Power Blackouts in Zimbabwe

(Harare, Zimbabwe) One has to wonder how much longer the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe can survive before there's a total loss of control.

Some suburbs in Harare have gone for 10 days without power in one of the worst cuts to hit the Zimbabwean capital for months, reports said.

The blackout has hit the traditionally more affluent northern suburbs including Avondale and Belgravia, where many embassies are located. Hospitals, including the main Parirenyatwa Hospital and the private Avenues Clinic have been badly affected, separate reports say.

The official Herald newspaper said the areas were cut off after a massive fault on a high-voltage cable and warned the blackouts could last until the weekend.

Couple the massive fault with the fact that Zimbabwe hasn't been paying its debts to South Africa and Mozambique, so those supplies of electricity have been severed. To get by, firewood is being used for cooking and heating and perishable foodstuffs have been thrown out and not reordered.

Not surprisingly, police-state socialism has produced the usual and expected result -- evenly-distributed abject poverty.