The pot is boiling-(22-02-07)

ds.
First it was the doctors and nurses who went on strike for better working conditions and higher salaries. Then it was the students at various institutions screaming about prohibitive fees at tertiary institutions throughout the country. From next week, academic staff who are also very unhappy about their meagre salaries and taxed but low allowances will join the students.
Civil servants are also likely to engage in industrial action since the government’s offer they received is well below 50% of the poverty datum line (PDL). Impeccable sources indicate that both the police and the national army are also seriously considering demanding better remuneration from the bankrupt state some time soon.
Also last week, both Woza and Moza staged successful street demonstrations in both Harare and Bulawayo protesting against the deteriorating socio-economic situation in Zimbabwe. Not to be outdone, both factions of the MDC also hit the streets in Harare and Bulawayo for the same cause. The police had their hands full, and the people who were demonstrating treated at least four of them to raw justice.
As if all this is not enough, the regime is now facing increased isolation from the international community. Last week France declined to invite poor old Mugabe to the France-Africa annual conference in Cannes. Local spin-doctors dismissed the rebuff as a non-event, even though we all know that the 83-year old sekuru had been salivating for the opportunity to step into Europe for the first time this year. His hope is that Portugal will invite him to the forthcoming Africa-EU summit in April, but that is now also very much in doubt. Let him pay for his sins.
Back on the home front, the economy continues to threaten the security of the Mugabe regime by such maladies as frightfully high levels of corruption, the world’s highest rate of inflation, a worthless currency, escalating unemployment, to name on a few.
I have always contended that the national economy will be the undoing of the decadent Mugabe regime. What Zimbabwe is currently experiencing is only the beginning of more serious troubles ahead. There are no prospects of any meaningful improvements in the performance of the economy in the foreseeable future, as long as silly-dhara continues to mess up our country.
The question that confronts progressive forces in Zimbabwe now is how should we co-ordinate all these small and big groups in order to make a more significant impact on the course of events in our country? This is not an easy question to answer since each of the various groups mentioned above claims its own turf and jealously guards its own agenda. Perhaps the best approach, or the one nearest to a national co-ordinating effort is to work with the Save Zimbabwe campaign under the auspices of the Christian Alliance (CA). Obviously there will be many groups that will strenuously argue that they cannot work with the CA as that will be misconstrued as pursuing a political agenda.
The truth of the matter is that there is virtually nothing that a man can fight for in this country that cannot be defined as political. Human beings are political animals, and there is no need to apologise for pursuing political goals and objectives.
The problems facing Zimbabwe now demand nothing short of political solutions. Mugabe’s departure from the president’s office will be the first crucial step in achieving political stability and economic revival of Zimbabwe. Chabvondoka!