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Does anyone really believe the government will pick up the tab for the $370 million debt at the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company to make the broken-down, decrepit Redcliff plant more attractive to potential investors?  ( The old sign outside Redcliff town: Zimbabwe’s steel centre.) The Ministry of Industry says that six replies have been…

In a bank queue the other day when the money ran out. It prompted a swell of anger and discontent, unusually heated for normally placid Zimbabweans. “It’s down to the final lap now,’’ shouted one man. Everyone agreed the cash crisis will be fatal in the end. But one lady helpfully suggested it might be…

Christians have been praising the Lord for the release of Linda Masarira, the brave campaigner for change who was savagely beaten and spent 80 days in jail, some of it in solitary confinement at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, for participating in anti-government protests in Zimbabwe. But why did the Lord allow it to go that…

On the dark side. Why nice people become cruel, as found by the psychology department at Stanford University in the U.S. It is all about power and submission – and it might help show why members of the Zimbabwe Republic  Police (ZRP) can be so cruel and brutal when lashing out at protesters and passersby,…

  It could be described as collective paranoia. Is the Zimbabwe flag a symbol of patriotism or is it a symbol of protest? This is a question for all those who have miniatures of the flag mounted on a stick in their cars and for anyone proud of the national colours. Should we brandish a flag…

Tanzania is high on helium. Vast reserves of the gas have just been found beneath the Rift Valley in east Africa. Helium is used in brain scanners and other medical and scientific devices. So scarce had natural deposits worldwide become that the British Medical Association asked for helium to be priced out of the children’s…

The national carrier Air Zimbabwe’s flight left Victoria Falls an hour early because, the ground staff said, they had to use a slower plane. Quite why they couldn’t just arrive in Harare an hour later was not explained. All the passengers booked to travel at the weekend could not be reached by phone and the…

  A neighbour down the road says he has never been as demoralised as he is now but nor has he been crossing his fingers as much as he does every day that an end might finally be in sight. The difference this time is there’s no money and the social media is ever more…

Morale is poor, spirits are low. People are depressed by our endless problems. “Be calm, be Zimbabwean and make a plan.” Surely money is needed to make a plan? But there isn’t any readily available now.  And there is no obvious plan in the corridors of power on what to do next, either.  Edvard Munch’s…

  Three elderly gentlemen say they have a combined 150 years of experience drinking in pubs, clubs and bars the world over. But they have never before seen an optic measure being used to dispense tots of whisky from a quarter jack bottle. Scotch whisky is not on the new list of banned imports that…