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Shops
run out of bread as praise lavished on Mugabe
Mail & Guardian (SA)
February 21, 2007
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=299842&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/
Zimbabwe's state-run
media lavished praise on veteran President Robert Mugabe on the
83rd birthday of Africa's oldest-serving leader on Wednesday while
stores in the capital, Harare, ran out of bread.
"President an unparalleled visionary," read the headline
of the Herald newspaper, which dedicated 16 pages to pictures
and congratulatory messages to the man who has ruled the country
since independence from Britain in 1980.
The Defence Ministry took out a half-page advert in the same paper
in which a procession of military chiefs lined up to laud Mugabe
for his "heroic guidance and leadership during and after the
liberation struggle".
But as constant refrains of the song God bless President Mugabe
rang out on state radio, the impact of the economic crisis being
presided over by the president came into focus as bakers halted
bread production.
A lavish party is due to be held on Saturday in the city of Gweru
to celebrate Mugabe, but critics say the traditional birthday bash
is particularly ill-conceived this year with much of the population
now forced to skip meals.
With inflation running at nearly 1 600% and much of the public
sector on strike, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) is sniffing the opportunity to capitalise on unrest with the
country's founding father.
But in an eve-of-birthday interview on Tuesday night, Mugabe struck
a familiar note of defiance by insisting that there was no vacancy
at the top.
"There are no vacancies because I am still there. Can you see
you any vacancies? The door is closed," he told his interviewer.
And in a shot across the bows of any potential successors within
his own Zanu-PF party, Mugabe also denounced his Cabinet.
"It's in regard to the issue of honesty that I find many of
them deficient," he said.
Mugabe has previously said he would step down at the end of his
current term in 2008 but his ruling party last December passed a
resolution -- still to be approved by the central committee -- to
extend his rule by another two years in order to have concurrent
presidential and parliamentary polls.
Despite attempts by police to ban protests, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai
has vowed to push ahead with his campaign to topple Mugabe.
The octogenarian ruler is also facing a mammoth task to stop unrest
in the public sector with doctors and teachers on strike over poor
pay, while civil servants are also contemplating a job boycott.
The economic crisis has not dissuaded loyalists, however, from trying
to raise Z$300-billion Zimbabwe (US$1,2-million) for Saturday's
party.
"It highlights the insensitive nature of the regime to use
so much money on a single day when the money could be used to feed
more people," said Jacob Mafume, coordinator of Crisis
in Zimbabwe Coalition, a grouping of rights and labour groups.
Opposition spokesperson and youth leader Nelson Chamisa said: "These
people have the audacity to be feasting when the money could have
been used in other critical areas like health or to start long-term
projects.
Once unheard of food shortages in Southern Africa's former breadbasket
are now commonplace. Products like milk and jam have long been struck
off most shopping lists as households struggle to make ends meet.
Until now, most families had at least been able to afford bread
as the price of a loaf was dictated by the government.
But most bread shelves in the capital lay empty on Wednesday after
the National Bakers' Association claimed that government price controls
and escalating production costs had made their businesses unviable
and left their industry "seriously bleeding". -- Sapa-AFP
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