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Peace and the cost of living
Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust (ZIMCET)
October 21, 2002

The rising cost of living is great cause for concern for the Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust (ZIMCET), as this situation erodes any hope of society being at peace with itself. Beside prices of basic commodities soaring on a daily basis if you can find them, food shortages are another hurdle to the realisation of an environment that enhances peaceful existence.

If the recent cost of living survey conducted by the Consumer Council is anything to go by, teachers in their numbers have joined those living below the poverty datum line. According to this survey that has been described as conservative, an average family of six needs $35 000 a month for basic commodities. Teachers do not take home this much at the end of each month. If teachers are below the poverty datum line, think of the majority of Zimbabwe's workforce who are now going to work simply to get money for transport.

When the Former Minister of Finance Dr. Simba Makoni presented the 2002 budget in Parliament last year, he acknowledged that more than 70% of Zimbabwe's population lived below the poverty datum line and by now this figure must have gone up.

The existence of more moneylenders than there are borrowers is a manifestation of a desperate situation that people have to grapple with. In a bid to make ends meet, some people have to work for these sharks as they gradually fail to pay back. Some people having acquired property when things were still normal have lost a lot of it to the moneylenders. It is a requirement for most of the moneylenders that the borrowers lodge property with them as surety. It is not unusual for most people to fail to buy back their own property.

The International Day on the Eradication of Poverty went by unnoticed on October 17 as more and more Zimbabweans sink deeper into the doldrums of poverty. At the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo Egypt in 1994, one of the goals the participants agreed to was the reduction of extreme poverty by half, but Zimbabwe's situation is far from realising this goal. This must have been the reason why the Day on the Eradication of Poverty went without any mention there was simply nothing to celebrate. The trend in Zimbabwe is far from realising the goal of the reduction of poverty. A survey conducted in 1995 revealed that 61% of the population lived below the poverty datum line and the figure had surged to 75% in 1999 and currently the estimate could be anything above 80%.

It is against this background that the Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust (ZIMCET) is worried, as such a state of affairs makes realisation of one's own peace a dream. ZIMCET urges government to look into the welfare of teachers with the urgency that it deserves and at the same time, do something about the rising cost of living that is beyond the reach of many Zimbabweans.

Visit the ZIMCET fact sheet

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