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The Devils Lair 8th May 2007 HARARE - Titus Mlambo has always depended on his small-scale farming activities to feed his family. Every year, rains permitting, he remains with some surplus produce that he sells enabling him to make ends meet. But in the past few years things have not been the same. With the high cost of inputs and related costs, the money coming from his crop has been dwindling. He has been waiting for his cheque for the current delivery to the Zimbabwe government-run Grain Marketing Board (GMB). Upon delivery, he curses the day he was born and shrugs his shoulders in bewilderment at the sight of his seasonal payment for the maize he supplied to the GMB. "I depend on farming and this is my life. To say the least, this is criminal, they have robbed me of my survival and let alone the money. How do they expect me to feed my family," Mlambo, a father of six school-going children, bellows as he brandishes a cheque payment for Zd$104 000 he has just received for the two tonnes of maize he supplied to the GMB. The GMB, up until a fortnight ago, has been paying a pittance $52 000 per tonne (20 bags) for maize supplies and that is enough to buy only four pints of milk. The producer price has been increased to $3 million per tonne, a figure, which still barely covers the cost of production, in Zimbabwe's inflationary economic quagmire. Depending upon where you go, a 50 kg bag of fertilizer costs in excess of $100 000 on the black market and Mlambo explains that he required more than 300 kg of the growth-enhancing chemical per hectare to produce enough. The GMB sells a bag of fertilizer for $14 000, but it is subject to the product being in stock and even then the parastatal rations among the sea of registered farmers. There is a risk of even getting fake fertiliser on the flourishing black market in Zimbabwe. Mlambo's situation is repeated in many spheres and sectors of life in Zimbabwe, enmeshed in an unprecedented economic calamity. Picture this; Zimbabwe has been without a normal currency in over three years and has been resorting to expiring cheques, which often have to be revalued to curb quantities of the 'money' one can carry. The southern African country's inflation is officially over 2000 percent - the last time it was reported. The IMF has already projected the figure would hit 5000 percent this year, but the government no longer publishes the monthly figures, deeming it more embarrassing as prices go up in some cases twice daily despite threats of prosecution from a government clinging on by the thread. In a two-week period in which this correspondent was in Zimbabwe in April, the price of milk went up by 100 percent to $12 000. Consider this, the Government takes a keen interest in prices of such basic commodities and yet they are still going up rapidly, but for those products deemed luxurious, it is free for all and it is the majority of Zimbabweans enduring the pain of poverty. Despite his poor earnings, Mlambo said he still had fork out $250 000 to buy one litre of tick greaser, barely enough for his herd of 10 cattle. "You tell me where is the logic?" he quizzes. Perhaps Mlambo consoles himself that in his Chipinge rural setting, there are no rental or transport costs to bear in comparison to those in urban areas. Humphrey Sithole (40) has been teaching in the last 15 years in Harare and is considering quitting his job in August and tries his luck in South Africa like many Zimbabweans have, braving the ill treatment by authorities across the Limpopo River that marks the border between the two southern African countries. Sithole's net salary is $300 000 monthly. "My transport cost is $200 000 per month and my rent is $200 000. Need I say more?" he shakes his head, looking around to see if anyone is listening to the conversation, in a country where leaders have now been galvanised against any criticism by the very people they are expected to be accountable to. It is an offence to speak ill of president Robert Mugabe in public according to Zimbabwean laws enacted in recent years in the midst of the economic meltdown. And yet workers cant take it any more. Teachers, nurses, secretaries, clerks, managers and many other workers are not turning up for work as they cannot bear the cost of going to work for pittance in remuneration. Nurses' basic monthly salary is pegged at slightly above $111 000 and only medical allowances were adjusted when they went on strike a few weeks ago. With the inclusion of other allowances like transport and housing, State-registered nurses said they were earning not more than $550 000 while grade 11 matrons were getting around $800 000 including allowances. Nurses like teachers, are no longer turning up for work, raising concern about the welfare of the ill, in a country ravaged by HIV/AIDS. Trust Chingome, who works at the passport offices in Harare, summed up the situation: "You have to be able to steal from your employer to survive. Corruption is reaching dangerous levels." Privately senior government officials and military chiefs concede the situation is unbearable. But they will not fathom any rebellion as they benefit from corrupt deals that bedevil the social fabric of Zimbabwe. Take for instance pump price for fuel is $20 000 a litre for the public and yet government officials buy the same product through a government run commercialised department CMED for just over $800, not even enough to buy a sweet on the streets which costs $1 000. Trade unions are pushing for the minimum wage to be increased to $1,5 million, up on the current $50 000, enough to buy 10 kg of mealie-meal. At Zimbabwe Newspapers, the country's largest newspaper and printing company, the lowest paid worker has just had their monthly wage increased to $300 000 from the previous $150 000. To use a cliché there is a glimmer of hope for the workers in two respects as the 2008 plebiscite approaches. The government soften and provide Zimbabweans some reprieve or the other one is for voters to turn up in droves in deciding the direction of country's governance situation. Zimbabwe's exiled workers continue to be a source of lifeline for those lucky enough to have a family member living in the diaspora. The recent discovery of diamonds in the Marange area some 300 km south east of the capital Harare has been a major source of economic activity, in a country with a record shrinking economy without being in a civil war. Police are now guarding the area and will arrest anyone in possession of the previous mineral whose discovery has been seen by many as an oasis in the midst of the economic crisis. The diamond granules fetch from anything from $2 million to over $100 million depending on the quality. Road blocks litter the Mutare-Masvingo road, as police stop vehicles searching for the diamonds. Those who have gone to look for the 'ngodas' as the mineral is affectionately called, tell harrowing stories of armed police brutality in the midst of quest for survival. By Charles
Mtetwa, recently in Harare - zimbabwejournalists.com |