The Digest recently ran an article from Newsnet News Service about phone service in Zimbabwe:
The public has expressed concern over the lack of seriousness on the
> part of the country's mobile and fixed telephone providers in
> providing an efficient service delivery to their customers.
...
A snap survey conducted by Newsnet in Harare revealed that most
> subscribers are bitter about the service they are getting especially
> now when the providers are constantly increasing tariffs.
Gee, I wonder why people in Zimbabwe are experiencing rising prices and poor service. Could it be that the country's inept yet thuggish authoritarian government has reduced the economy to a shambles with the world's highest inflation rate (about 1000 percent) where businesses have to constantly boost prices just to avoid bankruptcy? Could it have anything to do with the fact that the government's confiscatory exchange rate policies and import tariffs make it extremely difficult for legitimate businesses to import equipment? Funny that Newsnet didn't mention either of those possibilities.
Oh wait, here's why. A little digging on Newsnet's web site reveals that "Newsnet (Private) Limited is a subsidiary of Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings, a Government of Zimbabwe wholly-owned Company." So Newsnet is to Zimbabwe what TASS was to the Soviet Union.
Bob Goudreau Cary, NC