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The Communities In Action Platform (CAP) penned down reflections on the economy to alert the responsible authority (government) and bring awareness to the general citizenry on the deteriorating state of the Zimbabwean economy in August 2022.
The statement was a product of the lived realities that Zimbabweans are going through and also dismiss the cosmetic surgeries being done by state propagandists, and the state media.
It said the reality is that the government did not need a reminder of the state of the economy and also the people of this great nation do not need awareness of the state of the economy as they live through the economic, social, and political turbulence every single minute.
However, as promised by CAP change can be slow and ponderous but when things come to a head, action will be sudden and cataclysmic, confronting previously unshakeable systems and now at this very moment things have come to a head.
“Chronic poverty has now torn through any remnants of sanity and hopes that our people had and collectively we cannot continue to normalize the abnormal, the time for citizen agency has now risen and the people have spoken not in tongues but in definitive and clear terms. Zimbabwe is now at the top of the list in the world but for the wrong reasons, the year-on-year inflation is now at 484% for the month of August, the prices of basic commodities have risen steeply, service delivery is now crippled and the situation has now been compounded with the opening of schools nationwide that has seen teachers being sent back to the modern day slavery they call jobs, students being sent to schools that now resemble refugee camps and parents back to squeezing out abnormal tuition from the little or no resources. Zimbabwe is now burning and the ones who are supposed to be the drivers are ignorantly declaring no crisis and have adopted the ostrich mentality of burying their hands in the sand hoping the crisis will magically disappear.
“Starting on Monday 12 September 2022, Communities In Action Platform will be engaging the government through mass protests on the state of the economy, these protests are an act of defiance and a direct confrontational call against this “see no evil, hear no evil and do nothing about it,” approach from the government of Zimbabwe. The nation has a gallivanting President, an incompetent finance minister, an ignorant health minister, and a kakistocratic government that fails to reconcile reasoning to reality. CAP calls upon the citizens of Zimbabwe to rise up and stand their ground against the tyranny and chronic suffering they are being subjected to, ours is no longer a nation of productivity and hope but one of despair and chronic poverty whose results we see every single day in our homes, our community, and our jobs,” CAP said in a statement.
It said the focus should not be on baton sticks for the pain that is experienced from that. It is nothing compared to the pain of sleeping on an empty stomach, the focus should not be on jail cells but should be on the discomfort of losing your loved ones to treatable diseases just because our medical facilities have no medicines and because doctors and nurses are on strike.
“The fear that strikes every individual when they hear of protests should be nothing compared to the fear that goes through us when we face the everyday certainty of going to a home with no food and hungry children. The hope and fight for a better Zimbabwe begin with us, those in power are not deaf but they just require us to speak more loudly, clearer, and directly to them, and in unity we can achieve more, stand your ground and demand your life back, ” the statement added.
However, President Mnangagwa has been calling for unity and has insisted that dialogue is the best route for attaining peace. At the national level, there is the Political Actors’ Dialogue (POLAD) meant to discuss ways of addressing Zimbabwe’s political and economic challenges.
National police spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said the police stands ready to preserve peace at all times and insisted it will be on high alert to ensure peace prevails and that any acts meant to cause anarchy and despondency will be thwarted.