| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Harare expecting more of the same |
| 2006-01-06 |
| Sapa-AFP HARARE â Zimbabweans are heading for a dismal new year, with food shortages and an economic crisis expected to worsen while prospects for political change appear dimmer than ever, analysts say, as bad Bob looks on smiling. While President Robert Mugabeâs government is forecasting growth of 3,5% next year, economists and ordinary people are bracing for hardship. Somewhere between 3.5 and "bracing for hardship lies the truth." âThe problems weâve had in the last seven years will definitely follow us into the new year as the economy continues shrinking,â economist John Robertson said. âIf anything next year will be tougher for the majority of the people because presently the government has absolutely no clue or strategy to turn around the economy,â said Lovemore Matombo, president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. Zimbabweâs economy has been on a downturn for most of the last decade, plagued by runaway inflation, unemployment hovering above 70% and chronic food and fuel shortages. Politically, a split in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the main opposition party, has weakened the party that posed the most credible challenge to Mugabeâs 25-year rule. âProspects are gloomy politically especially with tensions in the opposition MDC party which have dealt a setback in a force that was capable of confronting the government,â political commentator Bill Saidi said. The MDC is to hold its annual congress in February next year and judging from the squabbling currently dogging the party, the gathering could put the final nail in the opposition coffin. In the coming months, United Nations food deliveries are expected to reach more than 3-million people in what was once the breadbasket of southern Africa. The government blames the food deficit on drought (blaming the Almighty again) but analysts say the seizures since 2000 of white-owned commercial farmers for re-allocation to landless blacks has dealt a crippling blow to agriculture, as wealth and land redistribution always does. âHarvests are going to be poor because most farmers got inputs late and that means more foreign currency will be used to import food we should be producing,â said Robertson. Among ordinary Zimbabweans, the mood is depressingly dark. âWe are all literally living from hand to mouth, hardly affording to buy basic things like lunch at work,â said Harare township teacher Patrick Maonwa. âI foresee a difficult year ahead because government does not seem to be a solution for the galloping inflation,â he said. Petrol attendant George Musa, who for most of this year has been working three days a week due to an acute shortage of petrol, said âthere is really nothing to say, there is nothing positive to predict about Zimbabwe these daysâ. âPolitically, where can change come from, there is no more opposition to talk about.â Memory Chimutengo sells electronic parts in an increasingly difficult business environment. âEarly this year, I used to give my clients quotations valid for 15 days, now those quotations are valid for less than 12 hours because prices are so volatile that they can change within hours,â said Chimutengo. âThere is not even a flicker at the end of the tunnel.â There isn't even a tunnel. Zimbabwe has become isolated from its former trading partners in the west following presidential elections in 2002, which foreign observers I believe the definition of insanity is; continuing to do the same things you've done in the past, but expecting different results. Keep Bob and you'd doomed! |
| Posted by:Besoeker |