Zimbabwe President to Move Toward Nationalizing Foreign Firms

MARTIN GEISSLER, ITV News Correspondent:

Daybreak in the townships of Harare, and the desperate struggle to survive begins. The lucky ones with jobs walk for hours to get there. The bus fare these days would cost more than they earn.

We traveled back into Zimbabwe to see firsthand the extent of the country's economic meltdown. It was even more depressing than we'd feared. As soon as you get back across the border. Everybody really wants money. I mean, you can understand why, because the currency here is so crippled, prices increase over the course of a single day.

One item will cost much more in the evening than it did in the morning. And by the end of the week, it could have gone up two, three, four, five times in price. That's why they're so desperate to get their hands on foreign exchange. In fact, they've resorted in many places to bartering. It's the only way to keep hold of the value of something, is to buy it, and then trade it on, like for like.

MARTIN GEISSLER:

Many people here are losing the struggle to survive. This is Caroline. She has five children to support but nothing left to give them. The infrastructure here is crippled. The queues for petrol stretch miles. They're lining up in hope rather than expectation.

Even more alarming is the lack of food. These pictures were filmed by our hidden cameras in a supermarket. The shelves where you'd normally find the staple supplies are empty, no bread, no milk, no meat, no maize meal. What's left is unaffordable. This tin of chopped ham would cost a factory worker more than a week's pay. That's how far this economy has sunk.

ZIMBABWEAN CITIZEN:

These guys have failed, and they really should go. Otherwise, we're all going to die in this country.

MARTIN GEISSLER:

The Mugabe government's solution to this: force all stores to half their prices, sell their goods at a loss. It's the economics of desperation, but it's being rigidly enforced. The menacing presence of this regime is never far away.

The black market is now the only place to find many essentials, but even the illegal traders we filmed were running out of stock.

The American ambassador to Zimbabwe said recently the government here is committing regime change on its own, basically making it impossible for the Zimbabwean people to do anything but rise up and get rid of him. And yet, less than a decade ago, this country had one of the strongest economies in Africa. These days, like so much of what you see here, that seems almost impossible to believe.

JIM LEHRER:

And to Ray Suarez.