The opposition party leader in Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, of the MDC, pulled out of the presidential runoff vote which was set to take place on Friday this week. He pulled out because he saw there was no way he could win under the current crisis being faced in Zimbabwe and, the longer he tried to campaign to win, the more lives were going to be lost. Now that Tsvangirai has pulled out of the race, many people are now asking, “What next?” It is really anyones guess right now, anything can happen within the next few days and weeks, but one thing for sure that will certainly happen soon is the collapse of the Zimbabwe economy.

Currently there is very little food in Zimbabwe. You can not walk into a shop and buy a loaf of bread as the bakeries are just not able to make bread anymore due to the lack of inputs. Maize, which is the country’s staple food is no longer available. It had been said that there would be some maize exported from South Africa to Zimbabwe but where will Zimbabwe get the money to pay for this maize and worse still how would it be transported across the border? Unless off course the bill is being footed by South Africa. Zimbabweans have been resilient for a very long time now but time may be running out. A person without food is not a happy person. The current situation in Zimbabwe is pushing Zimbabweans to the limit; survival is becoming extremely hard.

Some people were surviving by purchasing basic food stuffs not available in the shops via the black market at very high prices. But now, even that black market has no more products to sell. No matter how many billions of Zimbabwe dollars one has, they can not do anything with them as there is nothing to buy. Coupled with that, there is a serious cash shortage in Zimbabwe and getting cash to do anything with is virtually impossible. In Zimbabwe, you are currently only able to withdraw $25bn a day from the ATM. To put this into context, $25bn will only buy you one litre of fuel or two pints of beer.

One has to wonder how those who are supporting President Robert Mugabe are surviving? The army and the police are normal people who have families and need to buy food. If they are been given large amounts of money buy the government for their services then what are they doing with the money if there is nothing to buy? They to should also be getting very frustrated. The current situation may be pushing even those who support the President to think twice. As mentioned earlier, a hungry person is not a happy person.

At the rate things are going in Zimbabwe, it is only a matter of time before the economy collapses. The Zimbabwe dollar has become worthless and economists have given up trying to keep track with the rate of inflation in Zimbabwe. Something has to be done and done as early as yesterday. The people of Zimbabwe do not deserve what they are going through. Enough is enough.

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