company headquartered in Cyprus and whose representative in Zimbabwe is President Robert Mugabe's nephew, Leo Mugabe. Parliament subsequently declined to approve a proposal from the Government to lend the firm about Z$900 million from the state's coffers. YTL, a Malaysian company involved mainly in construction, acquired a 51% share in the Hwange Thermal Power Station - the source of 53 percent of Zimbabwe's energy. YTL's application was approved although it had a smaller asset base and appeared to have less technical know-how than its rivals. The results of tenders to operate Zimbabwe's first private cellular service and its first cable TV service were also hotly contested. The cable TV contract was awarded to a firm which, the rival bidders claimed, did not have the required capital. Corruption, already at an alarming level in Zimbabwe, could reach catastrophic proportions unless strong efforts are made to curb it, human rights advocates warned. “Corruption in Zimbabwe is now found at every level”, says Mike Auret, director of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe (CCJP), “from the lowest level of the civil service and private industry right up to the highest level. If we don't do something about it, it's going to be a very serious problem for Zimbabwe. If we get into the same state as Kenya or Nigeria, it's going to be a sad time”. A Harare workshop in 1997 concluded that the best way to sweep corruption out of the civil service is to clean up the top first before coming to the bottom. Margaret Dongo, independent Member of Parliament for Harare South, outlined cases of alleged corruption in the country. The Bindura town council was suspended early 1997 for corruption. The city of Harare confiscated stands from upcoming indigenous business people and sold them to companies, mostly owned by influential individuals. The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority allegedly appointed allied capital markets to invest its pension funds on the money market and stock exchange. About 23 million Zimdollars was defrauded by the managing director of allied capital markets who bought farms, cars, and started businesses. Strikes, Poverty and Living Standards The dissatisfaction felt by many Zimbabweans was given strong expression during 1997. Waves of strikes swept the nation as workers fought to ensure wages high enough to keep them above the poverty line from a variety of employers, including the state. Strikes hit security companies, hotels, restaurants, construction firms, banks, and cement and lime industries. Postal workers conducted a go-slow, whilst railway and clothing workers also engaged in industrial action. Most workers were demanding wage increases of up to 40 percent. Civil servants who went on strike in 1996 fared somewhat better. In 1996, they were awarded a 36-percent increment, which their unions accepted as fair given the current annual inflation rate of around 20 percent. Most of the workers going on strike in 1997 were at the bottom of the wage ladder, such as security guards, who took home the equivalent of about US$66.45 a month. This was far less than the US$200 which, according to the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ), was the least the average family needs for basic subsistence each month. Most workers in Zimbabwe were severely affected by falling wages over the few years prior to 1997. According to the Standard Chartered Bank of Zimbabwe, real earnings peaked in 1982, but subsequently declined by more than 40 percent and were then below 1965 levels. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) blamed the spate of strikes on ''ungrateful bosses who have refused to address the plight of the almost destitute majority workers in the country.'' The ZCTU said that the monthly minimum wage that a worker needed to make a family of five survive was US$227.27, but that about 70 percent of the 1.2 million workers in the formal sector earned less than US$72.70 a month. Zimbabwe’s poorly paid farm labourers also launched a wave of strikes that brought the country's commercial farming sector to its knees. The countryside was hit by two weeks of work