...when you leave Zimbabwe.
As a South African I have always felt empathy for every Zimbabwean. The past ten years must have been hell for them. Their farms (once grain and tobacco producers, bar none)
are now tilled (non-tilled?) by ex-war veterans who would not know a shovel from a pitch fork. Their currency has become a laughable 78 000 Zimdollar to the US dollar.
Their unemployment figures run at a shocking 70 percent. Their homeless figures run at 22 percent (thanks to the bulldozers that 'clean up' the countryside.
They have few products in their shops, little fuel at their pumps and precious little hope. Unfortunately the President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, does not deign to pressurise
Mugabe for he is a 'fellow comrade'. He is one of the 'fellow warriors' of the crusade against white supremacy. I like my President but I feel he is misguided
as far as Zimbabwe is concerned.
Two news items have lead me to blog in anger about Zimbabwe again (!): The Telegraph of February 2nd reports that Mugabe is to "move against city whites" i.e. he wishes to drive whites
out of Harare and other cities. His campaign has begun with the smallholdings on the outskirts of Harare. It will not be long before he claims city housing as well. This latest initiative
(if it is true), will destroy the last one percent of confidence anyone may have in the country. It isanother example of a senile Mugabe imposing his stamp on the now worthless
country he rules.
More worrying is the report from iafrica.com that electricity supplies to Zimbabwe from South Africa will cease in 2007 due to to local (RSA) demand. Harare and Bulawayo are already feeling the
power cuts at the moment.
Add to this: Tourism has gone down the tubes. The national airline has no fuel. Food is in limited supply. And the homeless stay in the open because tents are "not required".
Is anyone out there listening? This country, once an economic power in Africa, is, like an old penny, worthless. I wish I had a larger audience so I could tell them, quite rudely: That
******* bastard must go. We must pray for Zimbabwe.