As fuel‚ medicines and food run out‚ Zimbabwe’s president Mnangagwa faces his first massive challenge

In 2003‚ faced with a fuel crisis‚ Mugabe looked up to slain Libyan ruler Colonel Muammar Gaddafi for help. Without any known all-weather friends‚ Mnangagwa relies on his world renowned economist‚ finance minister Mthuli Ncube‚ for sound economic decisions.

However‚ Ncube’s first of many hard decisions to come have riled the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). The umbrella body said the 2% tax per dollar on transactions the minister put in place piles burden on the poor.

“The people have no option but to be bled by this move which would also create a fertile ground for a three tier pricing system that spurs the cost of living as retailers and service providers would pass on the cost to consumers‚” ZCTU said.

For Mnangagwa‚ it’s no pain no gain.

“The liberalisation of the economy has its own pains [and] this is one of the pains that we are going to go through‚” he said‚ addressing a Professional Women‚ Women Executives and Business Women Forum (Proweb) gathering.

But ZCTU has gone ahead and planned for a demonstration on Thursday‚which is set to be the first since August 1 when MDC Alliance supporters took to the streets to reject the presidential election outcome. That demonstration ended with at least six dead as the military opened fire on civilians.

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