In a circular to local hospitals, Health and Child Care Permanent Secretary Agnes Mahomva announced that Ante-natal ward per day will now cost $200 at Parirenyatwa Hospital, $160 at central hospitals such as Mpilo and United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH), $120 at provincial hospitals and $80 at district hospitals with the same amounts being charged for post-natal care.
Caesarean birth will now cost $2 500 at Parirenyatwa Hospital, $2 500 at Central hospitals and $1 500 at provincial hospitals and $1 000 at district hospitals.
In a country where unemployment has soared to 90% plus where are the poor expected to get the money from?
Only the other day Mnangagwa was saying he was going to stop schools hiking school fees. So, it is ok to increase hospital fees but not school fees!
The 600% hike will only fuel inflation as everything else will go up in price. This is just a rat race; you cannot pull out or slow down or you will be trampled by the stampeding herd and yet know you are just going round and round in circles. It just a matter of time before you collapse of exhaustion!
Zimbabwe is caught up in a rat race and as long as Zanu PF remains in power; the nightmare will continue.
It is now clear that Mnangagwa has no clue how to revive the country’s comatose economy, just like Mugabe before him. And, also just like Mugabe, the worsening economic situation has not in anyway dampen Mnangagwa’s determination to remain in office!
“Danotiziva kati van voKuwadzana vasingadhi kuti mvura inyaye. Taingoti Army kombayi tirove!” (If we knew it was people from Kuwadzana who are causing the drought. We would just tell the Army, to round and beat them!) said Mnangagwa, addressing a rally in Kuwadzana.
The same crowd he had just told he will stop the school fees going up. The people know the promise to stop fees going up will never be honour but they all know the threat to use the Army was not an empty threat.
Zimbabweans know the Freudian slip to use the Army and other state security institution to silence dissent and criticism was the number one issue on Mnangagwa’s mind! Violence is his bread and butter speciality and would issue the shoot to kill order at the drop of a hat as he did in August 2018 and again in January 2019.
The Kuwadzana crowd was stunned and subdued by the Mnangagwa’s casual and jocular demeanour with which he said this. The nation knows, Zanu PF’s response to the country’s worsening economic situation will be to use brute force to silence dissent and criticism. We are all expected to suffer and die is silence like sheep!
Zanu PF regime have no clue what to do to revive the Zimbabwe’s economy.
When Mnangagwa launched “Zimbabwe is open for business!” mantra in 2017; he was cocksure it going to open the flood gate to new investors and investment. Two years down the line, it is clear investors have continued, as in the Mugabe years, to shy away and the mantra is dead in the water.
Still, Mnangagwa’s failure to revive the economy, the truth must have sunk in by now, has not dampened his determination to stay in power. Indeed, his failure, it seems, has only hardened his resolve to stay in power no matter what!
“If a madman were to come into this room with a stick in his hand, no doubt we should pity the state of his mind; but our primary consideration would be to take care of ourselves. We should knock him down first, and pity him afterwards.” Boswell: Life of Johnson
This is the underlying self-preservation principle governing our lives.
Well, in Zimbabwe, the madman is in State House and he has more than a stick in his hand; he has all the state security machinery behind him and, as we know, has no qualms using it to silence dissent and criticism.
Zimbabwe is being torn apart the poor are dying, literally, for change of government; as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs the economic meltdown is set to get worse. The ruling elite are using brute force to silence dissent and criticism in defence of the pariah state.
The tragedy here is the ruling elite are deluding themselves in believing they are stopping change. Change is nature. The best Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF thugs can do is delay change but they are now running the risk of closing the door to peaceful change in favour of violent and revolutionary change.
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF thugs rigged the July 2018 elections, they have no mandate to govern the country and they must step down now, spare the nation more human suffering and deaths and, more significantly, spare the nation the agony of violent and chaotic change!
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Delta, Zimbabwe’s largest drinks maker, reported a 48 per cent drop in half-year beer sales compared with the same period in 2018, after output and distribution were constrained by shortages of fuel and electricity.
“Our production and distribution operations were disrupted by the shortages of electricity and fuel, which in themselves are a manifestation of the limited foreign currency,” said Delta.
Two years after President Emmerson Mnangagwa took over from Robert Mugabe following a 2017 military coup, Zimbabwe remains mired in crisis as investors remain unconvinced that Harare is ready to embrace reform.
Aid agencies estimate that 2.2 million Zimbabweans in urban areas are at risk of starvation and 5.5 million others in rural areas do not have adequate food due to drought.
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs there will be no hope of any meaningful economic recovery. It is near impossible to do business in a pariah state given all the disruption, chaos and lawlessness that always ensues in such countries as Delta are admitting.
The people of Zimbabwe really need to take the bull by the horns and deal with this curse of rigged elections and pariah state. Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime must step down. There is no other way out of this mess!
In the clearest sign yet of Beijing’s closet support of Vice President, Rtd General Constantino Chiwenga’s alleged bid to takeover as Zimbabwe leader from President Emmerson Mnangagwa this year, come what may, Chiwenga has returned back to China barely a month after returning to the country from the Asian nation for medical treatment, reportedly on a secret private invitation from Chinese president, Xi Jinping, Spotlight Zimbabwe, has been told.
Well, Zimbabwe fought a bitter war to end British colonial rule but only to let in back door Chinese colonial rule.
There is no doubt that China has played a major role in Zimbabwe politics ever since the country attained her independence. Zanu PF owes its 40 years long stay in power to the Chinese and the Chinese have, in return for propping Zanu PF, all but taken over total control of the country. The Chinese remove Mugabe and replaced him with Mnangagwa and now they are removing him in turn to replace him with Chiwenga.
Mnangagwa is just a puppet on a string and the Chinese are pulling the string. No doubt Chinese president, Xi Jinping has his Zimbabwe puppet dirty dancing with his Hong Kong puppet!
"Danotiziva kati vanhu voKuwadzana vasingadhi kuti mvura inaye. Taingoti Army kombayi tirove!" (If we knew it was people from Kuwadzana who are causing the drought. We would just tell the Army, to round and beat them!) said Mnangagwa, addressing a rally in Kuwadzana.
It is the cold-hearted indifference with which he said those words that send a shiver down my spine. There is no doubt at all that he meant every word he said about sending the Army to beat up the people. He should not forget that he is the man who gave the shoot to kill order on the 1 st August 2018 and in January 2019 in which 7 and 17 innocent civilians respectively were shot dead. He even boasted about it!
First he denied that anyone was killed in the January incident. “Show us the graves!” he said.
Then at a Zanu PF rally in Mwenezi the truth came out. “Those that want peace, stay at home, so that we deal with those that want violence,” said Mnangagwa, according to The Standard report.
“We will sort them out. Those who come to you inviting you to the protests, tell them to pass, what you are saying has bad omens of Legion.”
“In Harare and Bulawayo violent protesters were preventing people from going to work and even burning buses. We don’t want violence, so I said soldiers go and silence these people, they were silenced.
“That is preserving peace. We should be on the lookout as our enemies are not resting, but ensure our eyes are always wide open. We will crush our enemies, and they are being crushed.”
Mnangagwa has no clue how to revive the Zimbabwe economy but make no mistake, his resolve to stay in power is rock solid! If he is not going to rule Zimbabwe then he would rather burn the whole country with everyone in it than see anyone else rule it.
The tragedy for Zimbabwe is Mnangagwa is coming perilously close to seeing his devilish wish come true. The country’s economic meltdown has left 90% classified as poor and 34% as living in extreme poverty, according to a recent WB report.
The WFP is frantically trying to raise US$200 million to feed 8 millions Zimbabweans facing starvation, left to Mnangagwa and his regime, they will starve.
Most of the country’s healthcare has all but collapsed because government would not pay doctors and nurses a living wage, there is no medicine, no equipment, etc.
The people of Zimbabwe themselves have yet to wake up to the reality that they, first and foremost, owe it to themselves and posterity to stop the Zanu PF madness. Of course, the people are infinitely more power than Mnangagwa and his rogue soldiers the trouble is we have a sleeping giant!
Eddie Cross has been one of those people the nation now deeply regrets that it made the mistake of electing him into high office. He has been particularly obnoxious in his blind support of Resident Mnangagwa and his Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube. Whilst other people have voiced alarm at the folly of the regime.
Anthony Hawkins predicted that by the end of 2019 inflation would surge to 40% compared to the official projection of 20%.
“The entire, ramshackle edifice is built upon opaque, increasingly complex and mutually-contradictory controls, including arbitrary import prioritisation by the central bank, interest rate caps, artificial bifurcation of bank deposits and, most recently, fuel duty rebates to those best able to pay the higher tax,” wrote Anthony Hawkins last January.
“The extend system relies on “availing” funds — a favourite term of government and media alike — from a variety of mostly opaque sources in a vain attempt to pretend that policy is succeeding.
“Fundamental to the strategy is an unsustainable exchange rate policy, now well past its sell-by date, conducted in a Tower of Babel atmosphere of confusion, denial and wishful thinking.”
The ramshackle edifice has indeed collapse with all Mr Hawkins’ predictions coming true and worse. Inflation is 800%, at least!
Eddie Cross has been the regime’s principle cheerleader, leading from the front. All Eddie Cross’s predictions have turned out to be hopelessly wrong. But without doubt, his insistence on endorsing the July 2018 elections as free, fair and credible has tried the nation’s patience to its elastic limit!
It is simply inconceivable that a man of Mr Cross’s standing does not know what constitutes free, fair and credible elections!
The people of Zimbabwe risked life and limb to elect Mr Cross and his MDC friends, Tendai Biti, David Coltart, Nelson Chamisa, etc. on the understanding they will bring about the democratic changes the nation has been dying for. Little did the nation know these village idiots will not only sell-out on reforms but will now be giving legitimacy to an illegitimate regime!
I totally agree MDC leaders must be chastised, indeed even tougher sanctions should be imposed on them than on the Zanu PF thugs!
@ Silugish
“Are all Zimbabweans in Diaspora staying in those Countries legitimate you stupid Patrick Guramatuhnu....you utters rubbish....Or your Zimbabwean Government have resources to to carter for the Diaspora Votes....and Zimbabweans in Government are restricted to go to Western Countries so how can they campaign for their Parties?....you Patrick Guramatuhnu you have a stupid mentality ..you always dream that all Zimbabweans in Diaspora do not support ZANU-PF....you always kept in 2018 Harmonized Election Mode you stupid old Man (UMTOTOVU WEXHEGU LO)....You will die on the Streets of London…”
These are all feeble excuses! It was suggested that the diaspora voters can be charged US$10 to cover the cost of organising the voting, for example, so government was going to make money instead! It must be pointed out the people in the diaspora have been making a very significant contribution to the country given they are the ones sending US$3 billion per annum.
Zanu PF are free to travel to all the SADC countries, so why did the Zimbabweans in those countries denied the vote!
What excuse do you have for failing to produce a verified voters’ roll, etc.???
By failing to hold free, fair and credible elections Mnangagwa confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. No one want to do business in a pariah state. If we are serious about reviving the country’s economy then we must deal with the curse of pariah state and those who think the problem of rigged elections can be swept under the carpet are wrong.
As much as Mnangagwa would wish the world can forget that he rigged the 2018 elections and move on; the world has indeed moved on but without investing a single dollar. It is the economic consequences of the worsening economic meltdown that the country must deal with.
To end the economic meltdown we must deal with the curse of rigged elections; whether you or Mnangagwa likes it or not the rigged 2018 elections is on the nation’s agenda and it is not going away! As long as the people have to face the economic hardships they will demand to know why! And the truth that Zanu PF rigged the elections will come out!
@ Ndazvireva
“It’s 2020 !!! Get over it ! 2018 came & went .
Starting the year by whining & complaining shame on you …”
The root cause of the country's worsening economic meltdown is the country's failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. Zanu PF rigged the elections and now finds it cannot rig economic recovery. If Mnangagwa can rig economic recovery then everyone out there will be very happy and Mnangagwa would not have to bother himself with all this nonsense of re-engagement, lifting sanctions, kissing the butt of the POLAD upstarts, etc.
But whilst the economic meltdown gets worse, then the people will look at the root cause of it and demand an explanation. Mnangagwa is not getting away with rigging the 2018 elections; the worsen economic meltdown is the mile-stone round his neck. He cannot stand up right, the economy is dragging him down!
@ Rushizha
"Everybody is looking into the future!" What future does the 90% unemployed have? 90% of our people are classified as poor with 34% of them living in extreme poverty according to a WB report. The country's health care has all but collapsed because there is no money to pay doctors and nurses, there is no medicine, no equipment, etc., etc.
Only a nincompoop like you could think this situation is going to last!
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