Cathy Buckle's latest blogpost suggests Zimbabwe is at the...

Cathy Buckle's latest blogpost suggests Zimbabwe is at the edge.
Maybe we should sit up and look at the risks again;
"How do you know when Zimbabwe is teetering at the cliff edge? After nearly three decades of turmoil it’s hard for outsiders to see the signs that are the big red flags to people living in Zimbabwe. We don’t really need the numbers to tell us, but here they are. We are now all busy practicing our 4900 times-tables, well we were a few days ago, now we’re all learning our 6000 times-tables and writing out our 7000 times tables in preparation for what seems inevitable. Why? Well this is how many Zimbabwe Dollars you need to buy ONE single US dollar. In other words, the Zim dollar is crashing faster than we can keep up. We’re back at the stage where we go into shops and pick things up and put them back when we realise they’ve suddenly become luxuries.

Here’s some other numbers:
791% – that’s the inflation rate.
23 August 2023 – that’s the date of our next general election.
70% – that’s how much the value of the Zimbabwe dollar has fallen since January.
10% – that’s how much the all-share index jumped by on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange one day this week, so much that they suspended trading for a while to allow the market to ‘cool off.’
18 – that’s how many Russian helicopters just arrived in Zimbabwe, three months before elections, for “policing, wildlife management and disaster management.’
14 – that’s how many more Russian helicopters are still to come.
US$400,000 – that’s how much judges have each just been given (three months before elections) as ‘housing loans.’
US$500,000 – that’s how much Cabinet Ministers were each given in December as ‘housing loans.’
US$40,000 – that’s how much MPs were each given in December as ‘housing loans.’
US$350,000 – that’s how much CIO (Central Intelligence Organisation) directors were each given in January as ‘housing loans.’
I leave readers to join the dots and draw their own conclusions.

Then, while we’re all busy worrying about the numbers and about survival, came the Patriot Bill, now passed by the House of Assembly and the Senate and just awaiting the signature of the President. Also known as the Criminal Law Amendment Bill the Patriot Bill will create the crime of ‘willfully damaging the sovereignty and national interest of Zimbabwe.’ This will apply to any citizen or permanent resident taking part in a meeting involving or convened by a foreign government to consider or plan armed intervention, subvert or overthrow the Zimbabwe government, to consider implement or extend sanctions or trade boycotts against Zimbabwe or an individual or official. The penalties range from a fine to imprisonment for 10 to 20 years and even the death sentence.

Zimbabwe Lawyers For Human Rights said the Patriot Bill is “unclear, ambiguous, imprecise and likely to be misused by the law enforcement.” ZLHR said: “We are deeply concerned about the harsh penalties for deliberately injuring the sovereignty and national interest of Zimbabwe, which include the death penalty, long imprisonment, loss of citizenship, ban from registering or voting as a voter for at least five years.” ZLHR said that the death penalty in the Patriot Bill violates section 48 of our Constitution".