Grace Mutandwa

Firearm imports and broken limbs do not inspire hope

When I tire of my administrative duties I always find that going out on a tour of some of our community development projects rejuvenates me.

Under normal circumstances we would have visited and handed over at least 10 community projects from January to date. This has not happened because the whole country is at a standstill.

A presidential election whose results remain a secret, unless of course we go by what is in the public domain, but is not "legally ours as citizens to know or announce" does not create a conducive environment for the continuation of normal business.

Everytime I go out on a project handover I come back feeling that we actually make a difference to the people who benefit from our partnership with them. My colleagues in the Britain and Zimbabwe Community Partnership Programme do all the groundwork of assessing the viability of projects and how needy the community is. I just go to talk to any press there and enjoy the fruits of my colleagues' work.

On project tours you meet some of the most down to earth and warm Zimbabweans. People who only want to get on with their lives and crave the opportunity to give their children a better future.

Last Saturday I thought of the communities throughout the country who have had boreholes sunk, schools built or received textbooks and just how these same people might be faring with the news filtering in of violence.

Until Saturday, the news was just news. In the morning of that day I visited a friend who had been taken ill and was in a private hospital.

On our our way out a relative of the friend who was with me drew my attention to a young boy who was in the same room as my friend.

The boy was being treated for malaria and had become one of the several people who have been rendered homeless by the political turmoil in the rural areas.

The boy told us how their home in Mudzi, Mashonaland East had been razed and how his mother had managed to keep him and his three siblings together and escaped from the scene. He said they had been accused of being sellouts. They spent two days in the bush, moving on towards Harare when they felt safe to do so.

We soon discovered that there were several middle-aged men and young men with broken limbs. Women had severely bruised thighs and buttocks from the beatings and they all told stories of terror and mayhem.

No one in authority is of course admitting that this is happening. And while this goes on, a vessel carrying an enormous load of dangerous weapons is coasting the sea looking for a "friendly docking" point. The South African Transport Workers' Union saw it off the shores of Durban.

News reports say Mozambique and Tanzania have also refused to accept this valuable cargo. Reports say it is headed for Angola.

The An Yue Jiang has come all the way from China. The people in such great need of this military hardware are of course starving Zimbabweans who also have no drugs in their major hospitals. How very thoughtful!

While this drama is playing out, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, has urged China to; "Play a useful role in Zimbabwe without using firearms." He is also reported to have said he was happy that Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries had denied the ship permission to dock.

We have done community projects in the country's various provinces. It is a part of my job that keeps me fulfilled. It is a part of my job that I will always cherish. Our development agency DFID does sterling work in HIV/AIDS and runs supplementary feeding schemes that have in the past helped save lives.

The joy on the faces of those we assist is what even under very difficult political conditions keeps us going. The glimmer of hope in the eyes of those we help is what makes our jobs worthy.

Weapons and broken limbs will not rebuild this country. Destruction will do nothing for our children's future. Pain and fear have no room in a God-fearing democratic country. We need to restore hope and our dignity.

Posted at 16:03 28 April 2008 by Grace Mutandwa  |  Comments[2]