Saturday 5 July 2014

Doubling toll gate fees is a vicious circle that would hurt the poor and change nothing!

Doubling of road toll gate fees is a vicious circle that will hurt the impoverished public without changing anything!  

Since the rigged 2013 elections the national economy has taken a nose dive leaving the regime struggling to pay civil servant wages much less anything else. The regime has resorted to all kinds of measure to increase collected revenue and doubling the tool gate fees is just one of these measures. These measures will cause worse hardship on the long suffering people without solving government’s falling revenue problem.

Government revenue will only be boosted by addressing the underlying problem of lawlessness which is the root cause of the economic meltdown. Squeezing the poor is the easy thing to do but it is not the answer!

Mugabe knows the root causes of the country's economic meltdown is the lawlessness as exemplified by the rigged elections and the rampant corruption and looting. After decades of reckless spending the country is broke; it does not have enough revenue to pay civil servant wages and soldiers are being forced to take two week holidays a month because there is no money to buy food.  

Zimbabwe desperately need foreign aid to kick start the economy but none of the would-be donors have paid a penny and until something is done to end the criminal waste through rampant corruption, no one will help.

The years of economic mismanagement have left millions of Zimbabwe poor and many companies have closed down, the country needs investors to start-up businesses and create jobs. Sadly investors too have shied away after many foreigners, especially white farmers, had their properties seized in an orgy of violence and chaos. The situation was made even worse by country’s indigenisation law demands that all foreign investors must sell some of their shares to a local partner – nothing more than a blood sucking parasite!

Unemployment is already a nauseating 85% plus, 65% of the people are living on less than a dollar a day, 80% of the children have dropped out of school already, etc. All these economic indicators show that the people from whom government is trying to squeeze a few more dollars by doubling toll gate fees are desperately poor already.

Even if the collected toll revenue was to double, as long as nothing is done to address the underlying causes of the economic meltdown regime will be back to squeeze the impoverish people for more money. This is a vicious circle designed to make the poor poorer without changing anything else!

The country must address the underlying cause of lawlessness and break this vicious circle that has brought so much human suffering and misery already.

Mugabe and Zanu PF cannot end the lawlessness because, by rigging the 2013 elections, regime placed itself outside the law; it epitomizes the lawlessness. For 34 years the regime has enjoyed absolute power in which it was the accuser, judge, jury and executioner; this time the is the accused – it is the one responsible for all the lawlessness - and this time it cannot play no other role. None!

The only way to end lawlessness in Zimbabwe is for this lawless Zanu PF regime to resign so that fresh free and fair elections can be held. Squeezing the already impoverished Zimbabwe public for more money will make the people poorer and buy the regime some time but ultimately the regime will be forced to resign. There is no other way out!

Signed. Wilbert Mukori
Secretary General
Zimbabwe Social Democrats

Source: http://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-16593-Broke+govt+resorts+to+doubling+toll+fees/news.aspx
Source: http://www.swradioafrica.com/2014/07/04/army-feels-the-squeeze-of-shrinking-defence-budget/

11 comments:

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Chimbwido

You are all talk! "ZimAsset is Zimbabwean grown project that should be financed by the nationals of this country," you say.


Unemployment in the country is 85% plus and 80% of the children have dropped out of school so if the parents cannot even afford to send their children to school they will have no money to waste buying the regime's junk bonds.


The regime itself cannot hardly pay the civil servants' wages and has now resorted to forcing soldiers to take two weeks in every month holiday just to save of food. It cannot borrow from IMF or WB because it has a $10 billion debt already. Not even the Chinese are willing to grant the regime any more loans because they know the money will be wasted in $ 1 million birth day parties, $ 5 million wedding, etc.


Even if the Zimbabweans in the diaspora had truckloads of cask, none of them will be so stupid to waste it buying Zimbabwe government junk bonds! The regime denied them a vote and now it wants their money.


You clearly have a lot of confidence in the Zanu PF regime; so how much have you con-tributed into the ZimAsset begging bowl? Not a penny!


Zanu PF is collapsing and you know it. You cannot admit it because you cannot face the reality of being held to account for the dirty work you did for the regime. Change is upon us and all your efforts to stop it is as futile as the proverbial frog putting the forest fire with his fart!

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ David Taylor

He is behaving like a two-year old who thinks the world disappears when they close their eyes. The economic meltdown is real and it is getting worse and worse; denying it is a problem is not going to make it go away. The ZimAsset begging bowl is mockingly empty and has remained so for more than a year now; pretending there is a donor round the corner who is going to fill it up it not going to change the basic reality that it is empty!

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Whichfool

For people who have rigged the national elections and murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans; insulting others is the least of your crimes! You never thought Zanu PF's rule would end but now you can see the regime is collapsing in into itself like a house of cards.

You thought you were above the law and now you are realising that you are not and dread the day you will be called upon to account for the looted wealth and the human blood you shed! No amount of cursing and swearing is going to stop the clock much less turn it back for you can undo all the wrong you did.

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Bodo kwete

They will have to do the same with the Police, CIO, judiciary you name it! Zimbabwe's civil service is too big, has been for 34 years!

Sending the soldiers on forced leave will save of food but not on wages. Yet laying off anyone is unthinkable because they will not find alternative employment given the nauseating 85% plus unemployment rate.

The reality is that the forced leave, the toll gate fees, etc.; these are all gimmicks.

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Chimbwido
It is not IF elections were rigged; they were rigged!

I told you Mugabe will get away with the rigged elections IF he can rig the economic recovery too. That has proved to be a bridge too far for him; I knew he would not succeed!

The economic recovery depended on two things:
1) ending the corruption and looting, the cancer that has been eating the national economy from within. Mugabe could not end corruption because it is an integral part of his patron-age system that has kept him and Zanu PF in power.

Having accumulated a lot of wealth himself from corruption and looting, of course he is powerless to stop the others in the ruling elite doing the same.

2) With the Zimbabwe economy in the gutter the country needed outside help in the form of foreign donors/lenders to repair the country's infrastructure and investors to start new businesses to create the much needed jobs. The donors needed assurance that their money will not be wasted; refer to 1) above.

Investors had seen the regime seize the wealth of other foreigners, especially white farmers, and were wry the same would happen to them too. Being told that they MUST have a local partner as enough to scare them away; they knew the local partner will be nothing but a blood sucking parasite!

Mugabe knew he could not delivery any of the above but thought if he could rig the elections he could fudge the economic recovery, somehow. After a year, it is clear he will never get a penny into his ZimAsset begging bowl and many companies have closed. He is president of a banana republic in every sense of the word – the regime is so short of money it cannot pay civil servants and even its own party grandees like the late Nathan Shamuyarira are paupers!

I do not need to be in Zimbabwe or do anything with Mugabe and Zanu PF; the regime’s failure to rig economic recovery is destroying the regime. Mugabe and Zanu PF are finished! My great-est worry is that the regime does not drag the nation down the abyss with them!

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ NBS

What is really surprising here is how many ordinary Zimbabweans have aided and abetted Mu-gabe throughout the years. If one can excuse the simple villagers and workers on the grounds that they are simple people and did not understand what was happening. What excuse can one have for the university graduates who too have allowed this circus to go on?

People like Augustine Chihuri, Joyce Mujuru and Mnangagwa have been at the heart of govern-ment; these are fruitcakes with no brain and therefore would never see that the system has failed. They have enjoyed absolute power for so long they will never want to give it up even if the country was turned into a cesspool!

Then there are others like Shamuyarira with some grey stuff between their ears who too were at the very heart of government and help Mugabe build this tyrannical regime. He died a pauper and therefore it cannot be said he did not see that the system was doomed, he experienced the grinding poverty first hand. Why did he do nothing to stop this madness?

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Mike H

I think the rank and file Soldiers, Police, CIO and civil servants ho have played the part in keep-ing this regime in power have been "ripe for rebellion" for donkey years. They have continued down this disastrous path because the opposition have failed to explain to those how they are being used to perpetuate their own suffering and misery.

These are simple people who were easily sold to the idea that regime change is not good for the country, for example. It was beholden to a competent opposition to explain to them than the root cause of the country's economic decline was because the people could not hold those in power to account and free and being able to removed failed leaders is the ultimate expression of that accountability! Having free and fair elections was in everybody's interest in that it was the only way to end the corruption and oppression.

Sadly the country did not have a competent opposition but a corrupt and incompetent one. MDC did not offer the people anything different from Zanu PF. The ordinary people were expected to help prop up MDC just as they were propping up Zanu PF. It is not surprising then that they have all propped Zanu PF because they see it as the job regardless of who is in power!

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Mark Longhurst

The top brass, yes have been complacent in the human rights abuse and have been rewarded, at least for a while. The economic meltdown is now so bad that even the top brass are feeling its adverse effect.

look at Augustine Chihuri, he attended a pass out parade of Police Trainees; it was them who witnessed him passing out! His shoe were so tight no one can stand up in dead feet! Money is so tight that even the Police Commissioner can afford new shoe!

The rank and file have done the dirty work and are as much the victims of the failed system as the rest of us.

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Psalm 58

Whilst it is clear that Mugabe and Zanu PF have failed to revive the economy what is also clear is that the regime has no intention of giving up power. Mugabe would rather have Zimbabwe dragged to the darkest recesses of hell than for him to give up power.

Are we going to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of innocent lives and millions of others to a life of hopelessness and despair - the very destiny of the nation - to gratify the insatiable hunger for power and wealth of an egotistic tyrant? That is the question this nation must deal with. And how we deal with it will define the character of this nation for generations to come!

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Zen

I can confidently say that no bruschetta and chocolate mousse have been served in the rank and file soldier's mess room for donkey years! What the poor dears will miss is the one decent meal a day; it is two weeks of candle light (no power) dinners of vegetable gruel.

The poor dears' greatest fault, same as the rest of us, is their failure to see this coming and demanding change. This Mugabe kleptocracy was doom to fail and fail catastrophically and it has come to pass! The regime used the poor dears as the foot soldiers to impose the system on the nation and they, as the rest us, have been the victims of the catastrophic failure!

Zimbabwe Light said...

The only reason she wants the people in the diaspora to return is so that they can bankroll the ZimAsset and fill the gap left by investors who have shied away from the country. Meanwhile the regime can continue in its corrupt ways! She really does not have an idea that is happening here!

As long as Zanu PF remains in power the economic meltdown will continue because there are no Zimbabweans in the diaspora with sack loads of cash and if there were none of them would be stupid enough to invest in a doomed Zanu PF economy.

The only way out of this mess is for Zanu PF to resign so an interim administration can be appointed to implement all the democratic reforms and prepare for free and fair elections. There is no way out!