Heading for catastrophe

From a circular email sent out yesterday by Eddie Cross in Bulawayo:

My personal view is that inflation in March was about 4000 per cent for the average consumer in Zimbabwe.
.....
On Independence Day we saw the usual performance from Mr. Mugabe – the MDC were the puppets of the western powers, our economic problems are caused by the denial of my right to shop in London (targeted sanctions) and our business leaders are "greedy".

More seriously he made no reference to the SADC [Southern African Development Community] initiative to resolve our crisis, he made no concessions to the mediation of Mr. Mbeki. He swore ("on his ancestors grave" – about the strongest term a Shona leader can use) that he would "never" allow the MDC to come to power. Quite a statement for a man whose sole constituency is now about 2000 individuals living the life of Riley in a starving nation and some 40 000 thugs on government payroll whose task it is to beat and bludgeon the perceived enemies of Zanu PF in preparation for another farcical election.
.....
If nothing is done soon to turn this situation around we are headed for a catastrophe – and I do not think that is too strong a word. Already 3 million Zimbabweans are in South Africa, 80 per cent illegally. Their numbers are rising by the day and I would not be surprised if another million flee the country this winter. Just on Thursday I spoke at a local meeting organised by Civil Society (Transparency International) on the subject of corruption in local authorities. Members of the audience who subsequently asked pointed questions about national politics or made statements suggesting that what we needed was regime change, were followed after the meeting and beaten. I spoke to three of them yesterday and sent one to a medical center for attention for what looked like a broken arm, the others had not eaten since the day before so we fed them then gave them money to get out of town. They were frightened for their lives.

Mr. Mbeki better understand that he is running out of time.

The whole email is posted here. (Thanks: PO.)