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Analyst says repression keeping Mugabe in power
Violet Gonda, SW Radio Africa
May 18, 2007

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news180507/analyst180507.htm

The Zimbabwe government has admitted it's broke, we have the highest inflation in the world, 80% unemployment and the fastest shrinking economy for a country not at war. ZANU PF has also admitted that the economy is now its number one enemy. Government says inflation is 3,700% but a senior accounting firm in Harare says the actual figure is closer to 8,000%. This has serious political ramifications. So how is Mugabe maintaining his grip on power?

Ozias Tungwarara, Director of the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project, a project of the Open Society Institute, said the primary factor keeping the regime in power is "sheer unadulterated repression."

Many observers see this as the reason behind the dramatic increase in state sponsored violence which has reached alarming proportions, with the regime no longer making any attempt at excuses for using force.

But analysts say the state of the economy is one factor that will determine the future direction of the political crisis. Prices of basic commodities are going up nearly every day including massive power and water shortages and parts of the country have virtually run out of fuel.

Our Harare correspondent Simon Muchemwa said where fuel was found at Z$34 000 a litre on the black market on Thursday it shot up to between Z$36 000 and Z$40 000 on Friday "and the long queues of people waiting for public transport have returned."

A 10kg bag of mealie meal was Z$41 000 last week but has shot up to Z$110 000. A frustrated workforce can no longer sit and watch as the economic meltdown continues. This has resulted in many groups including doctors, nurses, teachers and lecturers conducting on and off strikes.

The regime has always blamed the economic collapse on restrictions imposed by the west but gross economic mismanagement, poor governance, bad policies and corruption are the cause. In his weekly column in the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper Eric Bloch, one of the advisors to Gideon Gono the Governor of the Reserve Bank, says the government has endlessly sought others to be the victims of its false allegations of triggering economic devastation.

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