken stupor cleared that all my money was in that room. I bolted out of my car and made straight for the fire,” added the dejected businessman.
I wonder if that was actually 1.2 billion US dollars. Looking it up, 1.2 billion Zambia Kwacha is worth about $350,000. That seems more reasonable. Doesn’t make the guy any less stupid, though.
“I then left the cash [1.2 billion dollars] on the bed and went out to get some food and beer as there was nothing to eat at the lodge because there was no electricity.”
Well?!? Did he purchase the Brooklyn Bridge after his pocket change when up in flames?
Get a grip everyone. The money was in Zimbabwean dollars. One US dollar buys about 102,000 Zim dollars. That works out to the equivalent of US$ 10,000. I am sure that was still a disaster for the man but not worth a blog entry.
I was listening to NPR the other day and they were discussing the mounds of cash that people have to carry around every day for things like groceries. The person being interviewed said that a normal trip to the grocery store is a $30,000,000 expenditure. The government took the farms away from the white farmers in order to give them to the black people. The farms went from making a profit to losing money. In order to keep the farms running, the government has been subsidising operations. However, the government has nothing of value to subsidize operation with except currency, which they simply print as needed, leading to 1,000% inflation. To top it all off, the largest bill is $1,000. Certainly helps put things into perspective.
In the afternoon he came and handed me $1,2 billion in cash and we were meant to meet again to finalise the transfer of ownership during the week.
Not something you’d hear The Donald saying, is it?
Handing-over 1.2-billion in cash, but not finalizing the transaction until later in the week…
(if it were dollars) 1.2 Billion to throw around.. must have been a Cheney employee on his way to meet with Halliburton to buy a couple of truckloads of gasoline.
Impossible. If the largest denomination is 1000, and he claims to have lost 1,200,000,000 then that would be a minimum of 1.2 Million bank notes. If each bill is 0.005” think, that would mean the stack would be 240” high (20 ft) with no air between any bill. If each bill was 2.5” x 5.0” then that would work out to 20.83 cubic feet. That is a little more then could fit into even three or four large suitcases.
#4, Pedro. When does your Nazi outfit meet? Every week? Face it, more people died under the brutal regimes of the right wing dictators throughout Latin America in any year then have by all the democracies and left wing dictatorships in history. I guess you Nazis really hate it when you have to stop murdering the peasants. That must surely ruin your day.
You’re right Fusion, Zimbabwe is a good governance panacea.
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