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Zimbabwe has just £138 left in the bank
By Dan Newling, Cape Town8:40AM GMT 30 Jan 2013
Tendai Biti made the announcement at press conference on Tuesday, declaring: "Last week when we paid civil servants there was $217 in government coffers".
Mr Biti went on to tell the shocked news reporters that they were individually likely to have healthier bank balances than the state's.
"The government finances are in paralysis state at the present moment," Mr Biti admitted.
The confession is the culmination of years of ruinous economic policy by Zimbabwe's despotic president, Robert Mugabe, who has ruled the southern African country since independence from Britain in 1980.
A decade ago Mr Mugabe, now aged 88, launched his controversial policy of expropriating white-owned farmland and handing it to blacks.
The policy, which saw 4,000 white farmers forcibly kicked off their land, was economically disastrous. It also demolished investor confidence in the country, paralysed production, and prompted international sanctions.
As a result, Zimbabwe which was once the fertile "bread basket" of southern Africa and possesses fantastic mineral wealth is now one of the continent's poorest countries.
Three-quarters of the population live on less than £1 a day and over half of the work force is unemployed.
In 2008, hyperinflation in the country reached the astronomical figure of 230 million per cent meaning that paper money became worthless almost as soon as it was printed. The former British colony now uses US dollars.
Speaking on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Biti claimed that the state's dire lack of cash means it does not have enough money to organise the constitutional referendum and election that are planned for later this year.
"We will be approaching the international community to assist us in this regard," Mr Biti said.
Following a disputed election in 2008, Zimbabwe is now ruled by a coalition of Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
However, the arrangement is marred by political infighting and is widely considered to be ineffective.
Mr Mugabe is aged 88 and is reported to have pancreatic cancer. He however insists that he is the only person who can rule the country effectively.
Rather than acknowledge his own role in the country's economic collapse, Mr Mugabe blames the West, which has imposed economic sanctions in protest at his autocratic rule.
By Dan Newling, Cape Town8:40AM GMT 30 Jan 2013
Tendai Biti made the announcement at press conference on Tuesday, declaring: "Last week when we paid civil servants there was $217 in government coffers".
Mr Biti went on to tell the shocked news reporters that they were individually likely to have healthier bank balances than the state's.
"The government finances are in paralysis state at the present moment," Mr Biti admitted.
The confession is the culmination of years of ruinous economic policy by Zimbabwe's despotic president, Robert Mugabe, who has ruled the southern African country since independence from Britain in 1980.
A decade ago Mr Mugabe, now aged 88, launched his controversial policy of expropriating white-owned farmland and handing it to blacks.
The policy, which saw 4,000 white farmers forcibly kicked off their land, was economically disastrous. It also demolished investor confidence in the country, paralysed production, and prompted international sanctions.
As a result, Zimbabwe which was once the fertile "bread basket" of southern Africa and possesses fantastic mineral wealth is now one of the continent's poorest countries.
Three-quarters of the population live on less than £1 a day and over half of the work force is unemployed.
In 2008, hyperinflation in the country reached the astronomical figure of 230 million per cent meaning that paper money became worthless almost as soon as it was printed. The former British colony now uses US dollars.
Speaking on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Biti claimed that the state's dire lack of cash means it does not have enough money to organise the constitutional referendum and election that are planned for later this year.
"We will be approaching the international community to assist us in this regard," Mr Biti said.
Following a disputed election in 2008, Zimbabwe is now ruled by a coalition of Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
However, the arrangement is marred by political infighting and is widely considered to be ineffective.
Mr Mugabe is aged 88 and is reported to have pancreatic cancer. He however insists that he is the only person who can rule the country effectively.
Rather than acknowledge his own role in the country's economic collapse, Mr Mugabe blames the West, which has imposed economic sanctions in protest at his autocratic rule.
