Dear Editor,

Zimbabweans are living like slaves through hardships caused by their Government.

It is painful that most Zimbabweans are still living like slaves in their own country exactly 40 years after gaining Independence.

There are no decent standards of living for the poor and weak. The educated and many graduates have become vendors in the streets of cities and towns of Zimbabwe. As we observe the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, let us not forget that Zimbabweans are still experiencing systemic slavery.

How on earth can you expect professional doctors, nurses, teachers, and other civil servants to live on less than US$45 a month?

Underage children are doing forced labour and get almost nothing under harsh and unbearable conditions in Zimbabwe.

Adults in Zimbabwe who work in tobacco production face serious health and safety risks, but the Government and tobacco companies are failing to ensure that workers have better working conditions, sufficient information, training, and equipment to protect them. Workers on tobacco farms said they are pushed to work excessive hours without overtime, compensation, sometimes denied their wages, and forced to go weeks or months without pay.

Zimbabweans are in bondage in their own country, and this is the reason an estimated 5 million Zimbabweans have swarmed South Africa, bringing a huge burden to the public services of a country with nearly four times the population of Zimbabwe’s.

Zimbabwe President Emerson Mnangagwa should act now or resign.

Kudzai Chikowore

Defender of human rights

London, England

kk5227@hotmail.com