It was just after losing the Constitutional Referendum held on February 12 and 13, 2000 that the current government went full throttle to rip apart what used to be a solid economy. They feared a looming major political defeat in the 2002 presidential election, judging by the outcome of the referendum.

So, they unleashed a reign of terror led by armed war veterans and youths causing violence, destruction and dismantling the commercial farming sector that was historically the mainstay of the economy.

Signs of an increasingly fragile economy were pulpable as early as mid-1990s, characterised by the major fall of the Zimbabwe dollar on November 14, 1997 — a day referred to as “Black Friday”, the labour movement-led mass industrial actions and the farm invasion by the people of Svosve in Mashonaland East.

The chaotic and violent land reform became the straw that broke the camel’s back sending millions of young people scouring for employment and economic opportunities overseas and into neighbouring countries. The economy on which they based their hopes and dreams was in a tailspin and was eventually decimated by Zanu PF.

Two decades after these events unfolded, it is still not clear how many millions of Zimbabweans are in the diaspora and neither has the economy improved nor the politics changed. Things are getting worse and more skilled young people are fleeing the country. Hopes for a diaspora return continue to diminish. This is a huge loss to the country.

During the early years of the mass exodus, mainly between the year 2000 and 2008, the majority of diasporas were still hoping to return once the situation improved. The same parents who sacrificed their assets to send their children to better schools, sacrificed more to buy tickets to enable the same children to fly overseas for greener pastures. The British pound and the US dollars were selling favourably on the local market so the little earned and remitted in the diaspora made a huge difference back home then. Some families recouped what they sacrificed while others were fed on empty promises. It is not easy out there.

In those 20 years, the losses are unquantifiable. Some shelved their educational qualifications to take whatever was on the overseas job market. A few more swallowed their pride and left high sounding, but less paying jobs in Zimbabwe to either return to study or take menial jobs just to sustain a respectable lifestyle in the diaspora.

Others reconfigured themselves from different professions into nurses mainly in England, a profession that absorbed a huge lot from Zimbabwe and other Third World countries. In doing so, families were left behind, separated and others eventually destroyed.

Some froze their plans, while others witnessed their savings back home being eroded by inflation. An unstable political and economic situation also meant a lot more has changed.

The local monetary environment has become increasingly flaccid and the remittances from meagre earnings in the diaspora no longer make sense as they used to between 2000 and 2008, putting some in a dilemma on whether to remit for investment back home or just for groceries. Either way, there are irreparable heartbreaks. The risk of losing investment and the lack of personal and family progress associated with it.

Our politics is giving no one any hope. This has thrust some in the diaspora into a major quandary mainly those who lived “temporary lives” with the hopes that one day they will return home.

This simply means instead of acquiring the necessary documentation to enable them to secure property, invest and take advantage of long-term opportunities in their countries of refuge, they had over the years remitted most of their earnings back home with a view to return one day. While there is no harm in investing back home, there is arguably greater gain in investing where one is settled, especially on account of not having guarantees of political and economic improvement back home.

The situation could be worse for refugee permit holders scattered across the globe, mainly whose status does not allow them to access gainful employment and have been surviving on host government or charity handouts.

While some of them can make ends meet, it is hard for them to make savings. This group is made up of both skilled and non-skilled people and again they also face various levels of dilemmas. Those who just recently crossed the border wish for the country to return to normalcy sooner than later so they can return and be economically productive.

But there is also another group of those who held asylum or refugee permits for decades who fear the embarrassing prospects of returning home empty-handed.

To understand their fears, one needs to picture this: There is a new crop of entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe who have mastered the art of “hustling” in a challenging economic environment. This generation of investors is largely made up of 30 year-olds, who were teenagers when the situation went on a tailspin in 2000. If the current state of the political and economic situation in the country continues, it will justify asylum or refugee permit holders’ continued stay in their country of refuge.

Whatever the case may be and no matter what justification one may give, these are crushed dreams. Let us hope for a better 2020 and beyond. We are tired of waiting in suspense.

Tapiwa Gomo is a development consultant based in Pretoria, South Africa. He writes here in his personal capacity.

The quality and accessibility of healthcare have long been known to have a disproportionate impact on the economic and emotional well-being of entire societies. The 54 countries that make up the continent of Africa are no different.

Like many of their emerging-market peers, these countries have been plagued by a combination of high disease rates and insufficient resources to tackle the health burden. But, after 10 years of mobilising more than US$300 million for healthcare providers across multiple African countries, I am cautiously optimistic that a transformation is beginning to take hold.

Four essential elements are driving the continent’s health-care transformation: Government-led efforts to achieve universal health coverage; market-led consolidation of health-care providers; major private-equity investors; and digital technology.

Political leaders across Sub-Saharan Africa generally agree that government-sponsored insurance is the foundation of universal health care. In Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa, at least 60 million people now have some form of health insurance, according to health ministry data and a 2018 global analysis of sub-Saharan Africa’s insurance markets. That number is set to grow significantly.

As governments reimagine their role, shifting from care provider to payer, they could bring quality health care to millions. But much more needs to be done to make health insurance universal, comprehensive, and efficient.

For example, Ghana adopted a mandatory national health insurance programme in 2003, but the country’s National Health Insurance Authority reported that it had enrolled only 38% of the population in the programme’s first decade of existence.

Meanwhile, Rwanda boasts of more than 90% penetration, but the services covered are limited mainly to primary care.
Providing health insurance to everyone is difficult and complicated. Costs are a concern. Some government-backed insurance schemes are plagued by high overheads, inefficiency and allegations of delayed payments and corruption, all of which undermine their sustainability.

The solution is a combination of better governance and greater reliance on technology and the private sector to boost efficiency, reduce costs and improve quality.

Governments will continue to play an important role, but partnering with the private sector is essential to reach health goals.

I see great promise on this front. A sector traditionally dominated by thousands of small establishments is now benefiting from consolidation, which brings economies of scale, lower costs, consistent quality and the power to attract high-quality staff.

In Kenya, for example, the Ladnan, Metropolitan, Avenue, and Nairobi Women’s hospitals, among others, now form a seven-city network of eight hospitals and 16 clinics under common ownership.

Similarly, in retail pharmacy, Goodlife — a client of the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank’s commercial lending arm — runs 57 outlets.

Much of the market growth for these platform companies has come from mergers and acquisitions.

Looking ahead, I believe more players will grow organically through brownfield and greenfield developments of hospitals and by branching out into specialties.

As they grow, businesses must overcome stubborn structural hurdles such as low insurance penetration and medical skills shortages.

The third important element is institutional equity capital, which for too long was absent in Africa, but is now becoming more widespread.

In 2005, private-equity funds focused on African health care raised only US$100 000, but by 2015 that figure had skyrocketed to $2 billion, according to a study of private equity in African healthcare from Preqin, a company that produces proprietary research on alternative assets.

Vehicles like the Africa Health Fund and Investment Funds for Health in Africa (IFHA) have invested an estimated $200 million in the region, spawning successor funds totalling US$1,1 billion. This private-equity investment is helping to professionalise financial management, improve business strategies and governance and attract top-notch management talent. There is also a strong track record of profitable exits.

The fourth element, digital technology leveraging on the ubiquitous mobile phone, has enabled the deployment of healthcare to distant and remote regions.

Telemedicine apps such as Babylon, which provides virtual consultations, are gaining traction. As Africa’s disease profile shifts further to noncommunicable diseases, I expect that smartphones will increasingly be used not only for consultations, but also to diagnose pathological specimens and medical images, as well as to gather and analyse patient data to prevent diseases before they manifest.

Each of these interventions has the potential to dramatically reduce the cost of health care, improve quality and do more with fewer resources.

Clearly, there are many reasons for optimism. The building blocks have been laid: Health-care systems funded by African governments via universal insurance schemes are being bolstered (where necessary) by private institutional capital and/or development aid and by technology that broadens the system’s reach.

While a lot more remains to be done, Africa’s health-care sector is at an exciting crossroads. The meeting of public policy, private entrepreneurs, investors and technology is bound to transform the development landscape for the better.

– Project Syndicate

 Biju Mohandas is head of health and education for Sub-Saharan Africa at the International Finance Corporation

Artists come in a wide range of communities of practice, ranging from musicians, sculptors, poets, painters, photographers, dancers, drawing, landscaping, sportspersons, actors, cartoonists, cultural artists, motivation speakers, graphics, collage and many others. The artists’ efforts are quite critical in humanity’s efforts to address the climate change problems.

Artists can transform the climate change question by providing creative and innovative components of climate change adaptation, awareness and education through their versatile initiatives, creativity and diversity.

The idea of using art for climate change engagements is to provoke, evoke mental images, captivate, entertain and educate or even protest and advocate in order to influence environmental policies.

Observers always develop interests in various forms of art, and then they will make some follow-ups on best possible ways to interact with the environment.

As based on their mandate of inspiring their audiences, artists will do the same during climate change engagements, so that audiences are influenced, induced and motivated to associate with their favourite artists as a form of climate action.

Visual art is cross-cutting, cross-cultural and cross-languaging just as climate change visuals in the form of photographs, images of destructive floods and cyclone or hunger and famine appeal to overall human senses.

Visual arts communicate stories of natural or human influenced changes on the environment over the years.

Photographing of physical and social landscaping, deforestation and land degradations, including deteriorating infrastructure would save to communicate and transform the climate challenges in creative and multi-modal ways.

Through various forms of art, people are sufficiently eco-socialised, connected and engaged to conservation issues.

Works of art are comprehensive enough to build both verbal and pictorial bridges which appeal to human ecological needs, desires and necessities.

Various forms of art are expressive and impressive as well as being therapeutic through music, docu-drama, sculpturing, works of cartoons, landscaping, poetry and dances, among a host of many. In this regard, artists have unlimited roles to move the conservation discourse forward and change the human behaviours and attitudes contributed to global warming.

A wide range of arts are not designed in isolation or for communication massaging, but they are composed according to the people’s underlying needs and world-views. These are results of creative self-expressions, intrinsic motivations, leading to environmental awareness and innovations, because creativity connects and binds, informs, empowers and engages.

Environmental conservation and climate action strategies through works of art, leading to resilience should not just be empty, flat or uninspiring, but should be unifying and goal bound.

These various forms of art are part of a wide ranging tools, designed to add value, not only to the people’s lives, but to the environment as a laboratory of human livelihoods and learning.

A number of environmental themes like deforestation, pollution, global warming, hunger and famine, flooding, forest fires, fossil fuels burning or land degradation are well communicated and expressed through visual art.

Instead of marketing and designing, environmental art can be used for environmental activism and advocacy in order to influence policy changes. In this regard, various forms of arts on environmental issues can be integrated with climate change discourse so that climate action and adaptation can be realised for the overall greening processes.

Therefore, the partnership between artists and environmentalists can be the missing link in this climate change discourse. It is high time artists, environmentalists and policymakers worked hand in glove in shaping the environment positively.

Above all, effective communication tools should be designed so that they appeal to both artists, environmentalists and policymakers.

Artists, through their enterprising forms, have creative and versatile ways of conveying information to the public, in a manner that can stimulate climate action.

Audiences can learn about critical adaptation strategies according to their cultural standpoints as opposed to being continuously lectured and tutored without being participatory. These modes of learning normally compromise the aesthetic elements and values of works of art.

Artists’ advocacy cut across literacy boundaries by driving innovations and moulding communities’ cultural character, as climate change advocacy is about building characters and human preparedness.

 Peter Makwanya is a climate change communicator. He writes in his personal capacity and can be contacted on: petrovmoyt@gmail.com

ZIMBABWE must be the only country on this planet that does not allow its aged, ailing leaders to have a piece of mind. Daily, thousands of pensioners sleep and wake up in bank queues trying to access the paltry rewards of decades of faithful dedication to the building of this country. And as if this is not sad enough, we have thousands of more people failing to even access a small tablet to relieve pain in a country whose misery has long gone beyond being bearable.

NewsDay Comment

But most astounding is when we have leaders who have access to money and the best medication money can buy refusing to retire from public office and let all the money they have amassed to give them peace of mind. A case in point is of our beloved Vice President Constantino Guvheya Chiwenga, who has been not so-well for quite some time now, despite making a brief appearance in public recently.

The man was supposed to be acting President after President Emmerson Mnangagwa went on leave early this month, but Mnangagwa had to return to office simply because, we hear, Chiwenga is nowhere to be seen. Chiwenga’s case is both touching and embarrassing for Zimbabwe.

Chiwenga’s case is, on the one hand, touching in that Chiwenga, at 63 years, should not only be enjoying his pension after serving in the national army since Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, but enjoying the fruits of having helped liberate this country from colonial rule. On the other hand, his case is embarrassing because unwell as he is, should we not allow him to quietly fade out of the public glare and convalesce in peace?

Why is he being forced to remain in office when everything is pointing to the fact that the man is indeed struggling to optimally perform his duties? What favour are we doing to him or ourselves by keeping him in office when it is obvious that the man really needs to rest? Are our demands on him not helping to worsen his health? Where is our heart as a nation? What kind of love is that of making someone who is unwell to work, especially in old age?

Or is it Chiwenga himself who is refusing to retire from public office? If this is the case, why is he holding the nation to ransom by continuing to occupy a public office he clearly is not fit to keep holding on to? Why does it even appear that this whole issue is taboo to freely discuss it? What does he hope to achieve by making himself suffer by continuing to work when he is unwell? What does the Constitution even say about this? Or maybe this has nothing to do with the Constitution. And if this has nothing to do with the supreme law of the land, then we are, indeed, a heartless nation.

MINERS have called on the government to impose a shoot-to-kill policy when dealing with machete gangs, popularly known as MaShurugwi, who have unleashed a terror campaign in the mining sector.

BY RICHARD MUPONDE

In an interview yesterday, Zimbabwe Miners Federation secretary-general, who is also Matabeleland South provincial secretary for small-scale miners, Philimon Mokoena, said it was high time the government adopted a hard-line stance against machete gangs.

“This is the right time for government to put such policy on the machete gangs. They have caused enough problems for miners and government should put a stop to it right now. A shoot-to-kill policy will work to put deterrent measures to their activities,” he said.

Also calling on retailers who sell machetes and pangas to be regulated, he added: “They should not sell these weapons over the counter to anyone who just walks in to buy. I think there should be a good reason given by someone buying these weapons. It should not be that everyone who thinks of buying a machete will have it readily available,” he said.

The call comes a few days after the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Mining Development asked the government to impose stiffer sentences against the machete gangs, who they said were now a danger to society.

The call was made as part of its resolutions following an urgent meeting on the activities of the terror gangs at Parliament last week.

The committee also resolved that government should kick-start legislative procedures to allow for stiffer penalties with regard to such perpetrators as was done in the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act regarding the vandalism of railway and electrical material, among others.

The machete gangs have unleashed a reign of terror in the mining areas where they have killed dozens of people, robbing them of their gold and other valuables.

Their actions have prompted the government to declare war on their activities and deploying security agents to restore sanity in the mining sector

According to statistics, machete gangs have killed over 100 people in gold wars.

Last week, 47 machete gang members were arrested after two of them were shot by the police when they hired commuter omnibuses from Kwekwe to attack a police station in Gokwe North.

The gang intended to force the release their colleagues who were in police custody.

THE State’s plot to “fix” MDC vice-chairperson Job Sikhala’s trial on treason charges has been exposed after it allocated the case to a Masvingo legal practitioner who it gave the indictment papers with instructions to represent the legislator on pro deo without his knowledge.

BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE

A pro deo refers to legal representation of a person accused of a capital offence, but is unable to afford a legal practitioner and is funded by the State.

Sikhala, who is being represented by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), only came to know of the issue after the State-appointed lawyer, Charles Ndhlovu, approached him saying he was instructed by the Masvingo High Court registrar to represent him on pro deo.

The MDC vice-chairperson blew his top and said he suspected a plot by the State to interfere with his trial.
“How did the registrar just pick a legal practitioner when it is clearly indicated on the indictment papers that they were served to my legal practitioner,” Sikhala said.

“I wonder what their motives are. At law, someone can be allocated a legal practitioner to represent him or her on two grounds. Firstly, when the accused person has requested it and, secondly, when the accused person is not able to choose a legal practitioner of choice on a serious offence.”

Sikhala said he had a competent legal team that had walked with him from initial remand to date.

“The ZLHR are available. Would they allow me to go on a State persecution trial without legal representation?
Common sense should have spoken to the State that I have got enough legal ammunition to face the trial. My party president, vice-presidents and treasurer-general are all lawyers!” Sikhala fumed.

The MP said six South African advocates had also volunteered to represent him in the trial and he is discussing the issue with his legal practitioners on how to accommodate them and seek temporary practising certificates with the Justice ministry.

However, Ndhlovu told NewsDay that he did not know why he was given Sikhala’s indictment papers with instruction to represent him.

“I only received Sikhala’s indictment papers with instructions from the registrar of the High Court that I must represent him on pro deo,” he said.

“I do not know why they chose me, but I contacted Sikhala knowing he has the capacity to fund his legal fees.”

Masvingo deputy registrar of the High Court Hazvineyi Mwanyisa confirmed to NewsDay that Sikhala’s case was allocated to Ndhlovu, saying if he did not want his representation, he could choose a legal practitioner of his choice.

Mwayisa invited NewsDay to her office to verify with the record, but after being asked if it was procedural to allocate an accused person’s case to a legal practitioner without his consent, she said they only did that because they did not attend his indictment at the magistrate’s court.

“You can come and verify with the record. Ndhlovu is Sikhala’s lawyer. We allocate any case to a lawyer, but if he does not like him, he can choose his legal practitioner of choice. When he was indicted, we were not at Bikita Magistrates Court, but here we only allocate cases to lawyers and it will be up to accused to proceed with him or not,” she said.

But Sikhala insisted that it was not the norm in the administration of justice in the country that a person who has not declared legal incapacitation would have a lawyer chosen for them.

The MDC has been accusing the State of persecuting its members with more than 10 senior members of the party charged with treason which carries a death sentence.

BY BRENNA MATENDERE

AMALGAMATED Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (Artuz) has resolved to engage the Joint Operations Command (JOC) to seek protection of its members in remote areas, who are allegedly facing harassment and intimidation from suspected State security agents.

The resolution was made at the union’s congress, which ended on Friday in Gweru.

Part of the resolution reads: “Union will engage the Joint Operations Command (JOC) to lobby them to stop the victimisation of teachers. Artuz will run its Safe Schools Campaign with special focus on litigation and advocacy. Teachers to actively work as human rights defenders, defending their labour rights and the right to education for the learners.”

Artuz president Obert Masaraure yesterday told NewsDy that their leadership would meet JOC at national level.

“We will meet them at national level to explain our ideological stand point and what we seek to achieve. Our security sector is constituted by civil servants like ourselves. We are confident that if we engage we can find common ground,” he said.

“Our politicians are notorious for turning workers against each other. That must end. Our State security should protect the broader interests of the State, not private interests of individual politicians.”

Artuz last year reported that its members in rural areas were facing intimidation from suspected State security agents after they had declared incapacitation and stopped reporting for duty.

The union also resolved that its members would not report for work when schools open tomorrow citing incapacitation.

Meanwhile, Masaraure was given a fresh mandate as the Artuz president after being elected uncontested.

The same happened to the union’s secretary-general, Robson Chere.

BY BLESSED MHLANGA

OPPOSITION MDC leader Nelson Chamisa, unhappy with the quality of debate in Parliament and the level of leadership in the country, has called on the electorate to use the 2023 elections to elect competent representatives who will effectively articulate their aspirations.

“I am also worried about the quality of debate (in Parliament) at times, but a representative can only be a representative of those represented, so to the extent that people go there (to Parliament) and do things that are below the standard and there is no questioning, there is no accountability, it says something about the quality of citizens in Zimbabwe. We must do more. It’s a reflection, I mean, your leadership reflects yourself. Just think about your leadership, it’s a reflection of who you are,” Chamisa said.

The House of Assembly has 270 seats, with 210 directly elected from constituencies, and 60 reserved for women on a proportional representative base, but having less than 20 active legislators contributing to debates.

Chamisa told NewsDay that there was need to have a critical citizen who would refuse to be represented by an unaccountable and substandard leadership.

“We must send better representatives (to Parliament), but this has to do with us being critical of our representatives, (but) in this space, we don’t question leaders. In this country, you go for ages without electricity and not a single person comes to say I am sorry, yet there is a person who is in charge of that,” he said.

“Roads are in a dilapidated state, yet nobody will come to you and say we are sorry. This is the challenge. We will do our best. (There is) no accountability. In a normal country, if you have a cent increase in fuel, there will be pandemonium, hullabaloo, but here, the country goes in any direction and we adjust.”

Zimbabwe is facing critical shortages of water, cash, electricity and fuel as the economy tanks, eroding savings and disposable income, and Chamisa said because of a timid society that allows leadership off the hook easily, things would continue to get worse.

“First, there was no water and we had to drill boreholes. We realised the boreholes were not enough and we had to do tanks. We realised tanks are not enough, we now have our own methods of buying water. There is no electricity (and) what do we do? Let’s have generators; generators are not helping, lets go solar; solar is not helping us, let’s go firewood,” he said.

“Our teachers should teach people to ask leaders questions so that they are responsible and accountable. The teacher is not teaching pupils to be critical because being critical is punished, being critical invites death, but teachers must teach us to be more critical and ask relevant questions as citizens.”

BY BLESSED MHLANGA/BRENNA MATENDERE

ZIMBABWE is on the verge of a complete shutdown as private and public sector workers as well as college students plan to take to the streets.
Teachers, lecturers and students are planning to coalesce with the rest of the civil service for a strike that could cripple essential services and the start of the school calendar tomorrow.

Government workers last week rejected an offer by government to double their wages and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) is planning “mother-of-all” demonstrations to press government to address key national issues and reverse “anti-poor people policies”.

The 97% salary hike would have seen the lowest paid government worker getting
$2 033.

But the civil servants demanded that their salaries to be indexed to the United States dollar equivalent to those they earned during dollarisation period.

Alternatively, the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), Zimbabwe
Teachers Association and Zimbabwe National Students Union (Zinasu) as well as the rest of the civil servants are pressing government to raise wages to bring the lowest paid civil servant to a monthly salary of $5 000.

The confrontation is likely to start tomorrow when schools open, with PTUZ secretary-general Raymond Majongwe calling for a united front with pupils, parents and teachers to confront the government.

“Government must be taught … economic volatility in this country is increasing every day. Economic and political frustration is increasing every day. It’s better they engage people and they give us what we are worth because we are offering our labour to the country for the benefit of the nation and we need solidarity from everybody, the kids the parents and everybody out there,” he said.

“Why do people want to justify that they will seat and smile as government behaves like a bull in a china shop? You can’t tell me that somebody who is asking to be paid $6 000 for them to report for duty is asking for too much!”

Acting Primary and Secondary Education minister Amon Murwira said he was aware of the concerns by teachers, but said the matter was being handled by the Public Service Commission (PSC) and an announcement would be made soon.

“We have hope, I have hope, but at the moment, this is being dealt with the PSC and an announcement will be made regarding that,” he said.

Government has failed to effectively deal with the industrial action by junior doctors, which has continued for over four months, with hospitals partially closed.

Munyaradzi Gwisai, leader of the International Socialist Organisation in Zimbabwe, has called on all workers to have a joint demonstration and a shutdown of government business, saying workers have had enough and should not allow themselves to work for slave wages.

“We now need a united front of all victims of austerity to lead the resistance against austerity and the junta. Students, workers, youths, vendors and the villagers … we have to learn the lesson that the late Morgan Tsvangirai, as secretary-general of ZCTU, learnt then that sometimes negotiations yield nothing. You can’t keep talking to people who are not listening.

There is no bigger army that the power of the workers and villagers,” Gwisai said.

Irked by the increase in college fees against poor salaries, Zinasu has also warned it will be taking to the streets to protest what it called attempts to push them out of school.

“They pay student teachers $150 and not even constantly, they pay our mothers $100, then they proceed to us students and demand $5 000 per term, $15 000 per year exclusive of other necessities … They must be stopped, they must be resisted. They are evil,” Zinasu said in a statement in response to a statement from Seke Teachers College, which increased fees for resident teacher students from $2 416 to $5 016 effective January 10.

The ZCTU has already declared 2020 as a year for resisting slave wages and confronting government over poor policies and the poverty-inducing austerity measures.

“We have been mandated by the workers to ensure that we resist all these slave wages and engage in peaceful and constitutional action, which will end the suffering of workers, toiling every day yet they can’t pay just rentals or send their children to school. As we speak right now, many of our members are being evicted from their homes. Action has to be now,” ZCTU secretary-general Peter Mutasa said.

He added that it was important for all workers to join hands and fight from the same corner.

“Our message is that it is no longer effective for workers to fight from their different unions or groups. It is no longer tenable for the doctors to protest alone. It is also no longer effective for teachers to fight the government alone. The same goes for nurses, bank employees or those (who) do general cleaning. They can’t fight from their corners,” he said.

“It is also now impossible for workers who work for famous companies to fight without joining hands with those who are self-employed. So we are saying let us have unity of workers who work in formal and informal sectors. We now also want to see unity in the protests between the workers who work in cities and those who work in rural areas.”

Mutasa lashed out at President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s call for people to avoid meat and eat vegetables and potatoes.

“The issue that is bringing us all together as people is that of hunger. Every person who is working in this country must not be forced to eat vegetables and potatoes. A worker must get money enough to purchase foods that constitute a balanced diet,” he said.

Mutasa said workers no longer had any other way of dealing with the government to solve the multi-layered national crises than to take to the streets.

“Our message is that we do not have any other way to go because most avenues have been closed, but we now need to fight oppression and exploitation of workers. We do not have any other choice. So that is our first message (to workers) that we are going ahead with demonstrations and we are going to maintain our stance of fighting government policies which are oppressing the people,” he said.

The ZCTU has also said it was against government’s introduction of a mono currency and maintained workers must be paid either in US dollars or the equivalent of their salaries in the green back as at September 2017.

Through the Zimbabwe Hospitals Doctors Association (ZHDA), the doctors — who have been on strike for more than four months now — have vowed to press on until their demand for better wages is met.

“It has been four months since our members declared incapacitation, our employer has to date offered a net salary of $3 600 equivalent to less that US$170. A clear breach of our contractual agreement of net US$1 800. We remain steadfast in our call for a decent wage for our members,” ZHDA said.

London — Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur shared European football’s greatest stage on a balmy Madrid night last June — but on a cold January night in north London, they looked worlds apart.

Jurgen Klopp’s side claimed the Champions League trophy at Wanda Metropolitano Stadium with a 2-0 win and from the moment Liverpool lifted the trophy for the sixth time, the two clubs have been heading in opposite directions of travel.

Never has the growing chasm been more graphically, or painfully in Spurs’ case, illustrated than by a glance at the Premier League table after Liverpool made another mark in history with a 1-0 win at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Liverpool’s victory, secured by Roberto Firmino’s first-half goal, gave them a mammoth 16-point lead at the top of the Premier League with a game in hand. The gap to Spurs, in eighth, is 31 points — and they have played a game fewer.

Whereas Liverpool used that win in Madrid as the launchpad to a golden future, Spurs look like a team and a club that has simply not recovered from getting so near but yet so far away from the greatest prize in European club football.

Spurs, without injured striker Harry Kane, battled gamely in the second half and might have earned a point had Son Heung-Min and Giovani lo Celso not missed excellent chances, but the brutal reality is that Liverpool now operate on a different level to the club they faced in Madrid a few months ago.

Klopp is on course to write his name into Liverpool legend as the manager who ended their 30-year wait for a title.
Spurs, in contrast, have since sacked Mauricio Pochettino — the man who took them to Madrid — and now have Jose Mourinho struggling to turn the ship around.

Pochettino presided over a Spurs side that was allowed to age together while Liverpool have invested superbly under Klopp, who had none of the players who started his first game at White Hart Lane in October 2015 in his starting line-up on Saturday, although Divock Origi and Adam Lallana came on as substitutes.

Pochettino clearly saw the Champions League final as the big chance to cement Spurs’ place in the top echelons but appeared a distant, discontented, disaffected figure once that did not materialise.

Klopp, in contrast, is taking Liverpool and their supporters on a dream ride.

Liverpool have brought in game-changers such as Alisson, Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, and the manner in which Spurs have been left behind comes into sharper focus with every passing week.

Klopp was questioned when he sold Philippe Coutinho, who many regarded as his most important player, to Barcelona for £142 million in January 2018, but he used the huge fee to build a more rounded team by buying Van Dijk and Alisson.

Klopp has manoeuvred Liverpool into a position of strength — where they can add to their squad with opportune acquisitions such as Takumi Minamino — whereas Mourinho and Spurs now face a rebuilding job.

It may have been cheaper for Spurs chairman Daniel Levy to see Pochettino off the premises rather than back ambitious transfer plans, but he must find funds for Mourinho now or face the prospect of undoing much of the good work — Champions League regulars while moving into a new stadium — under the Argentine.

Whereas Liverpool look united, forceful and ooze infallibility, Spurs were tentative and negative for the first hour before finally rousing themselves and almost grabbing a point.

Christian Eriksen is now a toxic presence in their line-up, a hugely talented player who is an increasing target for fans who clearly feel he is running down the clock on his time at Spurs.

Every tackle he misses is seen as a lack of commitment, every misplaced pass is viewed as a lack of interest.

It is a harsh judgement but he certainly felt the scorn of Spurs’ fans when he was replaced by Lo Celso in the 69th minute.

Eriksen is the symbol of how Spurs need renewal or let the top clubs move too far ahead of them.

There is no such problem for Klopp and Liverpool.

The statistics can be rattled off as testimony to the foundations of the Anfield empire Klopp has rebuilt, an empire that would be even more firmly established if the formalities of this title are duly completed.

Some things can still be speculated upon, though.

Can Liverpool go a whole Premier League season unbeaten? Can they eclipse Manchester City’s record total of 100 points in 2017/18?

While these seem very real possibilities, other figures are already set in stone.

Liverpool have gone 38 league games without defeat since they lost at Manchester City last January. In the same period Spurs have lost 16 matches, including three to Klopp’s team.

The champions-elect have amassed 104 points across that period, the biggest by any team in the competition’s history — and they are the first team in Europe’s top-five leagues to win 20 of their first 21 games.

So while Liverpool’s manager took the acclaim of their fans in a corner of Tottenham’s impressive stadium at the final whistle, the impression remains that Mourinho and his conservative style — historically at least — is yet to convince the Spurs support.

It is early days and Mourinho has been unlucky with injuries to important players such as Kane, but there is little current comparison between these sides.

Liverpool are surely on the way to the Premier League title while Spurs look lost and in need of major refurbishment.

Madrid and the Champions League final seem an age away.

— BBC Sport