You might remember that this summer Zimbabwe issued a $50 billion bill. That was before Zimbabwe 'revalued' its currency - basically just dropping five zeroes off the end. But thanks to the country's runaway rate of inflation, the currency is once again so worthless that a $100 billion bill is needed just to keep up. Not that it is going to make life any easier in Zimbabwe mind you, one Zimbabwean complained that it wasn't worth going to the bank to get the new denomination bill since bus fare in Harare is roughly $250 billion (think about that during your morning commute).
Other world hotspots have pushed Zimbabwe from the headlines, but that doesn't mean things there have improved. Disease and hunger still plague the country, while President Robert Mugabe has basically abandoned any pretense of negotiating a power-sharing agreement with Morgan Tsvangirai, the man generally believed to have won last year's presidential elections. Mugabe is now suggesting he will stock the government ministries with people loyal to him next month (the proposed power-sharing agreement would split government ministries equally between Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and Tsvangirai's MDC).
Meanwhile religious leaders in South Africa are pressing their country to take action to end the Mugabe regime. Since Zimbabwe is a landlocked country, it relies mainly on port facilities in South Africa to bring all of their imported goods to ashore. Zimbabwe gets much of electricity from South Africa as well. South Africa could therefore have a dramatic impact on Zimbabwe if it imposed a boycott on the shipment of goods and electricity, a move many observers think would bring a quick end to President Mugabe. But so far South Africa has been unwilling to take such a dramatic step.
Religious leaders and noted figures from South Africa's anti-Apartheid struggle though say that the time has come to ratchet up the pressure on Zimbabwe. They note that Zimbabwe supported South African groups like the African National Congress as they fought against the Apartheid regime, now it is time for them to take a stand for the millions of Zimbabweans suffering under Robert Mugabe. South Africa has been absorbing wave after wave of Zimbabweans fleeing the chaos of their country, a situation bound to only get worse.
So far, though, South Africa's government remains committed to negotiations for a power-sharing agreement in Zimbabwe and has avoided harsh criticism of Mugabe.
No comments:
Post a Comment