The economic situation in Zimbabwe has been especially hard on civil servants who continue to earn well below the poverty datum line which is somewhere north of $3 500/month by the government’s own admission.

That is a fact no lost on social media where a picture of a rural teacher caught stealing maize has stirred sympathy with some people promising to help him instead of calling for his punishment as one would have expected.

Kindly allow me not to care what this man did…this is not a look of a criminal but a genuine family man who has tried it all in this land?i do not condone the act of stealing maize, but the intentiom to feed his family broke my heart?…Where is he, we are here to help him? pic.twitter.com/F1IfINH0nF
— Mudiwa Hood Snr? (@MudiwaHood) February 24, 2020

Prices of basic goods including mealie-meal have gone up faster than wages which have been growing at a much much slower rate. The sky-rocketing inflation means that by the time the government agrees on a hike the hike would have been wiped away by inflation.