FOR Floyd Mutamangira of Mufakose in Harare, he will spend this year\u2019s Christmas Day away from family home to avoid the sad sight of his minor children he could not buy special food or spoil with gifts and new clothes to celebrate the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, I cannot even say there is Christmas, because I will be loitering in the streets,\u201d Mutamangira told NewZimbabwe.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t spend the whole day at home as I don\u2019t have anything to give my children. This is difficult, if I could only get mealie-meal then I will have somewhere to start. So to say there is Christmas for me, I would be lying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mutamangira added; \u201cI can\u2019t even express how this is going to be one of the most difficult Christmas Days I have ever experienced in my life. This year, it is just a name only, I can not even buy my parents a 2kg packet of sugar, things are tough.\u201d<\/p>\n
What Mutangira is going through is a reflection of the many challenges that hard-pressed Zimbabweans are going through and won\u2019t be able to celebrate the Festive Season with their loved ones.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s Christmas holiday could go down as one of the worst in decades as ordinary Zimbabweans fail to observe the long held tradition of spoiling their loved ones with goodies associated with the celebrations.<\/p>\n
With only a day to go to Christmas Day, the mood in Harare does not suggest any festivity as locals are engaged in their daily struggles of sourcing for scarce commodities while also experiencing power and water cuts, failure to access cash from the banks and the ever so present fears of running into yet another drought period next year.<\/p>\n
Despite the crises having been there for months now, Zimbabweans are still to get used to sleeping outside banking halls to withdraw some cash the next morning. Motorists also spend most of their time waiting in winding fuel queues for the precious liquid.<\/p>\n
The energy crisis has been worsened by government\u2019s failure to secure foreign currency to pay fuel importers.<\/p>\n
Prices of basic commodities also continue to rise while public transporters are taking advantage of the hectic period to hike transport charges, making travelling a nightmare for most people.<\/p>\n
ahead of Christmas Day, some Harare residents expressed displeasure at the state of the economy and how government seemed to be turning a blind eye to their suffering.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even have money to travel to my rural home and celebrate Christmas with close family members. I cannot even buy new clothes for my kids. On Christmas, I will be here in the streets selling airtime because my family has nothing to celebrate,\u201d said an airtime vendor, who only identified himself as Madzibaba Luke in central Harare.<\/p>\n
For Mike Mandendera, the day will also just be like any other ordinary one.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is nothing like Christmas; it is just going to be another day to spend at home. We will never have the same celebrations that we used to have in the past. This is just going to be a day to rest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) said in a statement this past week that 2019 was tough for ordinary workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been a difficult year for Zimbabweans. It has been one of the difficult years for the workers,\u201d said Japhet Moyo, the ZCTU secretary-general.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FOR Floyd Mutamangira of Mufakose in Harare, he will spend this year\u2019s Christmas Day away from family home to avoid the sad sight of his minor children he could not buy special food or spoil with gifts and new clothes to celebrate the day. \u201cTo me, I cannot even say there is Christmas, because I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":17142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[128,800,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-17139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-community","9":"tag-community","10":"tag-government-of-zimbabwe","11":"tag-zctu"},"yoast_head":"\n