The Times Online (UK) reported Friday on the current state of Robert Mugabe's army in Zimbabwe.
The Army and the state youth militia, organisations crucial to President Mugabe’s continued grasp on power in Zimbabwe, are demoralised and fast running out of money.
The Defence Ministry has already exhausted its budget of Zim$32 billion for rations this year, Trust Maphosa, the Secretary for Defence, told a parliamentary committee this week. The sum was worth £10 million when it was allocated at the beginning of the year but its value has been shrunk by hyperinflation and the collapse of the currency to about £400,000.
The word, "hyperinflation," has been taken to new heights in Zimbabwe, where it is now at 3700%.
A private’s monthly pay in February mounted to Zim$300,000, he said, worth nearly £50. The figure was the result of a sharp increase in army salaries after alarming reports of officers resigning and troops going absent without leave. The 35,000-strong Army is now in a significantly worse position. A private’s pay is equal to about £4.
The Army and the youth militia have been widely used in the past three months of violent repression as President Mugabe reacted to a new surge of discontent.
Claudius Makova, the ruling party MP who chairs the parliamentary portfolio committee on defence, said that the financial situation had severe implications for national security.
I never cease to be amazed by the British tendency for understatement. Zimbabwe's national security has "severe implications." There's a "new surge of discontent."
Things are beyond "discontent" over there. Zimbabwe is in an economic and humanitarian freefall brought on by its president, Robert Mugabe. And if life is fair, Mugabe will pay for it with his life at the hands of those very same discontented citizens of his. If life is only somewhat fair, Mugabe will face a firing squad after being duly tried and found guilty of the heinous crimes his administration has committed against the nation entrusted to his care.
Unfortunately, the removal of Mugabe from power, however that might occur, won't fix much. Conditions in Zimbabwe are so bad, that even with benevolent leadership, it could be decades before life there is back to the way it was before 2000, when Mugabe began his "Land Reform" that precipitated the destruction of a once-prosperous nation.
The people of Zimbabwe need our prayers. There's not much else left for the ones who remain there.
2 comments:
Considering what Mugabe has done to that country and how he has treated its people... I'm a little surprised that he hasn't begun harvesting peoples' organs to sell throughout the world.
Or maybe he just hasn't thought of it yet.
A matter for prayer, indeed.
Still, I'm sure he isn't as big of a threat to Zimbabwe as Bush is.
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