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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Zimbabwe's destitute Britons to be repatriated |
| 2009-06-03 |
| Up to 500 destitute Britons living in Zimbabwe are to be repatriated after their savings and pensions were wiped out by President Robert Mugabe's economic policies. The first five will return this weekend after the British embassy in Harare arranged for them to be flown home. The group, which includes former colonial administrators, wives and civil servants, have seen their assets destroyed by hyperinflation. Their air fares are being paid by the British taxpayer and officials said each person would be given permanent accommodation in Britain and the same entitlement to state benefits as any other pensioner. We'll just cut everyone else's benefits 'a bit'.... Fred Noble, a 78-year-old Scot, will return to Fife this weekend, 51 years after he and his wife departed with £100 for what was then Britains Crown Colony of Southern Rhodesia. He worked for Rhodesian Railways, retiring on a pension with medical aid 13 years ago. "I helped more people than helped me and I deserve a Christian burial. I dont want to get ill in Zimbabwe," said Mr Noble, who lost his wife four years ago and was the second pensioner to apply for "repatriation" at the British Embassy. Mr Mugabes bankrupt regime stopped paying his pension five years ago, leaving Mr Noble dependent on his investments. Note to union pensioners who think the gubermint is their friend When Zimbabwes inflation reached more than 230 million per cent, the value of his portfolio plunged to less than a penny. Are we here in the US far behind? |
| Posted by:Mullah Richard |
| #5 Yes RF, I fear you are dead on. The BBC and the British media are not reporting the inconvenient little bushveld genocide because they and a few here are responsible for it! Success has many fathers, failure only one... as they say. Jacob is indeed an evil bastard, but something tells me South Africa may not go down as quietly however. Time will tell. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-06-03 15:57 |
| #4 Booking my single, one-way ticket to Maputo right now, just waiting for my sidearms to arrive, lol! This is the end of an era, which the Brits arent reporting, choppers on the roof-tops time. Expect the same in South Africa in the next few years. |
| Posted by: Rhodesiafever 2009-06-03 15:23 |
| #3 If it were up to me I'd conduct a monthly NEO evacution from the port of Maputo and bring everyone to the States, Auzzieland, New Zealand or wherever they wished to go! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-06-03 14:41 |
| #2 Hear, hear, Besoeker, although the US failed to also come through in the early 70s, forcing the South Africans to pull out, after which the war truly revved up. As an aside, there was a lively debate recently as to whether the UK tax-payer should fund all this. It became quite heated. It appears that 'heritage' as a concern comes second to personal wishes and short attention spans. (So...), in the end, the question is, at that age, whether to die in poverty in a land where everyone is miserable and it always rains and is cold, or to die in poverty with another bunch of miserable people in the sunshine. What a choice! |
| Posted by: Rhodesiafever 2009-06-03 14:28 |
| #1 Are we here in the US far behind? We certainly don't appear to be. "The Great Betrayal" redux. Action taken some 40 years late, but nonetheless action. Good on Perfidious Albion. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-06-03 10:29 |