MUGABE TURNS THE AXE ON LANDLORDS (13-08-07)

fighters who died in the country’s 1970s war of independence from white minority rule, Mugabe warned that rentals were now being controlled by his government.

“Landlords take care: the moratorium on rent increases remains in force,” he said to cheers from a crowd of several thousand at Heroes’ Acre , a national shrine on the outskirts of the capital.

Concerned Harare Residents senior member commenting to The Zimbabwean said such a move was only meant to create differences between the landlords and their tenants as Mugabe knew well that his dictatorship was now becoming more unsustainable.

A leading Human Rights activist Toindepi Shone dismissed this move by Mugabe commenting that Mugabe had caused more than 800 000 people to be homeless and now wanted to play politics with people’s possessions.

“Mugabe is responsible for over 800 000 people who are homeless today and it is his failure to redress the housing issue through operation garikai which only left soldiers and party loyalists as beneficiaries and for him to concentrate on poor landlords is indeed a misplaced political gimmick,” said Shone.

Meanwhile analysts say this move by the Robert Mugabe’s government to control prices on rental would see more thousands being thrown into the streets of Harare as landlords will not be seeing the reason to keep tenants.

Movement for democratic Change’s political liaison officer Nqobizitha Mlilo also commenting on the issue said this move by desperate Mugabe regime would bring more misery than removing,

“Zimbabwe is not a country where you can cheat people with such a poor move, both landlords and tenants knows Mugabe’s intend on hanging to power by according such ‘privileges’ but Zimbabweans deserve more than slash of prices which Mugabe has failed to deliver,” added Mlilo.

Thousands of people, including shop and garage owners and company officials, have been arrested since the government decreed in June that the prices of all goods and services in the country should be reduced by at least 50 percent.

Zimbabwean inflation is currently the highest in the world with independent economists placing their estimates above 10 000 percent though government’s official figures are pegged just below 5 000 percent.

Meanwhile two weeks ago the international monetary think-tank, International Monetary Fund predicated that by December inflation figures will be hitting over 100 000 percent mark a figure that may not be attained by any country in a lifetime.

Mugabe said on Monday the move was necessary to protect ordinary Zimbabweans from a brutal and merciless price war being waged by greedy businesspeople.