Facing untold poverty

Zimbabweans face unprecedeented poverty in the aftermath of the June 27 one-man election as more multinational companies pull out or scale down operations in Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean environment is no longer condusive for profitable or at least sustainable business. The ordinary person is hard hit and teachers, the worst hit civil servants, have called on the government to peg their salaries in US dollars as an easier measure of protecting them against spiralling hyperinflation that has eroded their salaries. South Africa at the same time has deproted about 17000 Zimbabweans back to Zimbabwe to face this untold suffering and a dangerous political environment. This happens as the MDC claims that ZANU PF militias are on a rambage to decimate their party structures, thus weakening them in the talks for a political settlement which began last weekend in Pretoria. Meanwhile a bid to have the UN security council impose sanctions on mugabe and his top aides was vetoed by Russia and China and exchanges between Russia and USA ignited memories of the cold war.