THE Herald’s front-page article of June 11 headlined “Zesa given go-ahead to cut power” shows just how out of touch our so-called unity government is with the people.
I would happily pay my Zesa bill or any other of the utilities if I had received a salary this year. Since February I have been received only US$100 a month in handouts from my company, which has barely managed to feed my family. We have no medical aid, no insurance, no ZBC licences, no fuel for our car and haven’t managed to pay last term’s or this term’s outrageous school/ PTA fees. We already live in abject poverty and now Zesa wants to cut off the electricity, which will be followed rapidly by – mark my words –water and telephone cuts.
  Can I remind the minister who has given this go-ahead and who more than likely gets all the above mentioned facilities free, that our money is still there in the bank, just a number on a ledger because the government scrapped the Zimdollar. I did not see any directive from the government to convert all our banked money into a useable currency – no; all our savings and our lives were just scrapped by the stroke of a government pen.  Can I also remind the minister that 95% of this country’s business and people had to start with a nil balance in February; some sectors are only now starting to recover to makesome money and only starting to pay something towards their staff. Haven’t the people of this country been through enough in the past two to three years without the government sanctioning further misery and upset? Zesa’s woes were because of their own problems, their inefficiency has been paramount to their troubles for years.Remember too for most of 2008 we couldn’t get the money we earned from banks so couldn’t use it, and we couldn’t pay Zesa. Surely we should not be made to suffer any further; let Zesa suffer alongside us, the poor and the hungry. We will pay when we can, we promise, but putting us in the cold and dark will not help this country recover any sooner.
Sufferer,Harare.
