There are four categories of poverty, namely, absolute poverty, relative poverty, extreme poverty, and moderate poverty (Viggiani, 2007). Of these four, the average Zimbabwean(majority) aptly falls into the third category which has been defined by Viggiani as referring to chronic hunger and no access to health care, safe drinking water, sanitation, education, and housing. The World Bank uses a standard of income of U.S. $1 per day per person or less of purchasing power.
Recently, the estimate for cholera case was put at around 60 000 people and 3000 deaths due to this easily curable disease.The country's major hospitals such as Parirenyatwa, Harare, Mpilo, and Bulawayo Hospital have been closed living thousands to resort to rural hospitals and financially inaccessable private hospitals such as St. Annes, Baines, and Avenues Hospitals.
Zimbabwe has 80% unemployment and 7 out of 10 people eat one meal a day in a country whose inflation is a staggering 231 million percent.According to the Combined Harare Residence Association (19-24 January 2009 Report) a family of six requires US$86 per week to survive, that is, purchasing a 10kg bag of mealie meal, 2 litres cooking oil,6 kgs economy beef, transportation, bread, 2kgs of sugar, and 6 litres of drink. Meanwhile, lecturers in universities are earning US$50 per month.
The main cause of this extreme poverty has been structural, meaning, it is a result of a system presided over by the government of Robert Mugabe. There has been no policy intervention to create a safety net for the low-income population and the unemployed. Apparently, societal structures have been favoring the ruling elite over the rest of the impoverished population.
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