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Transport crisis drains frustrated Zimbabweans
Cris Chinaka, Reuters
August 08, 2007

http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=17137

Bank teller Samson still takes pride in his work, one of his few joys in a country ravaged by crippling inflation and severe food and fuel shortages. But getting there has become another nightmare for him and many other people trying to survive an economic meltdown in Zimbabwe, once a potent symbol of Africa's liberation struggles and a regional breadbasket.

A month ago, Samson used to queue for an hour to catch a bus to work and home. Now it's a three-hour trip because a severe fuel shortage and a price blitz targeting inflation has hit the transport industry, forcing bus drivers to quit. "As a bank teller, I have to look smart, but my clothes are crumpled here in the pressure of getting or trying to get into a bus," he said, jumping further into the road to wave down a car for a ride. "It's a struggle all the way my brother, for decent wages, for food, for transport, for survival."

Even without the transport trouble, inflation has meant bank tellers like Samson have had get used to busier work dishing out larger and larger bundles of notes. He and other Zimbabweans have few options. Questioning the price freeze ordered by President Robert Mugabe can be risky as he cracks down on dissent. Mugabe, Zimbabwe's sole ruler since the southern African country's independence from Britain in 1980, faces an economic crisis marked by the world's highest inflation rate. But with a deeply divided opposition and little pressure from African countries for reforms in Zimbabwe, he has plenty of room for manoeuvre despite growing criticism of his policies, such as seizing white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks. Growing public anger can be dismissed as he takes new measures to tighten his grip on power. Mugabe has authorised security forces to monitor phone calls and Internet exchanges.

Zimbabweans are stranded at bus stations, some for days. Others travel on foot, exhausted by the end of the day. "I have been walking to and from work for the past month or so because the transport situation has become very bad," said a security guard at a Harare hotel, who like many others was wary of giving his name. "I get both to work and home much earlier than those people who are using the buses," he said. Nearby, a crowd of men, women and youngsters shove each other, hoping for a seat on a small truck. Mugabe has warned that violating the price freeze will have dire consequences. Since June 25, police have arrested and fined more than 7,500 businesses - including transport operators - accused of defying the new price controls, which have emptied shop shelves and sparked a new wave of panic buying. Mugabe, who is seeking re-election in a general poll due in March next year, rejects criticism he has run the economy into the ground, accusing the opposition and Western powers of trying to oust him.

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