According to UNICEF, school attendances plummeted from about 80%
to around 20%. The figures were confirmed by Youth and Empowerment minister Francis Nhema at a
gathering attended by Mugabe.
“The total of those failing examinations added to those dropping out due to these (socio-economic) circumstances is in the range of between 250,000 to 300,000,” said the Minister.
“This number, Your
Excellency, over a five year period, translates to between a million to a
million-and-a-half. It is too ghastly to contemplate.”
Of course Mugabe has
contemplated these ghastly realities, after all these things are already
happening and the situation has not developed on the last month but over decades,
and Mugabe decided to hang on to power regardless the social-economic consequences!
What Minister Nhema
should have asked Mugabe is how much longer did he thought this ghastly
situation could go on and, worse still, what the social and economic cost would
be?
The complete collapse of the education system is just one of the
indicators of the nightmare scenario the nation now faces for failing to arrest
the economic meltdown that started in 2000. In the six year period 2002 to 2008
alone the Zimbabwe economy shrunk by a staggering 84% sending millions into a
life of abject poverty and forcing millions leave the country in economic despair.
Surely Mugabe and his cronies must now realise that 80% school
dropout, 85% unemployment, at least 85% of houses in cities and towns have no
running water for a day or more a week, etc.; these are all ghastly figures.
And they are socially, morally, politically, economically and every other way
unsustainable! It is madness that the
situation has been allowed to get this bad but it is sheer folly to allow this
to continue even one more day.
Mugabe has failed to rule the country, the ghastly social-economic
indicators testify to this; and he must now go before he drags the nation into
abyss! The single most important task before this nation is to get this tyrant
to go; not in 2018, now!
17 comments:
@ Head to Head Al jazzera
I a regular follower of Head on Head. I would have liked to ask the follower:
To the presenter: The way he dismissed the merit of the argument that by interven-ing in Libya many lives had been save on the premise that the West have not inter-vened to save lives in Palestine is twisted logic. Is he saying unless the world saves the lives of all Palestinians no one else's life is worth saving?
To the Special guest: His defence of the West's failure to rein in Israel's brutal repression of the Palestinians because Israel is a “democracy” is in fact counter intuitive. Yes Israel is a democracy but it has been very selective in that it has extended all the democratic rights and freedoms to Jews only and has systematically denied none Jews. The West as fellow democracies know that protecting the rights of the weak against the excess of the strong, in this case the whole State machinery, is a central tenet of a healthy democracy. It is therefore the West who should be alarmed at Israel’s repeated failure to uphold this key democratic value.
I come from Southern Africa and Israel was the only democratic country that actively supported the apartheid regime in South Africa right up to the day the late Nelson Mandela was released. Israel did not give a damn about what that regime was doing to the black majority; it was paid its thirty pieces of silver and that was all that mattered!
Israel has been back in southern Africa since the fall of apartheid. Last year an Israeli company, Nikuv, helped the Zimbabwe tyrant Robert Mugabe rig the July 2013 elections.
By first granting Israel the democracy membership club and then turning a blind eye to Israeli aggression and brutal repression the West have not helped promoted democracy in the Middle East and the rest of the world at large but have done the exact opposite! How long does the West think they can continue to ignore what Israel is doing in the name of democracy and still hope to win the war on terror?
“We are going to rule for a very long time,” said Zanu PF chairman and Senior Minister in President Robert Mugabe’s office, Simon Khaya-Moyo yesterday to wild cheers. “We will rule until donkeys grow horns"
Of course the senior minister is aware that unemployment is has been seating at a nauseating 85% plus for donkeys now and the regime has failed to come up with any meaningful measures to end this intolerable situation. He is aware the regime has failed but that has not in any way dampened its appetite to rule “until donkeys grow horns”!
Mugabe and Zanu PF are now totally focused on retaining power at all cost. It is not in the DNA of dictatorship to give up power regardless the cost to the nation of its continued rule. If there is going to be an end to the tragic human suffering in Zimbabwe cause by the decades of mismanagement, corruption and looting by this Mugabe regime then it is us the people who will have to find that way out.
The only meaningful way to end the mismanagement, corruption and looting is to have those responsible for all this criminal waste of human and material resources removed. I know many Zimbabweans have shied away from the dreaded regime change because of the hornet’s nest response that has always caused in Zanu PF Headquarters! Still, there is no other way out now but a slash and burn of the whole Zanu PF political system.
The regime has been gearing itself to resist regime change every step of the way; that is to be expected. The nation will be better off facing the regime’s Riot Police and CIO than the hell fire of allowing this madness to go on!
@ Giribheti
It is true that Mugabe has the army behind him but let us not forget that we could have changed the whole system of government if MDC had implemented the reforms!
@ gerro
The trouble with people like you is that you failed to see the opportunity that the GNU presented to bring about meaningful change. Instead of acknowledging this even now after the horse has bolted and learn from that mistake all you can do is hide behind your finger claiming it could not be done.
"Just wake up one morning and tell magandanga REFORM! and get it?" you argue.
If you were so sure it could not be done then why the fcuk did MDC go into the GNU for? For five years of the GNU you have said nothing wasting the nation's time and money!
The GNU was an excellent opportunity to bring about meaningful democratic change in Zimbabwe but the nation wasted it because the MDC leaders were incompetent and so too are the people. There is a chance of forcing this Mugabe dictatorship to resign before he drags the nation over the edge into the abyss but once again the people are the ones stopping this from happened. They are just too stupid to open their eyes and minds to reason!
@Joe Rug
But what threat do the ordinary Zimbabweans who have followed this regime like sheep into this hell-on-earth understand?
“It’s the economy, stupid”, a frustrated finance minister Patrick Chinamasa effectively said Friday while chiding the media for its fixation with succession politics instead of helping build the country’s faltering economy.
When I was in high school, we had a young Jesuit Priest teacher. Very likeable and it was no surprise that student started imitating his mannerism. Mark’s imitation took the biscuit; he starting tossing his head or draw his finger across his forehead just the young Priest would to brush off the cow-lick of hair from his left eye. Mark with his African hair had no such problem, of course!
Poor Patrick Chinamasa thinks he is being smart borrowing the “It’s the economy, stupid!” phase made famous by former US President Bill Clinton. Mark was funny with his cow-lick imitation, Minister Chinamasa is plain stupid. Zimbabwe is in this economic mess precisely because of the country warped political system that allows brainless individuals like him to remain in power for donkey years regardless of how incompetent they are and the countless times they have proven just how incompetent they are!
@ Chimbwido
You have it right " government that would write off your crimes to enable you come back in the country as a free man," except that you should have said a regime that rigs elections to stay in power so its crimes can remain hidden. If there was to be regime change you would never go back to Zimbabwe, not when you know one of your victims whom you admittedly "kicked in the teeth till they bled profusely," can finger you.
You will be flashed out anyway.
The Zimbabwe Social Democrats (ZSD) are NOT like MDC in that they members are principled and are focused on bringing democratic reform and they will. I know that because I am one of them. Mugabe bamboozled Tsvangirai, Biti and co; he will never ever bamboozle me and the rest of the MDC team! Take that as read!
@ Nakasikana
Did you know that Nathan Shamuyarira died a pauper? The day he died Zanu PF idiots painted his house to hide the years of rot and decay and patched up the many pot holes on the road to his house. Dr Nathan Shamuyarira was one of the Zanu PF grandees who engineered the sys-tem that has done such a thorough job of denying the people information whilst brainwashing them.
You are a Zanu PF supporter but nowhere near the grandee status of Nathan Shamuyarira and it is therefore clear that you too will die a pauper. Mugabe may pay you your wages now and for a few more years but as soon as you are no longer useful to him he would discard you. The party will not bother painting your house or patching up the pothole in the road leading to your house because you are just a no body. You will not be declared a national hero and so it is a proper pauper's burial for you.
The brainwashing was so thorough that morons like you can see the grandees like Shamuyarira dying in abject poverty the condition the system has forced on millions of ordinary Zimbabweans but it does not register in your mind. You think you are destined for Mugabe's Blue Roof type mansion and hence your "Pamberi neZanu PF" nonsense.
Zanu PF's political and economic model is doomed to fail because it is wasteful of material and human resources. That was obvious from the start but it took grandees like Shamuyarira to see it but morons like you will never see it - you brain dead.
In the sunset of his life, I would like to think that Nathan Shamuyarira must have realised, other than his own abject poverty that is, what a fcuk up Zanu PF was and his own role in creating this monster.
IMF warns Mugabe to do something about the country’s worsening economic situation.
"Zimbabwe's external position remains precarious, with usable international reserves covering less than two weeks of imports," the Fund said in a regular "Article IV" report on the state of the economy.
Zimbabwe was told it needed to clear its over $10 billion debt, to "avoid selective debt service" and needed to improve the country’s business environment.
All very sound advice but it will all fall on deaf ears. The only way Mugabe can improve the country’s economic situation is for the regime to carry out a slash and burn policy in every sector of the economy to get rid of all the incompetent and corrupt Zanu PF appointees starting with Mugabe himself! He blatantly rig the July 2013 elections to avoid just that and now that he is in power he has superglued himself naked to the throne. He is going nowhere and as long as he remains none of the other deadwood will go! So IMF’s warning will be heard but will never be acted upon.
@ Chimbwido
Kudzayi's biggest mistake was to sup with the devil incarnate Moyo and Mugabe and that is why people say you need a long spoon, one mile long!
What morons like you have failed to grasp is that Kudzayi is being punished not because what he wrote was not true; it was all gospel truth. He is being punished because Mugabe does not want the truth known!
The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is there just waiting to be told. One source of that truth is none other than Jonathan Moyo. Mugabe call him the devil incarnate who was destroying the party from within, of course the tyrant is right on both points.
Mugabe is a ruthless tyrant who has banished many of his challengers into the political wilder-ness like the late Eddison Zvobgo and has others killed. So why has he done nothing with Moyo? It is because Moyo knows a lot of dirty about him and he only has to touch a hair on Moyo's balding head and the Moyo will broadcast the truth about the tyrant.
You are right Mugabe has Kudzayi by the balls but Moyo has the tyrant by the balls too! I would say it is check mate!
Mugabe needed Moyo to stay in power and Moyo has kept the tyrant in power but now it is pay- back time. Moyo has the tyrant by the balls in a vice-grip.
The Monday following Shamuyarira’s burial and Mugabe’s devil incarnate out bust Moyo met Mugabe and “the two came to an amicable agreement,” we were told. Moyo yanked those vice –grips sharply and with devilish intent and even the security details behind the closed door heard the loud farting in response. Moyo got the “amicable agreement” he wanted alright.
In Tsholotsho debacle in 2005 Moyo moved too early and Mugabe got the better of him. This time Moyo made sure the cunning fox was securely caught. Of course idiots like you do not see this, you have always been slow of the mark no doubt the party never offered you even a junior CIO position, but not to worry you will see everything in time!
@ Joseph Whande
I agree with you Joseph no one in their right mind would dismiss being arrested and charged with a whole string of serious charges including terrorism as "nothing special is happening here!" However I do not agree that Jonathan Moyo can ever be dismissed as a "politically underfed narcissist". No is well fed and has landed a real monster for himself!
When Mugabe denounced Moyo at the late Shamuyarirai's funeral as a "weevil", "devil incarnate" bend "on destroying Zanu PF from within" the tyrant was right on both counts. Simpleton like Minister Didymus Mutasa had the gamatox ready to apply on the weevil. Instead of shitting in his pants Moyo publicly announced that he wanted to meet Mugabe. We were told the two met and had an amicable agreement! Amicable agreement, my a****!
Moyo knows so much dirty on Mugabe, how he rigged the July 2013 elections, for example. He is the one who masterminded the whole thing. To say knowledge is power is an understatement in this case; it is a vice-grip on the tyrant's balls. Moyo yanked those vice-grips the security details behind the closed doors heard the tyrant farting in sheer agony!
Some people have said Mugabe is just a figurehead, a puppet, and the bigwigs in the CIO, Po-lice and Army are the real power behind the throne. There is a lot of merit in that but now there is a new kid on the block, Jonathan Moyo, and he has his vice-grips on Mugabe's balls. People like Chihuri are too stupid to notice pulling their strings has no effect compared to that Moyo has when he savagely yanks those vice-grips!
Jonathan Moyo, the well fed narcissist, has his eyes on the presidency; now with Mugabe completely immobilised and neutralised, expect a Tsholotsho mark 2!
@ Nofool
If a corrupt and murderous tyrant lime Mugabe can be president then Wilbert or anyone else could not do worse.
If a corrupt and incompetent blunderer like Morgan Tsvangirari can be Prime Minister then Wilbert or anyone else could not do worse!
Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies have to get used to is people they cannot bamboozle as easily as Tsvangirai and his MDC deadwood!
If there is one thing we in the Zimbabwe Social Democrats have vowed to do absolutely everything in power to make sure that the next elections are not another fudge. There only way to ensure that happens is by having the democratic reforms are implemented.
Mugabe rigged the July 2013 elections and we all know that, he is not going to get away with it; not this time!
@ Kaffirboy
A hive of activity selling what? Ever since Zanu PF took over the farms the nation's agricultural production plummeted and has never recovered. It is set to fall even more now that all those farming subsidies have been stopped. Some of those failed farmers are back asking for jobs as ZESA board members to escape economic poverty. They all saw just how poor Nathan Shamuyarira and they knew they will be next if they continued with their "Chedu chokudya hatishayi" (We will harvest enough for our own needs!) nonsense. Only a tiny minority will get a job back in government the rest; poverty is beckoning. Shamuyarira was lucky in that he at least to get national hero burial; for most of these failed farmers it is a pauper's life followed bu a pauper's burial!
@ Kamurai Mudzingwa
Well said!
I would like to pick on one point. "This is Zimbabwe where the ruling cult does as it pleases, trampling on the souls of the unfortunate majority," you said. Yes the ruling elite have given us the middle finger but are we, the majority, really "unfortunate". or is it that we are too lazy to see what is going on and too lazy to stop it?
The looting did not start last month or last year; it has been going on for 34 years. It has turned institution like Pararenyatwa Hospital which used to be one of the best hospitals in Africa, so clean you could eat off the floor; into derelict shit-smelling shell. People used to go there to be cured of all manner of illness; today they die of the most minor illness and many health people have pick deadly bugs from that Hospital.
Zimbabwe has been destroyed bit by bit by Mugabe and his cronies for the last 34 years pushing millions of us into a life of abject poverty and hopeless despair. We have never said anything preferring to sink and let them do as they pleased.
People get the governments they deserve; we certainly deserve this corrupt, looting and murderous Zanu PF regime alright!
“Zimbabwe’s globe trotting president, Robert Mugabe, has left Harare for Equatorial Guinea to attend the 23rdOrdinary Session of the African Union. The summit is being held under the theme: ‘Agriculture and Food Security’, reported Nehanda Radio.
Another talk-shop; the AU loves them and so does Mugabe!
@ Fr Oskar Wermter SJ
"I don’t care that the landlord and the minister may be, legally speaking, in the right. Maybe the law is on their side, but then sometimes “the law is an ass”. It may be lawful and yet immoral. Their lawyer may win, but humanity is being defeated," you wrote.
You are right that if the matter was to go to Court the Minister will win and the individuals kicked out of their homes will be homeless.
What makes the Copac constitution a real "ass" is that the regime would still win even when it should not! Take for example the need for the Police to act in a none partisan way; a necessary tenet for free and fair democratic elections, we will all agree. The Co-pac constitution allows the president to appoint and dismiss the Police Commissioner without reference to parliament, making the Commissioner beholden to the president. It is no surprise therefore that we have a Police force whose primary duty has been to ensure there is no regime change.
In a way it is not the law that is an "ass" but the people themselves who are the real "ass" for having approved an "ass" of a constitution by a staggering 95%!
‘ZANU PF has become dysfunctional as a party, and without meaningful opposition, the country has become dysfunctional as well,’ said Mutandiri. Spot on!
Zimbabweans are not taking the problem dysfunctional government and opposition party with the seriousness the matter deserves!
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