Zimbabwe burns as leaders doze

Zimbabwe is teetering on the brink of total chaos as the country's increasingly clueless government, led by an often-absent President Robert Mugabe, fails to respond to the many challenges facing hard-pressed citizens, analysts and opposition parties said yesterday.

They said that these rising incidence of protest against oppression and Zimbabwe's calamitous economic collapse, did not bode well for peace and security in the country- pointing to the wave of protests by angry students, prisoners and ordinary villagers who are taking the law into their own hands in a desperate endeavour to improve their lot.

And to show how dire and seriously tense the atmosphere has become over the past few months, police officers were on high alert and in large numbers on the streets of Harare yesterday, apparently under instruction from panicking authorities who fear that major public disturbances may be in the offing countrywide.

Analysts generally agreed yesterday that the country was teetering on the brink of total anarchy, with some of them accusing Mugabe and his administration of "sleeping on the job" while enjoying huge perks.