The first thing that struck me was how expensive everything was. In Beitbridge I stayed in a lodge which cost R360, for a room which had dozens of cockroaches, a broken air-conditioner, no running water and holes in the wall.
A Coke cost R10 on the Zimbabwean side of the border and everything was charged in Rand. It was more expensive than South Africa and service was much worse.
I saw a man unconscious from hunger on the street in Beitbridge, drawing no attention from passers-by. People waited for hours on the roadside for a lift. The transport they found was usually in overloaded trucks or open pickups at a charge of R100 from Beitbridge to Masvingo.
In rural Zimbabwe people were starving to death, unable to buy painkillers, pay school fees or travel. Teachers had been on strike for more than a month. A local headmistress told me that in her school (a co-ed junior school with about 600 boys and 600 girls), three girls on average drop out due to pregnancy each term. She also said that more than two children die each term.
I saw a child attending school with a broken arm. He had been to the clinic a week earlier but they had no painkillers and could only refer him to the nearest hospital. The 12-year-old could not afford the transport to the hospital and decided to return to school and carry on with his life.
I watched maize and mealie meal being sold exclusively in Rand or US Dollars. It was more than double the South African price with 50kg bags being sold for up to R400. How could a country force people to pay in another country’s currency?
I watched more than 40 trucks waiting for mealie meal at the GMB in Beitbridge. I was surprised, considering the high margins and shortage of maize in South Africa, that some of the trucks had waited weeks. Something strange was happening: maize was being sold in Zimbabwean dollars. Why would the Zimbabwean government allow the retailing of maize in foreign currency when it was sold to the mills in local currency?
People could buy the maize and sell it in Rand and US Dollars, profiting in foreign currency while the GMB runs out of foreign currency. The situation had been created by thieves who participated in killing the poor and exploiting those with family in the Diaspora.
Truck drivers described how they waited day and night for weeks while certain trucks drove in and out, carrying tonnes of maize.
The crooked, wicked, evil and murderous business men and government officials are stealing and killing deliberately. There is no shortage, supply and demand dictates the price of a product; they are forcing high prices and watching people starve.
Post published in: News