Category: News Feeds

Studying for the bar exam is a stressful bit of awfulness, but one that is necessary if you want to be a real-life attorney. It would certainly make life easier if you knew the precise subject matters that would be tested ahead of time, wouldn’t it? Well, those who are taking the July administration of the California bar exam have unexpectedly received that valuable bit of information, just a couple of days before they’re scheduled to take the test.

On Saturday evening, folks signed up to take the California bar received an email telling them the subject matters being tested on each of the essay questions. The reason why Donna Hershkowitz, Chief of Programs at the State Bar of California, took this most unusual step is that some California law school deans were inadvertently provided with the inside information. Though it is unclear how many deans were privy to the information, how long they had it, or whether anyone actually taking the bar exam on Tuesday had access to the topics, the powers-that-be at the California Bar decided in an abundance of caution to share them with everyone.

You can read the email for yourself:

Initially some suspected the email was a hoax — some bad actor causing chaos days before the exam. Indeed, in an email sent to the Class of 2019, David L. Faigman, Dean of University of California Hastings College of the Law, advised students, “Please stay confident and, for now, assume it is some profoundly misguided joke.” But it isn’t a hoax — it was confirmed as legit by the official Twitter account of the California Bar.

Well then.

As you might imagine, here at Above the Law we’ve been inundated with test takers weighing in on the snafu. Here’s just a quick sample of the comments we’ve received:

The CA bar done fucked up….

This is insane.

California Bar Made a big uh-oh

But not everyone is happy that the Bar threw a monkey wrench into the last few days of studying for the most important exam of their lives:

You can’t make this up. Please report this ASAP and help put pressure on the California Bar Association to make this right.

I don’t know what else the California Bar could have done once they realized the subjects of the exam were outside of their exclusive control. It’s certainly better that everyone has access to the information than only a select few have the heads-up to double down on their Civ Pro notes.

As Tammi Rice, Vice President of Kaplan Bar Review noted, students about to take the bar exam have to use the information to their benefit without overly obsessing over it:

“This leak represents an unprecedented situation for a widely taken bar exam and while there are still questions to be answered about how this happened, right now students’ only concern should be their final days of review. The good news for exam takers is that it eliminates about a dozen possible essay topics, so they know exactly which essay topics to focus on and which to ignore in their last days of preparation. This gives them the opportunity to hone their skills in the lead up to Test Day. We advise students to remain focused on their prep and to not let this throw them off their game. For all the students who have been studying hard for the bar exam: they’ve got this.”

Though it seems likely the information has ramped up the stress bar exam takers are feeling right now, now is not the time to lose focus. It might seem like a big reveal, but there is nothing too crazy or infrequently tested on the list (the Remedies/Constitutional Law crossover is interesting, but not overly shocking), and an objective memo is the most common PT format. Best of luck buckling down and making the most out of the precious time remaining before the bar exam.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based hospital management company Universal Health Services (UHS) has agreed to pay the U.S. Department of Justice $127 million to resolve the investigation into its behavioral health facilities.

Alongside the payment, which resolves the civil aspect of the probe from the DOJ and a number of states that UHS incorrectly billed Medicare and Medicaid programs, the government has dropped the criminal investigation against the company. The agreement is still subject to requisite regulatory approvals and has not been closed.

UHS has been dealing with the federal investigation for a number of years and executives have said the company has been paying in excess of $10 million annually in legal fees as part of the case. UHS CFO Steve Filton said on the company’s earning call that the settlement is expected to be completed by the fall.

A Buzzfeed News investigation detailed an alleged pattern of involuntary patient admissions at UHS facilities where some individuals would be held involuntarily and their condition would be upcoded to bill insurers at a higher level.

While Filton said there has been no strongly measurable impact on the business as a result of the investigation, he added that the resolution of the case “certainly can’t hurt.”

“We certainly have dedicated a significant amount of time and effort internally, on the part of some individuals, but I think we have made every effort to try not to distract our operators with the issues of this case,” Filton said. “But I think there’s no way there’s not sort of a general halo benefit.”

As part of the settlement, government will send the hospital group a corporate integrity agreement with the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services.

While a draft of that agreement has not been finalized, UHS executives predicted that the policies would include strengthening and validation of the company’s compliance program.

“The criminal investigation came to absolutely nothing so you’ll have to deal with the existing management for a while,” said UHS CEO Alan Miller on the company’s earnings call.

UHS, which earned $238 million profit on $2.9 billion of revenue in the second quarter of 2019 currently owns 288 behavioral health centers and 26 acute-care hospitals.

Those numbers continue to grow. Earlier this month, UHS won approval to develop a $33 million behavioral health hospital in Wisconsin scheduled to open in 2021.

Investors have reacted positively to the news about the settlement and favorable financial metrics from UHS with the company’s stock up more than 10 percent since the announcement.

Photo: JamesBrey, Getty Images

At the December 2017 African National Congress (ANC) leadership conference, Cyril Ramaphosa and the moderate wing of the party had been blindsided by Jacob Zuma and the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) zealots. After an emotional debate that at times degenerated into abuse and scuffles, the Ramaphosa faction had forced upon it a poisoned chalice — a policy commitment to state seizure of agricultural land which, if implemented,  on previous international history from Russia a hundred years ago through to Venezuela today, would beggar the nation.

Ramaphosa then appeared to have an abrupt change of heart. Instead of digging in his heels, he in a flash became an enthusiastic proponent of EWC, which he said would be executed “differently” from the chaotic land grabs that destroyed the economy of neighbouring Zimbabwe.

This may have been a genuine change on the part of Ramaphosa, based on the pragmatic realisation that the survival of his presidency depended on it. Alternatively, it may just be a temporary stratagem to outflank the leftist wing of the ANC, as it tilts towards the Economic Freedom Front (EFF), only then slowly to rein it in as his hold on the party apparatus becomes stronger.

After all, a runaway riderless horse can’t be stopped by simply standing in front of it. That’s to risk being smashed to pulp. The trick is to nip in from the side, seize the reins, incrementally try to slow the momentum, all the while feverishly praying for assistance.

It’s no different in SA politics when trying to contain thundering EWC populism, once the wild-eyed radicals have the bit between the teeth. No point in pluckily flinging one’s body in front of the beast, only to be crushed.

Better to grab whatever tenuous control possible and rely on support arriving quickly enough to avoid lasting damage and tears. In any case, whatever Ramaphosa’s initial game plan, this is what appears to be happening.

Within the ANC, some semblance of rationality is slowly reasserting itself. A fortnight ago, former president Kgalema Motlanthe came out strongly against EWC.

Motlanthe pointed out that Section 25 of the Constitution already fully recognised the need for restoration of rights to those who had been dispossessed of land and there is no need for an EWC amendment. He warned that for the ANC to go that route would have dire consequences.

“If property is not protected you destroy value, and if there’s no value then you won’t have an economy driving forward… If property is not protected by law, society, as we understand it today, will disappear because the kind of anarchy and chaos that would ensue is difficult to imagine.”

Motlanthe’s intervention is important, despite him, at 70, being officially retired from politics. This a man who is respected by both factions of the ANC, an old unionist, a blooded former uMkhonto weSizwe soldier, and the Marxist intellectual whom Zuma had wanted to head the ANC’s internal “school” of political education for cadres. His views matter, especially in the RET camp.

There may be softening occurring elsewhere in the EWC process. According to BusinessLive, this week, a leaked draft of the presidential expert advisory panel on land reform has recommended against a “blanket approach” to EWC, essentially calling for “just and equitable compensation”, at least in the majority of cases. However, Minister in the Presidency, Jackson Mthembu, said that such work on land reform done by the executive, that is the Cabinet, would not determine the parliamentary process to amend the Constitution to allow EWC.

In other words, a bolshy Parliament might well to choose to ignore the recommendation of all the president’s men, as embodied in the views Cabinet.  So, as with everything in SA at the moment, any movement in the sluggish body politic depends on the strength of a Ramaphosa administration that is perpetually being dragged down by its ball-and-chain, the Zuma-ites.

Any shifts on EWC within the ANC are attributable not only to such internal currents but to pressure from outside. Not only has there been a surprising resilience in the parliamentary opposition to EWC but now there is growing international antipathy.

Despite the lure of the “take back the land” populists, opposition parties that oppose EWC performed credibly in the May general election. The Democratic Alliance slid only a couple of percentage points and the Freedom Front Plus gained ground, while the combined vote for Cope and ACDP remained static. The land-invasion favouring EFF did grow, but not as much as feared, winning the support of only one-in-10 voters.

Perhaps this indicates a growing political maturity in the SA electorate. It may be that the tragic unravelling of Zimbabwe has inoculated SA to some degree against the worst manifestations of populism.

What is particularly important, and leaves the ANC and woke social media incandescent with rage, is the overseas lobbying of SA political groups against EWC. No doubt, it scours deeply the ANC psyche that the same arguments it used to convince the West to pressure the apartheid regime — international conventions on human rights — are being successfully deployed against it, mostly by right-of-centre groups.

And, what’s more, it’s beginning to work. In response to SA lobbyists, US President Donald Trump has made clear his abhorrence of EWC and the growing incidence of farm killings. At stake, just for starters, is SA’s preferential access to US markets.

At the other end of the global power scale to the US, is the Netherlands, which is nevertheless important because the Dutch were among the most active European supporters of the ANC during the struggle. It is a telling shift that the Dutch second chamber this month passed, by 86-64, a motion condemning EWC as contrary to both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the African Charter of Human Rights. It instructed the Dutch government, bilaterally and in international forums, to pressure the SA government to abandon its EWC intentions.

This is the first such motion passed in a Western legislative assembly but unlikely to be the last. Here is potentially a fertile political field for tilling by the likes of Solidarity and AfriForum, which have eschewed the racist rhetoric of the rabid right, to calmly but remorselessly hoist the ANC on its own petard, that of international law.

Post published in: Agriculture

AFP

In our series of letters from African writers, journalist-turned-barrister Brian Hungwe says many people in Zimbabwe are struggling to cope with long power blackouts as the country’s financial crisis worsens and fears of hyperinflation grow.

With both the government and families battling to pay electricity bills, many children now do their homework by candlelight.

For the last month, as soon as the sun goes down at six o’clock, candles are lit so they can settle down to complete their assignments.

It is only after they have gone to bed that the electricity comes on – usually at around 22:00 local time.

The children then have to be woken the next morning before 05:00 if they want a warm breakfast, as that is when the blackout starts again. It could be their only hot meal of the day.

This family in the capital, Harare, now uses torch light to cook their evening meal over a fire

It is like that in most households unless you have invested in solar power or a generator – but the latter is difficult to rely on because of severe petrol and diesel shortages and long queues at garages.

Other people have resorted to wood to cope with the 18-hour daily blackouts – which can be purchased from the roadside vendors who, quick to spot a business opening, now populate the roads leading to residential areas with their bundles of logs.

This means deforestation is on the rise.

Mobile cash hit

The electricity rationing, known as load shedding, is also crippling the economy and robbing people of sleep.

I know people who are doing their ironing after 22:00, when they should be heading to their beds, or staying up late into the early hours to cook meals for their family.

A charity that runs a retirement home has appealed for help as it struggles amid the blackouts.

“We need to run on generators, not only to heat our water so people can bath, and enjoy hot meals – but more importantly, for people who rely on oxygen provision to keep them comfortable, and ultimately alive,” BS Lion said in its appeal.

Many businesses that rely on electricity have resorted to working a night shift.

You now see artisans such as welders and carpenters heading out to work in the evening to make the most of the seven hours of electricity.

The industrial area to the south of Harare, which the economic mayhem of recent decades has left a shadow of its former self, is still ominously quiet during the day.

Last Saturday, the country’s biggest mobile phone operator, Econet, shutdown for more than six hours thanks to a blackout after its own generators failed – this hit those out doing their weekly shopping as millions rely on mobile money to pay as cash is still in short supply here.

Such prolonged blackouts are a big threat to production in the mining and agriculture sectors – and could bring job losses.

Mining contributes a huge chunk to Zimbabwe’s foreign currency earnings – something the country, which imports nearly everything, desperately needs.

Farmers complain that it is hard to irrigate crops – which they need to do in this winter season when there is no rain.

Unpaid bills

And it is rain – or the lack of rain – that the government blames for these problems.

A drought has reduced water levels at Kariba cutting electricity production

The country has one hydropower plant – Kariba – but it is failing to supply its usual amount of electricity because of low water levels cause by drought.

It now only generating 358MW instead of its usual 1,050MW. Zimbabwe needs 1,700MW each day to meet demand.

A coal-fired power plant in Hwange is also facing problems caused by its ageing and crumbling infrastructure, only three of its six units are operational.

Zesa, the state power firm, which would usually have been able to buy electricity from its neighbours in such circumstances, has been unable to do so because it has failed to pay its outstanding bills – it owes $83m (£66.4m) to South Africa and Mozambique.

Last month the government said it was paying $10m to South Africa’s power utility, Eskom, which has its own problems meeting demands, as part of negotiations to open up supplies.

Zesa also blames its cash-strapped customers for failing to pay their bills and it has proposed that mining firms pay for their electricity in US dollars.

This flies in the face of government policy which last month banned the use of foreign currencies that had been legal tender for the last decade – in its bid to stabilise the economy.

But the situation appears to be spiralling out of control because of a severe shortage of foreign currency, something that will only improve if exports grow.

The most recent figures suggest inflation has risen sharply over the last year. In May it was 98% and by June, annual inflation stood at 176%. So, the trend is not encouraging.

Solar power is definitely the country’s one growth area – panels and such gadgets are mushrooming on rooftops.

Yet it seems Zimbabweans will have to continue operating in the dark for some time to come.

Post published in: Business

Mupfumira is the first senior government official to be interrogated by the commission, which was appointed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa last week after he promised tough action against graft.

The prosecution laid out charges ranging from alleged abuse of state pension fund money to finance Mupfumira’s political campaigning to directing investments of up to $62 million into a bank against the advice of the pension fund’s risk committee.

Mupfumira is also accused of leaning on the pension fund to enter into property deals with the same bank worth $15.7 million.

The charges arose from Mupfumira’s tenure as labour minister between 2014 and 2018, when she oversaw the state pension fund.

“While some amounts have been identified, where they went to, there are other amounts which the police and officers at the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission have failed to find. She has managed to hide that money very well,” prosecutor Michael Reza said in court.

Transparency International says Zimbabwe loses $1 billion to corruption every year.

Zimbabwe’s state pension fund, which has assets exceeding $1 billion, has often been targeted for looting by politicians and public officials, none of whom have been prosecuted until now.

The auditor general completed a forensic audit into the state pension fund in March. Opposition parliamentarians, who believe the report details extensive fraud, have been pushing for it to be released, but Labour Minister Sekai Nzenza says she is under no obligation to do so.

The new anti-graft body has, however, said the audit report forms the basis of one of 200 corruption cases it is currently pursuing.

Mupfumira will remain in custody until a magistrate rules on Saturday on the prosecutors’ request to keep her in custody for 21 days while further investigations are carried out.

Elton Mangoma, an opposition official who was energy minister in 2011 under a power-sharing government, was the last sitting minister to be arrested, on graft charges relating to a fuel supply contract. He was later acquitted.

Post published in: Featured

Mozambique has threatened Zimbabwe with sanctions, after repeatedly warning Harare against imposing trade sanctions on a variety of goods exported from Maputo including alcohol, according to a report in the Zimbabwe media.

Pindula News reported that Mozambique’s Minister of Trade and Commerce, Rajendra De Sousa allegedly told Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa that the ban could be met with retaliation.

During a business seminar in Maputo, De Sousa told Mozambican industrialists that Zimbabwe had placed bottlenecks for trade between the neighbours in clear violation of the SADC Free Trade Protocol agreement.

The minister said that he told Mnangagwa that Mozambique could also close its border with Zimbabwe for three days which would complicate life for Harare.

A similar incident took place in 2017 with Malawi, after it too had banned several products being imported from Mozambique.

Mozambique closed its border with Malawi for several hours, after which numerous telephone calls were made and delegations sent to Maputo to resolve the impasse.

“Mozambique has this weapon, which is our geographical location. If they stick to the strategy of not using the law and using mechanisms, we will do the same,” De Sousa warned.

Mozambique is Zimbabwe’s closest gateway to the sea and key imports such as fuel, maize and wheat come through the port of Beira.

* Poor Rudy Giuliani complaining about how the $800K he’s already made this year simply isn’t enough. [Bloomberg]

* Drug dealer says she doesn’t care about harm to the public. [PBS]

* Trump’s efforts to shut down tax record subpoenas stymied by precedent. On the other hand, “precedent” is a legal concept that the current Supreme Court has more or less eradicated. [Law360]

* If you’re interested in a collection of bad takes on the latest Amy Wax controversy, this article has you covered with both Brian Leiter and John Banzhaf! [National Law Journal]

* Politicians are coming for Section 230 and it’s pretty clear they haven’t even bothered to read the existing language. [NY Times]

* White-collar work is slowing down. Something tells me this next recession is going to kick it into gear. [NY Law Journal]

* Robert Mueller’s most important testimony was less about Donald Trump and more about on-going Russian interference in elections. So obviously Mitch McConnell has smothered all legislation aimed at impeding the Russians. [Huffington Post]

Parliament Invites Public Written Comments on Three Bills:

(1) Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Amendment Bill

(2) Freedom of Information Bill

(3) Coroner’s Office Bill

Parliament has in separate public notices dated 23rd July invited the public to make comments on the above-mentioned Bills.  In each case the deadline for receipt of written submissions is Friday next week, 2nd August.

How to Submit Comments

The notices follow a standard form, setting out the reason for the invitations, addresses for submission of comments, and a contact person at Parliament for clarification of queries, as follows:

Section 141 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe provides that:

“Parliament must—

(a) facilitate public involvement in its legislative and other processes and in the processes of its committees;

(b) ensure that interested parties are consulted about Bills being considered by Parliament, unless such consultation is inappropriate or impracticable …”.

In compliance with this constitutional provision, and as part of public consultations meant to enhance participatory democracy, the Parliament of Zimbabwe is inviting comments on the … Bill, for consideration by the relevant Committee(s).

All comments must be submitted to the following e-mail addresses: [email protected] or[email protected]. Alternatively, written submission can be sent to: Parliament of Zimbabwe, Corner Third Street and Kwame Nkrumah, PO Box CY 298, Causeway, Harare. All submissions must be received on or before Friday 2nd August 2019.

Targeted public and stakeholder consultations on this very important Bill will be conducted in due course on dates to be advised.

For any clarification, you may get in touch with Mrs Luciah Nyawo, Assistant Clerk of Parliament on email [email protected]

Copies of the Bills are Available

The Bills are available on the Veritas website using the following hyperlinks:

Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Amendment Bill [link]

Freedom of Information Bill [link]

Coroner’s Office Bill [link]

Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information supplied.

Post published in: Business

Zimbabwe is faced with widespread hunger because the country lacks the hard currency needed to import basic food, and a new currency introduced in June has provided little relief.

This week a United Nations spokesman said the situation “was moving from a crisis to an emergency”.

In late June the finance minister Mthuli Ncube said the jumble of foreign money in use since 2009 would be replaced with domestic paper instead. “The British pound, United States dollar, South African rand, Botswana pula and any other foreign currency whatsoever shall no longer be legal tender alongside the Zimbabwe dollar in any transactions in Zimbabwe,” he said in a public statement.

The country had abandoned the Zimbabwe dollar, its currency since 1980 after hyperinflation reached 500 billion per cent by 2008. At the time, the government was desperately trying to print its way out of a financial crisis, churning out money that quickly became valueless as soon as it hit the streets.

Now, a new Zimbabwe dollar is being put out but it has not solved an essential problem: the lack of hard currency such as the US dollar that is needed to pay for vital imports such as food. Consequently, aid agencies warned in July of impending starvation, with up to a third of all households now facing a food crisis, as local suppliers run out of hard currency to pay for imports.

The World Food Program (WFP) says that up to 4.7 million people could be starving by the end of this year.

“Given the scale and scope of the food insecurity in Zimbabwe the WFP is planning to scale up to assist over two million people,” WFP spokesperson Herve Verhoosel said. “Resources must now be mobilised.”

One of the largest food producers, Lobel’s Bakery said at the beginning of July that it would close its bakeries in Bulawayo and Harare indefinitely, cutting production in half. Lobel’s said the closures were unavoidable because local flour mills were unable to supply enough flour to bake bread.

In the cities, fuel queues of up to 2 kilometres are being reported, as supplies of petrol and diesel run short because retailers have limited access to dollars, euros and rands. For motorists the misery of queuing is compounded by thieves who strip parts from drivers’ cars left overnight in fuel lines to make sure they can fill up the next day.

Meanwhile, the government has stopped issuing passports because it does not have the foreign currency to pay for the special inks and paper required for travel documents.

“The passport situation is just the tip of the iceberg,” says Dewa Mavhinga, Southern Africa director with the Africa Division at Human Rights Watch. “The country is in a huge crisis politically and economically. It’s a reflection of the massive mismanagement that is happening now.”

Perhaps most pressing for Mr Mnangagwa and the ZanuPF party he leads is how to compensate civil servants, who have seen the purchasing power of their salaries collapse as the new currency is introduced. The civil service continues to eat most of the country’s $8 billion (Dh29.3bn) national annual budget at a time when inflation is officially running at 176 per cent, the highest in 10 years.

Now government employees, including police and soldiers, have started holding protests to demand their salaries be adjusted upwards. They claim the new currency’s official exchange rate is not matched by its real-world purchasing power.

The Apex Councils for civil servants and health services, the main government employee union, says a starting salary of $500 that its members had previously received, is now worth less than $50 in terms of buying power because they are now paid in Zimbabwe dollars.

“Our situation is untenable,” says David Dzatsunga, Apex council secretary. “We cannot afford to go to work as usual, we cannot pay our children’s school fees, we are failing to meet our health bills – a lot of things we were able to do, we cannot afford to do any longer.”

A worker previously earning $500 should now be paid $5,000 in Zimbabwean dollars to reach the same earnings level as previously, Apex says.

Given the importance of the civil service in helping the ruling party ZanuPF cling to power, cranking up the minting press seems inevitable.

Steve Hanke, professor of Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University in the US and a scholar of Zimbabwe’s economic implosion, said in a tweet that inflation is even higher than the official rate, which will force the government’s hand in reaching a settlement with its employees. “Since making the US dollar illegal, Zimbabwe’s inflation has soared. Today, by my measure, the annual inflation is 546 per cent a year. Zimbabwe will raise civil servant wages, which already eat up most of the budget, in an attempt to maintain living standards in death spiraling Zimbabwe.”

Printing money is something Zimbabwe has experience with. This was the disastrous strategy applied in the early 2000s, when the economy collapsed after ex-president Robert Mugabe began driving white farmers off their land. Agriculture was the main provider of export finance and as the farmers left, state coffers ran dry.

Unable to pay civil servants, whose salaries account for more than 90 per cent of Zimbabwe’s budget, according to Reuters, Mr Mugabe ordered the central bank to simply print money.

The result was catastrophic runaway inflation that saw a trillion dollar note trading against just one greenback. By 2009 the government raised the white flag and scrapped the currency, and made the US dollar, euro and rand legal tender instead.

This did indeed bring rocketing prices to a screeching halt. However, it also introduced a whole new problem: cash liquidity.

Without the authority to print its own money, Zimbabwe has depended on the unreliable inflows of cash from business transactions. Electronic funds in bank accounts could not be turned into cash, because there was not enough to meet demand. Banks began to ration customers, limiting withdrawals to as little as $20 a day, regardless of how much they had in their accounts.

The spread between US dollars in the bank and dollars in hand began to widen, reaching as high as 70 per cent by late last year. “If I have an expense to pay such as school fees, and I need $2,000, it will cost me more if I pay by electronic transfer than if I pay cash,” says Vince Musiwa, an economist based in the capital Harare. “So before I can pay, I have to first spend a few days trying to secure the money in cash, or I might have to pay thousands more.”

Various strategies to provide liquidity were tried, with limited success. “Bond notes”, a pseudo currency, were introduced by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in 2016, with a printed value of Z$2 and technically equal to the US dollar. These were never popular with consumers or businesses and never really caught on.

In February this year, Zimbabwe introduced the real-time gross settlement dollar, or RTGS, in the hopes of weening the public off the greenback. It proved no more popular than its predecessor and quickly began trading at a discount to other currencies.

The country had even considered exclusively adopting the rand, the currency of its neighbour South Africa, and hoped to import cash from Pretoria, the president of Zimbabwe Emmerson Mnangagwa said in June. However, the South African reserve bank had made “unacceptable” demands that could not be met, he added.

“South Africa’s Reserve Bank wanted to know our GDP and other things that we did not agree with. This was because they would have had to print the requite value of currency for circulation in Zimbabwe.”

It was yet another reason for many in Zimbawe to look to the near future with a sense of foreboding.