This unprecedented economic, social and humanitarian crisis has resulted in three million-plus people migrating to countries outside our borders, with many forced to reside as illegal immigrants, treated worse than second-class citizens.
In a recent visit to Botswana a friend of mine was dismayed to overhear some Tswanas boasting that their Zimbabwean maid had a degree in Economics. Universities in Zimbabwe continue to churn out 10 000 graduates per year and several thousands more from technical colleges and other institutions of higher education. They languish on the streets doing nothing. Some have resorted to becoming drug peddlers while others who have crossed the borders work as house maids, miners, farm labourers and factory workers, being paid a pittance.
South Africans have also capitalised on some of the illegal immigrants and are exploiting them – paying a meagre R300 a month wage. Back home, teachers’ salaries and most civil servants like nurses and members of the uniformed forces are pegged at about $419 including perks, a figure that is way below the poverty datum line which is currently at $550 per month.
Chronically malnourished
The World Food Programme has this year declared Zimbabwe as a food-deficit and a low-income country and the 2013 UNDP Human Development Index ranked it 156 out of 187. In the rural areas it is estimated that about 30 percent of the population are classified as being ‘extremely poor’ or ‘food poor’. It is estimated that nearly two million of Harare’s residents are currently surviving on just one meal per day.
Almost 28 percent of children under the age of five are chronically malnourished and additionally 56 percent of children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years being said to suffer from anaemia. All this is besides the fact that Zimbabwe boasts of 4.3 million hectares of arable land.
Thanks to Zanu (PF)’s chaotic land “reform†programme, tens of thousands of hectares of commercial land that was previously irrigated to feed the population now lies idle, with the inexperienced, incompetent, and dispassionate new occupants (who are prominent Zanu (PF) members) just bragging of being farmers.
All these ‘new farmers’ managed to do was to sell the newly acquired land and farm implements. Our once acclaimed bread basket has dilapidated into a basket case, having to now import maize from such countries as Zambia.
Whilst the government has been paying $403 a day for 287 days for Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko and his wife, excluding their lunches and dinners, in an executive suite of a five star hotel it is estimated that 16 percent – which is about 1.5 million people in Zimbabwe – are food insecure.
So while the poor are becoming much poorer and continue being squeezed down the rich are becoming much richer with the rich having personal fortunes in excess of $1 million.
The huge discrepancies are so visible in the rural areas and low income high density suburbs where the rate of poverty is at its highest coupled with poor standards of living and poor infrastructure that are standing in stark contrast to the leafy suburbs where the rich live oblivious of the poverty surrounding them. – ESTHER NYAMBI, By email
Post published in: Letters to the Editor