Zim’s crisis clock ticking

SURVIVAL: SALARY WORTH LESS THAN $1 A DAY

Covid-19 pandemic, we now have no minister of health and there are ten other senior positions currently vacant in the country’s health service. It’s hard to fathom the inequity between a $560 million scam by the minister nd a nurse on the ward surviving on less than $1 a day.

A report in NewsDay said police were earning a basic salary equivalent to $27 a month and some were collapsing at work due to hunger. “Most police officers face eviction and are failing to buy food and meet basic expenses while we watch our bosses drive top-of-the-range vehicles,” the police officer said. Police are due to get a Covid-19 allowance of $75 this month and an extra Z$1 500 but it’s a far, far cry from the breadbasket which is around $20 000. Imagine surviving on 87 US cents a day?

And then there’s the “mess” underway with the Grade 7 school examinations. Called to write their Grade 7 exams before mainstream schools have re-opened, the PTUZ (Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe) said teachers had boycotted returning to work over their poor working conditions and salaries. PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou said schools in rural areas were hiring villagers and parents to supervise. Zhou was quoted as saying: “It was a mess, and it is terrible.”

Coming to the end of a sad letter about a country in crisis for so long, I look for something beautiful to share – and there it is, just outside the window. The shikra is sitting in the birdbath. I’ve just learned that shikra is the other name for the beautiful little banded Goshawk. Its soft grey feathers, yellow legs and startling red eyes are both beautiful and intimidating.

This is the raptor of immense patience, sitting unmoving for half an hour in one place: waiting, watching.

The shikra always makes me think of us Zimbabweans; ever patient, watching and waiting – but it also makes me think of our leaders: always ready to pounce.