The withdrawal of a software licence for printing banknotes will have catastrophic consequences for Zimbabwe, economists warned.
The licence could be withdrawn in accordance with fresh measures to be implemented by the European Union (EU) against Zimbabwe's rulers.
The Mugabe regime's final lifeline is a small Vienna-based software company that helps it to keep printing the money it relies on for its survival, Foreign Service can reveal.
Jura JSP, an Austro-Hungarian firm with just 50 employees, has been dealing with the pariah government in Harare, enabling it to keep ahead of its hyperinflation crisis.
Officials at the company confirmed on Wednesday that they have supplied the licences and software used to design and print the Zimbabwe dollar, but would review this position if required to do so by the EU.
Fresh EU sanctions announced on Wednesday do not cover all companies dealing with the Mugabe regime, but other firms named and shamed for profiting from the Zimbabwe crisis have cut all links.
The software company enables the regime to print the money it uses to pay the army, police and security agents that keep Zanu-PF in power. Without access to paper money, Mugabe would face an immediate crisis.
"If the software is withdrawn there is no language to describe what would follow," economist John Robertson said.
After withstanding years of intense international criticism, targeted sanctions and domestic pressure, a move against the software supplier could be a decisive blow against Mugabe, analysts said.
And with crucial negotiations getting under way in South Africa on Thursday between the government and the opposition, the timing could be critical.
In Harare, paper money was already running out. The embattled central bank has capped daily withdrawals to ZD100-billion per person. But this is not enough even to buy a bus ticket or a loaf of bread.
Robertson said Zimbabwe was entering a new era of unprecedented hardships and chaos regardless of whether or not Mugabe's government would be stopped from using the software.
He said he thought Mugabe's regime would ignore a ban to use the software. If that became impossible, the regime would alternatively resort to some substandard software that would produce inferior bank notes.
That would create room for counterfeits and make Zimbabwe's inflation spiral even more.
Economist Eddie Cross, a former leader of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), who is now in charge of economic policy formulation in the opposition MDC, said any withdrawal of the software by the Austrian company would have "grave consequences" for Zimbabwe.
It would destroy Zimbabwe as Mugabe would reserve the little cash available for soldiers and cronies.
The EU list of new targets for sanctions includes the central bank governor, two journalists at state-controlled newspapers and a doctor who reportedly refused to treat victims of political violence.
Most of the 37 new targets posted on Wednesday on the EU website are security force officers "directly involved in the terror campaign" waged around Zimbabwe's disputed elections.
Also under the new asset freezes and travel bans are central bank governor Gideon Gono, Attorney General Bharat Patel and cricket chairperson Peter Chingoka.
The barred journalists are Munyaradzi Huni of The Sunday Mail and Caesar Zvayi of The Herald, both accused of propagating hate speech.
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