• Home
  • The Mission
    • About us
    • Prayer & Praise Updates
    • Priority Projects
    • Boxes with Love
    • Prayer Articles
    • Prayer Maps
    • Projects
    • Literature4Africa
    • Missionary Reports
    • Hammond Family News
    • In Memorium
  • Video & Audio Gallery
    • Audio Gallery
    • Video Gallery
  • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Digital Resources
    • Articles >
      • Articles
      • News
      • Africa
      • Animals
      • Animism
      • Bible Teaching
      • Christmas
      • Family
      • Gun Control & Self Defense
      • History
      • Islam
      • Missions
      • Persecution
      • Political & Social Issues
      • War and Terrorism
    • Film Reviews
    • Bible Studies
    • Answers to Critical Questions
    • Skeptics Questions Answered
    • Articles in other Languages >
      • Afrikaans
      • German
      • French
      • Danish
      • Chinese
      • Russian
      • Chichewa
      • Czech
    • Links
    • Resource Posters
    • Books published by Dr Peter Hammond
  • Events
  • Contact Us
  • Donate
Frontline Fellowship
  • Home
  • The Mission
    • About us
    • Prayer & Praise Updates
    • Priority Projects
    • Boxes with Love
    • Prayer Articles
    • Prayer Maps
    • Projects
    • Literature4Africa
    • Missionary Reports
    • Hammond Family News
    • In Memorium
  • Video & Audio Gallery
    • Audio Gallery
    • Video Gallery
  • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Digital Resources
    • Articles >
      • Articles
      • News
      • Africa
      • Animals
      • Animism
      • Bible Teaching
      • Christmas
      • Family
      • Gun Control & Self Defense
      • History
      • Islam
      • Missions
      • Persecution
      • Political & Social Issues
      • War and Terrorism
    • Film Reviews
    • Bible Studies
    • Answers to Critical Questions
    • Skeptics Questions Answered
    • Articles in other Languages >
      • Afrikaans
      • German
      • French
      • Danish
      • Chinese
      • Russian
      • Chichewa
      • Czech
    • Links
    • Resource Posters
    • Books published by Dr Peter Hammond
  • Events
  • Contact Us
  • Donate

The Crisis Deepens IN ZIMBABWE

31/12/2012

0 Comments

 
​We are now into our 5th week of price controls and the resultant shortages. I am becoming increasingly alarmed at the situation and hope that my misgivings are not misplaced.
Today there is no rice in the urban areas, very little bread and what is available is being rationed, there is no maize meal, no cooking oil or margarine, no meat and very little milk and dairy products.  I called the Dairibord today and they had no product to sell - nothing, they said they were having problems with their milk supplies.
​In addition to this situation, public transport is virtually at a standstill.  This has developed following heavy fines imposed last week on the mini van taxis that provide 90 per cent of urban transport here.  People are being forced to walk everywhere.

The wholesalers and manufacturers are virtually out of stock.  There is a thriving parallel market for everything but even here the supplies are very short.  Maize meal is being sold at Z$250 000 to Z$300 000 for 10 kg's - that is 4 times the official price, fuel is available but at prices ranging from Z$240 000 to Z$500 000 a litre.

Hotels are running out of food - I stayed in a local hotel on Friday and found the staff serving a basic meal of rice with stew and a bit of cabbage as a salad.  The queue stretched out onto the road - the manager said to me he was not running a hotel but a feeding station.  The manger of the hotel over the road was eating there and said to me he could not even provide the basics to his clients.  They had no beer!

Local business that has a contract to supply the Prison said that they had 4000 prisoners and could not feed them, not from any source.  The Army and the Police are in a similar predicament although the Police have been using their role in the price control exercise to loot business of goods in short supply.  I hear that soldiers went through Ross Camp (the main Police camp in Bulawayo) looking for looted stocks.

In addition to this crisis in domestic products nothing is being imported commercially.  This is because the price control authorities are treating imported goods as local goods when enforcing the price controls.  So people who would normally import products in short supply are holding off and no imported products are available.  That leaves only cross border shopping, as a means of meeting family needs.

Wealthy people are traveling to Botswana and Zambia for shopping trips and poorer families are calling their relatives in South Africa for help.  For this reason on Saturday there were hundreds of vehicles from South Africa at the border - all trying to get up to their families in Zimbabwe, drop off supplies and then head back to South Africa.  The road was littered with broken down vehicles, as many are old and overloaded.

I see no signs of any response to this crisis in basic food supplies.  What do the international community and the UN system think they are doing?  I hear that when the State tried to stop retailers selling fuel against coupons purchased with foreign exchange that the UN agencies promptly told the government that if they did that they would close down and leave.  The government backed down.  I heard this morning that many embassies are considering flying food in for their local Embassy staff, one Ambassador told me they were evaluating the difference in buying from South Africa or direct from Europe - great to have options, but what on earth do they think the ordinary Zimbabwean is doing?

I will tell you what he/she is thinking.  It is how do I get a passport, how do I get to the border or get a ticket to anywhere where sanity prevails? The exercise to remove up to 3 million Zimbabweans from the country by simply denying them the means to survive is well under way.  I estimate that 500 000 have gone already to South Africa, with other destinations that probably means we are up to 600 000 - 20 per cent of the goal, 80 per cent to still go.  That's only 12 000 a day across the Limpopo - an easy target.

No amount of border patrols, no amount of policing or forced expulsions will slow down or stop the exodus.  There is only one way to do that - give Zimbabweans some hope that they have a future, any sort of future in the country of their birth.

SADC leaders gather in Lusaka on the 14th August - just one week away.  The future of this country and perhaps others in the region are in their hands.

I must say that does not give me a lot of confidence, if they fail us again as they have in the past, we may well have to take things into our own hands, and that could be very nasty.

Mr. Mugabe is in Malaysia staying in a five star hotel with no shortages.  He could not give a damn.  His own strategy for the immediate future is being worked out and he sees no possibility of his efforts being frustrated by regional leaders.  Left to his own devices he will get want he wants by the year end, hold farcical elections in March 2008 without opposition and continue as before.

By:  Eddie Cross 
6th August 2007
 
Frontline Fellowship
P O Box 74
Newlands 7725
Cape Town
South Africa
admin@frontline.org.za
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    More Reports

    All
    2002
    40 Years After Rhodesia's UDI
    America Admits Misguided Policies On Mugabe
    A Nation In The Throes Of Death
    And Sovereignty
    An Urgent Call To Prayer And Action For Christians Suffering In Zimbabwe
    Attention All Animal Lovers: NEW OPERATION NOAH IN ZIMBABWE
    A Zimbabwean Pleads For Prayer And Action
    A ZIMBABWEAN VIEW OF TYRANNY
    Borders
    Bribery And Blessings
    BRIEF UPDATE AFTER THE ZIMBABWEAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS HELD 9-11 MARCH
    Building Hope Among The Ruins Of Zimbabwe
    Can The New Zimbabwean Government Succeed?
    CARNAGE AND CRUELTY IN ZIMBABWE
    CHAOS
    Chinese Colonialism In Zimbabwe
    Cries For Help From Zimbabwe
    Crimes Against Humanity In Zimbabwe
    Deliberate Depopulation In Zimbabwe Today - Population Control
    Economically Stranded
    EVICTED FARMERS CONTINUE TO FEED ZIMBABWE
    FAILURE AND FARCE IN ZIMBABWE
    Fake Stories Of Zimbabwean Politicians Turning To God
    Fraud
    God Help The Animals
    HOPE FOR ZIMBABWE
    How Should The Church Respond To Zimbabwe?
    “Ian Smith Was Right After All …”
    In Memory Of Missionaries And Children
    Libya's Gaddafi Allies With Zimbabwe's Mugabe
    Loziland For Christ - May 2011
    Marxist Murder And Mayhem In Zimbabwe
    Marxists Loot Zimbabwe Diamonds
    MISSIONARIES ROBBED IN ZIMBABWE
    Mission To Zimbabwe
    Mission To Zimbabwe For Christ - Oct 2012
    Mugabe Clamps Down On Prayer
    Mugabe's Blood Diamonds
    MUGABE’S LEGACY IN THE LIGHT OF ETERNITY
    MUGABE TSUNAMI IN ZIMBABWE
    NEWS FROM THE FREWS - AUG 2012
    Nightfall In Zimbabwe
    PACIFISM & THE BIBLE
    Please! (Worldnet Daily Interview: Peter Hammond)
    POWER FAILURES IN ZIMBABWE
    Prayer And Pressure Secure The Release Of Pastors In Zimbabwe
    Pray For Zimbabwe
    Pray For Zimbabwe - Rev. Arthur Lewis
    Rebuilding Zimbabwe
    RECLAIMING ZIMBABWE FOR CHRIST
    Remembering Rhodesia
    Remember Rhodesia - Pray For Zimbabwe
    RENEWING MINDS FOR REFORMATION
    Repression And Arrests Follow Massive Electoral Fraud In Zimbabwe
    Repression And Arrests In Zimbabwe
    Restoring Zimbabwe
    Rwanda And Rhodesia - April 2004
    Satan
    Society
    Sustainable Destruction
    THE 11TH OF NOVEMBER
    The Crisis Deepens IN ZIMBABWE
    The Failure Of Democracy In Africa & Ian Smith
    THE NATIONAL SUICIDE OF ZIMBABWE
    The National Suicide Of Zimbabwe Continues
    Transforming Lives By Changing Nations - April 2012
    UNDER GOD’S JUDGEMENT: ZIMBABWE
    Victims Of Communism In Zimbabwe
    Why Talks With ZANU-PF Have Failed To Resolve The Zimbabwe Crisis
    Wildlife Decimated In Zimbabwe
    Zimbabwe Aflame
    Zimbabwe - A Lesson In How To Destroy Christian Civilisation
    ZIMBABWE ALONE
    Zimbabwe And Zambia - A Tale Of Two Countries And Three Religions
    Zimbabwe And Zambia Mission Report - June 2014
    Zimbabwean Human Rights Campaigner Arrested In South Africa
    Zimbabwean Human Rights Leader Says - “ANC President Jacob Zuma Is Confused”
    Zimbabwean Ruins
    Zimbabweans Reject Mugabe
    ZIMBABWE AT THE CROSSROADS
    Zimbabwe At War- An Urgent Call For Prayer And Action
    ZIMBABWE CELEBRATES AS MUGABE FALLS
    Zimbabwe Field Update
    Zimbabwe Mission
    Zimbabwe Mission - December 2011
    Zimbabwe Sells Ivory To China For Military Hardware
    Zimbabwe’s Killing Fields
    Zimbabwe's Man-made Famine

    Archives

    September 2019
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    May 2017
    November 2016
    May 2016
    November 2015
    July 2015
    March 2015
    November 2014
    June 2014
    August 2013
    July 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    October 2011

    RSS Feed

"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 
teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
.”
 Matthew 28: 18-20
Picture

P.O.Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa

Tel:  +27 (0)21 689 4480 
Email: admin@frontline.org.za
  • Home
  • The Mission
    • About us
    • Prayer & Praise Updates
    • Priority Projects
    • Boxes with Love
    • Prayer Articles
    • Prayer Maps
    • Projects
    • Literature4Africa
    • Missionary Reports
    • Hammond Family News
    • In Memorium
  • Video & Audio Gallery
    • Audio Gallery
    • Video Gallery
  • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Digital Resources
    • Articles >
      • Articles
      • News
      • Africa
      • Animals
      • Animism
      • Bible Teaching
      • Christmas
      • Family
      • Gun Control & Self Defense
      • History
      • Islam
      • Missions
      • Persecution
      • Political & Social Issues
      • War and Terrorism
    • Film Reviews
    • Bible Studies
    • Answers to Critical Questions
    • Skeptics Questions Answered
    • Articles in other Languages >
      • Afrikaans
      • German
      • French
      • Danish
      • Chinese
      • Russian
      • Chichewa
      • Czech
    • Links
    • Resource Posters
    • Books published by Dr Peter Hammond
  • Events
  • Contact Us
  • Donate