Nothing sweet about the Zimbabwe situation
There must be worse ways to start your day, but for me, starting the day eating cornflakes without sugar is it! Yesterday, we at least had some icing sugar - yes - that’s right, icing sugar on our breakfast! Are we a bit odd? Not really - we just live in Zimbabwe. But then again, living like this is likely to make us a bit eccentric!
We have been reduced from a major sugar exporting country to a country to one that can’t even guarantee supplies for its own domestic market! We also used to produce ethanol from sugar cane to blend with our petrol to reduce the forex bill for fuel. Now, there is no ethanol to blend, and even if there was, petrol is in such short supply that it goes directly from import to distribution.
No alcohol? …… now there’s a crying shame!
If that wasn’t bad enough, we now find that sugar is being exported.
Someone whose friend of a friend of a friend who works at Triangle, where the sugar is produced and packed, insists that Bulawayo is getting regular deliveries. But it certainly is not hitting the supermarket shelves. So guess where is it going? Straight to the black market! Yep - every
little Tom, Dick and Harry are peddling bags of sugar at exhorbitant prices.
But that can’t be it all? Nope - there are even more enterprising souls than that in Zimbabwe! It is being exported! Quoting another totally reliable source - another friend of a friend of a friend, it is going to Namibia. This friend was coming to work along Basch Street in Bulawayo and saw five Family Choice trucks - full rigs with two trailers - packed to the top with bags of sugar. Family Choice is a Namibian company.
And the real joke? Family Choice sugar was previously on our supermarket shelves! So maybe if we wait a bit we’ll see our sugar coming back, freshly repacked, at three times the price?
There’s nothing sweet about Zimbabwean situation at the moment!
July 4th, 2008 08:35
Things need to change in Zimbabwe.
I made a little video about it, please pass it on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKR9yvJp3R8
July 15th, 2008 14:59
I do not think zimbabwe will recover speedily from the total mis management of its quite considerable assets I know smoking is not an acceptable habit in these enlightened [ I do I am afraid] times But I THINK ANY ASSETS THAT WERE IN ZIMBABWE ARE NOW OUT AWAITING THE SO CALLED RULERS WHEN THEY NEED THEM when their rule or zimbabwe is finished sorry about this but I see it as the truth lets hope that the present regime is short livedthank you
Ernest Egg
July 16th, 2008 00:37
Everything is sweet in England. Most of the South african, Zimbabwean and west African run shops in England are full of Mazoe orange, Ingrams comphur cream, things (snacks) dandy chewing gum, spar letta, etc.
What selfish nonsense. These are products that need boycotting, on humanitarian grounds. People trsding these products should also be named and shamed.