CONTRARY to testimonies of people who have visited the country and mass media reports that Zimbabwe is getting right, people continue to reap poverty and suffering. Between 2002 and 2009 hundreds of Zimbabweans lost their lives due to political murders, starvation and HIV and Aids.
Right now there is serious poverty and suffering in Zimbabwe. The country is operating without its own currency. People use scarce US dollar and South African rand notes. Buying goods and groceries in shops is made difficult by lack of change or coins.
Many towns are without tap water. Both urban and rural residents rely on borehole water, unprotected wells and rivers. This  exposes them to risks of cholera and other diseases. And there are also dangers that some boreholes and wells will run out of water in the midst of summer or shortly before the beginning of the rain season.
Streets are dirty because municipality services are crumbling. The government is bankrupt and local councils have no funding to provide basic cleaning services. Hospitals have neither medicines nor sufficient doctors and nurses.
Unemployment in Zimbabwe is more than 80% and banks continue to retrench workers. Some of the few remaining firms are closing down. Hundreds of thousands have lost hope of ever finding employment.
Many Zimbabweans are surviving on informal selling, gold panning, and on going to neighbouring countries such as Botswana, South Africa and Zambia to look for employment and to sell items such as clothes, cereals, and artworks.
People are angry with the current Zanu PF regime. Many people are living in fear of the security agencies, police, soldiers and CIO (Central Intelligence Organisation). They have witnessed people being murdered, tortured, raped, mutilated, harassed and arrested as part of political victimisation. So they are afraid of the consequences of speaking out against the corruption and illegitimacy of the government.
Police and other civil servants are living on corruption. Their jobs are not paying enough for them to survive so they help themselves by getting bribes. The majority of police officers earn a pittance and have to rely on bribes from traffic offenders and criminals.
The unity government between the ruling Zanu PF and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has failed. President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF has failed to honour the Global Political Agreement (GPA) which is the basis of the unity government. Zanu PF continues to harass political opponents, arrest reporters, and to commit serious human rights abuses.
Many MDC members of the House of Assembly have been convicted for different offences. Some have lost their seats in House of Assembly as this is a requirement of the law that if a member of parliament is convicted of an offence and sentenced to more than six months in prison he or she loses their position. So many MDC public office holders are being targeted and convicted on trumped up charges. Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC no longer holds the majority in the House of Assembly.
MDC now has equal voting strength with Zanu PF in Parliament. MDC-T 96 seats, Zanu PF 96 seats. MDC led by Arthur Mutambara has seven. In the senate Zanu PF is leading with 56 members. MDC-T with 27 and MDC-M with 8. Zanu PF has a majority in the Senate by unfair means. In Senate Zanu PF is composed of 25 elected members, four appointed, 10 provincial governors and 17 chiefs.
Although there is some hope among Zimbabweans that the MDC will eventually take control of the country, it’s difficult for this to happen at the moment. Zanu PF still enjoys the support of Sadc and has never been reprimanded for crimes against humanity, rigging elections and flouting the Global Political Agreement. This casts doubt on whether Zanu PF would willingly hand over power to a new government that won presidential elections in 2008 or that it will at least allow free and fair elections to take place in 2011.
In the meantime the struggle for a democratic Zimbabwe and human rights is lost to Zanu PF. This is the worst nightmare for thinking and peace loving Zimbabweans.

Collen Makumbirofa
Harare

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