350 People Gathered Together in Kensington, London to Help Raise Funds for Z.A.N.E. A Charity Set up to Help the Pensioners of Zimbabwe

Bruce Fletcher's band 'Heard' headlined the event, but why should we help them?

(PRWEB) February 1, 2006 -- Zimbabwe pensioners, many of them British-born, are starving as their pension is worth almost nothing and the economy does not seem to hold any hope for the vulnerable group.

As Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate will peak at record 700% to 800% in March 2006, all Zimbabweans are feeling deprived, but the country's pensioners may simply vanish from existence.

Zimbabwe has in recent years been in the throes of political, economic and social instability brought about by President Mugabe’s rule. The civil war severely disrupted economic activity, and with the economy in shreds, unemployment is running at an estimated 70 percent. For the past three years Zimbabweans have endured shortages, from foreign currency to food, to fuel and even bank notes. Poverty increase and AIDS rate, climbing to 25% among youth. The breakdown of social services worsens conditions. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has labeled the country as having the fastest shrinking economy in the world.

In these trying circumstances, the most vulnerable social groups - particularly the pensioners - suffer the most.

There are nearly 7000, mainly British born, elderly pensioners in Zimbabwe. They are the professionals and administrators who migrated here, mostly from Britain and South Africa, in two waves, to escape the Depression of the 1930s and then the bleakness of life after the Second World War.

"Ten years ago pensioners lived relatively comfortably on the money they were receiving. But the situation now is pathetic. The pittance they get can hardly see them through a day, what with the ever-increasing price of basic commodities and the attendant shortages," economist John Robertson told IRIN news service.

Zimbabwe pensioners are dying prematurely due to stress as their devalued pensions from the Zimbabwe government equal to pennies a month. Many of the care homes were supported by the agricultural community, but today as the farming infrastructure is severely damaged and a lot of private farming equipment disappeared, only 15% of the farmers are still farming so this support has simply dried up.

Some of Zimbabwe pensioners live in the rural areas and are supposed to travel to the cities to receive their money every month. However, due to high transport costs, the money they use on a single trip far outstrips what they receive and many pensioners have simply stopped collecting their money.

Basic foodstuffs are expensive; for example, bread is virtually impossible to obtain so that feeding the elderly has become a real challenge. The consumer basket as estimated by the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe for a family of six cost Z$16,6 million in December 2005, registering a 876 percent rise in one year. At the same time most pensioners receive no more than Z$1,750,000 (US $18 at the current official rate) a month, with some getting as little as Z$190,000 (US $2).

Once the people who developed Zimbabwe for generations to come during their working days, Zimbabwe pensioners grow desperate as they watch their country being destroyed, their pensions grow worthless and their savings melt to nothing. The most common Zimbabwe government pension is worth 40p - enough for three loaves of bread and a couple of bananas.

Most Zimbabwe pensioners suffer from catastrophic impoverishment. Too proud to seek help, former professionals were allegedly reduced to eating weeds. Well-educated people have been found living in cardboard boxes and stables. Several of the aged have committed suicide, others grow ill with worry. And, to make things worse, bodies are piling up in mortuaries as relatives, where they exist, simply cannot afford to bury their dead.

"They are the generation that built this country into the best-run country in Africa, with high standard of living anywhere," the administrator of an old age home in Harare said. "They worked hard and planned meticulously for their futures. Mugabe has wrecked everything."

According to the United Nations, Zimbabwe now has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world and one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates. Zimbabwe population is ageing at enormous speed, with death rate among the productive age groups rising up to eight times in the last ten years. Economists warn that when real inflation hits more than 1,000 percent, airing fears of possible food riots and political unrest putting the lives of pensioners in Zimbabwe at the edge of extinction.

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Article by: Julie Gabriel

Pictures by: David Toney

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