I’ve just had sight of a press release from Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) regarding the power sharing agreement and what the priorities of the Government of National Unity (GNU) should be in the first 100 days. WOZA got over 6000 people to share their views. I really hope that WOZA will sit down with the leaders of the GNU and that the GNU will actually listen to what the people want – for a change.

Here are the top 5 priorities put forward by Zimbabweans. For more information please visit www.wozazimbabwe.org

1. Fix the education system:
- We want free or affordable better quality education, with resources for our children and teachers who are motivated by descent salaries.
- Teachers still look at parents as their employer while the real employer, government, looks on helplessly.

2. Urgent reforms to stabilize the economy:
- Reintroduce local currency as soon as possible because not everyone can access foreign currency and afford to use it. Find a way to bring back a stable Zimbabwe dollar currency.
- Audit finances at RBZ and Gono should be investigated for corruption and either be fired or resign.

3. Restore the health care system:
- We need affordable fees for clinics and hospitals and enough affordable medicines.
- Pregnancy no longer means celebrating a birth but pain and suffering due to high costs; demands for bribes and bad service. Nurses and doctors must be told to treat patients with respect. They must also earn a living wage that dignifies them.
- Please allow people a dignified death – buy more storage fridges and clean up mortuaries.

4. Better quality, affordable and efficient service delivery from ZESA, City Councils and Tel One:
- They keep increasing their tariffs but at the same time they decrease their service. Make sure people are getting a clean supply of water. Reduce telephone tariffs and improve service.

5. Create employment and opportunities:
- We want jobs for all and those with jobs require a living wage that enables them to afford to get to work and eat three meals a day.
- Offer civil servants a decent salary.
- Allow people to get trading licenses and tell police to stop treating vendors like criminals.
- Encourage informal and cross-border trading by capacitating ordinary people with self-help projects and training so that they will be able to create more business on a small scale, which will automatically boost industry.

This entry was posted on May 18th, 2009 at 12:21 pm by Bev Clark and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.