Bulawayo residents decry ‘stolen’ Christmas

By Dumisani Nyoni

Just a few days before the festive season begins in earnest, the general mood in Bulawayo—the second largest city—appears completely devoid of any merriment.

In fact, what is clearly evident is the depression that pervades the nation, particularly in the City of Kings where the general talk is about lack of money, joblessness and hardships.

To date, only a handful of shops in Bulawayo’s central business district have put up the traditional colourful Christmas decorations as is the norm when shops would be outpacing each other in festive decorations.

The liquidity crunch has made prospects of merriment this festive season clearly doubtful.

A cross–section of Zimbabweans interviewed by RadioVOP in Bulawayo on Wednesday said they could not see any joy this Christmas.

“What festive season are you talking about yet we don’t have money to put basic food on the table? There is absolutely nothing to celebrate this time around. I think last year it was better,” said Nombulelo Mguni, a vendor.

“Some of us would be here during Christmas trying to make things meet. I cannot sit at home doing nothing yet knowing that come January school fees would be needed,” she added.

A teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said since government has indicated that it will pay them their salaries after the Christmas, spells doom for them.

“We are completely doomed. What is painful is that it’s only the teachers who are always affected. Other civil servants like the army and police are always preferred ahead of us and this is a cause for concern. Why discriminating civil servants? Are we not equally? This is unfair,” the teacher said.

On Tuesday the government released December pay dates for civil servants, with those in the health sector and uniformed forces being paid on December 21 while the rest will receive their salaries after Christmas.

Teachers will be paid on December 28 while other civil servants will be paid on January 3.

Pensioners are expected to receive their allowances on January 6.

The government is also mum about the issue of bonus. President Robert Mugabe skirted the issue when he presented his State of the Nation Address (SONA) a fortnight go so was Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa in his 2017 national budget.

As such, the usual banter around the joyful issue of bonus is totally non-existent as the majority of workers are not sure of getting their 13th cheque anytime soon.

“There is nothing festive about this festive season because people don’t have money. People are spending their time queuing for money at banks.  Frankly speaking, there is no festive season to talk about. People have already started budgeting for the school fees in January,” said Bulawayo Progressive Residents’ Association information manager, Zibusiso Dube.

Bulawayo United Residents’ Association (BURA) chairperson, Winos Dube, also foresaw a gloomy festive season.

“Usually expectations are always high during this time of the year but it is very unfortunate that this time around it is not the case as people don’t have money. We are seeing a situation where there would be a gloomy festive season. I am not seeing anything exciting this festive season,” Winos said.

Winos, however, said they are only happy about the rains which pounded the city this week. Radio VOP