Friday, August 31, 2007
Mugabe assures war vets he is going nowhere
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
After empire
A lot of his criticisms would apply to the rural Philippines.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Mbeki parrots Mugabe's line on sanctions
".....There are no sanctions currently imposed on Zimbabwe by Western nations or anyone else. There are targeted sanctions that affect only the ruling elite assets and their ability to travel. Yet Robert Mugabe, who is acknowledged by many as a master of propaganda, has managed to create a media frenzy around this issue, constantly blaming sanctions for destroying Zimbabwe’s economy. Now South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki is reported to have adopted this spin....
The South African president is also quoted as saying: "Sanctions also damage the image of Zimbabwe, causing a severe blow to her tourist sector.” Mbeki made other policy recommendations, but it is the “sanctions” issue that has aroused concern.
Piers Pigou, a researcher on Southern Africa at The National Archives in South Africa, said there is a media war taking place between those who support Mugabe and those who want to see him go. He described the whole sanctions issue as “nonsense which is being peddled by ZANU-PF and its apologists.” He said sanctions are a smokescreen that is not really there but it has given SADC and Africa in general a “headache.” Pigou said issues are sometimes over-exaggerated or twisted by both sides to achieve a certain purpose.
Pigou also blamed the lack of direct information from Mbeki and SADC leaders for some of confusion that is making the rounds in reports on Zimbabwe. He said Mbeki’s “quiet diplomacy” has led to a broader problem of misrepresentation by the media, and his ability to explain things clearly has been problematic.”
Mugabe's military might be fading
The former airman said: "We didn't have enough food to eat when we did fly, and our pay was Z$150,000 (about £4 in April). We complained but they said everyone was suffering from British sanctions.
"At home I saw friends who didn't have a secondary school education coming from South Africa with many things, and we had absolutely nothing, I couldn't even buy food for my mother.
"Last year I spent four months without flying and that was when I started thinking of leaving."
Monday, August 27, 2007
It's your own fault
Cape Town - Zimbabweans have the government they chose to elect and it is up to them to sort out their problems, says Finance Minister Trevor Manuel....
Responding to criticism from Democratic Alliance MP Eddie Trent, who said such a view was heartless and irresponsible, Manuel said he stood by the right of Zimbabweans to elect their democratic government.
"And what you have in Zimbabwe is an elected government, elected... on universal franchise by all of the people of Zimbabwe. That is a fact," he said, to loud calls and jeers from opposition benches.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Think tanking on Zimbabwe
There was a connection between intellectual entrepreneurs and Mugabe’s sane political behaviour (if you really want to classify Marxist-Leninist ideology under this category!) Mugabe himself being a self-taught intellectual, it is not surprising that independent Zimbabwe went on to have leading institutes in Southern Africa that were torch bearers in the discourse not just on economic reconstruction, poverty alleviation, social arts and health practices but also the eradication of Apartheid. Moeletsi Mbeki and his brother Thabo will remember such institutes during their days in Harare.
Between 1980 and 1990, such institutions (or ‘thinkers’) rose rapidly, top of the intellectual pile being Zimbabwe Institute of Development Studies (ZIDS) and Southern Africa Policy and Economic Studies (SAPES). Many intellectuals who fired up ZANU pf’s socialist rhetoric were found in these ‘Think tanks’. They argued that for almost a century, black Zimbabweans had been systematically excluded from the national cake. The fires of social investment and rapid re-distribution of wealth were consequently fanned. This gave rise to development economics; social and political scientists; securing of lucrative jobs and consultancies in public, private and civic society sectors where their egos continued to blossom....
Of greater interest was the use of intellectual entrepreneurs by the Robert Mugabe-controlled public broadcaster to peddle one-party state propaganda in the name of a benevolent revolutionary government....
In 1998, the ‘Zimbabwe Programme for Economic and Social Transformation’ appeared and then the forgettable ‘Millennium Economic Recovery Program’ in 2000.
For a nation pampered for a long time by a benevolent socialist government, we black Zimbabweans were not used to the rigours of market competition. The poverty meter began to tick the wrong direction for the weak. Robert Mugabe’s ‘thinkers’ pushed him to disown the Lancaster House Constitution by transforming his position into executive presidency and tighten his grip on political power.
......Retired High Court Judge Enoch Dumbutshena gathered his peers around The Forum, a loose political coalition of intellectual entrepreneurs, to confront Robert Mugabe’s hegemony....
A series of ‘policy catastrophes’ followed – the Mozambique war, the Matebeleland massacres, the Democratic Republic of Congo war, Fast Track Land Reform and War Veteran Compensation. Zimbabwe sank further and further into the abyss. The fate of the first generation intellectual entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe had been sealed!
Friday, August 24, 2007
Mugabe and the churches
To many African leaders, Mugabe is seen as a hero of the struggle against European dominance of the continent. But, in the end, the Zimbabwe of Robert Mugabe remains remarkably similar to its predecessor, the Rhodesia of Ian Smith. The white authoritarian tyranny of Smith relied on distinct forms of prejudice, and so does the black kleptocratic tyranny of Mugabe—both abjectly refusing to recognize the inviolable rights of man.
Against Smith’s Rhodesia, the Catholic bishops took a stand, declaring that law based on race prejudice was “utterly to be condemned . . . ...
And now, against Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, the Catholic Church has taken another stand, led by Mugabe’s most outspoken foe, Pius Ncube, the archbishop of Zimbabwe’s second-largest city, Bulawayo.
While Mugabe maims and starves, Ncube stands as the heroic voice of his countrymen. He has repeatedly called Mugabe evil and compared him to Pol Pot. His phones are tapped, he is monitored by state security around the clock, and government agents have twice raided the home of his elderly mother. ....The problem of Zimbabwe—the ideology of liberation-hero worship, demanded by the Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF)—is common in Africa. It is the woeful norm across the continent, where organizations that fought for independence from colonial rule view themselves as now having the right to rule in perpetuity....
the rest of the essay is found at link
Thursday, August 23, 2007
time to push the politics of engagement
.....
Ex Rhodesian sees irony in west's love of Mugabe
"...Throughout the Rhodesian Civil War, Western Media supported Mugabe’s so called “Freedom Fighters”, as did the World Council of Churches and many other Christian Organisations… and most Western Governments; they provided both moral and financial support to Mugabe and his terrorists. Everyone wanted Democracy for Africa. Sound familiar? (Because it is oil rich, it is unlikely that Iraq will end up with millions starving, but will “democracy” ever bring peace to the place?)
In Zimbabwe, no opposition has ever been allowed to win an election – everyone knows that the elections are rigged. People who are known to support Mugabe’s opposition are killed, or beaten and starved – their homes destroyed – unless they learn to vote for Mugabe’s party...."
Mugabe starts them young
A recent meeting of Zanu-PF's governing body agreed to militarise and politicise the 21st February Movement, starting with pre-school toddlers. The programme, which will be compulsory for all children, is titled, with surprising frankness, 'Operation Catch Them Young'....
Plans include dressing even the smallest children in green uniforms and teaching them to march and chant Zanu-PF slogans. The aim is to have fanatical kids as young as four screaming their loyalty to Mugabe in unison....
This planned brainwashing of all our young people clearly has many purposes, but one purpose in particular the Politburo was happy to set down and spell out in the official minutes. "The President," it recorded, "should be President for Life."
Election news
JOC plans to starve the nation unveiled
Source Date: 16-08-2007
The Joint Operations Command - a think tank of top security officials - is enforcing a deliberate and systematic ploy of using food to ensure President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party retains power.Millions of people are going hungry not ... because of poor rains but as a direct result of policies ... denying food to opposition supporters and enriching its loyalists.
An elaborate plan hatched by the JOC to ban food imports, which has been reversed after being shamelessly exposed, forms part of this broad plan....
Zim inflation hits all time high
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's inflation rate has leapt to a record high, official data showed on Wednesday, raising pressure on President Robert Mugabe to ease an economic crisis that foes hope will weaken the veteran leader.
Zimbabwe's inflation -- already the highest in the world -- hit 7,634.8 percent in July, reminding Zimbabweans there is no relief in sight from daily hardships including chronic food, fuel and foreign currency shortages.
Although the government says the inflation figure is correct, many analysts and critics say it is likely much higher. The International Monetary Fund said last month inflation may reach 100,000 percent by year-end.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Mugabe tightens grip on Zim
"...Zimbabwe's lawmakers have started debating changes to the country's constitution which could see President Robert Mugabe tighten his grip on power.
Zimbabwe's Opposition claims that the Government's proposed changes to the constitution will enhance Mr Mugabe's chances at next year's election.
Those changes include the alteration of electoral boundaries and the empowerment of Parliament to choose a President if a vacancy arises between elections.
That may allow Mr Mugabe to anoint his own successor if he were to step down....
South Africa: Zim must solve it's own woes
"We must encourage Zimbabweans to solve their own problems. That is the most we can do because the decisions have to be carried by Zimbabweans into perpetuity," Manuel said in a heated exchange in parliament.
"For those who don't understand, I ask that President Bush recruit them and send them to Iraq," a visibly angry Manuel said amid heckling from opposition lawmakers. "Then they will understand what regime change is about."
Ah yes....just allow murderous dictators in place, so that their followers don't continue to kill innocent civilians after they are kicked out of power...Sunday, August 19, 2007
Give us a break please and go...
As the crisis deepens, the philosophy of Mugabe's bankrupt regime is increasingly becoming more frozen. Their thinking is polarised and paranoid, with dangerous emotional overtones and anxiety. Frankly speaking, Mugabe's tunnel vision won't take us anywhere.
Desperate Zimbabweans are now flocking into neighbouring countries to buy food -- including the staple mealie-meal, beef and salt -- in a bid to fend off hunger. Clear conditions of a man-made famine -- are now developing in Zimbabwe.
Famines are usually the product of drought, crop failure and pestilence, and man-made causes such as war or misguided economic policies.
In Zimbabwe the problem is clearly man-made. Leadership and policy failures have caused the food shortages and suffering....
While Zimbabwe is not facing famine, conditions for mass starvation are there. The country has no food in the shops, let alone grain reserves. The World Food Programme says a quarter of the population needs food aid. We are now relying on food handouts from poor countries such as Malawi and Zambia and buying goods from prospering neighbours such as South Africa. This is what is largely keeping us going...."
Chinese entrepeneurs in Africa
You Xianwen sold his pipe-laying business in Chengdu, in southwest China, this year to move to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, to join a startup company with a Chinese partner he had met only online. “Back where I come from we are pretty independent people,” Mr. You, 55, said. “My brothers and sisters all supported my decision to come here. In fact, they say that if things really work out for me, they would like to move to Africa, too.”
Mr. You said he had considered other African countries before settling on Ethiopia, including Zambia. “Luckily I didn’t decide to go there,” he said, explaining that he had been frightened by the recent anti-Chinese protests in that country.
His new business, ABC Bioenergy, builds devices that generate combustible gas from ordinary refuse, providing what Mr. You said would be an affordable alternative source of energy in a country where electricity supplies are erratic and prices high.
South African conference refuses to pressure Mugabe
Mugabe, left, was received warmly at the summit of his southern African peers [AFP]
"....
"The summit welcomed the progress and encouraged the parties to expedite the process of negotiations and conclude the work as soon as possible so that the next elections are held in an atmosphere of peace," it said in reference to presidential and parliamentary elections due to take place next year.
Mugabe wants to seek another term. Critics say state control of the media, widespread intimidation and the clampdown on the pro-democracy movement gives Mugabe's party an overwhelming advantage going into the poll.
Mugabe, who drew the biggest applause on the opening day of the summit on Thursday, was absent without explanation for the closing session.
A Zambian official familiar with the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the 83-year-old autocrat was in a defiant mood.
Levy Mwanawasa, the Zambian president, whose country took over the rotating chair of the 14-member organisation, earlier this year likened Zimbabwe to a "sinking Titanic."
But during the summit, he was more cautious and merely called on Zimbabweans to "maintain peace and stability" lest they move "further backwards."....."
Friday, August 17, 2007
Two die in sugar stampede
Zenzele spoke to several witnesses who said the security guard opened a gate to let the shoppers in, and they pushed forward and knocked over a brick wall. The boy is reported to have tried climbing over and wound up under the bricks as the wall fell over. The witnesses said the victims did not get help immediately.
According to The Chronicle, the schoolboy was a Form Two pupil at Sobukhazi High School in Mzilikazi. He died at Mpilo Central Hospital after fracturing both legs and an arm. The security guard did not stand a chance. The report said he tried running as the wall fell toward him but was not fast enough. Several people were injured, and some with minor injuries were carried home by relatives.
Govt to reveal More Smears about Ncube
He revealed: “The CIO and their bosses were shocked by the public sympathy for Archbishop Ncube after the sex scandal broke.
“That is why the government later ordered the state media to stop using nude pictures depicting the bishop in bed with women. They hope Plan B and C will finish him off.”
Implacable sources said the state media was “already armed with the facts” and were “waiting for a signal” from the CIO to unleash the story. Just as in the first allegations, they will wait for Sibanda to file his lawsuit in court before running the story.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
The students are protesting on YouTube
But they still managed to post a video on You tube...(headsup SWRA)
Zim election watch
Apparently aware of efforts within his party to block his standing for next year's elections, Mugabe has deployed the political commissar, youths and women leaders on his side to intimidate the pro-change faction within Zanu PF.
Activists, including nursing mothers, who tried to hold a demonstration were rounded up at the offices of the National Constitutional Assembly and taken to Harare central police station where they were beaten relentlessly for up to five hours.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party has filed a Z$504 billion lawsuit against the police for violently crushing a court-sanctioned rally earlier this year.
A secret memo emanating from the Central Intelligence Organisation states that 25 local journalists suspected of supplying stories to foreign media will be 'eliminated'; by the end of the year. Authorities continue to employ a range of restrictive legislation - including the official Secrets Act, the AIPPA, the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), and criminal defamation laws - to harass journalists.
Grain supplies running low in Zim
He said the situation was the same at Harare’s main depot, Aspindale, where millers from the rest of the country collect their consignments.
In a recent report, The Herald, a government newspaper, revealed that the winter wheat harvest this year was half the size of last year’s, and that only 45,000 hectares instead of the projected 76,000 had been harvested.
In June this year, FEWS NET warned that Zimbabwe faced a shortfall of one million tonnes of maize, sorghum and millet – about 800,000 tonnes of it maize. It urged the government and donor community to mobilise for an immediate and coordinated response to address the growing levels of food shortages in the country.
Monday, August 13, 2007
When are refugees not refugees?
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When is a refugee not a refugee? When they flee starvation and prosecution but the world wants to look the other way.
Theoretically, refugee are those facing death if they go back. But what about those who flee because their choice is starvation or flight?According to South Africa, and the UN, the one thousand people fleeing Zimbabwe each day are not “refugees” but merely economic migrants who don’t need help.
The South African Government claims that the Zimbabweans streaming into South Africa are not refugees as they are not facing persecution in their own country; no special measures are necessary. The UNHCR agrees, adding that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, 100,000 per month cross into South Africa and 86,000 were forcibly deported back again between January and May this year alone, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
The revolutionary ties between South Africa and Zimbabwe go deep, perhaps too deep. It enables South Africa to use pressure to prevent the UK from interfering in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs, and allows Mbeki to claim he is using pressure to change the downhill economy and increasing tyranny in Zimbabwe, when in reality it means he is simply ignoring the problem.
An intrepid reporter went to ask the government about it, and found exactly one bureaucrat who suggested that maybe, just maybe, they would follow a 2002 policy and start building refugee camps to house the flood. Yet officially, South Africa claims there are no refugees,
“These are people who still want to go back to their country. They are not asylum seekers… Asylum seekers do not jump borders, they know where to go to seek asylum. People who jump borders are economic migrants,” the minister said.
In some ways, she is right.
These people are not seeking asylum, but jobs. And many manage to find their way to Johannesburg or other cities where they have family or friends to help them until they find a job.
Ironically, the ones who can remain in Zimbabwe are the poor rural farmers, who now that the drought is improved will simply continue their traditional lifestyle. Also staying behind are women, children, the sick and the elderly, who often are able to live only because extended family and friends working in South Africa and other countries send them food and money..
Yet as inflation increases, official wire transfers through banks that use the official exchange rate are worthless, so informal means of sending money have appeared, allowing a growing black market to exchange Euros and Rands, risking arrest or worse.
But now that the Zimbabwean government started clampind down on inflation by freezing prices, food becomes unavailable at any price. One result is more refugees, as the BBC reports.
Those first to flee were often the best and the brightest, the doctors, teachers, and business owners who no longer can survive, and who are willing to work any job to stay alive. But now mothers with children and others less able to work are joining the flood of refugees with the hopes of joining family members who aleady live in South AFrica.
Yet the ability of the South African government to ignore the situation is not going to last forever.
The refugees have been raiding farms along the border and killing stock for food, leading to farmers arranging private militias to find refugees and send them back to Zimbabwe. And the farmers decided that the best way to pressure the South African government to start caring for the refugee problem was to invite the media to see the problem…and it worked. The films showing white farmers and their men rounding up fugatives made the news in many countries, and did alert many to how desperate those fleeing Zimbabwe have become.
Yet things will probably get worse.
As the food in Zimbabwe becames harder to find inside Zimbawe, even trips to the border to bring food home may be banned. There are reports that the Zimbawean government may be planning to clamp down on the cross border trading.
Last month, it announced and then withdrew a directive which would have given the minister of industry and international trade powers to control the importation and export of certain goods, including essential groceries.
Although the measure was withdrawn, there is no guarantee it will not be re-introduced. There is widespread suspicion that government wants to control the supply and distribution of foodstuffs as a political tool to whip opposition supporters into line.
If this happens, even this last lifeline of support will be gone from many families, and the flood of refugees will get worse.
———————-
Nope, no refugees here, folks, move along
Sir, Thousands of Zimbabwean citizens are fleeing to South Africa daily as their country collapses, yet the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, like the South African Government, does not recognise them as refugees and is doing nothing to help them. According to the UNHCR spokesman these are “economic refugees, not refugees as defined by international convention”. He adds that the UNHCR could only be involved “in the case of the total collapse of the Zimbabwe State”. We must now presumably wait for that before acting.
The South African Government claims that the Zimbabweans streaming into South Africa are not refugees as they are not facing persecution in their own country; no special measures are necessary. The UNHCR agrees, adding that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, 100,000 per month cross into South Africa and 86,000 were forcibly deported back again between January and May this year alone, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
An unhappy holiday in Zim
HARARE, Zimbabwe, Aug. 12 -- Acute gasoline shortages crippled transportation services in Zimbabwe on Sunday, stranding thousands of weary travelers at bus stops before a two-day holiday honoring guerrillas who fought against colonial-era white rule.
Zimbabwe is facing its worst gasoline shortages since the seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms began in 2000, disrupting the agriculture-based economy. Shortfalls in food, energy and other sectors, along with the world's highest rates of inflation, have devastated the country....
...
At least 7,000 business leaders, traders and bus drivers have been arrested in the push to enforce the price clampdown, which has led residents to clean store shelves of bread, meat, milk and other staples.
Over the weekend, the government backed down on a ban on private slaughterhouses, which are accused of profiteering, and doubled the price of beef to restore meat supplies.
David Hasluck, head of the Livestock and Meat Advisory Council, told state media that the new beef price still was not as high as the viable levels of neighboring South Africa and other countries. He said the government was expected to approve higher poultry and pork prices soon.
Cigarettes and state-run newspapers were the latest items in short supply Sunday. But beer was trickling back into the market after a 30 percent price increase was announced Friday.
Still, the Harare Sports Club, the venue of a cricket match between teams from Zimbabwe and South Africa, had no beer, bread rolls or ground meat for burgers.
I apologize for lack of posts
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Mugabe brings business to standstill
It is a basic principle of markets that price is determined by supply and demand. If an outside agency, such as the ideologically Marxist Zanu-PF government, instead sets the price too low, suppliers will not produce - hence the empty shelves in Zimbabwe's supermarkets. Price inspectors have descended on shops across the country to enforce the government's order cutting prices to June 18 levels, forcing them to sell their stock cheap to the queues of people who line up to take advantage of the opportunity.
"It's literally looting that's taking place," said the factory owner.
"Of course when those raids take place they have informed all their friends.
"We don't have any stock for those people to pillage. We have no raw materials in store, we have no packaging. Then of course there is the next level of threat. They now say 'if you don't open to trade we will withdraw your trading licence and take over your business'.
"This is building fear and fear is their weapon, their one and only weapon these days. ..."
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
The #1 Ladies detective agency movie
The bestselling book the Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency, about a lady detective in Botswana, is now being made into a movie in that country.
One hopes this movie will help to counteract the cliches on present day Africa, where most of what one sees is either nature films (all of which hint the real problem is all those poor people stealing the animal habitat), or war films (Bruce Willis rescues buxom Italian doc, or evil white Leonardo shows how white people are behind all African war), and heroine films (where beautiful Bassinger/Weaver protects their beloved lions/gorillas against evil local poachers, who dare to kill animals to feed their starving kids).
Ah yes. And who is missing from these films?
Ordinary Africans. You know, not the revolutionaries, or the soldiers or the extras without faces. The ones who send their kids to school, work every day, and even have a beer with their friends in the evening.
So now comes a film written by a (white) African about a (black) African woman who decides to become a detective not using fancy techniques but by using her quiet knowledge of human nature.
Originally, the film was to be made in South Africa, but the government of Botswana stepped in. So now the film will be made in that multi ethnic peaceful democracy, and will include many locals as extras and in the film crew.
Other Botswana staffers have also vetted the script and costume designs, making sure that everything gives an accurate portrait of their country.
“Anyone who’s watching this will have a good impression of life in Botswana,” Tshwenyego says.
That is one of the aspects of this movie that appealed to Msamati, Scott’s co-star. Although the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series has taken some criticism for being too sunny and for ignoring disease and war, Msamati, who grew up in Zimbabwe, says it’s a relief to work on a production that shows a truer, happier picture of the continent.“No story is the be all and end all – they’re beginnings,” he says. “And this is a fantastic beginning. There is not a single white character, no well-meaning Westerner trying to help Africa. These are positive images of Africa and Africans.”
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Thousands arrested as Mugabe warns about prices
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has warned businesses to comply with a controversial price freeze, after his security forces arrested more than 7,000 people for violating the new policy over the past few weeks.
"Some (businesses) are resisting saying they will not supply goods and services, but we say you will," state media quoted him on Monday as telling a conference in Malaysia....
Mugabe was among several leaders from Southeast Asia and Africa taking part in the Langkawi International Dialogue, aimed at fostering closer ties between the two regions.
Back home, there was no economic relief in sight for Zimbabweans also struggling with widespread poverty and 80 percent unemployment amid an eight-year depression.
Mugabe accuses Britain and other Western nations of sabotaging Zimbabwe's economy over his decision to seize thousands of white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks.
Church leaders have urged Mugabe to embrace democratic reforms. One of his key supporters, Anglican bishop Nolbert Kunonga, was quoted on Monday in The Herald as criticising fellow clergy for pressing political reforms.
Kunonga said it was the clergy's "sacred mission and God-given opportunity to help people reject all Western forms, designs, plots, tactics and strategies to drag us back into a state of boyhood and baboonhood."
Monday, August 06, 2007
Thursday, August 02, 2007
UN asks for food aid for Zim
According to the WFP an estimated 3.3 million people will need assistance during the peak hunger period between November and March.
It has appealed for $118 million dollars (£58 million) in aid from international donors.
Soaring poverty
"WFP plans to feed more than 10 times the current number of beneficiaries over the next eight months to avert the threat of widespread hunger, but to do this we need more donations and we need them immediately," the agency's regional director, Amir Abdulla, said.
Some of the communities worst-affected are in Zimbabwe's drought-hit southern provinces.
But the UN says the situation has been made worse by soaring poverty, hyper-inflation and the impact of HIV/Aids.
Mugabe's decree on prices put economy in a tailspin
....It appears, however, that not even an unchallenged autocrat can repeal the laws of supply and demand.
One month after Mugabe decreed just that, commanding merchants nationwide to counter 10,000-percent-a-year hyperinflation by slashing prices by half and more, Zimbabwe's economy is at a halt.
Essentials like bread, sugar and cornmeal, staples of every Zimbabwean's diet, have vanished, seized by mobs of bargain-hunters who denuded stores like locusts in wheat fields. Meat is nonexistent. Gasoline is nearly unobtainable. Hospital patients are dying for lack of basic medical supplies. Power blackouts and water cutoffs are endemic.
Manufacturing has slowed to a crawl, because few businesses can produce goods for less than their government-imposed sale prices. Raw materials are drying up because suppliers are being forced to sell to factories at a loss. Businesses are laying off workers or reducing their hours....
Zimbabwe's vast underclass, the majority of its 10 or 11 million people, is perhaps less affected by this latest economic shock, simply because it has long been unable to afford most food anyway. The rural poor survive on whatever they can grow. Urban and rural poor alike stay afloat with food and money sent by the two million or more Zimbabweans who have fled abroad. Remittances are so vital that in some rural areas, the South African rand has replaced Zimbabwe's worthless dollar as the currency of choice.
Rather, it is the middle class, which had muddled through the last seven years of decline, that is likely to feel the brunt....Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Escape from Mugabe
The police, accused by the farmers of doing little to stem the flood of illegal Zimbabweans, seem to have little choice but to co-operate with the operation.
They collect the captives and take them to holding centres ready for deportation.
Among them we found Joas Mande, 61. Like the others, his hands were bound and his eyes reflected the despair of a father who would be returning to his family empty handed.
"I have two sons who want to go to University," he told me. "Now there will be no-one to support them. I have failed."
Most of the Zimbabweans said the situation in their homeland was so bad that they had no choice but to try to sneak into South Africa again.
But the farmers will be looking for them. South Africa is already home to an estimated three million illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe and they say the country has to put its own interests first.
