The dispensaries at most government hospitals were empty. An estimated 6,000 people died. Thousands fled the state’s crumbling healthcare system and made their way to rural hospitals, which are mostly run by Churches. Others crossed into South Africa where they wound up in a refugee camp, where they marinated in their own excrement.
Now, as the xenophobic fires of burning shacks darken the South African air, there are further alarming reports of Mugabe’s destitute subjects. Young women – many of them educated – have moved to neighbouring countries, Botswana and Zambia where they sell themselves for a living.
Proceeds of their shameful trade will be sent home to look after elderly parents who lost their pensions thanks to Mugabe’s inflation, jobless siblings and children who, may or may not know the appalling things their daughters and sisters have done for survival.
Despite the much vaunted chairmanship of Sadc and AU, President Mugabe will do nothing to rescue the situation in South Africa, where many Zimbabweans live in fear. The government is broke and cannot afford to feed and house the refugees in Chingwizi, where 19,000 people were resettled after floods washed away their homes. The tents they sleep in all came from donors.
Post published in: Analysis