Poverty bites as Zimbabwe marks self rule

Poverty bites as Zimbabwe marks self rule

• Mutambara: we can run where others walked

• Tsvangirai: 26 years of chaos and trauma

• On the question of an unfinished revolution

• Nobuhle Nyathi: Matshazi's mind frozen in bad theories

• Your Shouts!: Kwinjeh ridiculed Africans

• Tony Namate: Matshazi's abject Pan-Africanism

• Julius Dewa: Mugabe has scathed African pride

• Matshazi: 'Kwinjeh ridiculed Africans'

• Mugabe's celebratory rant as Zim turns 25

• Zim gone 25 years backwards, says MDC

• Kwinjeh: Happy birthday to an unfinished revolution

• No cheer as Zim turns 24

• Independence war mass graves found

• Mugabe calls on exiles to return

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) --TARIRO Shumba plans to spend a quiet day at home with her family on Zimbabwe's Independence Day, shunning celebrations hosted by President Robert Mugabe's government at a stadium less than 20 minutes' walk away.

Shumba is just one of thousands of Zimbabweans for whom Tuesday's anniversary of 26 years of independence from Britain offers little cause for joy in the face of an economic meltdown that has driven many into an abyss of poverty.

"For me it will be just another day. I don't really see what there is to celebrate," shrugs the 45-year-old widowed mother of four, whose main pre-occupation is how to keep her children in school in the face of soaring fees.

Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party has been touting the day as another occasion to savour the country's triumph over British colonialism after a bloody 1970s guerrilla war, and is laying on celebrations around the country's 10 provinces.

But for many the fanfare rings hollow against the background of rocketing prices of basic commodity prices, house rents and transport costs against static salaries in the country with the world's highest inflation rate, unemployment of over 70 percent, and nagging shortages of food, foreign currency and fuel.

"We have nothing to show for our independence, except overwhelming poverty," opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai said in an anniversary message.

The MDC has threatened countrywide protests at an as yet unnamed date as a mark of anger against a crisis many blame on Mugabe's government.

"There is no point in continuing to watch with trepidation a small nationalistic class ... wreak havoc on the national cake," Tsvangirai said. "Only action and political pressure shall bring in the desired results and lead us to resuscitate our failed state and our dying institutions."

The political temperature could also be raised by an influx of thousands of disgruntled nationals who fled to Britain in search of jobs while others cited political persecution at home, but now face deportation after the British government won a court ruling allowing it to eject failed asylum seekers.

Mugabe has rejected charges that he should bear responsibility for Zimbabwe's economic malaise, and in turn points a finger at his foreign and domestic opponents whom he says have sabotaged the country's wealth over his land reforms.

The veteran leader, one of Africa's longest-serving leaders, says the land redistribution program was necessary to redress ownership imbalances caused by colonialism.

Zimbabwe's key agricultural sector has performed badly, with critics pointing to disruptions linked to the government's seizure of white-owned commercial farms for blacks, which they say have compounded the effect of drought, leaving southern Africa's former bread basket in need of food aid since 2001.

Manufacturing, tourism and the once-thriving mining sector have not fared any better, leading to the economy shrinking 40 percent over the last eight years.

Critics say Mugabe, bereft of ideas on how to rescue the economy, is likely to use his traditional Independence Day speech to take another pot-shot at his opponents, and take his supporters on another trip down memory lane to the euphoria that surrounded the initial years of black self-rule.

"It is that time of the year once again when long-suffering Zimbabweans have to bear with independence jingles and President Robert Mugabe predictably going into overdrive about the ideals of the armed struggle, national sovereignty and bringing freedom and democracy to Zimbabwe," wrote columnist Bornwell Chakaodza in the private-owned Financial Gazette newspaper.
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