Harare-In a joke referring to those leaving in the leafy suburbs and widely circulated on social media during last week’s protests a message read “Borrowdale is concerned about the ongoing protests in their neighbouring country Zimbabwe”.

According to Janet Zhou, Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) the commentary showed a huge gap in equality.

“This was a clear commentary on how the elites living in low density suburbs are not affected by the socioeconomic woes bedevilling the country” Zhou said

She said close to 5 million Zimbabweans are living in extreme poverty thereby undermining the United Nations 2030 Agenda.

“According to the World Poverty Clock, close to five million people in Zimbabwe are living in extreme poverty. This constitutes about 28% of the country’s capacity to meet the United Nations Sustainable Goal to end extreme poverty by 2030.

“Inequality is also registering itself at provincial level, according to a research conducted by Zimstats in 2016, Matebeleland North is the poorest province in the country followed by Masvingo and Matebeleland South” she said

Zhou whilst one of the sustainable development goals called for action to end poverty back home taxes imposed by Government do not correspond.

“The Government made a damning revelation that over 4000 big businesses in Zimbabwe are not registered with the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) for purposes of tax evasion.

“The 2% tax on all intermediated money transfers between $10.00 and a $10 000 flat tax for transactions above $500 000is very regressive because big sharks that deal with millions and billions of dollars will pay a flat fee that do not commensurate the wealth they have. The paradox gets even worse when we consider that the poverty datum line is $574” revealed Zhou

The recent doctors Zhou said hit hard on the poor due to partial privatisation of public hospitals as patients are made to pay for X-rays, Full Blood Count among other services.