Zimbabwe in black and white
Christina Lamb tells the true story of a white farmer and his black servant before and after Mugabe in her illuminating and flawed House of Stone, says Jason Cowley
Sunday May 14, 2006
The Observer
Buy House of Stone at the Guardian bookshop
House of Stone
Christina Lamb
HarperCollins £14.99, pp290
Rhodesians Worldwide is a website through which old Rhodies communicate, and wonder about the lives they might have lived if Robert Mugabe had not won the war to liberate from white minority rule the country that became Zimbabwe. These dispatches are inevitably nostalgic and Rhodesia is remembered as a kind of Arcadia, when these reluctant exiles were enjoying the time of their lives, unburdened, it seems, by any sense of racial or liberal political conscience. The contributions to the site can be read as an exercise in willed denial; what is missing is any curiosity about the lives of the black Africans among whom they once lived, what they thought, believed or wanted.
Denial is the subject of Christina Lamb's book, which tells the story of a white farmer called Nigel Hough and his black maid, Aquinata, and how they were brought together and changed by the farm invasions that began in 2000 and have since led to the ruin of the agricultural infrastructure of one of the most fertile countries in Africa and to the misery of its people.
Nigel's father, an Englishman, settled in Rhodesia in the late 1940s, attracted there by the ease of the lifestyle, the climate, the landscape, and by the privileges of being white in this part of colonial Africa. What is often forgotten about Rhodesia is how resolutely suburban it was. To visit the capital, Salisbury, was like finding yourself in Tunbridge Wells on a Sunday afternoon; the polite hush and the prejudices were certainly the same. How can this be Africa, you thought?
Nigel grew up certain of his superiority over the black majority: the 'munts', the 'kaffirs'. Later, they would become the 'terrs' - terrorists - as the whites, led by the ferociously stubborn Ian Smith, fought a long, futile and, above all, murderous civil war to prevent the inevitability of black majority rule. He went to one of the best schools in the country, where he excelled at sports and, as war intensified out in the bush, dreamed of becoming a commando, even of serving in the elite Selous Scouts. The Scouts were an SAS-style unit who, operating behind enemy lines, committed some of the worst atrocities of the war.
Growing up in a village, Aqui had her own dreams and aspirations. She wanted to be educated, and she wanted to be a nurse. She believed in the war to liberate her people and she was sure that once the whites were defeated and the blacks controlled their own destiny, there would be equality and the country would flourish.
For a brief period following the free election of Robert Mugabe as president in 1980, there was hope that reconciliation between the black majority and the remaining whites was possible. In his post-election address to the nation, Mugabe spoke of forgiveness and urged whites to stay on to build the new country. The white farmers, despite faltering attempts at reform, were allowed to continue very much as before, working the richest and most fertile land.
Nigel was encouraged; Africa was his home, he was a white African; he wanted to believe, as Aqui did, in the possibility of a harmonious future. He stayed on and, in time, married a local white woman and settled on a farm in the tobacco-growing district of Marondera. It was there that Aqui came to work for him, her life before then, even in liberated Zimbabwe, amounting to a convoy of sorrows: raped as a child by a schoolmaster, a drunken, abusive husband, absolute poverty.
Nigel and Aqui's stories are told in alternating chapters, their own words, rendered in italics, merging with the flow of Lamb's hurried prose. But there is a problem: too often one struggles to differentiate Aqui's voice (her English would surely be Shona-inflected) from Nigel's. In their flatly modulated diction they both sound like Christina Lamb.
Lamb is a courageous and excellent reporter but she can be a careless writer. In her acknowledgements she thanks her editor 'who somehow turned round her manuscript in record time'. But her editor failed to prevent her worst excesses: repetition, overstatement and a serious absence of attribution. One section, on the Selous Scouts, reads as if hastily paraphrased from a website dedicated to the Scouts. If this site was indeed one of her sources, as it must have been, why isn't it cited? Why wasn't she advised to include a bibliography or source notes, in what is, after all, not only reportage but a semi-scholarly history of Zimbabwe?
The final section of the book, the best, sees Lamb back in Zimbabwe, illegally. The farms have been destroyed. The shanty settlements of the blacks in the cities who dared to vote against Mugabe in the last election have been demolished as part of Operation Clean Up the Filth. Most of the whites who can have emigrated, and the prevailing mood is one of menace and fear - a geriatric tyrant holding on to power at any cost. The Houghs remain in the country, though they have lost their farm, and Aqui is still working for them in a subordinate role. Nigel and Aqui now live without dreams, illusions or hope. Yet they have mutual respect - and a greater understanding of what it means to be black, and indeed white, in southern Africa. But, oh, the pain, and the regret.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Zimbabwe Inflation Tops 1,000 Percent
Zimbabwe Inflation Tops 1,000 Percent
(AP) HARARE, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate has topped 1,000 percent for the first time, underlining the economic collapse of a country crippled by shortages and where people have to carry bags full of cash even for basic purchases.
Moffat Nyoni, director of the Government's Central Statistical Office, said that inflation for the 12 months to April 2006 was 1,042.9 percent, according to a report on state radio Saturday.
In March the figure was 913 percent. Figures released by Nyoni's office showed 21.1 percent inflation for the month of April alone, fueled by a 27 percent increase in the cost of basic foodstuffs, 24.8 percent in rents, 35.1 percent in fuels such as gasoline and kerosene and 48.1 percent in motor vehicle and health insurance.
The economy has been in free fall since President Robert Mugabe started seizing 5,000 formerly white-owned commercial farms in February 2000.
"We are living with the consequences of (the government's) destructive policies of the past," said economist John Robertson. "They cannot raise the necessary taxes from our shrinking economy."
The radio broadcast said the poverty datum line - absolute minimum consumption needs - for an average family of five reached 37 million Zimbabwean dollars (US$366; euro284) per month at the Government's rate of exchange but only US$148 (euro114) on the more realistic and flourishing black market.
The lowest-paid workers in formal employment - domestic gardeners - earn 2.5 million Zimbabwean dollars a month, but 70 percent of the work force lack regular jobs due to waves of bankruptcies.
Most people get paid by the hour for casual work. Church groups have appealed to employers that the hourly rate should at least cover the price of a loaf of bread, currently 100,000 Zimbabwe dollars.
An estimated 4 million Zimbabweans, many of them skilled professionals, are living outside the country.
Most remaining Zimbabweans make ends meet by growing sweet potatoes and maize on roadsides, railway sidings and plots of vacant land.
A package of the cheapest candy costs 57,000 Zimbabwe dollars, but the maximum denomination note is 50,000 Zimbabwe dollars, forcing shoppers to carry a bag full of money.
Since mobile phones went into service in 1996 as fixed phone services crashed, the price of the cheapest range of phones with a line connection has increased 5,000-fold. The price of a single car battery this year could have bought 14 brand new cars 10 years ago.
There is a joke that toilet paper costs so much that it would be cheaper to use 500 dollar notes.
Robertson said the point of "meltdown" had already been reached for pensioners and others living on small fixed incomes.
An entire life's savings, invested before the 1998 start of the Zimbabwean economy's collapse, is now needed to meet a month's living expenses.
Money from charities or from relatives living abroad is the only means of survival for many elderly. The United Nations estimates at least 3 million of the 12 million population are in need of emergency food aid ahead of next month's harvests.
Mugabe last week announced increases of up to 300 percent in salaries for more than 120,000 government employees including soldiers and police.
Robertson said there was "not a hope in hell" of reaching the government's target to reduce inflation to double digits by the end of the year and it would take five to 10 years to restore production on farms, in mining and industry, even if Mugabe reversed current policies.
Robertson predicted shortage-driven inflation might soon reach 2,000 percent as state employees rushed to spend their pay rises while goods were still in stores. There is currently a nationwide shortage of sugar, while supplies of cooking oil, maize meal and bread are erratic.
"People should get angry and start demanding things happen," said Robertson.
(AP) HARARE, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate has topped 1,000 percent for the first time, underlining the economic collapse of a country crippled by shortages and where people have to carry bags full of cash even for basic purchases.
Moffat Nyoni, director of the Government's Central Statistical Office, said that inflation for the 12 months to April 2006 was 1,042.9 percent, according to a report on state radio Saturday.
In March the figure was 913 percent. Figures released by Nyoni's office showed 21.1 percent inflation for the month of April alone, fueled by a 27 percent increase in the cost of basic foodstuffs, 24.8 percent in rents, 35.1 percent in fuels such as gasoline and kerosene and 48.1 percent in motor vehicle and health insurance.
The economy has been in free fall since President Robert Mugabe started seizing 5,000 formerly white-owned commercial farms in February 2000.
"We are living with the consequences of (the government's) destructive policies of the past," said economist John Robertson. "They cannot raise the necessary taxes from our shrinking economy."
The radio broadcast said the poverty datum line - absolute minimum consumption needs - for an average family of five reached 37 million Zimbabwean dollars (US$366; euro284) per month at the Government's rate of exchange but only US$148 (euro114) on the more realistic and flourishing black market.
The lowest-paid workers in formal employment - domestic gardeners - earn 2.5 million Zimbabwean dollars a month, but 70 percent of the work force lack regular jobs due to waves of bankruptcies.
Most people get paid by the hour for casual work. Church groups have appealed to employers that the hourly rate should at least cover the price of a loaf of bread, currently 100,000 Zimbabwe dollars.
An estimated 4 million Zimbabweans, many of them skilled professionals, are living outside the country.
Most remaining Zimbabweans make ends meet by growing sweet potatoes and maize on roadsides, railway sidings and plots of vacant land.
A package of the cheapest candy costs 57,000 Zimbabwe dollars, but the maximum denomination note is 50,000 Zimbabwe dollars, forcing shoppers to carry a bag full of money.
Since mobile phones went into service in 1996 as fixed phone services crashed, the price of the cheapest range of phones with a line connection has increased 5,000-fold. The price of a single car battery this year could have bought 14 brand new cars 10 years ago.
There is a joke that toilet paper costs so much that it would be cheaper to use 500 dollar notes.
Robertson said the point of "meltdown" had already been reached for pensioners and others living on small fixed incomes.
An entire life's savings, invested before the 1998 start of the Zimbabwean economy's collapse, is now needed to meet a month's living expenses.
Money from charities or from relatives living abroad is the only means of survival for many elderly. The United Nations estimates at least 3 million of the 12 million population are in need of emergency food aid ahead of next month's harvests.
Mugabe last week announced increases of up to 300 percent in salaries for more than 120,000 government employees including soldiers and police.
Robertson said there was "not a hope in hell" of reaching the government's target to reduce inflation to double digits by the end of the year and it would take five to 10 years to restore production on farms, in mining and industry, even if Mugabe reversed current policies.
Robertson predicted shortage-driven inflation might soon reach 2,000 percent as state employees rushed to spend their pay rises while goods were still in stores. There is currently a nationwide shortage of sugar, while supplies of cooking oil, maize meal and bread are erratic.
"People should get angry and start demanding things happen," said Robertson.
Friday, May 05, 2006
Zimbabwe's poverty datum line shoots to Z$41 million
Zimbabwe's poverty datum line shoots to Z$41 million
Fri 5 May 2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe's poverty datum line last month shot to Z$41 million up from the previous month's figure of Z$35 million, according to the latest figures released yesterday by the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ).
"The cost of living as depicted by the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe's low-income urban earner monthly budget for a family of six has risen from $34 995 428.56 in March to $41 096 610.00 reflecting a 17.4 increase percent," said the state-funded consumer rights body.
The CCZ attributed the increase in the cost of living to last month's hike in tuition fees and health costs. The government last month increased school fees by more than 1 000 percent with a basic school uniform now costing about Z$12.3 million.
"This is a cause for concern as many low-income earners may not be able to purchase these basic uniforms for their children," said the CCZ.
Last week, the government also announced new salaries for teachers and soldiers with the lowest paid soldier getting about $27 million while teachers will now earn about $33 million, which is far below the basic consumption line.
Zimbabwe is in its sixth year of a bitter economic recession which has seen inflation hitting 913.6 percent, the highest such rate outside a war zone.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party and major Western governments blame President Robert Mugabe for ruining the country's economy which was one of the strongest at independence from Britain 26 years ago.
But Mugabe denies the charge blaming the crisis on sabotage by his Western enemies after he violently seized land from whites for redistribution to landless blacks. - ZimOnline
Fri 5 May 2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe's poverty datum line last month shot to Z$41 million up from the previous month's figure of Z$35 million, according to the latest figures released yesterday by the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ).
"The cost of living as depicted by the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe's low-income urban earner monthly budget for a family of six has risen from $34 995 428.56 in March to $41 096 610.00 reflecting a 17.4 increase percent," said the state-funded consumer rights body.
The CCZ attributed the increase in the cost of living to last month's hike in tuition fees and health costs. The government last month increased school fees by more than 1 000 percent with a basic school uniform now costing about Z$12.3 million.
"This is a cause for concern as many low-income earners may not be able to purchase these basic uniforms for their children," said the CCZ.
Last week, the government also announced new salaries for teachers and soldiers with the lowest paid soldier getting about $27 million while teachers will now earn about $33 million, which is far below the basic consumption line.
Zimbabwe is in its sixth year of a bitter economic recession which has seen inflation hitting 913.6 percent, the highest such rate outside a war zone.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party and major Western governments blame President Robert Mugabe for ruining the country's economy which was one of the strongest at independence from Britain 26 years ago.
But Mugabe denies the charge blaming the crisis on sabotage by his Western enemies after he violently seized land from whites for redistribution to landless blacks. - ZimOnline
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Zimbabwe's Prices Rise 900%, Turning Staples Into Luxuries - New York Times
Source: New York Times
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 2, 2006
Zimbabwe's Prices Rise 900%, Turning Staples Into Luxuries
By MICHAEL WINES
HARARE, Zimbabwe, April 25 — How bad is inflation in Zimbabwe? Well, consider this: at a supermarket near the center of this tatterdemalion capital, toilet paper costs $417.
No, not per roll. Four hundred seventeen Zimbabwean dollars is the value of a single two-ply sheet. A roll costs $145,750 — in American currency, about 69 cents.
The price of toilet paper, like everything else here, soars almost daily, spawning jokes about an impending better use for Zimbabwe's $500 bill, now the smallest in circulation.
But what is happening is no laughing matter. For untold numbers of Zimbabweans, toilet paper — and bread, margarine, meat, even the once ubiquitous morning cup of tea — have become unimaginable luxuries. All are casualties of the hyperinflation that is roaring toward 1,000 percent a year, a rate usually seen only in war zones.
Zimbabwe has been tormented this entire decade by both deep recession and high inflation, but in recent months the economy seems to have abandoned whatever moorings it had left. The national budget for 2006 has already been largely spent. Government services have started to crumble.
The purity of Harare's drinking water, siphoned from a lake downstream of its sewer outfall, has been unreliable for months, and dysentery and cholera swept the city in December and January. The city suffers rolling electrical blackouts. Mounds of uncollected garbage pile up on the streets of the slums.
Zimbabwe's inflation is hardly history's worst — in Weimar Germany in 1923, prices quadrupled each month, compared with doubling about once every three or four months in Zimbabwe. That said, experts agree that Zimbabwe's inflation is currently the world's highest, and has been for some time.
Public-school fees and other ever-rising government surcharges have begun to exceed the monthly incomes of many urban families lucky enough to find work. The jobless — officially 70 percent of Zimbabwe's 4.2 million workers, but widely placed at 80 percent when idle farmers are included — furtively hawk tomatoes and baggies of ground corn from roadside tables, an occupation banned by the police since last May.
Those with spare cash put it not in banks, which pay a paltry 4 to 10 percent annual interest on savings, but in gilt-edged investments like bags of corn meal and sugar, guaranteed not to lose their value.
"There's a surrealism here that's hard to get across to people," Mike Davies, the chairman of a civic-watchdog group called the Combined Harare Residents Association, said in an interview. "If you need something and have cash, you buy it. If you have cash you spend it today, because tomorrow it's going to be worth 5 percent less.
"Normal horizons don't exist here. People live hand to mouth."
President Robert G. Mugabe has responded to the hardship in two ways.
Although there is no credible threat to his 26-year rule, Zimbabwe's political opposition is calling for mass protests against the economic situation. So Mr. Mugabe has tightened his grip on power even further, turning the economy over to a national security council of his closest allies. In addition, he has seeded the government's civilian ministries this year with loyal army and intelligence officers who now control key functions, from food security to tax collection.
At the same time, Mr. Mugabe's government has printed trillions of new Zimbabwean dollars to keep ministries functioning and to shield the salaries of key supporters — and potential enemies — against further erosion. Supplemental spending proposed early in April would increase the 2006 spending limits approved last November by fully 40 percent, and more such emergency spending measures are all but certain before the year ends.
On Friday, the government said it would triple the salaries of 190,000 soldiers and teachers. But even those government workers still badly trail inflation; the best of the raises, to as much as $33 million a month, already are slightly below the latest poverty line for the average family of five.
This will only worsen inflation, for printing too many worthless dollars is in part what got Zimbabwe into this mess to begin with. Zimbabwe fell into hyperinflation after the government began seizing commercial farms in about 2000. Foreign investors fled, manufacturing ground to a halt, goods and foreign currency needed to buy imports fell into short supply and prices shot up.
Inflation, about 400 percent per year last November, edged over 600 percent in January, but began to soar after the government revealed that it had paid the International Monetary Fund $221 million to cover an arrears that threatened Zimbabwe's membership in the organization.
In February, the government admitted that it had printed at least $21 trillion in currency — and probably much more, critics say — to buy the American dollars with which the debt was paid.
By March, inflation had touched 914 percent a year, at which rate prices would rise more than tenfold in 12 months. Experts agree that quadruple-digit inflation is now a certainty.
In the midst of this craziness, some Harare enclaves seem paradoxically normal. North of downtown, where diplomats and aid workers are financed with American dollars, and generators and bottled water are the norm, the cafes still serve cappuccino and the markets sell plump roasting chickens, albeit $1 million chickens.
Everywhere else, the hardship is inescapable.
In Glen Norah, a dense suburb of thousands of tiny homes southwest of the city, 58-year-old Ayina Musoni and her divorced daughter Regai, 26, share their five-room house with Regai's two children and three lodgers. The lodgers, two security guards and a teacher, pay monthly rent totaling $3 million, or about $14.25 in American money.
Ms. Musoni's latest monthly bill for services from the Harare city government was $2.4 million. The refrigerator in her closet-size kitchen is empty except for a few bottles of boiled water. Christmas dinner was sadza, or corn porridge, with hard-boiled eggs. For Easter, there was nothing.
Mother and daughter make as much as $10 in American money each week by selling vegetables, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. But the profits are being consumed by rising costs at the farmers' market where they buy stock. "Like potatoes," Regai said. "I went last week, and it was $500,000 for a packet. And when I went this weekend, it was $700,000.
Millions of Zimbabweans survive these days on the kindness of outsiders — foreigners who donate food or medicine and, more important, family members who have fled the nation for better lives abroad.
As many as three million Zimbabweans now live elsewhere, usually in Britain, South Africa or the United States. An economist here, John Robertson, estimates that they remit as much as $50 million a month to their families — the equivalent of one sixth of the gross domestic product.
Ms. Musoni's is not a hard-luck story; in Harare, most people now live this way, or worse. Indeed, life for many may be better in the nation's impoverished rural areas, where subsistence farming is the only industry and millions of people are guaranteed free monthly rations from the United Nations and other donors. In the cities, little is free.
Unity Motize, 64, lives with her 65-year-old husband, Simeon, in Highfield, a middle-class suburb turned slum not far south of town. The couple occupies one room of their three-room house. The second sleeps two sons, their wives and their two infants, all left homeless last May after riot police bulldozed the homes of hundreds of thousands of slum-dwellers. A 23-year-old son and an unemployed daughter sleep in the living room.
Hyperinflation is a cradle-to-grave experience here. The government recently announced that the price of childbirth, now $7 million, would rise 463 percent by October. Funeral costs are to double over the same period.
In rural areas, said one official of a foreign-based charity who declined to be named, fearing consequences from the government, even the barest funeral costs at least $6 million, or about $28.50 — well beyond most families' means. The dead are buried in open fields at night, she said. Recently, she watched one family dismantle their home's cupboard to construct a makeshift coffin.
"I'll never forget that," she said. "The incredible sadness of it all."
Critics say that Zimbabwe's rulers are oblivious to such suffering — last year, Mr. Mugabe completed his own 25-bedroom mansion in a gated suburb north of town, close by the mansions of top ministers and military allies.
But the government says it has a plan to revive the economy. That plan, the latest of perhaps seven in 10 years, would quickly raise billions of American dollars to end a chronic foreign currency shortage, cut the inflation rate to double digits by year's end and an end to the recession that has gripped Zimbabwe, halving its economic output, since 1999.
Mr. Robertson, the economist, says that is unlikely. Zimbabweans can and probably will endure greater hardship, he says. As a whole, the nation has only now sunk to standards common elsewhere in Africa. But the government may have reached the limit of its ability to do anything about it. Cutting spending seems impossible, and raising taxes further is unthinkable.
That leaves one option: "much more inflation," he said. "Because this government is always going to be printing its way out of its current difficulty."
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May 2, 2006
Zimbabwe's Prices Rise 900%, Turning Staples Into Luxuries
By MICHAEL WINES
HARARE, Zimbabwe, April 25 — How bad is inflation in Zimbabwe? Well, consider this: at a supermarket near the center of this tatterdemalion capital, toilet paper costs $417.
No, not per roll. Four hundred seventeen Zimbabwean dollars is the value of a single two-ply sheet. A roll costs $145,750 — in American currency, about 69 cents.
The price of toilet paper, like everything else here, soars almost daily, spawning jokes about an impending better use for Zimbabwe's $500 bill, now the smallest in circulation.
But what is happening is no laughing matter. For untold numbers of Zimbabweans, toilet paper — and bread, margarine, meat, even the once ubiquitous morning cup of tea — have become unimaginable luxuries. All are casualties of the hyperinflation that is roaring toward 1,000 percent a year, a rate usually seen only in war zones.
Zimbabwe has been tormented this entire decade by both deep recession and high inflation, but in recent months the economy seems to have abandoned whatever moorings it had left. The national budget for 2006 has already been largely spent. Government services have started to crumble.
The purity of Harare's drinking water, siphoned from a lake downstream of its sewer outfall, has been unreliable for months, and dysentery and cholera swept the city in December and January. The city suffers rolling electrical blackouts. Mounds of uncollected garbage pile up on the streets of the slums.
Zimbabwe's inflation is hardly history's worst — in Weimar Germany in 1923, prices quadrupled each month, compared with doubling about once every three or four months in Zimbabwe. That said, experts agree that Zimbabwe's inflation is currently the world's highest, and has been for some time.
Public-school fees and other ever-rising government surcharges have begun to exceed the monthly incomes of many urban families lucky enough to find work. The jobless — officially 70 percent of Zimbabwe's 4.2 million workers, but widely placed at 80 percent when idle farmers are included — furtively hawk tomatoes and baggies of ground corn from roadside tables, an occupation banned by the police since last May.
Those with spare cash put it not in banks, which pay a paltry 4 to 10 percent annual interest on savings, but in gilt-edged investments like bags of corn meal and sugar, guaranteed not to lose their value.
"There's a surrealism here that's hard to get across to people," Mike Davies, the chairman of a civic-watchdog group called the Combined Harare Residents Association, said in an interview. "If you need something and have cash, you buy it. If you have cash you spend it today, because tomorrow it's going to be worth 5 percent less.
"Normal horizons don't exist here. People live hand to mouth."
President Robert G. Mugabe has responded to the hardship in two ways.
Although there is no credible threat to his 26-year rule, Zimbabwe's political opposition is calling for mass protests against the economic situation. So Mr. Mugabe has tightened his grip on power even further, turning the economy over to a national security council of his closest allies. In addition, he has seeded the government's civilian ministries this year with loyal army and intelligence officers who now control key functions, from food security to tax collection.
At the same time, Mr. Mugabe's government has printed trillions of new Zimbabwean dollars to keep ministries functioning and to shield the salaries of key supporters — and potential enemies — against further erosion. Supplemental spending proposed early in April would increase the 2006 spending limits approved last November by fully 40 percent, and more such emergency spending measures are all but certain before the year ends.
On Friday, the government said it would triple the salaries of 190,000 soldiers and teachers. But even those government workers still badly trail inflation; the best of the raises, to as much as $33 million a month, already are slightly below the latest poverty line for the average family of five.
This will only worsen inflation, for printing too many worthless dollars is in part what got Zimbabwe into this mess to begin with. Zimbabwe fell into hyperinflation after the government began seizing commercial farms in about 2000. Foreign investors fled, manufacturing ground to a halt, goods and foreign currency needed to buy imports fell into short supply and prices shot up.
Inflation, about 400 percent per year last November, edged over 600 percent in January, but began to soar after the government revealed that it had paid the International Monetary Fund $221 million to cover an arrears that threatened Zimbabwe's membership in the organization.
In February, the government admitted that it had printed at least $21 trillion in currency — and probably much more, critics say — to buy the American dollars with which the debt was paid.
By March, inflation had touched 914 percent a year, at which rate prices would rise more than tenfold in 12 months. Experts agree that quadruple-digit inflation is now a certainty.
In the midst of this craziness, some Harare enclaves seem paradoxically normal. North of downtown, where diplomats and aid workers are financed with American dollars, and generators and bottled water are the norm, the cafes still serve cappuccino and the markets sell plump roasting chickens, albeit $1 million chickens.
Everywhere else, the hardship is inescapable.
In Glen Norah, a dense suburb of thousands of tiny homes southwest of the city, 58-year-old Ayina Musoni and her divorced daughter Regai, 26, share their five-room house with Regai's two children and three lodgers. The lodgers, two security guards and a teacher, pay monthly rent totaling $3 million, or about $14.25 in American money.
Ms. Musoni's latest monthly bill for services from the Harare city government was $2.4 million. The refrigerator in her closet-size kitchen is empty except for a few bottles of boiled water. Christmas dinner was sadza, or corn porridge, with hard-boiled eggs. For Easter, there was nothing.
Mother and daughter make as much as $10 in American money each week by selling vegetables, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. But the profits are being consumed by rising costs at the farmers' market where they buy stock. "Like potatoes," Regai said. "I went last week, and it was $500,000 for a packet. And when I went this weekend, it was $700,000.
Millions of Zimbabweans survive these days on the kindness of outsiders — foreigners who donate food or medicine and, more important, family members who have fled the nation for better lives abroad.
As many as three million Zimbabweans now live elsewhere, usually in Britain, South Africa or the United States. An economist here, John Robertson, estimates that they remit as much as $50 million a month to their families — the equivalent of one sixth of the gross domestic product.
Ms. Musoni's is not a hard-luck story; in Harare, most people now live this way, or worse. Indeed, life for many may be better in the nation's impoverished rural areas, where subsistence farming is the only industry and millions of people are guaranteed free monthly rations from the United Nations and other donors. In the cities, little is free.
Unity Motize, 64, lives with her 65-year-old husband, Simeon, in Highfield, a middle-class suburb turned slum not far south of town. The couple occupies one room of their three-room house. The second sleeps two sons, their wives and their two infants, all left homeless last May after riot police bulldozed the homes of hundreds of thousands of slum-dwellers. A 23-year-old son and an unemployed daughter sleep in the living room.
Hyperinflation is a cradle-to-grave experience here. The government recently announced that the price of childbirth, now $7 million, would rise 463 percent by October. Funeral costs are to double over the same period.
In rural areas, said one official of a foreign-based charity who declined to be named, fearing consequences from the government, even the barest funeral costs at least $6 million, or about $28.50 — well beyond most families' means. The dead are buried in open fields at night, she said. Recently, she watched one family dismantle their home's cupboard to construct a makeshift coffin.
"I'll never forget that," she said. "The incredible sadness of it all."
Critics say that Zimbabwe's rulers are oblivious to such suffering — last year, Mr. Mugabe completed his own 25-bedroom mansion in a gated suburb north of town, close by the mansions of top ministers and military allies.
But the government says it has a plan to revive the economy. That plan, the latest of perhaps seven in 10 years, would quickly raise billions of American dollars to end a chronic foreign currency shortage, cut the inflation rate to double digits by year's end and an end to the recession that has gripped Zimbabwe, halving its economic output, since 1999.
Mr. Robertson, the economist, says that is unlikely. Zimbabweans can and probably will endure greater hardship, he says. As a whole, the nation has only now sunk to standards common elsewhere in Africa. But the government may have reached the limit of its ability to do anything about it. Cutting spending seems impossible, and raising taxes further is unthinkable.
That leaves one option: "much more inflation," he said. "Because this government is always going to be printing its way out of its current difficulty."
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RBZ Relaxes Exchange Regulations
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The Herald (Harare)
NEWS
May 1, 2006
Posted to the web May 1, 2006
By Jeffrey Gogo
Harare
EXPORTERS can now liquidate 100 percent of their foreign earnings at the ruling interbank exchange rate after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) last week relaxed exchange control regulations.
The central bank has, with immediate effect, abolished the sale of the 30 percent export receipts threshold at the official $30 000 against the United States dollar. Exporters can now sell that portion at the ruling interbank rate of $100 193 versus the greenback. This means that exporting firms can liquidate 100 percent of their foreign earnings using the interbank rate.
In a statement released to exporters last week, RBZ noted: "In order to further consolidate and support growth in the export sector, RBZ is pleased to advise the market that from 28th April 2006, the whole 30 percent portion currently being sold to the (central) bank shall be at the going interbank exchange rate. "Under the circumstances, this means that as per standing arrangements, exporters will continue to retain 70 percent in their FCAs, in line with existing exchange control rules and sell 30 percent at the going interbank exchange rate. "All exporters, therefore, now enjoy 100 percent conversion of th eir export receipts at the ruling interbank exchange rate." Previously, exporters were required to sell only 70 percent of their foreign earnings at the interbank rate while the remainder was disposed using the auction rate. Analysts say the new policy would greatly enhance exporter viability.
Exporters have persistently decried that exchange rate distortions had caused havoc in their businesses, as input costs failed to meet revenue. But the stability of the Zimbabwe dollar versus key foreign currencies over the last few months has worked in the interests of importers and holders of foreign currency-denominated debt. Financial analysts expect the dollar to remain stable against major currencies in the short term, although foreign currency shortages are likely to persist. However, what the new RBZ measure has done is to submerge exporter calls for devaluation, as well as addressing, to some extent, the disparities between input and output costs.
Zimbabwe continues to face fo reign currency challenges due to a combination of successive droughts, a declining export base and lack of balance of payments support from multilateral lending institutions. However, RBZ governor Dr Gideon Gono recently announced that the country would receive US$2,5 billion in cash and investments within the next three months.. This is one of the major targets under the New Economic Development Priority Programme (NEDPP) launched two weeks ago. Various efforts are also being pursued to ensure exporters bring in the much-needed hard currency.
The Herald (Harare)
NEWS
May 1, 2006
Posted to the web May 1, 2006
By Jeffrey Gogo
Harare
EXPORTERS can now liquidate 100 percent of their foreign earnings at the ruling interbank exchange rate after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) last week relaxed exchange control regulations.
The central bank has, with immediate effect, abolished the sale of the 30 percent export receipts threshold at the official $30 000 against the United States dollar. Exporters can now sell that portion at the ruling interbank rate of $100 193 versus the greenback. This means that exporting firms can liquidate 100 percent of their foreign earnings using the interbank rate.
In a statement released to exporters last week, RBZ noted: "In order to further consolidate and support growth in the export sector, RBZ is pleased to advise the market that from 28th April 2006, the whole 30 percent portion currently being sold to the (central) bank shall be at the going interbank exchange rate. "Under the circumstances, this means that as per standing arrangements, exporters will continue to retain 70 percent in their FCAs, in line with existing exchange control rules and sell 30 percent at the going interbank exchange rate. "All exporters, therefore, now enjoy 100 percent conversion of th eir export receipts at the ruling interbank exchange rate." Previously, exporters were required to sell only 70 percent of their foreign earnings at the interbank rate while the remainder was disposed using the auction rate. Analysts say the new policy would greatly enhance exporter viability.
Exporters have persistently decried that exchange rate distortions had caused havoc in their businesses, as input costs failed to meet revenue. But the stability of the Zimbabwe dollar versus key foreign currencies over the last few months has worked in the interests of importers and holders of foreign currency-denominated debt. Financial analysts expect the dollar to remain stable against major currencies in the short term, although foreign currency shortages are likely to persist. However, what the new RBZ measure has done is to submerge exporter calls for devaluation, as well as addressing, to some extent, the disparities between input and output costs.
Zimbabwe continues to face fo reign currency challenges due to a combination of successive droughts, a declining export base and lack of balance of payments support from multilateral lending institutions. However, RBZ governor Dr Gideon Gono recently announced that the country would receive US$2,5 billion in cash and investments within the next three months.. This is one of the major targets under the New Economic Development Priority Programme (NEDPP) launched two weeks ago. Various efforts are also being pursued to ensure exporters bring in the much-needed hard currency.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Scotsman.com News - International - Zimbabwe announces 3,000% rise in hospital charges
Scotsman.com News - International - Zimbabwe announces 3,000% rise in hospital charges: "Zimbabwe announces 3,000% rise in hospital charges
ANGUS SHAW IN HARARE
ZIMBABWEANS, already reeling from the effects of rampant inflation, received another shock yesterday when health authorities announced up to 30-fold increases in state hospital fees.
Edwin Maguti, the deputy health minister, said consultation fees in accident and emergency departments in the main government hospitals would increase 3,000 per cent to nearly one million Zimbabwe dollars with immediate effect, state radio reported.
Surgery will cost the equivalent of about 55p a minute, more than the average Zimbabwean earns in a day. District hospitals and clinics will charge about 15 times more.
Special fees for the elderly, impoverished and other vulnerable groups remain unchanged, along with immunisation programmes, Mr Maguti said, adding that patients trying to cheat the system by claiming this status would be fined.
Mr Maguti said the increases were necessary to shore up crumbling public health services and ease overcrowding"
ANGUS SHAW IN HARARE
ZIMBABWEANS, already reeling from the effects of rampant inflation, received another shock yesterday when health authorities announced up to 30-fold increases in state hospital fees.
Edwin Maguti, the deputy health minister, said consultation fees in accident and emergency departments in the main government hospitals would increase 3,000 per cent to nearly one million Zimbabwe dollars with immediate effect, state radio reported.
Surgery will cost the equivalent of about 55p a minute, more than the average Zimbabwean earns in a day. District hospitals and clinics will charge about 15 times more.
Special fees for the elderly, impoverished and other vulnerable groups remain unchanged, along with immunisation programmes, Mr Maguti said, adding that patients trying to cheat the system by claiming this status would be fined.
Mr Maguti said the increases were necessary to shore up crumbling public health services and ease overcrowding"
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Zimbabwe 'asks farmers to return'
Zimbabwe 'asks farmers to return'
Zimbabwe's white farmers say they have been invited to apply for land - in an apparent U-turn by the government which has seized their land.
All but 300 of the 4,000 white farmers have been forced off their land since President Robert Mugabe started his "fast-track" land reform in 2000.
A farmers' leader says some 200 applications have already been made and more are coming in.
Critics say the reforms have devastated the economy and led to massive hunger.
Foreign currency
Much of the formerly white-owned land is no longer being productively used - either because the beneficiaries have no experience of farming or they lack finance and tools.
Many farms were wrecked when they were invaded by government supporters.
The government has admitted that the exercise has been beset by corruption.
But Mr Mugabe blames Zimbabwe's economic problems on a plot by Western countries to topple him.
"There is an understanding that our members want to play a significant role in agriculture production, food security and generation of foreign currency for the country," Trevor Gifford, Commercial Farmers' Union vice-president told Reuters news agency.
"It is within this context that we were invited to submit the applications and I do know that instructions have been given to provincial land committees to process the applications and we are now awaiting responses," he said.
'No going back'
Didymus Mutasa, the minister in charge of land reform, could not be reached for comment.
But on Wednesday he said: "There is definitely no going back on our policy on land."
He also said that 99-year leases for commercial farms would be distributed by June, which he hoped would lead to higher agricultural output.
Earlier this year, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made told the BBC News website that any Zimbabwean was free to apply for land, whether white or black, as long as they used it.
Under colonial rule, the best agricultural land was reserved for whites - a policy which Mr Mugabe says he is trying to reverse.
But many white-owned farms were highly mechanised, productive businesses which formed the backbone of the economy.
The opposition says Mr Mugabe is using the land to buy votes.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4932060.stm
Published: 2006/04/21 16:53:56 GMT
© BBC MMVI
Zimbabwe's white farmers say they have been invited to apply for land - in an apparent U-turn by the government which has seized their land.
All but 300 of the 4,000 white farmers have been forced off their land since President Robert Mugabe started his "fast-track" land reform in 2000.
A farmers' leader says some 200 applications have already been made and more are coming in.
Critics say the reforms have devastated the economy and led to massive hunger.
Foreign currency
Much of the formerly white-owned land is no longer being productively used - either because the beneficiaries have no experience of farming or they lack finance and tools.
Many farms were wrecked when they were invaded by government supporters.
The government has admitted that the exercise has been beset by corruption.
But Mr Mugabe blames Zimbabwe's economic problems on a plot by Western countries to topple him.
"There is an understanding that our members want to play a significant role in agriculture production, food security and generation of foreign currency for the country," Trevor Gifford, Commercial Farmers' Union vice-president told Reuters news agency.
"It is within this context that we were invited to submit the applications and I do know that instructions have been given to provincial land committees to process the applications and we are now awaiting responses," he said.
'No going back'
Didymus Mutasa, the minister in charge of land reform, could not be reached for comment.
But on Wednesday he said: "There is definitely no going back on our policy on land."
He also said that 99-year leases for commercial farms would be distributed by June, which he hoped would lead to higher agricultural output.
Earlier this year, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made told the BBC News website that any Zimbabwean was free to apply for land, whether white or black, as long as they used it.
Under colonial rule, the best agricultural land was reserved for whites - a policy which Mr Mugabe says he is trying to reverse.
But many white-owned farms were highly mechanised, productive businesses which formed the backbone of the economy.
The opposition says Mr Mugabe is using the land to buy votes.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4932060.stm
Published: 2006/04/21 16:53:56 GMT
© BBC MMVI
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
More woes as Zimbabwe health costs double
IOL - April 11 2006 at 12:09PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More woes as Zimbabwe health costs double
Harare - Zimbabwe has lifted a freeze on private health care charges, the official Herald newspaper said on Tuesday, allowing fees to double in a move likely to add to the woes of Zimbabweans grappling with soaring inflation.
From April 1, general practitioners' consultation fees have gone up by 100 percent to $58 (about R360), the paper said, adding that specialist physician fees have also been doubled.
Zimbabwe's health sector is among those hardest hit by a deepening economic crisis widely blamed on President Robert Mugabe's mismanagement, and showing itself in perennial shortages of foreign currency, food and fuel as well as constant water and electricity cuts.
"I do not want to kill the private sector. I want it to thrive so that it can complement the public health sector," Herald quoted Health Minister David Parirenyatwa as saying in justifying the price hike.
It follows a raft of basic commodity price hikes over the weekend in response to a sharp jump in inflation, now the highest in the world.
Parirenyatwa was not immediately available for comment.
Official figures released last week showed inflation vaulted to 913,6 percent in the year to March, triggering a 60 percent jump in the cost of bread for struggling urban dwellers whose salaries have failed to keep up with soaring costs.
The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe says an average family of five requires at least 35-million Zimbabwe dollars every month but an average middle class citizen earns just 15 million.
Political and economic analysts say many urban Zimbabweans have so far survived the country's long-running economic crisis through wheeling and dealing and through subsidies from relatives abroad who send money for groceries.
Private hospitals and doctors, who still offer far better service than the country's run-down government hospitals which are chronically short of drugs and trained staff, had wanted to hike fees by up to 240 percent.
Government doctors and nurses have staged a number of strikes over the last seven years to press for better pay, while thousands others have moved to neighbouring countries and further abroad in search of greener pastures.
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, rejects charges he has misruled Zimbabwe and blames its economic woes largely on sabotage by his opponents in retaliation for controversial land reforms that has seen white-owned farmland forcibly redistributed among blacks.
Published on the Web by IOL on 2006-04-11 11:59:45
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Independent Online 2005. All rights reserved. IOL publishes this article in good faith but is not liable for any loss or damage caused by reliance on the information it contains.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More woes as Zimbabwe health costs double
Harare - Zimbabwe has lifted a freeze on private health care charges, the official Herald newspaper said on Tuesday, allowing fees to double in a move likely to add to the woes of Zimbabweans grappling with soaring inflation.
From April 1, general practitioners' consultation fees have gone up by 100 percent to $58 (about R360), the paper said, adding that specialist physician fees have also been doubled.
Zimbabwe's health sector is among those hardest hit by a deepening economic crisis widely blamed on President Robert Mugabe's mismanagement, and showing itself in perennial shortages of foreign currency, food and fuel as well as constant water and electricity cuts.
"I do not want to kill the private sector. I want it to thrive so that it can complement the public health sector," Herald quoted Health Minister David Parirenyatwa as saying in justifying the price hike.
It follows a raft of basic commodity price hikes over the weekend in response to a sharp jump in inflation, now the highest in the world.
Parirenyatwa was not immediately available for comment.
Official figures released last week showed inflation vaulted to 913,6 percent in the year to March, triggering a 60 percent jump in the cost of bread for struggling urban dwellers whose salaries have failed to keep up with soaring costs.
The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe says an average family of five requires at least 35-million Zimbabwe dollars every month but an average middle class citizen earns just 15 million.
Political and economic analysts say many urban Zimbabweans have so far survived the country's long-running economic crisis through wheeling and dealing and through subsidies from relatives abroad who send money for groceries.
Private hospitals and doctors, who still offer far better service than the country's run-down government hospitals which are chronically short of drugs and trained staff, had wanted to hike fees by up to 240 percent.
Government doctors and nurses have staged a number of strikes over the last seven years to press for better pay, while thousands others have moved to neighbouring countries and further abroad in search of greener pastures.
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, rejects charges he has misruled Zimbabwe and blames its economic woes largely on sabotage by his opponents in retaliation for controversial land reforms that has seen white-owned farmland forcibly redistributed among blacks.
Published on the Web by IOL on 2006-04-11 11:59:45
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Independent Online 2005. All rights reserved. IOL publishes this article in good faith but is not liable for any loss or damage caused by reliance on the information it contains.
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Leizer Abrahamson celebrates his 107th birthday
In a country that has just been declared as having the lowest life expectancy in the world one unique man is celebrating his 107th birthday.
Leizer Abrahamson - a resident of the Savyon Lodge Jewish Old Age Home in Bulawayo - celebrated his birthday on the 2nd April with some 100 friends, family and fellow residents around him.
Rabbi Nathan Asmoucha of the Bulawayo Hebrew Congregation reported a very special party took place for Leizer. Valda Cohen said, " it is hard for anyone to imagine all the difficulties when Leizers family put on such an amazing function at Savyon - most of everything came with the family."
For full story on the birthday plus latest picture of Leizer and also pictures of his 105th birthday click here
In the true Jewish tradition - may we wish Leizer - "ad 120" ...until 120 years !
To read about Zimbabwe's life expectancy - click here
Leizer Abrahamson - a resident of the Savyon Lodge Jewish Old Age Home in Bulawayo - celebrated his birthday on the 2nd April with some 100 friends, family and fellow residents around him.
Rabbi Nathan Asmoucha of the Bulawayo Hebrew Congregation reported a very special party took place for Leizer. Valda Cohen said, " it is hard for anyone to imagine all the difficulties when Leizers family put on such an amazing function at Savyon - most of everything came with the family."
For full story on the birthday plus latest picture of Leizer and also pictures of his 105th birthday click here
In the true Jewish tradition - may we wish Leizer - "ad 120" ...until 120 years !
To read about Zimbabwe's life expectancy - click here
Zimbabwe has world's lowest life expectancy
Bloomberg Printer-Friendly Page: "Zimbabwe Has World's Lowest Life Expectancy of 36 (Update1)
April 7 (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe, which has the world's fourth- worst AIDS epidemic, overtook Swaziland as the country with the world's lowest life expectancy, data released today by the World Health organization showed.
In 2004, Zimbabweans could expect to live to the age of 36, with life expectancy for men at 37 and women at 34, the WHO said in its 2006 annual report released on its Web site. That compared with overall life expectancy of 37 in 2003. Life expectancy in Swaziland, where a greater proportion of the people are infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS, rose to 37 from 35.
As of the end of 2003, the United Nations AIDS agency estimated that 1.8 million people in Zimbabwe carried the HIV virus. The country's infection rate was exceeded only by Lesotho, Botswana and Swaziland. In 2003, Zimbabwe had a population of 12.9 million people, according to the Geneva-based WHO.
The country's economy shrank every year for the last six and its annual inflation rate of 914 percent is the world's highest.
People in Japan, where life expectancy is 82, live the longest, the WHO said.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg asguazzin@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: April 7, 2006 09:59 EDT "
April 7 (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe, which has the world's fourth- worst AIDS epidemic, overtook Swaziland as the country with the world's lowest life expectancy, data released today by the World Health organization showed.
In 2004, Zimbabweans could expect to live to the age of 36, with life expectancy for men at 37 and women at 34, the WHO said in its 2006 annual report released on its Web site. That compared with overall life expectancy of 37 in 2003. Life expectancy in Swaziland, where a greater proportion of the people are infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS, rose to 37 from 35.
As of the end of 2003, the United Nations AIDS agency estimated that 1.8 million people in Zimbabwe carried the HIV virus. The country's infection rate was exceeded only by Lesotho, Botswana and Swaziland. In 2003, Zimbabwe had a population of 12.9 million people, according to the Geneva-based WHO.
The country's economy shrank every year for the last six and its annual inflation rate of 914 percent is the world's highest.
People in Japan, where life expectancy is 82, live the longest, the WHO said.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg asguazzin@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: April 7, 2006 09:59 EDT "
Friday, April 07, 2006
FT.com / World / Middle East & Africa - Zimbabwe's economy spirals downward
Zimbabwe's economy spirals downward
By Tony Hawkins in Harare
Published: April 7 2006 03:00 | Last updated: April 7 2006 03:00
The warning by Christopher Dell, US ambassador to Harare, last week that Zimbabwe has "passed the point of no return" and will need substantial international assistance to achieve a recovery, echoes what Zimbabwean businesspeople are saying privately.
Some industrialists say their volumes have fallen by as much as 30 per cent in the first quarter of 2006 - and this after a five-year period in which industrial production has halved nationally. The Zimbabwe Tobacco Association estimates that production of tobacco, once Zimbabwe's chief export, will fall to 50m kilogrammes this year from a peak of more than 230m kgs in 2000.
Although this year's rains have been excellent, a number of quasi-official harvest forecasts suggest that the maize harvest will be no more than 700,000 tonnes, possibly less, against annual consumption of 1.8m tonnes.
In a remarkable climbdown from its previous "We can go it alone" stance, President Robert Mugabe's government has launched a $277m (€185m, £129.7m) appeal for humanitarian assistance. Food supplies worth $111m top the bill followed by requests for assistance for shelter, drugs and agriculture. The appeal estimates that at least 3m people, or a quarter of the population, will need food aid this year, but donor agencies say the figure is closer to 4m.
The business community is reluctant to speak out about Zimbabwe's worsening economic prospects and its political crisis. But privately its members say that there has been a strong fall in output in recent months that is not yet reflected in published statistics.
The business mood has been further soured by the government's threat to nationalise 51 per cent of foreign-owned mining companies. In response, mining groups and the Chamber of Mines, which represents the industry, have warned that the consequences would be "catastrophic" especially as the plan is to take 25 per cent of the companies' shares as "free carry", paying only for the balance of 26 per cent over the next seven years.
Fearing that such a move would put an end to any chances of attracting foreign investment in the industry, the government is seeking a compromise that would give it a 30 per cent stake, most of which it would pay for.
This week the government sought to mollify some of its mining industry critics by doubling the Zimbabwe dollar price it pays for gold - now the country's largest export. While this is tantamount to a 40 per cent devaluation of the official exchange rate (Z$99,200 to the US dollar), it is unlikely to have much impact on parallel market gold sales by small-scale producers, who are able to sell their bullion illegally to the black market at vastly preferable exchange rates.
The gold price move has led to calls from other exporters for similar treatment. They say that the pegging of the exchange rate for the last two months is eroding their profitability at a time when inflation is 782 per cent and forecast to reach 1,100 per cent by mid-year. In a belated effort to curb inflation, the central bank has tightened monetary policy and raised interest rates in recent weeks, but in so doing it has created a potential crisis in the banking sector.
Money market dealers are warning that if the daily "shortage" in the market gets to Z$10 trillion there could be casualties. "If the Reserve Bank goes on like this, you are going to see bank casualties," one dealer warns.
According to the International Monetary Fund, Zimbabwe is likely to run a public sector (budget) deficit of close to 50 per cent of its GDP this year. Financing this, economists say, at a time of sliding output, stagnant exports, increased food imports and maturing short-term offshore loans, will be hugely inflationary.
There are as yet few signs of any change of heart on the part of Mr Mugabe and his top advisers. "They are," says one businessman, "in bunker mode, convinced that someone or something is coming to rescue."
By Tony Hawkins in Harare
Published: April 7 2006 03:00 | Last updated: April 7 2006 03:00
The warning by Christopher Dell, US ambassador to Harare, last week that Zimbabwe has "passed the point of no return" and will need substantial international assistance to achieve a recovery, echoes what Zimbabwean businesspeople are saying privately.
Some industrialists say their volumes have fallen by as much as 30 per cent in the first quarter of 2006 - and this after a five-year period in which industrial production has halved nationally. The Zimbabwe Tobacco Association estimates that production of tobacco, once Zimbabwe's chief export, will fall to 50m kilogrammes this year from a peak of more than 230m kgs in 2000.
Although this year's rains have been excellent, a number of quasi-official harvest forecasts suggest that the maize harvest will be no more than 700,000 tonnes, possibly less, against annual consumption of 1.8m tonnes.
In a remarkable climbdown from its previous "We can go it alone" stance, President Robert Mugabe's government has launched a $277m (€185m, £129.7m) appeal for humanitarian assistance. Food supplies worth $111m top the bill followed by requests for assistance for shelter, drugs and agriculture. The appeal estimates that at least 3m people, or a quarter of the population, will need food aid this year, but donor agencies say the figure is closer to 4m.
The business community is reluctant to speak out about Zimbabwe's worsening economic prospects and its political crisis. But privately its members say that there has been a strong fall in output in recent months that is not yet reflected in published statistics.
The business mood has been further soured by the government's threat to nationalise 51 per cent of foreign-owned mining companies. In response, mining groups and the Chamber of Mines, which represents the industry, have warned that the consequences would be "catastrophic" especially as the plan is to take 25 per cent of the companies' shares as "free carry", paying only for the balance of 26 per cent over the next seven years.
Fearing that such a move would put an end to any chances of attracting foreign investment in the industry, the government is seeking a compromise that would give it a 30 per cent stake, most of which it would pay for.
This week the government sought to mollify some of its mining industry critics by doubling the Zimbabwe dollar price it pays for gold - now the country's largest export. While this is tantamount to a 40 per cent devaluation of the official exchange rate (Z$99,200 to the US dollar), it is unlikely to have much impact on parallel market gold sales by small-scale producers, who are able to sell their bullion illegally to the black market at vastly preferable exchange rates.
The gold price move has led to calls from other exporters for similar treatment. They say that the pegging of the exchange rate for the last two months is eroding their profitability at a time when inflation is 782 per cent and forecast to reach 1,100 per cent by mid-year. In a belated effort to curb inflation, the central bank has tightened monetary policy and raised interest rates in recent weeks, but in so doing it has created a potential crisis in the banking sector.
Money market dealers are warning that if the daily "shortage" in the market gets to Z$10 trillion there could be casualties. "If the Reserve Bank goes on like this, you are going to see bank casualties," one dealer warns.
According to the International Monetary Fund, Zimbabwe is likely to run a public sector (budget) deficit of close to 50 per cent of its GDP this year. Financing this, economists say, at a time of sliding output, stagnant exports, increased food imports and maturing short-term offshore loans, will be hugely inflationary.
There are as yet few signs of any change of heart on the part of Mr Mugabe and his top advisers. "They are," says one businessman, "in bunker mode, convinced that someone or something is coming to rescue."
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Print Page
Readiness to embrace democracy still a challenge
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
IT is my opinion that we have a very serious crisis in Zimbabwe. And I think its therefore necessary for us to try and determine what has led us to the situation we find ourselves in and hopefully try to see what we can do as individuals as well as collectively to get ourselves out of this crisis.
Over 30 years ago Ian Smith, was asked at a Press conference why he was not conceding to the demands of the nationalists who were then waging a war of liberation when what was then known as qualified or limited franchise was accorded some black people. He answered: "You people from Europe, romanticise the black people. You do not know them; we live with them and we know them better. Democracy as an institution, is foreign to the Africans. It came here with the white people and we are still in the process of educating the blacks on its merits. And it is a process which will take some time.
"What they know, that is the majority of the them, is that a chief is a chief, he does not have to be voted in or out of power. Now it is not good to give these people something they do not understand because it can quite easily be abused by the unscrupulous few at the expense of the vast majority."
He said something to that effect and I recall feeling indignant and coming to the conclusion that Smith was saying that simply as an excuse to justify his desire to cling onto power and protectthe privileged position whites occupied in Rhodesia.
I was convinced his observations were typical of a racist who believed his race superior and blacks inferior. I never tried to examine what he had said objectively.
I guess then and perhaps even today, Smith’s observations only confirmed what we had been telling each other, that he despised black people and therefore was an enemy of the blacks who must be fought.
It never occurred to me that his view deserved a sober assessment to see whether there was any truth in it. He was an enemy and everything an enemy says must be false and by extension everything those who were fighting against Smith said must be true.
It was against that background that I too threw in my lot and joined the swelling ranks of the forces that were fighting against the Smith regime. Little did I know that time would come when I would be forced to recall Smith’s observations and examine them in the light of events unfolding in the Zimbabwe which is claiming to be celebrating its Silver Jubilee "25 years of Independence and Democracy".
To what extent has Smith been proved wrong or correct by Zimbabwe’s experience for the past 26 years. That is the challenge I feel needs to be addressed by all of us in the wake of the MDC split.
In my opinion the split was over the question of democracy. The question was or is:
* To what extent is Morgan Tsvangirai democratic?
* To what extent is the general membership of MDC democratic?
* To what extent are Zimbabweans in general democratic?
That is the essence of issues at the heart of our crisis in Zimbabwe
It is my opinion that the question of whether or not Smith has been proved right or wrong in his observation 30 years ago about Africans not being ready to embrace democracy is still challenging us today just as it did then.
In my opinion, one of the fundamental aspects of a democratic culture is to accept that different views must be given a fair chance to be heard and where it is not clear which view has been embraced by the majority of the people concerned, then the vote is used to ascertain that.
The outcome of that vote must be respected and accepted as the view of the majority whether one likes it or not. The moment one feels that majority vote on any issue to which instrument of the vote has had to be resorted to is against the interests of be it a party or a country or a club is the wrong one and therefore must be rejected or overturned, unless if objections are being raised with regard to the unfairness of the process, one must know that he or she is violating one of the fundamental aspects of democracy.
What does all, this suggest? In my opinion it clearly demonstrates that we have not yet cultivated in our social and political outlook sufficiently high levels of a democratic culture to enable us to immediately sense the danger whenever anyone among us violates one of the fundamental principles of democracy. We still have the feudal mentality of generally being afraid to criticise a leader which mentality autocrats, thrive on.
We have not yet developed a love for justice, fair play and a love for certain ideas to a point where we are prepared to die fighting for ideas. We still ask who has said what and not why he/she has said what has been said and ask even further whether what has been said is not a violation of an idea we hold dear.
David Chikombera
Mutoko
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
IT is my opinion that we have a very serious crisis in Zimbabwe. And I think its therefore necessary for us to try and determine what has led us to the situation we find ourselves in and hopefully try to see what we can do as individuals as well as collectively to get ourselves out of this crisis.
Over 30 years ago Ian Smith, was asked at a Press conference why he was not conceding to the demands of the nationalists who were then waging a war of liberation when what was then known as qualified or limited franchise was accorded some black people. He answered: "You people from Europe, romanticise the black people. You do not know them; we live with them and we know them better. Democracy as an institution, is foreign to the Africans. It came here with the white people and we are still in the process of educating the blacks on its merits. And it is a process which will take some time.
"What they know, that is the majority of the them, is that a chief is a chief, he does not have to be voted in or out of power. Now it is not good to give these people something they do not understand because it can quite easily be abused by the unscrupulous few at the expense of the vast majority."
He said something to that effect and I recall feeling indignant and coming to the conclusion that Smith was saying that simply as an excuse to justify his desire to cling onto power and protectthe privileged position whites occupied in Rhodesia.
I was convinced his observations were typical of a racist who believed his race superior and blacks inferior. I never tried to examine what he had said objectively.
I guess then and perhaps even today, Smith’s observations only confirmed what we had been telling each other, that he despised black people and therefore was an enemy of the blacks who must be fought.
It never occurred to me that his view deserved a sober assessment to see whether there was any truth in it. He was an enemy and everything an enemy says must be false and by extension everything those who were fighting against Smith said must be true.
It was against that background that I too threw in my lot and joined the swelling ranks of the forces that were fighting against the Smith regime. Little did I know that time would come when I would be forced to recall Smith’s observations and examine them in the light of events unfolding in the Zimbabwe which is claiming to be celebrating its Silver Jubilee "25 years of Independence and Democracy".
To what extent has Smith been proved wrong or correct by Zimbabwe’s experience for the past 26 years. That is the challenge I feel needs to be addressed by all of us in the wake of the MDC split.
In my opinion the split was over the question of democracy. The question was or is:
* To what extent is Morgan Tsvangirai democratic?
* To what extent is the general membership of MDC democratic?
* To what extent are Zimbabweans in general democratic?
That is the essence of issues at the heart of our crisis in Zimbabwe
It is my opinion that the question of whether or not Smith has been proved right or wrong in his observation 30 years ago about Africans not being ready to embrace democracy is still challenging us today just as it did then.
In my opinion, one of the fundamental aspects of a democratic culture is to accept that different views must be given a fair chance to be heard and where it is not clear which view has been embraced by the majority of the people concerned, then the vote is used to ascertain that.
The outcome of that vote must be respected and accepted as the view of the majority whether one likes it or not. The moment one feels that majority vote on any issue to which instrument of the vote has had to be resorted to is against the interests of be it a party or a country or a club is the wrong one and therefore must be rejected or overturned, unless if objections are being raised with regard to the unfairness of the process, one must know that he or she is violating one of the fundamental aspects of democracy.
What does all, this suggest? In my opinion it clearly demonstrates that we have not yet cultivated in our social and political outlook sufficiently high levels of a democratic culture to enable us to immediately sense the danger whenever anyone among us violates one of the fundamental principles of democracy. We still have the feudal mentality of generally being afraid to criticise a leader which mentality autocrats, thrive on.
We have not yet developed a love for justice, fair play and a love for certain ideas to a point where we are prepared to die fighting for ideas. We still ask who has said what and not why he/she has said what has been said and ask even further whether what has been said is not a violation of an idea we hold dear.
David Chikombera
Mutoko
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Mugabe's elderly live on 13p a month
You wonder if it can possibly get any worse....and it
does!
Mugabe's elderly live on 13p a month
The Sunday Times London March 26, 2006
Mugabe’s elderly live on 13p a month
Christina Lamb, Bulawayo
IN ONE hand Frank Wiggill holds his monthly
pension statement and in the other a 500 gram packet
of salt. It is the only thing in the supermarket that
his pension will buy, unless he prefers to
splash out on two eggs. When Wiggill retired after 38
years as an engine driver on the Zimbabwean railways,
he looked forward to enjoying his twilight years in comfort.
Instead he and his wife Jeanette depend on monthly
food parcels from well-wishers and handouts from their
son in South Africa. The collapsing currency combined with
the world’s highest inflation — estimated at more
than 1,000% a year — has cut their pension to 13p a month.
“It’s embarrassing,” said Wiggill, 79. “I worked all my
life and here I am living on food parcels of milk powder
and toilet paper.” His monthly pension of Z$49,000 is less
than the cost of a newspaper (Z$50,000) or a loaf of
bread (Z$70,000). It would take him two months to buy
a pint of milk (Z$89,000) and nine months to afford the
cheapest pack of four toilet rolls (Z$440,000).
“The pension is a laugh,” he said. “It must cost them
Z$25,000 to post the statement.” This month the Wiggills
received nothing. Deductions for three items on prescription
(Z$30,000 a time) after Wiggill cut down a cactus and got
poisonous sap in his eye left him Z$41,000 in debt to the
pension company.
At the same time the monthly rates on his bungalow have increased to
Z$679,124. Water and electricity are extra. Like most Zimbabwean pensioners, the only way the Wiggills can survive is by selling their possessions. First they sold their Ford Cortina. Then Frank’s beloved piano and Jeanette’s sewing machine.
Next to go will be the precious Royal Doulton plates commemorating the centenary
of Cecil Rhodes’s founding of Rhodesia.
They placed the proceeds from the car with a lump sum from their son in
an investment fund from which they received a monthly income. But two
months ago the fund was suspended, leaving them with no income apart from the
pension.
“We’ll keep selling more and more till eventually we’ll have nothing
left,” Jeanette said. After learning from auctioneers that pensioners
were selling their furniture to buy food, people in the community set up the
Bulawayo Help Network. Three groups formed. One, which helps to pay rates and
rent, is funded by a benefactor; one donates medicines; and the other
provides food parcels for 200 pensioners.
All the organisations asked not to be named, fearing that President
Robert Mugabe would close them and arrest their volunteers.
That helping pensioners is a clandestine activity in Zimbabwe
illustrates just how repressive the Mugabe regime has become. Many of the pensioners
say they would die of hunger were it not for the volunteers. The Wiggills’
case is typical. According to one of the distributors of the food parcels,
some receive as little as $4,000 — less than 1½p. “I’ve come across some so desperate that they are living on blackjacks (seeds),” he said. “My own mother-in-law
receives just Z$4,000 and she is a diabetic whose drugs cost at least $4.5m a
month.”
Yet they are well aware that in their pleasant homes with crocheted seat
covers and proper beds, they are still better off than millions of black
Zimbabweans, many of whom had their homes demolished last year in
Operation Murambatswina, Mugabe’s clean-up campaign, and are now living in
makeshift shelters of plastic sheets and scrap metal.
After comfortable middle-class lives, sending children to good schools
and employing maids and gardeners, the white pensioners find it difficult to
get used to charity. “They’ve turned us into welfare cases which is not a
nice feeling when you’ve worked all your life,” said Val Goodes, whose
husband John worked for 36 years as an auditor for the railway company and has a
pension of Z$129,000 (about 30p).
Like the Wiggills, the couple are sent money by their children. “You
just scrape by,” said Goodes. “We long ago stopped buying dairy products or
fruit. When the kettle blew up, we found an old pot. When the iron went,
we stopped ironing things. Now the element has gone in the oven so I can’t
bake.” Their biggest fear is falling ill. The public health system is in such a
state of collapse that hospitals do not have sterile gloves or hand-wash
solution. Private hospitals demand money up front. “As for dentists,
well I will just have to die with the broken teeth I have,” Goodes said.
“It’s very stressful,” Wiggill agreed. “I lay awake at night worrying
about the situation, which doesn’t help the health.”
Finding himself almost destitute is not easy for a proud man who worked
throughout the bush war in the 1970s when his trains carried armed guards
and had three steel trucks on the front in case they hit landmines.
“I feel so isolated,” he said. “I used to go with friends to the pub for
a beer or fishing but now cannot go anywhere, so I don’t know what’s going
on.” The couple’s television and hi-fi blew up in a lightning storm. Their
only source of entertainment is a transistor radio. It is too far to walk into town and there is no bus service. The few old people who go to a supermarket often stare
dumbfounded at the million-dollar prices and leave with a single egg or a bread
roll. To buy this may mean queueing for an hour as shoppers count out
stacks of Z$20,000 notes. The last official inflation figure was 782% in
February, but most businesses estimate that it is well over 1,000%.
University students recently went on strike in protest at astronomical fee increases.
Arts and humanities courses rose from Z$3m to Z$30m a year and medical
courses from Z$4m to Z$60m. Mugabe said recently that the solution to the
economic crisis was printing more money. The dollar is now worth so little
that some people use petrol vouchers as currency. Most shops have counting machines or scales but some have stopped counting, preferring to compare the heights of bundles of notes. “I just let people pay in bricks,” said the owner of an upmarket
Harare restaurant where bills often reach Z$50m-Z$60m.
does!
Mugabe's elderly live on 13p a month
The Sunday Times London March 26, 2006
Mugabe’s elderly live on 13p a month
Christina Lamb, Bulawayo
IN ONE hand Frank Wiggill holds his monthly
pension statement and in the other a 500 gram packet
of salt. It is the only thing in the supermarket that
his pension will buy, unless he prefers to
splash out on two eggs. When Wiggill retired after 38
years as an engine driver on the Zimbabwean railways,
he looked forward to enjoying his twilight years in comfort.
Instead he and his wife Jeanette depend on monthly
food parcels from well-wishers and handouts from their
son in South Africa. The collapsing currency combined with
the world’s highest inflation — estimated at more
than 1,000% a year — has cut their pension to 13p a month.
“It’s embarrassing,” said Wiggill, 79. “I worked all my
life and here I am living on food parcels of milk powder
and toilet paper.” His monthly pension of Z$49,000 is less
than the cost of a newspaper (Z$50,000) or a loaf of
bread (Z$70,000). It would take him two months to buy
a pint of milk (Z$89,000) and nine months to afford the
cheapest pack of four toilet rolls (Z$440,000).
“The pension is a laugh,” he said. “It must cost them
Z$25,000 to post the statement.” This month the Wiggills
received nothing. Deductions for three items on prescription
(Z$30,000 a time) after Wiggill cut down a cactus and got
poisonous sap in his eye left him Z$41,000 in debt to the
pension company.
At the same time the monthly rates on his bungalow have increased to
Z$679,124. Water and electricity are extra. Like most Zimbabwean pensioners, the only way the Wiggills can survive is by selling their possessions. First they sold their Ford Cortina. Then Frank’s beloved piano and Jeanette’s sewing machine.
Next to go will be the precious Royal Doulton plates commemorating the centenary
of Cecil Rhodes’s founding of Rhodesia.
They placed the proceeds from the car with a lump sum from their son in
an investment fund from which they received a monthly income. But two
months ago the fund was suspended, leaving them with no income apart from the
pension.
“We’ll keep selling more and more till eventually we’ll have nothing
left,” Jeanette said. After learning from auctioneers that pensioners
were selling their furniture to buy food, people in the community set up the
Bulawayo Help Network. Three groups formed. One, which helps to pay rates and
rent, is funded by a benefactor; one donates medicines; and the other
provides food parcels for 200 pensioners.
All the organisations asked not to be named, fearing that President
Robert Mugabe would close them and arrest their volunteers.
That helping pensioners is a clandestine activity in Zimbabwe
illustrates just how repressive the Mugabe regime has become. Many of the pensioners
say they would die of hunger were it not for the volunteers. The Wiggills’
case is typical. According to one of the distributors of the food parcels,
some receive as little as $4,000 — less than 1½p. “I’ve come across some so desperate that they are living on blackjacks (seeds),” he said. “My own mother-in-law
receives just Z$4,000 and she is a diabetic whose drugs cost at least $4.5m a
month.”
Yet they are well aware that in their pleasant homes with crocheted seat
covers and proper beds, they are still better off than millions of black
Zimbabweans, many of whom had their homes demolished last year in
Operation Murambatswina, Mugabe’s clean-up campaign, and are now living in
makeshift shelters of plastic sheets and scrap metal.
After comfortable middle-class lives, sending children to good schools
and employing maids and gardeners, the white pensioners find it difficult to
get used to charity. “They’ve turned us into welfare cases which is not a
nice feeling when you’ve worked all your life,” said Val Goodes, whose
husband John worked for 36 years as an auditor for the railway company and has a
pension of Z$129,000 (about 30p).
Like the Wiggills, the couple are sent money by their children. “You
just scrape by,” said Goodes. “We long ago stopped buying dairy products or
fruit. When the kettle blew up, we found an old pot. When the iron went,
we stopped ironing things. Now the element has gone in the oven so I can’t
bake.” Their biggest fear is falling ill. The public health system is in such a
state of collapse that hospitals do not have sterile gloves or hand-wash
solution. Private hospitals demand money up front. “As for dentists,
well I will just have to die with the broken teeth I have,” Goodes said.
“It’s very stressful,” Wiggill agreed. “I lay awake at night worrying
about the situation, which doesn’t help the health.”
Finding himself almost destitute is not easy for a proud man who worked
throughout the bush war in the 1970s when his trains carried armed guards
and had three steel trucks on the front in case they hit landmines.
“I feel so isolated,” he said. “I used to go with friends to the pub for
a beer or fishing but now cannot go anywhere, so I don’t know what’s going
on.” The couple’s television and hi-fi blew up in a lightning storm. Their
only source of entertainment is a transistor radio. It is too far to walk into town and there is no bus service. The few old people who go to a supermarket often stare
dumbfounded at the million-dollar prices and leave with a single egg or a bread
roll. To buy this may mean queueing for an hour as shoppers count out
stacks of Z$20,000 notes. The last official inflation figure was 782% in
February, but most businesses estimate that it is well over 1,000%.
University students recently went on strike in protest at astronomical fee increases.
Arts and humanities courses rose from Z$3m to Z$30m a year and medical
courses from Z$4m to Z$60m. Mugabe said recently that the solution to the
economic crisis was printing more money. The dollar is now worth so little
that some people use petrol vouchers as currency. Most shops have counting machines or scales but some have stopped counting, preferring to compare the heights of bundles of notes. “I just let people pay in bricks,” said the owner of an upmarket
Harare restaurant where bills often reach Z$50m-Z$60m.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
ABC News: U.S. Envoy: Zimbabwe in 'Massive' Crisis
ABC News: U.S. Envoy: U.S. Envoy: Zimbabwe in 'Massive' Crisis
U.S. Ambassador Says Zimbabwe's Economic, Political Crisis Beyond 'Point of No Return'
By ANGUS SHAW
The Associated Press
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis had "passed the point of no return" for recovery without basic internal reforms and substantial international help, the U.S. ambassador said in an interview published Sunday.
Calls by President Robert Mugabe for improved relations and "bridge building" with foreign nations so far had made no progress, Christopher Dell was quoted as saying in the independent Standard newspaper.
"It is our hope that in the face of the massive crisis that it has brought on itself, the government here will recognize that it needs to do more than talk about bridge building," Dell was quoted as saying.
In November, Dell was summoned to the foreign ministry in Harare after voicing similar criticisms of Zimbabwe's policies that he said plunged the nation into poverty. The envoy was warned he could be expelled from Harare.
In the interview published Sunday, Dell said the abuse of property rights by seizures of land and other private assets scared off investors and vital foreign financial assistance, though the United States remained the largest humanitarian aid donor $74 million last year.
Dell said in his 18 months in Zimbabwe, not a single U.S. investor had approached his office for information on Zimbabwe's business prospects and just 25 American firms were still doing business in the country.
"Zimbabwe has already passed the point of no return in its ability to recover from its crisis without substantial outside help," Dell said.
There was no immediate response from the government on Dell's remarks.
In the past, Mugabe has frequently accused Western ambassadors of meddling in the nation's internal affairs and said the country can manage its own homegrown recovery programs.
Zimbabwe's economy has been in a free fall since Mugabe's government began seizing thousands of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to blacks in 2000. Inflation has soared to 782 percent in the past year.
More than 3,000 people a week die of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses, while U.N. agencies estimate that about 4 million people are in need of food.
Last year, some 700,000 people lost their homes or livelihoods in a government demolition campaign aimed at street vendors, market stall holders and allegedly illegal housing.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures
U.S. Ambassador Says Zimbabwe's Economic, Political Crisis Beyond 'Point of No Return'
By ANGUS SHAW
The Associated Press
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis had "passed the point of no return" for recovery without basic internal reforms and substantial international help, the U.S. ambassador said in an interview published Sunday.
Calls by President Robert Mugabe for improved relations and "bridge building" with foreign nations so far had made no progress, Christopher Dell was quoted as saying in the independent Standard newspaper.
"It is our hope that in the face of the massive crisis that it has brought on itself, the government here will recognize that it needs to do more than talk about bridge building," Dell was quoted as saying.
In November, Dell was summoned to the foreign ministry in Harare after voicing similar criticisms of Zimbabwe's policies that he said plunged the nation into poverty. The envoy was warned he could be expelled from Harare.
In the interview published Sunday, Dell said the abuse of property rights by seizures of land and other private assets scared off investors and vital foreign financial assistance, though the United States remained the largest humanitarian aid donor $74 million last year.
Dell said in his 18 months in Zimbabwe, not a single U.S. investor had approached his office for information on Zimbabwe's business prospects and just 25 American firms were still doing business in the country.
"Zimbabwe has already passed the point of no return in its ability to recover from its crisis without substantial outside help," Dell said.
There was no immediate response from the government on Dell's remarks.
In the past, Mugabe has frequently accused Western ambassadors of meddling in the nation's internal affairs and said the country can manage its own homegrown recovery programs.
Zimbabwe's economy has been in a free fall since Mugabe's government began seizing thousands of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to blacks in 2000. Inflation has soared to 782 percent in the past year.
More than 3,000 people a week die of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses, while U.N. agencies estimate that about 4 million people are in need of food.
Last year, some 700,000 people lost their homes or livelihoods in a government demolition campaign aimed at street vendors, market stall holders and allegedly illegal housing.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures
Friday, March 24, 2006
Zimbabwe Coca-Cola stocks dry up
BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Zimbabwe Coca-Cola stocks dry up: "Zimbabwe Coca-Cola stocks dry up
Zimbabwe has run out of locally manufactured Coca-Cola.
Retailers were told bottling plants in Zimbabwe had run out of the imported syrup used to make the drink and supplies would resume later this month.
The cola drought is the latest symptom of a foreign currency crisis gripping the country.
Agents in Harare for the US-based soft drink company said local production of the drink had stopped earlier this month, but refused to give a reason.
However, Coca-Cola agents told shop and bar owners that syrup had not been imported owing to foreign currency shortages, AP news agency reports.
Coca-Cola is normally available even in small villages in Zimbabwe, and supplies continued even throughout the bush war that led to independence in 1980.
Zimbabweans have endured shortages of fuel and basic foodstuffs in recent years, as a result of a foreign currency shortage.
The government blames the crisis on sanctions, while its opponents say a controversial land reform programme is responsible for a sharp drop in agricultural export earnings.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/africa/4836378.stm
Published: 2006/03/23 10:33:51 GMT"
Zimbabwe has run out of locally manufactured Coca-Cola.
Retailers were told bottling plants in Zimbabwe had run out of the imported syrup used to make the drink and supplies would resume later this month.
The cola drought is the latest symptom of a foreign currency crisis gripping the country.
Agents in Harare for the US-based soft drink company said local production of the drink had stopped earlier this month, but refused to give a reason.
However, Coca-Cola agents told shop and bar owners that syrup had not been imported owing to foreign currency shortages, AP news agency reports.
Coca-Cola is normally available even in small villages in Zimbabwe, and supplies continued even throughout the bush war that led to independence in 1980.
Zimbabweans have endured shortages of fuel and basic foodstuffs in recent years, as a result of a foreign currency shortage.
The government blames the crisis on sanctions, while its opponents say a controversial land reform programme is responsible for a sharp drop in agricultural export earnings.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/africa/4836378.stm
Published: 2006/03/23 10:33:51 GMT"
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
South Africa invites Hamas
Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World: "Former S. Africans concerned at Hamas visit
Former S. Africans concerned at Hamas visit
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David E. Kaplan, THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 21, 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Having "got a toe in with the Russian invitation," Hamas "is now upsizing to a foothold with a South African visit," Telfed (the organization representing Southern Africans in Israel) vice chair Annette Milliner, told The Jerusalem Post this week.
Former South Africans living in Israel doubted South Africa's ability to influence Hamas's hard-line agenda.
Milliner had little confidence that South Africa would succeed as a peace broker. "I believe Hamas will capitalize on the PR component of the visit, particularly if it includes high profile meetings with people of the stature of former president Nelson Mandela or Nobel Peace laureate, Bishop Desmond Tutu."
"Yes, there is that concern," admits Steven Slom, Chairman of the Israel-South Africa Chamber of Commerce. "Meeting with Mandela, Tutu or President Mbeki would be regrettable as that could lend the visit a certificate of respectability.
"On the other hand, South Africa is the one country that does enjoy the moral authority to make it clear to Hamas, that in order to advance the peace process, it would have to recognize Israel, abide by existing agreements and of course, renounce violence."
Prof. Monty Zion (emeritus) of Tel Mond, questions whether this status has not lost some of its tarnish. "This is no longer the Mandela era. South Africa failed recently to publicly join most the Western counties in condemning the Iranian president's outrageous statements that "Israel has no right to exist and should be dismantled". It has also been out of step in supporting rogue regimes like Mugabe's Zimbabwe." Zion fears that South Africa could shift in the direction of its northern neighbor if it's not careful.
South Africa was one of five countries alongside Algeria, Libya, Indonesia and Belarus that abstained when the International Atomic Energy Agency voted last month to report Iran to the Security Council.
Is the overture to Hamas a sign of the company that South Africa now wants to be associated with or is South Africa merely seeking to enhance its status as a major player on the world stage? Buoyed by a resurgent economy and meteoric rise in tourism, "South Africa is looking for a commensurate status in world affairs," says Solly Sacks of Kochav Yair. A former Chairman of the South African Zionist Federation, and today Director of World Mizrachi, Sacks believes that "this is fair enough but an invitation to Hamas is a tragic mistake.
"South Africa in the past saw fit to invite the likes of Castro, Gaddafi and Arafat and nothing changed in their behavior following such visits. Isolation is the only way to deal with these guys. It was the imposition of sanctions that finally influenced Gaddafi to soften his position, and closer to home, chipped away at South Africa's old apartheid regime," noted Sacks.
Former S. Africans concerned at Hamas visit
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David E. Kaplan, THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 21, 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Having "got a toe in with the Russian invitation," Hamas "is now upsizing to a foothold with a South African visit," Telfed (the organization representing Southern Africans in Israel) vice chair Annette Milliner, told The Jerusalem Post this week.
Former South Africans living in Israel doubted South Africa's ability to influence Hamas's hard-line agenda.
Milliner had little confidence that South Africa would succeed as a peace broker. "I believe Hamas will capitalize on the PR component of the visit, particularly if it includes high profile meetings with people of the stature of former president Nelson Mandela or Nobel Peace laureate, Bishop Desmond Tutu."
"Yes, there is that concern," admits Steven Slom, Chairman of the Israel-South Africa Chamber of Commerce. "Meeting with Mandela, Tutu or President Mbeki would be regrettable as that could lend the visit a certificate of respectability.
"On the other hand, South Africa is the one country that does enjoy the moral authority to make it clear to Hamas, that in order to advance the peace process, it would have to recognize Israel, abide by existing agreements and of course, renounce violence."
Prof. Monty Zion (emeritus) of Tel Mond, questions whether this status has not lost some of its tarnish. "This is no longer the Mandela era. South Africa failed recently to publicly join most the Western counties in condemning the Iranian president's outrageous statements that "Israel has no right to exist and should be dismantled". It has also been out of step in supporting rogue regimes like Mugabe's Zimbabwe." Zion fears that South Africa could shift in the direction of its northern neighbor if it's not careful.
South Africa was one of five countries alongside Algeria, Libya, Indonesia and Belarus that abstained when the International Atomic Energy Agency voted last month to report Iran to the Security Council.
Is the overture to Hamas a sign of the company that South Africa now wants to be associated with or is South Africa merely seeking to enhance its status as a major player on the world stage? Buoyed by a resurgent economy and meteoric rise in tourism, "South Africa is looking for a commensurate status in world affairs," says Solly Sacks of Kochav Yair. A former Chairman of the South African Zionist Federation, and today Director of World Mizrachi, Sacks believes that "this is fair enough but an invitation to Hamas is a tragic mistake.
"South Africa in the past saw fit to invite the likes of Castro, Gaddafi and Arafat and nothing changed in their behavior following such visits. Isolation is the only way to deal with these guys. It was the imposition of sanctions that finally influenced Gaddafi to soften his position, and closer to home, chipped away at South Africa's old apartheid regime," noted Sacks.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
ZIMBABWE NEWS by CATHY BUCKLE
Subject: ZIMBABWE NEWS CATHY BUCKLE
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2006
Subject: Cement Bag
Dear Family and Friends,
This letter is being sent out three days later than
normal because I am now entering the 92nd hour with only enough electricity
for lights in my home. At midday on Friday the voltage to my home crashed and
the power is insufficient to heat the water geyser, run a fridge or stove or even
boil a kettle. 25 telephone calls to the electricity supplier in the last four
days, a personal visit to the faults office, a number of offers to provide fuel or
go and collect electricians are all to no avail. In the villages less than 15
kilometres out of Marondera there is also no electricity which means the
grinding mills are not working. I was told by a friend that there are scores of people now going without food and that the atmosphere is extremely tense.
This morning there is literally mud coming out of the taps in my home which
means there are problems pumping water too. Zimbabwe is now entering the darkest
of days. It is hard to describe how anyone is surviving now and this week I had
the most amazing encounter which helped me put my own problems into perspective.
Standing at the entrance gates of a wholesaler there was a thin, gaunt, tired
looking man. On the ground next to him was a small pile of empty cement bags. He
bent and picked up a bag and held it towards me, asking me to buy it. An empty
cement bag, turned inside out and with two crude holes cut into the top for
handles. "Only thirty thousand dollars" the man said to me. This was literally
just an empty cement bag, it hadn't been sewn, reinforced or even cleaned very
well. I could think of no earthly reason why I would want an empty cement bag
but the look in the mans eyes, the slight trembling of his hand and the thinness
of his body gave me a whole lot of reasons. I gave the man forty thousand
dollars and told him to keep the change. I took my cement bag and the man called
out "God bless you, thank you," as I walked away. We both knew that the money
I'd just handed over would the man just half a loaf of bread but to me, and
obviously to him, selling cement bags enables a slither of dignity to be maintai
ned. Please keep the people of Zimbabwe in your thoughts and prayers in these
very hard times and thank you for reading.
Love
Cathy.
Copyright cathy buckle
7th March 2006. http://africantears.netfirms.com
My books "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are
available from:
orders@africabookcentre.com
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2006
Subject: Cement Bag
Dear Family and Friends,
This letter is being sent out three days later than
normal because I am now entering the 92nd hour with only enough electricity
for lights in my home. At midday on Friday the voltage to my home crashed and
the power is insufficient to heat the water geyser, run a fridge or stove or even
boil a kettle. 25 telephone calls to the electricity supplier in the last four
days, a personal visit to the faults office, a number of offers to provide fuel or
go and collect electricians are all to no avail. In the villages less than 15
kilometres out of Marondera there is also no electricity which means the
grinding mills are not working. I was told by a friend that there are scores of people now going without food and that the atmosphere is extremely tense.
This morning there is literally mud coming out of the taps in my home which
means there are problems pumping water too. Zimbabwe is now entering the darkest
of days. It is hard to describe how anyone is surviving now and this week I had
the most amazing encounter which helped me put my own problems into perspective.
Standing at the entrance gates of a wholesaler there was a thin, gaunt, tired
looking man. On the ground next to him was a small pile of empty cement bags. He
bent and picked up a bag and held it towards me, asking me to buy it. An empty
cement bag, turned inside out and with two crude holes cut into the top for
handles. "Only thirty thousand dollars" the man said to me. This was literally
just an empty cement bag, it hadn't been sewn, reinforced or even cleaned very
well. I could think of no earthly reason why I would want an empty cement bag
but the look in the mans eyes, the slight trembling of his hand and the thinness
of his body gave me a whole lot of reasons. I gave the man forty thousand
dollars and told him to keep the change. I took my cement bag and the man called
out "God bless you, thank you," as I walked away. We both knew that the money
I'd just handed over would the man just half a loaf of bread but to me, and
obviously to him, selling cement bags enables a slither of dignity to be maintai
ned. Please keep the people of Zimbabwe in your thoughts and prayers in these
very hard times and thank you for reading.
Love
Cathy.
Copyright cathy buckle
7th March 2006. http://africantears.netfirms.com
My books "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are
available from:
orders@africabookcentre.com
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Notes from a Refugee
Notes from a Refugee
by Mandi Steinberg (nee Burke)
As the sun rises over Tel Aviv my husband's just come in to the computer room to ask me "what the hell" I'm doing. I tell him that I'm visiting the graves at Warren Hills. He gives me a look of shock and says "right, well I'm going back to bed". What I don't tell him is how I stare at the photos of the Ohel until I can feel that African breeze, hear it whistling through the Masasa trees on the kopje just behind the reform community's plaques and clearly visualize the red clay type soil blowing in the wind. How I know that when you need to wash your hands you have to turn on the tap behind the sinks outside the Ohel (although I'm not sure if there's any water there now). I stare at the photos of my parents' graves too and worry that they're dusty and lacking in flowers. I feel like I am the ghost of Warren Hills Jewish Cemetery. This is what its like to be a refugee, in my heart at least. To feel that you've completely lost the land that you were born and grew up in as it will never be the same, and that no one else understands that. Unless they're Zimbabwean, black or white we have a unique bond with each other.
When we started thinking about raising a family I had a huge dilemma. Every parent (or prospective parent) would like to give their children more than they had. But we had such a wonderful carefree life in Zim that it's really hard to do that. Nevertheless we packed up and went to the end of the earth, New Zealand. There I bumped into fellow Zimbabweans who I could sit for hours chatting about "when we" days gone by in Zim and at Sharon School. After a couple of years, though, we had bigger emotional issues because as I have no home left in Zim I realized that the only other place that I can ever call home is Israel. But that's another story to be saved for the "Zimbabwean/South African Israelis who leave Israel and return" blog!
I now have a daughter and I try to pass on my Zimbabwean heritage to her. She's probably the only child in Israel who will know a few Shona words too!!
But I see that I'm not the only displaced person wondering around the virtual Jewish Community of Zimbabwe at odd hours of the morning. Dave seems to be out there with me searching for his roots and the past at odd hours of the morning. So next time I can't sleep and I decide to visit my families' graves I'll know that I'm not the only ghost out there.
PS: Thank you so much for this thoughtful website. It's the only thing left that I can cling to to remember our past.
PPS: Thanks to Benny Leon for taking the photos of the graves. Now at least my children will be able to see their grand parents' and great-grandparents' graves – as I'm not sure they will ever see them in person.
by Mandi Steinberg (nee Burke)
As the sun rises over Tel Aviv my husband's just come in to the computer room to ask me "what the hell" I'm doing. I tell him that I'm visiting the graves at Warren Hills. He gives me a look of shock and says "right, well I'm going back to bed". What I don't tell him is how I stare at the photos of the Ohel until I can feel that African breeze, hear it whistling through the Masasa trees on the kopje just behind the reform community's plaques and clearly visualize the red clay type soil blowing in the wind. How I know that when you need to wash your hands you have to turn on the tap behind the sinks outside the Ohel (although I'm not sure if there's any water there now). I stare at the photos of my parents' graves too and worry that they're dusty and lacking in flowers. I feel like I am the ghost of Warren Hills Jewish Cemetery. This is what its like to be a refugee, in my heart at least. To feel that you've completely lost the land that you were born and grew up in as it will never be the same, and that no one else understands that. Unless they're Zimbabwean, black or white we have a unique bond with each other.
When we started thinking about raising a family I had a huge dilemma. Every parent (or prospective parent) would like to give their children more than they had. But we had such a wonderful carefree life in Zim that it's really hard to do that. Nevertheless we packed up and went to the end of the earth, New Zealand. There I bumped into fellow Zimbabweans who I could sit for hours chatting about "when we" days gone by in Zim and at Sharon School. After a couple of years, though, we had bigger emotional issues because as I have no home left in Zim I realized that the only other place that I can ever call home is Israel. But that's another story to be saved for the "Zimbabwean/South African Israelis who leave Israel and return" blog!
I now have a daughter and I try to pass on my Zimbabwean heritage to her. She's probably the only child in Israel who will know a few Shona words too!!
But I see that I'm not the only displaced person wondering around the virtual Jewish Community of Zimbabwe at odd hours of the morning. Dave seems to be out there with me searching for his roots and the past at odd hours of the morning. So next time I can't sleep and I decide to visit my families' graves I'll know that I'm not the only ghost out there.
PS: Thank you so much for this thoughtful website. It's the only thing left that I can cling to to remember our past.
PPS: Thanks to Benny Leon for taking the photos of the graves. Now at least my children will be able to see their grand parents' and great-grandparents' graves – as I'm not sure they will ever see them in person.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Zimbabwe inflation soars to all-time high
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Saturday, March 11, 2006 · Last updated 2:16 p.m. PT
Zimbabwe inflation soars to all-time high
By MICHAEL HARTNACK
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Yearly inflation soared to an all-time
high of 782 percent in Zimbabwe, the former breadbasket
of southern Africa whose economy collapsed from years
of drought and the government-backed seizure of thousands
of white-owned commercial farms.
Prices rose 27.5 percent during the month of February
alone, and the average family of five needed about
$90 just to meet basic food needs, far above average
earnings, state radio said Saturday.
Trade unions say those still formally employed -
about 20 percent of the work force - earn about
$55 a month. Workers on formerly white-owned
commercial farms, by contrast, earn as little
as $3 a month from their employers, many of them
beneficiaries of President Robert Mugabe's "fast
track" land redistribution.
The value of the Zimbabwean dollar has been in a
freefall since February 2000, when Mugabe ordered
the seizure of 5,000 white-owned farms.
In 2001, $1 was equal to 55 Zimbabwean dollars.
In 2003, $1 equaled 700 Zimbabwean dollars, and
in 2005 $1 equaled 15,000.
Today, $1 is equal to 99,000 Zimbabwean dollars.
The seizure of the farms for redistribution to black
Zimbabweans, combined with years of drought, have
crippled Zimbabwe's agriculture-based economy.
United Nations agencies say 25 percent of Zimbabwe's
12 million people are now dependent on international
food relief, even though the country was for years
a major food exporter to the region.
The nation is suffering its worst economic crisis
since independence from Britain in 1980 - when $1
equaled two Zimbabwean dollars - with acute shortages
of food, gasoline, medicines and other essential
imports.
The U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe said in November
that gross government mismanagement and corruption
have reversed a half-century of progress in six years.
The Central Statistical Office said inflation was 782
percent for the 12 months that ended in February.
Moffat Nyoni, acting director of the government-run
Statistical Office, said prices of food and nonalcoholic
beverages rose 824 percent during that time.
State radio predicted that inflation would fall to 200
percent annually by the end of the year after a "bumper
harvest by new farmers," but an all-party parliamentary
committee warned before the November start of this
season's rains that production would be at an all-time
low due to shortages of diesel, seed, fertilizer,
chemicals, functioning farm machinery and skilled labor.
Farmworkers of Malawian, Zambian or Mozambican descent
have been forced to return to their parents' and
grandparents' countries of origin following eviction
by Mugabe's land recipients.
Mugabe conceded in December that shortcomings in his
land redistribution program contributed to critical
food shortages.
Poor planning, corruption, lawlessness, vandalism,
crumbling infrastructure and shortages of fertilizer
and seed have compounded the effects of recurring
drought, he said.
Saturday, March 11, 2006 · Last updated 2:16 p.m. PT
Zimbabwe inflation soars to all-time high
By MICHAEL HARTNACK
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Yearly inflation soared to an all-time
high of 782 percent in Zimbabwe, the former breadbasket
of southern Africa whose economy collapsed from years
of drought and the government-backed seizure of thousands
of white-owned commercial farms.
Prices rose 27.5 percent during the month of February
alone, and the average family of five needed about
$90 just to meet basic food needs, far above average
earnings, state radio said Saturday.
Trade unions say those still formally employed -
about 20 percent of the work force - earn about
$55 a month. Workers on formerly white-owned
commercial farms, by contrast, earn as little
as $3 a month from their employers, many of them
beneficiaries of President Robert Mugabe's "fast
track" land redistribution.
The value of the Zimbabwean dollar has been in a
freefall since February 2000, when Mugabe ordered
the seizure of 5,000 white-owned farms.
In 2001, $1 was equal to 55 Zimbabwean dollars.
In 2003, $1 equaled 700 Zimbabwean dollars, and
in 2005 $1 equaled 15,000.
Today, $1 is equal to 99,000 Zimbabwean dollars.
The seizure of the farms for redistribution to black
Zimbabweans, combined with years of drought, have
crippled Zimbabwe's agriculture-based economy.
United Nations agencies say 25 percent of Zimbabwe's
12 million people are now dependent on international
food relief, even though the country was for years
a major food exporter to the region.
The nation is suffering its worst economic crisis
since independence from Britain in 1980 - when $1
equaled two Zimbabwean dollars - with acute shortages
of food, gasoline, medicines and other essential
imports.
The U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe said in November
that gross government mismanagement and corruption
have reversed a half-century of progress in six years.
The Central Statistical Office said inflation was 782
percent for the 12 months that ended in February.
Moffat Nyoni, acting director of the government-run
Statistical Office, said prices of food and nonalcoholic
beverages rose 824 percent during that time.
State radio predicted that inflation would fall to 200
percent annually by the end of the year after a "bumper
harvest by new farmers," but an all-party parliamentary
committee warned before the November start of this
season's rains that production would be at an all-time
low due to shortages of diesel, seed, fertilizer,
chemicals, functioning farm machinery and skilled labor.
Farmworkers of Malawian, Zambian or Mozambican descent
have been forced to return to their parents' and
grandparents' countries of origin following eviction
by Mugabe's land recipients.
Mugabe conceded in December that shortcomings in his
land redistribution program contributed to critical
food shortages.
Poor planning, corruption, lawlessness, vandalism,
crumbling infrastructure and shortages of fertilizer
and seed have compounded the effects of recurring
drought, he said.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
BBC NEWS | Africa | Zimbabwe 'running out of wheat'
BBC NEWS | Africa | Zimbabwe 'running out of wheat': "
Zimbabwe 'running out of wheat'
Zimbabwe has only two weeks of wheat supply left, while citizens are faced with soaring bread prices, Zimbabwe's main milling organisation has said.
The cost of bread has risen by 30%, pushing Zimbabwe's inflation rate to more than 600%.
Zimbabwe has been in economic decline since President Robert Mugabe began seizing white-owned farms in 2000.
The government is reported to have put its security forces on alert in case the discontent leads to protests.
David Govere, deputy chairman of the Millers Association, told AFP news agency the scarcity of wheat has meant a reduction in supplies to bakeries.
'Due to depleted stocks, GMB [state-run food distributor Grain Marketing Board] is now giving us 400 tons of wheat a week, down from 600 tons,' he is quoted as saying.
Shortages of wheat could force bakers to import flour from South Africa, which could lead to more price rises.
A loaf of bread in Zimbabwe currently costs $66,000 Zimbabwean (66 US cents), having risen 30% in just one week.
President Mugabe denies that his land reform programme has contributed to the crisis, blaming the effects of drought instead.
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says the situation is becoming unbearable.
'It's terrible right now because of shortages,' Arthur Mutambara, leader of one of two factions of the MDC.
'Fuel is not available, commodities are unaffordable, unemployment 80%, inflation above 600%.
"It's a travesty of justice that the country has been so run down by Robert Mugabe's regime."
Food aid
Zimbabwe's leading millers - National Foods, Blue Ribbon and Victoria Foods - have shut production at most of their mills because of the wheat shortage, according to AFP.
International aid agencies say about 4.3m out of Zimbabwe's 13m people will require food aid until the next harvest in May.
The country has suffered increasing food shortages, rising unemployment and runaway inflation since the government began redistributing seized white-owned farms six years ago.
Economists say the rate of inflation could reach 1,000% by April.
Zimbabwe 'running out of wheat'
Zimbabwe has only two weeks of wheat supply left, while citizens are faced with soaring bread prices, Zimbabwe's main milling organisation has said.
The cost of bread has risen by 30%, pushing Zimbabwe's inflation rate to more than 600%.
Zimbabwe has been in economic decline since President Robert Mugabe began seizing white-owned farms in 2000.
The government is reported to have put its security forces on alert in case the discontent leads to protests.
David Govere, deputy chairman of the Millers Association, told AFP news agency the scarcity of wheat has meant a reduction in supplies to bakeries.
'Due to depleted stocks, GMB [state-run food distributor Grain Marketing Board] is now giving us 400 tons of wheat a week, down from 600 tons,' he is quoted as saying.
Shortages of wheat could force bakers to import flour from South Africa, which could lead to more price rises.
A loaf of bread in Zimbabwe currently costs $66,000 Zimbabwean (66 US cents), having risen 30% in just one week.
President Mugabe denies that his land reform programme has contributed to the crisis, blaming the effects of drought instead.
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says the situation is becoming unbearable.
'It's terrible right now because of shortages,' Arthur Mutambara, leader of one of two factions of the MDC.
'Fuel is not available, commodities are unaffordable, unemployment 80%, inflation above 600%.
"It's a travesty of justice that the country has been so run down by Robert Mugabe's regime."
Food aid
Zimbabwe's leading millers - National Foods, Blue Ribbon and Victoria Foods - have shut production at most of their mills because of the wheat shortage, according to AFP.
International aid agencies say about 4.3m out of Zimbabwe's 13m people will require food aid until the next harvest in May.
The country has suffered increasing food shortages, rising unemployment and runaway inflation since the government began redistributing seized white-owned farms six years ago.
Economists say the rate of inflation could reach 1,000% by April.
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