The Zimbabwe elections will be over by the time you read this. Whatever the result, Robert Mugabe's compulsion to cling to power has bankrupted his country, destroyed many of its institutions and - as Clever Ndhlovu reports from Harare - fatally drawn attention away from what is now the world's worst Aids problem
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After 22 years in power, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe (78) is now
fighting for political survival with all the means at his disposal, risking
economic sanctions against his country, which is already on the brink
of economic collapse.
About a quarter of this African country's adult population is HIV
Victoria
Falls, Zimbabwe
photo: africaguide.com (phil jeffries)
positive, with infection rates running up to 40 per cent in the main
urban areas. More than 2,000 people die every week from Aids - five every
hour.
In such a dismal situation, are the main presidential rivals focusing
their campaigns - in part, at least - on preventing further disaster?
Not a bit of it. As President Mugabe and his main rival, leader of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai, trade
accusations and insults, and score at each other's expense, HIV has hardly
been mentioned.
During his election campaign, only once did Mugabe promise to provide
more drugs in hospitals to alleviate the problems faced by those afflicted
by the Aids pandemic.
"We have lost many children...Cabinet ministers too have succumbed
to the
disease...And even chiefs," said Mugabe, addressing the chiefs in the
