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| author/source:SABC News |
| published:Tue 26-Apr-2005 |
| posted on this site:Wed 27-Apr-2005 |
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| Article Type : News |
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| "Sick and tired of their excuses" |
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Garbage is piling up uncollected in Harare as Zimbabwe struggles with a deep economic crisis that has also left major towns short of water and electricity. The Harare city council said today that 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%. 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. 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.
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