via No end in sight for Zim’s woes – DailyNews Live 30 June 2015
HARARE – Worries about Zimbabwe are intensifying after the opposition threatened to unfurl mass protests over the deepening commonplace economic collapse.
The threats have continued to drive fears about impending turmoil in the country.
Morgan Tsvangirai has said he will mobilise his supporters to push for a respite to the painful economic hardships wrought by the Zanu PF regime, setting the stage for a new phase of conflict between the ruling and opposition party.
The move came after the two sides have been increasingly sabre-rattling amid rising political upheavals, vendor resistance to move off the streets, rising unemployment and unfulfilled 2,2 million jobs promised by Mugabe’s Zanu PF in the 2013 polls.
Hopes of Zimbabwe coming off the boil are being dashed after overtures by Tsvangirai to open national dialogue to save the economy have been spurned by Mugabe’s Zanu PF.
The number of the homeless is rising, the mentally ill are being neglected, and the healthcare system is only being shored up by donor support. In fact, no one has health insurance any more and those who do have to fork out staggering amounts.
Ahead of the 2013 polls, Zanu PF promised to create a country that was much different than what they have created, with 2,2 million jobs.
And what’s happening now is that we are being rapidly re-configured into a kind of neo-feudal society, a society where the wealth gap between the haves and the have-nots is widening and where increasingly the bottom two-thirds of Zimbabweans are hanging on by their fingertips.
Increasingly, families are failing to put food on the table, with college graduates turning into vendors, these hardships are pushing and pushing until eventually there will be a backlash.
And police in May bought all-terrain troop-carrying trucks, water cannons and several trucks for public order maintenance. Home Affairs minister Kembo Mohadi claimed the 20 buses and 77 trucks — acquired through a local company — were purchased “to enhance police capacity in ensuring peace and tranquility”.
But the truth of the matter is that part of what we are seeing with the security and surveillance state is a preparation for that backlash — the destruction of civil liberties, which will be brutal. As we speak, there is alleged ongoing wholesale surveillance and monitoring of virtually every Zimbabwean citizen.
It need not be this way, Zanu PF must simply deliver its election promises. If it cannot, then it does not deserve its contested mandate. Tsvangirai’s words that Zanu PF could rig the election but cannot rig the economy are coming to pass.
COMMENTS
So many things can be done to unite the masses but nothing is Absolutely gutless clueless NO leadership at all Where are the mass stay a ways etc etc NADA
The “masses” in Zimbabwe desrve what they’ve got. Totally gutless, greedy and racist.
One cannot possibly compare 2015 to 2008 – when the country was about to come to a standstill. There was no food in the shops, long fuel lines, the money was worthless and most people walking the streets looked like zombies; and yet there was no uprising.
Right now, the roads are packed with cars, the shops are full of food, people on the streets do not have the looks of desperation that they did in 2008. For sure, the formal economy is in dire straits but there is just no comparison with the living and social conditions of 2008.
So, MT is 5 years too late…with the election boycotts and the tough talk of “taking it to the streets.” The best he can do today is come up with an affective strategy for 2018 by catalyzing a united opposition front that absorbs all parties for electoral reform. He can set the platform by facilitating the appointment of a respected, neutral leader for a broad, united front. A sort of new, modern patriotic front, if you will. If his ego is not too big.
Go and steal some more farms & businesses. That will fix everything.
I celebrate the suffering of Zimbabweans. How many of them think that white Zimbabweans aren’t Zimbabwean? Most of them. So let them live in poverty.
I agree and it is very disappointing. In my experience white Zimbos are among the most patriotic.