africa wins again...
Posted on 02/11/2007 7:05:06 PM PST by NormsRevenge
HARARE (AFP) - Doctors have been on strike for weeks, teachers are boycotting classes and now civil servants are threatening to stay away from their offices in another sign of the general collapse of the Zimbabwean state.
President Robert Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, has found his position largely unchallenged in recent times given splits in opposition ranks.
But analysts believe the recent wave of industrial unrest, with workers desperate for pay hikes to keep up pace with the skyrocketing cost of living, could soon boil over and culminate in spontaneous anti-government protests.
Mugabe may have dismissed his trade unionist opponents as being "deranged" but Raymond Majongwe, the labour leader who instigated this week's strike action by thousands of teachers, is not backing off.
"They can arrest us but we will not move an inch from our demands. It's us who call the shots," said Majongwe, of the Progressive Teachers' Union.
The union wants teachers' monthly salaries raised from the current average of 100,000 Zimbabwe dollars (400 US at the official rate but less than 25 US on the black market) to 540,000 dollars, describing its demands the "bare minimum considering the current cost of living."
Hospitals have largely ceased to operate since senior doctors joined long-striking junior medics in staying away at the beginning of January.
They had also asked for a tenfold increase in salaries to keep up with the surging cost of living which is being fuelled by inflation which now stands at 1,281 percent -- the highest in the world.
Emergency cases are being handled by army medics and a few senior doctors who have decided to keep turning up at their workplace.
Similar protests can be heard from the civil servants' Public Service Association union which has hinted at a strike by calling on members "to plan the way forward in the event that we do not get the relief we are seeking."
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, long a thorn in the flesh of Mugabe, has given the government until February 23 to reduce income tax, increase access to anti- AIDS drugs and pay salaries above the poverty threshold.
"If government ignores our demands, we will meet to discuss the way forward and do what we can do best -- that is take to the streets," ZCTU secretary general Wellington Chibebe said.
"We are saying this time: 'let's move together'. Most of us have been reduced to slaves. Our salaries can't buy us anything and when a government fails to pay its workers decent salaries that's political failure."
University of Zimbabwe political science professor Eldred Masunungure said the economy was becoming "the invisible opposition" to Mugabe's rule.
"It's driving the current spate of strikes in the absence of real political opposition," Masunungure said.
"Although there is no coherence in the protests they could degenerate to political protests."
Economic analyst Elizabeth Marunda warned of spontaneous rioting similar to food riots in the 1990s led by the then ZCTU and current opposition chief Morgan Tsvangirai.
"Revolutions have come about as a result of discontent and we have a lot of discontent in the country today," Marunda said.
"The problem is whenever people express their anger through protests they are brutally crushed. There will be danger when the people's anger meets eye to eye with the state machinery."
In a sign of his unease, Mugabe on Wednesday sacked as finance minister Herbert Murerwa for failing to get a grip on inflation.
During the swearing-in ceremony for his successor Samuel Mumbengegwi, Mugabe said he would "never allow" street protests to take place and called his union critics the "deranged ones."
Once a regional model, Zimbabwe's economy has been on the slide for nearly eight years. Previously unheard of food shortages are now widespread with at least 80 percent of the population living below the poverty line.
Families often resort to skipping meals, striking ingredients like butter and milk off shopping lists and cycling or walking long distances to work.
Wow! Big change! I wonder what could have cased it? Oh, yeah, there's this thing called the Internet ... let's do a search:
2001:
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has passed a decree, amending the country's Land Acquisition Act so that white farmers can be forced off their land with immediate effect.
Why, you have a huge point. I just saw where the last 400 still hanging on were served eviction notices February 1st.
Zimbabwe delenda est.
Zimbabwe, as an example to the rest of the world, should disappear off the maps of the earth. That, and only that, would send a message to Hugo Chavez and all the other Marxist retards.
Instead, the UN will provide food which will be confiscated by the government and used as bribes or sold on the black market to continue to prop up the failed socialist regime.
Mugabe needs offed.
It used to be a gem, even many years after independence but now it's over. The Chinese are moving in and Mugabe effectively serves at the pleasure of his North Korean trained 5th Brigade stormtroopers/Palace Guard.
africa wins again...
africa wins again...
don't they tho? .. and the hits keep coming.. Kofi or no Kofi.
Now the word is that South Africa is in decay.
I was there in '87 , spent a month in the TransVaal region, heavily industrialized. Met a few folks from Rhodesia which is now Zimbabwe. Even at that time, most everyone of all colors was giving a good go of itand things were on the upswing.
Since then, a lot has changed, and unfortunately not for the better for most of those who remain.
yup, and africa will keep on reclaiming her land until it's all jungle again and you will never be able to tell a white man ever stepped foot there in another 100 years...
Yep...AWA as we used to say.
Another Karl Marx success story.
You're right and starving people get to the point where they think death is imminent anyway, so social and political change would be much swifter. But you can't fault anyone for trying to feed them, even the evil and corrupt UN, when humanity cries out especially the little ones
there truly is no better way to describ it either.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.