Zimbabweans suffer from economic crises

Angus Shaw

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabweans marked 26 years of independence Tuesday with little to celebrate amid deepening economic hardships, personal tragedies and a rapidly widening gap between the rich elite and the poor majority.

President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party said Monday it was “disturbed” that young Zimbabweans showed no pride in their nation’s independence from colonial-era white rule after a bitter seven-year bush war that killed at least 40,000 fighters.

Lavish celebrations, including an address by Mugabe, are planned throughout the country.

One of those who will not be attending any is Linda, 22, an unemployed office clerk. A member of the “Freedom Generation” born after 1980, she benefited from free education and health care as a child, achieving modest school results.

Now, though, Linda — who would not give her last name for fear of reprisals — hangs out in a seedy Harare bar, looking for customers.

She said she is aware of the dangers of prostitution in a nation where at least 3,000 people die of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses each week, but some men pay more for unprotected sex. A rival in the bar claimed Linda coughed from tuberculosis, a likely HIV-related infection.

“What can I do?” Linda protested in a now-common Zimbabwe refrain. “I have to eat.”

“Too many questions. Don’t get me into trouble,” she implored in a voice breaking with desperation and typical of the fear felt by many Zimbabweans because of Mugabe’s clampdown on civil liberties.

Across town, Mercedes-Benz limousines were parked outside a posh restaurant and bar. Half a dozen patrons, drinking doubles, spent 90 minutes consuming a bottle of the finest 12-year-old Scotch at a cost of about $280. That is at least four times the monthly salary of the bartender and other average wage earners.

The vast, growing disparity between the poor and a rich elite of about 5 percent of the population is blamed largely on corruption, black market profiteering, favoritism in official contracts and land deals, and the peddling of political influence.

Unemployment exceeds 70 percent and inflation is the highest in the world at 913 percent on basic goods. Scarcities and black marketeering have sharply eroded the spending power of Zimbabwe’s currency in the past decade.

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.

Disruptions in the agriculture-based economy after the often-violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms since 2000 have led to acute shortages of food, gasoline and medicines. U.N. agencies estimate that about 4 million people are in need of food.

An estimated 3.5 million Zimbabweans, many of them skilled professionals, live outside the country.

The weak Zimbabwe dollar, plummeting in the worst economic crisis since independence, has hit health, education and other public services. Absenteeism from schools has soared in the wake of frequent fee increases.

Harare’s main Parirenyatwa hospital emergency room was unable last Friday to provide surgical stitching for a woman who split her chin open in a fall. Road accident victims waited hours for painkillers and treatment.

“We are working in very trying circumstances. We don’t have enough staff or resources,” said a senior nurse who asked not to be identified for fear of recriminations.

Health ministry officials acknowledge the shortcomings and have increased treatment and hospitalization charges for a health service that, like education, was mainly free in the first booming years of independence.

Last week, the government allowed private doctors to double their consultation fees to about $60 a visit.

In an unusual insight in the state media, cartoonist Innocent Mpofu depicted a doctor asking his sickly patient: “Where does it hurt?”

The patient gasped: “In my pocket.”