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Residents are running out of patience
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)
October 22, 2008

The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) whose patience on the implementation of the Zimbabwean political parties' deal has been over-stretched is on the brink of snapping. The residents, who overly mortgaged principle and compromised immensely for an initiative (political parties deal among MDC formations and ZANU PF) whose drafting they were not actively part of but albeit believed, that it deserved a chance, have been disillusioned by the deadlock in the power-sharing talks. The light that seemed to be at the end of the tunnel is growing dimmer by the day and residents cannot continuously sit back and watch their hopes being scuttled; they cannot bear the insults to their immense compromise. The recent developments in that regard show that ZANU PF with all its machinery and political misfits is on a rampage to crash the hopes of Zimbabweans and that cannot go unchallenged.

The defacto government led by ZANU PF has shown complete disrespect for fellow political players, Zimbabweans, SADC, Africans and the world as a whole. The continued intransigence and hypocrisy they have shown during the talks and after the signing of the September 15 agreement, smack of unparalleled desire to cling to power. The state controlled media has continued to carry screaming headlines, beaming the so called Mugabe magnanimity and many other stories attempting to applaud ZANU PF's political "feats"; they have even accused the other political players for being ungrateful as they refuse to be accommodated in the ZANU PF government. They pretend that nothing has changed and nothing should change. Are they saying that; residents should continue drowning in sewage, fetching water from Matsime (unprotected shallow wells), sleep on empty stomachs, face the risk of accidents because of traffic lights not working, face the discomfort of potholes, and fetch firewood and many other countless struggles? All this is being endured because Comrade X cannot breathe if he fails to get a ministerial post.

The Combined Harare Residents Association can never lose the essence of the political dragging political parties' deal and the gruesome experiences that residents have stoically endured under the leadership of ZANU PF. The residents, having been denied the right to freely choose a president on the 27th of June by the ZANU PF/Mugabe terror campaign, excluded from the power sharing talks and having immensely compromised in order to afford the September 15 deal a chance, and currently enduring effects of economic collapse and the whole myriad of problems plaguing the country, are running out of patience and will take different initiatives to demand accountability and the urgent redress of the political and economic chaos that the country is experiencing.

CHRA remains committed to demanding quality and accessible service delivery, good local governance and social justice. The Association will continue to mobilize residents to express themselves around these and other issues.

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