Friday, Mar 02, 2007
International
Zimbabwe broke and hungry, says top official http://www.hindu.com/2007/03/02/stories/2007030205311600.htm
Andrew Meldrum
No cash for electricity or policing as protests grow
- PHOTO: AFP
A Zimbabwean mother helps her 10-year-old son with his lessons outside their home in Hatcliffe in the suburbs of Harare. The boy is among hundreds of children who had to give up school after a steep hike in school fees.
Johannesburg: Zimbabwe is hungry and broke, the country's Central Bank Governor has warned in a frank admission that President Robert Mugabe's Government is unable to provide adequate food supplies or maintain many basic services.
Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono told a parliamentary committee that he was struggling to keep the country's electricity on and the air force aloft. He admitted he had no funds to buy police vehicles or print passports and that unless drastic action was taken on rampant inflation, Zimbabwe could slump "to levels never dreamt before''.
The battered economy has become Mr. Mugabe's most potent opponent and public anger is growing, say civic leaders. Since the beginning of the year the economy has taken a lurching fall, with inflation soaring to nearly 1,600 per cent and food and fuel shortages gripping the nation. Scant hope of better times was offered by Mr. Gono when he came to the parliamentary committee on defence and home affairs on Tuesday to respond to appeals from the police, army and other departments for foreign currency to buy vehicles, vital equipment and basic materials.
Mr. Gono is favoured by Mr. Mugabe for his optimism, so many Zimbabweans will have been surprised by his bleak assessment, published in the state Herald newspaper on Wednesday.
He told the parliamentary group that he received desperate calls daily from state food and petrol distributors, the national airline, and the state railway and power utility - all demanding hard currency for imports. He said an official from the power utility called at dusk saying: ``If you don't give us money the nation will be in darkness.''
But he said the bank's priority was to allocate hard currency for imports of maize, Zimbabwe's staple grain, to avert a looming food crisis. He admitted currency had been diverted from almost every Government department to buy food.
Zimbabwe's main labour body, the Zimbawe Congress of Trade Unions, confirmed on Wednesday that it would hold a general strike on April 3-4 to protest at the hardships it blamed on the Government. Mr. Mugabe visited one of his strongest allies, Namibia, on Wednesday, but even there he was met with protests. Hundreds took to the streets with signs that read "Go Mugabe go" and "Go home dictator." -
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007
Copyright © 2007, The Hindu.