Amos Chibaya an MDC Member of Parliament for Mkoba in the Midlands city of Gweru told ZimOnline that the soldiers arrived at his shop at Mabika Shopping Centre in Chivi, Masvingo province, at 10 am on Tuesday, jumped over the counter and looted goods valued at over R6 500.
The soldiers loaded their booty – packets of maize meal, boxes of washing soap, cooking oil, cases of flour, bathe soap, tinned beans and biscuits – in a waiting white Mitsubishi truck and sped off without paying despite pleas from the shop attendant.
They told my shop attendant that they were hungry because they are not being paid enough money but what surprised me is that they targeted my shop only. There are six other shops at the centre, said Chibaya.
A report was made at the local police station.
This clearly shows that there is lawlessness in this country. How can soldiers, who are supposed to be disciplined and protect civilians go around looting people's property? questioned Chibaya.
Zimbabwean soldiers this month received salaries of about Z$30 trillion (US$10 on the black market), enough to buy 10 loaves of bread.
Efforts to get a comment from Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Simon Tsatsi were fruitless yesterday.
This is not the first time that soldiers have looted people's belongings claiming they were poorly paid.
Last week unidentified soldiers raided Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono's farm in Norton and forcibly took 175 chickens valued at US$787.50.
Chinhoyi police records show that six armed soldiers who were driving a white Chinese-made truck arrived at Gono's New Donnington Farm and asked farm manager Philip Musvuuri to load all the chickens at gunpoint.
The soldiers are said to have told the manager that they would not pay for the chickens because Gono owed them money.
Last month some soldiers looted clothes and cash in Harare and were only stopped after the army and police launched joint patrols in the city. Soldiers are demanding their pay in foreign currency.
Zimbabwe, which has the highest inflation rate in the world at 231 million percent, has been beset by cash shortages, prompting the central bank to print higher denomination notes, the latest of which is a Z$100 trillion note.
Hyperinflation is the most visible sign of a severe economic crisis blamed on President Robert Mugabe’s policies and seen in shortages of food and every essential commodity.
However, through all this, the army has been the most loyal to Mugabe, always ready to use brutal tactics to keep public discontent in check in the face of an economic and humanitarian crisis that in recent days has also manifested itself through outbreaks of killer diseases such as cholera and anthrax.
Analysts rule out the possibility of well-paid top army generals staging a coup against Mugabe but they have always speculated that worsening hunger could at some point force the underpaid ordinary trooper to either openly revolt or to simply refuse to defend the government should Zimbabweans rise up in a civil rebellion. – ZimOnline
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