Xenophobia is a direct indicator of social decay. In every African country where you see populations turning violently against foreign nationals, what you are actually seeing is a population that is drowning financially, struggling to find work, struggling to eat, watching their living conditions deteriorate with no credible explanation from the people responsible for governing them.
The foreigner becomes the easy explanation and excuse for a failing state.
What makes it particularly revealing is who they target. They never target the foreign corporations extracting resources at below-market prices. Not the foreign financial institutions whose conditionalities have gutted public spending for decades, not the foreign governments whose diplomatic protection keeps predatory local elites in power election after election. Those actors are too distant and too legally armoured, living behind gates in neighbourhoods that the angry and the desperate cannot reach. So they go after the ones they can reach: the street vendor from a neighbouring country, the migrant worker who is every bit as broke and as desperate and as abandoned by power as they are.
The poor man’s oldest and most reliable mistake is to see his enemy in his fellow poor person. It requires a macroscopic reading of how power actually operates to understand that the Malawian vendor and the South African unemployed youth are not each other’s problem. They are both products of the same system of extraction, the same manufactured scarcity, the same political class that needs them fighting each other precisely so they never turn around and face the right direction.
Xenophobia is never a spontaneous eruption of hatred. It is what manufactured poverty looks like when it finally needs somewhere to go.
No Returns, No Refunds, No Exchange? The Consumer Protection Act Aggressively Disagrees.
We’ve all been there. You buy a new phone, charger, or iron in town. Two days later, it stops working. You take it back to the shop, but the shopkeeper points to a dusty sign on the wall: "CHECK GOODS BEFORE LEAVING. NO RETURNS. NO REFUNDS." 😤
You walk away frustrated and out of pocket. However, this is illegal in Zimbabwe according to Section 18 of the Act. If goods are defective, you have a right to return them within six months for a refund, replacement, or repair. Most businesses get away with this because consumers turn a blind eye; we often fail to call them out and simply move on.
Secondly, kutoisa tumaposter itwotwo twekuti no returns no refunds itori mhosva pamutemo. If a shop hangs a "No Returns / No Refunds" sign, they are committing an offense under Section 42 because that sign attempts to override the law. They cannot use fear tactics to evade liability for their products. If they sold you something that doesn't work, that sign means nothing.
If you have been treated unfairly by a supplier or service provider, follow these steps:
1. Be clear about what the problem is.
2. Contact the company/seller where you had the problem.
3. Ensure you have proper documentation (contracts, receipts, etc.) at hand.
4. Always stay calm but assertive, and keep records of all conversations.
5. 5.If you are not satisfied, escalate the issue by lodging a complaint with the CCZ - +263 71 400 0888. Contact any of their Provincial offices, or reach them through their website at https://t.co/w6FDgK8N9F or any of their social media platforms.
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For years, we’ve blamed the Chinese for destroying our environment through mining.
But the truth is harder to face — the real culprits are locals.
Local officials sign the licences.
Local elites pocket the “facilitation fees.”
Local silence allows rivers to turn into sludge.
The Chinese didn’t corrupt our system — they found it already for sale.
#Zimbabwe #Mining #Environment #Accountability