Garbage Piles Up in Zimbabwe as Crisis Deepens
Date: 27-Apr-05
Country: ZIMBABWE
Author: Cris Chinaka
The Harare city council said on Tuesday rubbish had not been collected in several townships and suburbs of the capital for three weeks because of a national shortage of fuel and the expiry of contracts for some private garbage collectors.
Critics say the city's mounting problems mark a grim new stage of Zimbabwe's long-running political and economic crisis, which many blame on President Robert Mugabe's government.
"They have not collected refuse here for two months, and we are sick and tired of their excuses," said one frustrated resident, pointing to a heap of rubbish in Harare's densely-populated Mbare township.
Mugabe, who has been in power for a quarter of a century, plunged the southern African country into crisis five years ago when he started seizing white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks, mostly supporters of his ruling ZANU-PF party.
The land seizures have hit the country's main commercial agricultural sector, a key source of foreign currency earnings, and are largely blamed for a five-year recession under which the economy has contracted by more than a third and unemployment has topped 70 percent.
Mugabe's ZANU-PF won 78 out of 120 contested parliamentary seats in elections last month which the opposition charges were rigged.
But the party lost most parliamentary contests in major towns -- which have borne the brunt of the economic crisis -- to the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), a pattern also seen in earlier elections.
POST-ELECTION PROBLEMS
Since the election, Zimbabwe city dwellers have seen their problems multiply.
Most petrol stations in the capital Harare ran dry this week, while the state electrical utility has warned of power cuts due in part to lack of spare parts to maintain generators.
Food is still available in city stores -- albeit at prices sharply higher than before the election -- but officials say the country risks serious shortages amid a drought and inadequate supplies of seed and fertiliser.
Zimbabwean voters told Mugabe about their problems with deteriorating public services during his campaign drive in the opposition's urban strongholds.
The 81-year-old leader pledged he would help, but said the fault lay mostly with the opposition-controlled city councils.
The MDC says urban councils it controls have been starved of money by Mugabe's government and denied rights to borrow funds or raise taxes to run towns efficiently.
International donors have cut aid to Zimbabwe out of disapproval of Mugabe's policies while Western powers have imposed sanctions over charges that Mugabe rigged both the 2000 parliamentary poll and his re-election two years later.
Mugabe denies the charges and says he is the victim of a hate campaign because of his nationalist stance.
Political and economic analysts say Zimbabwe's woes, including the deterioration in public services, are likely to continue until Mugabe makes peace with foreign donors.
"The bottom line about our situation is that we are on the slide and we are going downhill until we get help," said leading economic consultant John Robertson.
