Doubling Toll gate fees is a vicious circle that will hurt the poor without changing anything

Since the rigged 2013 elections the national economy has taken a nose dive leaving the regime struggling to pay civil servant wages much less anything else. The regime has resorted to all kinds of measure to increase collected revenue and doubling the tool gate fees is just one of the- se measures. These measures will cause worse hardship on the long suffering people without solving government's falling revenue problem.

Government revenue will only be boosted by addressing the underlying problem of lawlessness which is the root cause of the economic meltdown. Squeezing the poor is the easy thing to do but it is not the answer!

Mugabe knows the root causes of the country's economic meltdown is the lawlessness as exem- plified by the rigged elections and the rampant corruption and looting. After decades of reckless spending the country is broke; it does not have enough revenue to pay civil servant wages and soldiers are being forced to take two week holidays a month because there is no money to buy food.

Zimbabwe desperately need foreign aid to kick start the economy but none of the would-be do- nors have paid a penny and until something is done to end the criminal waste through rampant corruption, no one will help.

The years of economic mismanagement have left millions of Zimbabwe poor and many compa- nies have closed down, the country needs investors to start-up businesses and create jobs. Sad- ly investors too have shied away after many foreigners, especially white farmers, had their prop- erties seized in an orgy of violence and chaos. The situation was made even worse by country's indigenisation law demands that all foreign investors must sell some of their shares to a local partner – nothing more than a blood sucking parasite!

Unemployment is already a nauseating 85% plus, 65% of the people are living on less than a dollar a day, 80% of the children have dropped out of school already, etc. All these economic indicators show that the people from whom government is trying to squeeze a few more dollars by doubling toll gate fees are desperately poor already.

Even if the collected toll revenue was to double, as long as nothing is done to address the under- lying causes of the economic meltdown regime will be back to squeeze the impoverish people for more money. This is a vicious circle designed to make the poor poorer without changing anything else!

The country must address the underlying cause of lawlessness and break this vicious circle that has brought so much human suffering and misery already.

Mugabe and Zanu PF cannot end the lawlessness because, by rigging the 2013 elections, re- gime placed itself outside the law; it epitomizes the lawlessness. For 34 years the regime has enjoyed absolute power in which it was the accuser, judge, jury and executioner; this time the is the accused – it is the one responsible for all the lawlessness - and this time it cannot play no other role. None!

The only way to end lawlessness in Zimbabwe is for this lawless Zanu PF regime to resign so that fresh free and fair elections can be held. Squeezing the already impoverished Zimbabwe public for more money will make the people poorer and buy the regime some time but ultimately the regime will be forced to resign. There is no other way out!

zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com