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Zimbabwe, constant struggle for survival
Raymond Maingire, The Zimbabwe Times
November 17, 2008

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=7484

"The tragedies that we are facing as a people have reached disaster proportions, threatening to submerge the entire nation.

"The economic and social ramifications of this man-made disaster are dire. Millions of our children have been denied the right to learn; we are all being denied basic sanitation - with clean water becoming a luxury. Sewerage flows on the streets and preventable diseases such as cholera are ravaging thousands."

This is an extract from a press statement issued by outspoken National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) chairman, Dr Lovemore Madhuku last week.

Madhuku would find many ready witnesses in millions of Zimbabweans who wake up everyday to be confronted by rising prices of basic commodities, prolonged power cuts and dry water taps.

Basic foods have disappeared from most supermarket shelves. The black market and the recently introduced foreign currency shops have become the only sources of food. Many Zimbabweans, both urban and rural have been reduced to existence on a single meal a day.

A loaf of bread now costs $Z1 300 000 ($US2) up from $400 000 only last week.

A 10kg bag of maize meal costs US$10 while a 2-litre bottle of cooking oil averages $US8.

Rentals for accommodation are now pegged in foreign currency with the cheapest single rooms in most of Harare's townships now calling for R150.

Bank clients rub shoulders with hundreds of uniformed policemen and soldiers in banking halls in a daily scramble for scarce cash.

Technically, most Zimbabweans have billions of dollars in local currency in their bank accounts. The money is, however, worthless as it is impossible to access it. Cash withdrawals cannot exceed Z$500 000, enough for a one-way bus-fare into the city.

While law-abiding citizens endure long hours in bank queues, hordes of youths line the city's pavements. They carry huge wads of bank notes sometimes within hours of their introduction by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

Those lining up outside the banks, including the police wonder at the source of this money. No one has the courage to ask, not even the police.

But it is an open secret that the youths are runners employed by corrupt government and central bank officials who send them to buy scarce foreign currency from the thriving black market.

Because of endemic corruption in the country, top government officials are untouchable, even when implicated in obvious scams, for as long as they are seen to be loyal to the government of President Robert Mugabe.

Overzealous or duty-conscious police officers often land in trouble, victimized for being professional enough to attempt to arrest top party or government officials.

Police officers perceived to be sympathetic to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) face similar fate. As if in revenge, poorly paid police officers survive through open exploitation of innocent civilians from whom they extort sums of money in on-the-spot fines for any of a number of petty offences.

"I can no longer cope with this situation," says a junior police officer, "It is not easy to continue to steal from people as a means of survival. You are always in fear of being caught."

Madhuku laments, "For long a time the incumbent holders of political authority have used the State as an instrument for expropriation, with resources meant for national development being siphoned off and turned into personal fortunes.

"As the nation bleeds, they get fat. To deal with dissent to this misrule and abuse, the incumbents resort to violence and all manner of oppression. We are forced to accept this betrayal."

A majority of schools has shut down due to the shortage of food and water, as well as teachers. Teachers and other professionals leave the country in droves daily to seek jobs abroad or simply take up self help projects locally.

Experts say the country's education system is now operating at below 40 percent of capacity. The civil service has almost been decimated by continued resignations and desertions as salaries have become untenable.

Due to the deterioration in the value of the Zimbabwe dollar, it has gradually been replaced not only by the United States dollar and the South African Rand but also by fuel coupons which have become a recognised form of currency.

To keep up with galloping inflation, pegged now at 2, 5 million percent, the Reserve Bank has resorted to printing bank notes on ordinary paper and created a haven for forgers.

"Zimbabwe is probably the only country in the world where the US dollar has been hit by inflation," says Innocent Moyo, a Harare resident.

"What you can buy for $US3 in the States you can find at twice the price in Zimbabwe."

Thousands have fled from starvation in Zimbabwe's rural areas. Harare's moribund health system has long failed to cope.

Electricity supplies in most suburbs are switched off as early as 4am and restored late at night when consumers are fast asleep.

Many residents now buy water from those who have invested in a borehole on their property and there are not too many of those.

"Because of the shortage of water," says Irene, a nurse-aid at a Harare private hospital. "it has become increasingly difficult for me to visit my in laws in Glen View."

"The moment you enter the yard you are confronted by the stench of human waste coming from the toilet.

"Huge green flies make repeated trips between the toilet and the kitchen."

The chronic shortage of water, which has been linked to the non-availability of treatment chemicals, has also affected backyard vegetable gardens, once a common feature of residential properties in Zimbabwe.

Harare's streets team with petty traders - many of them youngsters of school-going age. They peddle anything from pop-corn and sweets to cell-phone air time recharge cards and, of late, wild fruit. The more enterprising are the foreign currency dealers. The danger of teenage girls diversifying into prostitution is very real.

Only families lucky enough to have a member living in the Diaspora are spared from this permanent struggle for survival.

But the Diaspora has come at a huge social price.

Families are disintegrating through separation of spouses for long periods. It is not unusual for a wife to live in the United Kingdom while the husband remains at home or lives in his own part of the Diaspora, say in New Zealand. The high cost of air travel and a lack of proper documentation render it virtually impossible for many members of such families to visit each other.

Lonely spouses often succumb to temptation. This has had a devastating effect on the institution of marriage in Zimbabwe. As they wrangle over ministerial portfolios politicians rarely spare a thought for the plight of the people.

Last week, official figures put the death toll following a recent outbreak of cholera at 100 since the onset of the epidemic two months ago. Independent estimates are much higher.

The government has been accused of masking the figures to cover up for the obvious collapse of the health sector and the incapacity of the State to handle the catastrophe.

Funerals are hastily arranged affairs; many traditional rituals are being dispensed with. There is no food to feed mourners for days on end. Meanwhile, the cost of burying the deceased has soared.

But while the majority of Zimbabweans grapple with the problems of daily existence, the story is different across the social divide. On the other side a class of the most appropriately connected politically, both in government and in the private sector, has benefited immensely Mugabe's 28-year-old rule or from the collapse of the economy.

Trendily dressed young men cruise down potholed streets in the latest offerings from Germany and Japan. The odd Hummer is not entirely out of place in Harare, belying the fact that it is the capital one of the poorest nations on earth.

They rent expensive apartments in the city's most up-market neighborhoods and hang out in hotel lounges sipping expensive wines, seemingly unaware of the dire situation just outside on the pavement.

"They know nothing about politics but if you ask them who they support, some will not hesitate to tell you they support Mugabe," says one journalist.

He says this is not because they admire any positive attributes of the world's oldest leader. Mugabe's rule has created an environment of anarchy that has turned them into overnight tycoons.

""But," the journalist observed, "the situation cannot be riper for rebellion against the government. Anger is so evident among the people. They have long been looking for an avenue to express their anger."

Madhuku sums it up.

"We all share in common shame the unfortunate story of our country's regress from being a jewel, born filled with promise, to what it has become now: a sad spectacle, an example for others of what never to do."

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