Grace Mutandwa

Zimbabwe must embrace change to survive

When Ambassador Andrew Pocock presented his credentials to President Robert Mugabe on February 16, three years ago, he noted that the country was at a crossroads. He pointed out that if the prevailing political situation continued, the country could find itself beyond rescue.

Zimbabwe, he pointed out, had a choice. It could change track, change policies and give its people the life, prospects and future they deserved. The Zimbabwean government could make that choice.

At the end of this month Ambassador Pocock leaves Zimbabwe after having experienced first hand the ruinous policies of the ZANU PF government. He leaves when an inclusive government is in place but with not much change on the ground. Morgan Tsvangirai and his opposition colleagues would like to make this new government work. But their political willpower to do good is not positively matched by their counterparts in ZANU PF.

You have Tsvangirai and his compatriots insisting that Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana must be relieved of their duties. Mugabe and his war veterans on the other hand insist Gono must stay. A senior airforce chief has also joined the fray. It leaves you with no doubt that ZANU PF has no intention of being party to sensible change.

You have one group of ZANU PF politicians moaning about how the image of the country needs to be cleansed. At the same time you have state newspapers publishing insulting and demeaning letters and and opinion pieces about top American and British diplomats.

You have Tsvangirai telling journalists that media reforms are already there for them to enjoy. The minister of information Webster Shamu and presidential spokesman George Charamba both tell us nothing has changed. As far as the two are concerned journalists still need the state's blessing to do their work.

ZANU PF's John Nkomo and MDC's Sekai Holland among others all tell us that in the spirit of inclusiveness we must develop "national alzheimer and forgiveness" and promote national healing! We need a major miracle.

In the coming weeks, Tsvangirai embarks on a working tour of Europe. He must convince the world that its taxpayers money will be put to good use and accounted for. He must leave no doubt in the minds of the political, development and business leaders he will meet that what Zimbabwe is embarking on is real and meaningful change and not just essence of change.

While he engages the international community, Tsvangirai must be honest enough to accept that there are major hurdles ahead. As he he tours Europe he must keep the faith with the people who still need jobs, food, shelter and education.

During his European tour, Tsvangirai must remain alert to the fact that behind the facade of the inclusive government, lurk the same people that threatened war in the elections last year and beat the nation to a pulp. He must realise that there can not be any real change until these people genuinely start to share power.

And as Ambassador Pocock said when he arrived three years ago, "Around us is a competitive and globalising world, and a modernising Africa. Can Zimbabwe position itself to become part of that?"

Posted at 16:15 05 June 2009 by Grace Mutandwa  |  Comments[1]

Cruelty and Kindness

The Foreign Office is cruel. I was posted to Zimbabwe despite its awful reputation. I stepped off the plane anxiously, expecting to be butchered at once and fed to lions. That didn’t happen, but I have suffered a greater pain - falling in love with this beautiful, cursed nation and now, after more than three years, having to leave.

You may wonder how I have come to love this country after witnessing so much horror here. After all, I have seen Masvingo’s rich soil stained red with the blood of those who dared to vote the wrong way. I have spoken to a man six hours after he was set alight and left for dead by the cruel war vets. I have seen too many of the one million young people, who have been wasted by HIV infection during my time here.

But amidst all this suffering, there is a grace. The grace of trade union leader Raymond Majongwe, still sticking up for teachers despite the terrible abuse he and his profession have received; the grace of apostolic worshippers processing along Sunday streets in gleaming white robes; the grace of the rural donkey, stoically pulling his heavy load up the hill.  

There is also beauty: a rural woman walking economically and upright - a child strapped to her back, a heavy load on her head; the rocky, forested kopjes of the Great Dike – perfect hideouts for shy but deadly leopards; the sun catching the ripples of Lake Kariba’s endless waters.

Despite all the efforts of Zimbabwe’s cruel men, I will take from the country memories that are good. The grace, the beauty, the courage and the strength have outweighed and outlasted all that has been vile.

Perhaps because of this excess of goodness, the country is trying to plot its route away from desperate 2008 into new years of hope. So far concrete signs of recovery are few, but signs of the uplift in people’s expectations are everywhere. Here’s one from Harare this week: a petrol pump attendant buying an ice cream for himself on a hot day – a sight not seen in Zimbabwe since poverty and cash shortages started to bite.

If I am – as I hope - leaving a different Zimbabwe, the country has changed me too. I arrived an arrogant and complacent British diplomat. I hope I have learned to be humble in the face of others’ superior qualities and to understand how lucky I am to have grown up surrounded by tolerance, liberty and plenty. 

Until today, I had not realised how much I am feeling about leaving Zimbabwe. But now, Easter Monday, the day before I leave for good, I find myself crying tears for the sweet friends and the soul-expanding life I have to leave behind. I know I signed up for a job that makes me move country every three or four years, but I didn’t know it would be as hard as this.

So yes, the Foreign Office is cruel. My brain must go on to some other job, while my heart stays in Zimbabwe. How cruel to be dragged away just as recovery might begin. But I am forever grateful that I have had the chance to come here and see things good and evil, which will temper the way I live the rest of my life. I have never had a more worthwhile job. 

Thank you for reading my blog. The incomparable Grace Mutandwa will keep you informed about Zimbabwe in the future. And others may take it up too. The word processor is mightier than the sword!

Posted at 12:20 15 April 2009 by Philip Barclay  |  Comments[15]

All we have is hope in 2009

The year ahead, 2009, looks grim when looked at against the background of the past year. Many in Zimbabwe would like to forget 2008 but for a whole lot of reasons this is something we might not be able to do.

It is the year when violent elections were once again held. With the first part of the elections was hope for change which was quickly dashed when no real  government emerged from March  and then later after the presidential re-run in June.

From then things just went straight downhill. Inflation continued on the rise and by the time we came to the end of 2008, it was way above 200 million percent. Some economists said it was already in the trillions.

From political uncertainty we staggered onto the bizzarre - foreign currency shops, in a country where more than 80 percent of the adult population is unemployed.and foreign currency is in short supply. Long winding queues at banks became part of our lives.
We still have a short supply of our own local currency.

Now the central bank has decided that each person can withdraw Z$50 billion a month, starting this January. Public transport during the week of December 25th 2008, cost Z$1bn one way. This by the end of January will not be enough to cover transport costs, buy bread, milk or any other provisions. A week before Christmas an egg cost Z$300 million or 20 American cents.

This month the biggest note in our purses if we are lucky will be the Z$50 billion. Not only is this not safe in the sense that if you lose that note you are done for, but it is also not user friendly. No one ever has change. We saw this when a $50m note
was introduce in December and then followed by other ridiculously high notes.

Public transport operators and the local currency shops just increased their prices to avoid having to scrounge for change. A market was created for people who would give you change at a premium. This is the only country in the world where people sell each other their local currency.

The year 2008 also saw both our education and health system finally give up the ghost. Major government hospitals closed - there were no drugs, water, electricity and personnel went on strike.

Then came cholera in August. But it was to be forgotten about for a while and later to suddenly erupt with a vengeance.

A war erupted around cholera. The Zimbabwean Minister of Information went on the offensive. He shocked many when he announced that the British had buried spores of cholera in and around areas that were going to be established as residential
areas after independence in 1980. This is despite the fact that those areas were already built up at independence.

This would be hilarious were it not such a sad thing and unfortunate that with more than 20 000 suspected cases of cholera and more than 1,111 already dead, a whole government minister would find energy to come up with such bizzarre theories instead
of coming up with solutions or better still asking for much needed help.

Cholera, according to the minister, had  become a tool to be used by Western powers to effect regime change in Zimbabwe.

This is the tragedy of Zimbabwe - that we have such highly educated people who fail to put their intelligence and education to good use for the betterment of their country but choose to use it for destructive purposes.

While the cholera was raging, members of the civil society and opposition members were being abducted. The past year was indeed a negatively eventful and nerve-wrecking year.

Ruling party leaders felt caged and ceaselessly attacked the West and those African countries that had not been supportive of the reigning mayhem. The interim South African president claimed his government would be guided by what Zimbabweans want - but is he listening? Or maybe that translates to what the rulers of Zimbabwe want.

We are indeed a people with very little hope but all we can do is hold onto that bit of hope. We have to hope that while 2009 will not be a prosperous year it will be a year of positive change, a year human rights get space, a year when democracy and
good governance get a chance. It should be a year when Zimbabweans can feel secure again, a year when we can look our children in the eye and tell them with certainty that they have a future in this country. I wish you all a year of hope, love, friendship, empathy and good health.

Posted at 06:55 31 December 2008 by Grace Mutandwa  |  Comments[4]

Maybe Santa will visit Zimbabwe next Christmas

At 23:38hrs on the last Saturday before Christmas I finally walked out of the Spar supermarket in my neighbourhood. The shop had looked like a bomb sight.

Trolleys laden with people's wishlists (goods that never made it to the checkout) littered the sprawling shop. I riffled through some of the trolleys just out of curiosity. One kilogramme bags of sugar, packets of salt, exotic ciders, cans of imported beer, defrosting chickens and a turkey or two in one case, all left because money had run out.

The shop was seething with masses of people. It was almost like during past Christmas periods when Zimbabweans shopped till they dropped. The currency of the so called imperialists ruled. I saw people pull out wads of American dollars and British pounds.
Our neighbours, the South Africans have also given us a currency that makes better sense than our own Zimbabwean dollars. The Rand has also joined the various currencies we now trade in. Still even with seemingly so much money in sight, people were shopping very carefully.

I shopped with my mobile phone ringing all the time - my daughter calling to remind me of something else needed at home. I have always made Christmas special for  my children but have always tried to be careful not to turn it into a material holiday only. This year my children wanted to do something special for their cousins and our maid's children.

They went shopping using the allowance that they would have used to buy each other presents. They decided to give others. My daughter baked a chocolate cake, the only cake she can bake, so her cousins could have something special.

I have gone around preparing for Christmas in a distracted way. I have felt depressed and am finding it very hard to get into the spirit of Christmas. The office organised a staff Christmas party but this year was just too hard for me to go out and be merry. We certainly need breaks like that but at times it is very difficult to raise a smile, to forget for a while that things out there are getting worse or even to try and ignore that there is nothing merry about this year's Christmas. I did not attend the office party for I was too sad and was worried my sadness would spoil it for others.

So I am trudging along buying this or that, ticking the boxes to ensure that those few relatives I can help will at least have one decent meal on the day Jesus Christ was born.

I am not only struggling with the whole idea of celebrating Christmas I am struggling with my faith too. I am not sure I am still a believer. Too much pain has passed through the country this year. There is too much sadness, insecurity, fear and almost absolutely no hope for a future.

While those in the low density suburbs are trying to shop their hearts out, across the capital my cousins in the high density suburbs have given me a running commentary of how they are trying to string together bits and pieces to have a semblance of a Christmas lunch.

Over the past few years I have tried to co-ordinate through the office a collection of sorts to donate to the less fortunate. Last year we managed clothes, maize meal and soft drinks for families of some prisoners. This year was very difficult so we
were only able to donate a few clothes given mostly by colleagues from the United Kingdom who visited Zimbabwe early in the year.

When a colleague Blessing Seke and I visited Emerald Hill School for the Deaf and Orphanage, to donate the clothes we wished we had been able to do more. The children are always grateful for everything they receive and the nuns who run the school
and orphanage are amazing. In the face of all these hardships they still hang on to hope. They are true believers.

The staff at emerald Hill are truly blessed and full of warmth and love. This year Christmas will not be full of good cheer for them and most Zimbabweans. Some will starve and others will die of cholera. I wish I could write a story full of cheer but this Christmas it is not possible. All I can say is that I hope all Zimbabwean parents can give their children a better Christmas next year. Maybe God will remember Zimbabwe next year. Enjoy your Christmas if you can.

Posted at 08:59 24 December 2008 by Grace Mutandwa  |  Comments[2]

We Shall Overcome

We shall overcome - one day peace will prevail over brutality.

Zimbabwe has joined the international community in commemorating the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence. All well and good but problem is, this is the same country where nobody who stands up to the regime is safe. In Zimbabwe this commemoration has lost meaning.

Jestina Mukoko, a former media colleague turned human rights activist was abducted from her home in the early hours of 3 December. A defenceless woman, clad only in her nightdress was forcibly taken by more than 10 armed men.

As director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), Jestina exposed and documented various human rights abuses before, during and after the Zimbabwean elections and subsequent disputed presidential run-off.

Jestina was working consistently and lawfully for the advancement of peace in Zimbabwean communities. Soft-spoken, Jestina is a warm, brave woman who went about her work in a  non-threatening way.

All efforts by her lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa to get the courts to attend to an urgent  application for a court order for the police, to produce Jestina if she was in police custody, or if not, to launch a search for her was only heard on the 9th December after a tortuous struggle by human rights lawyers.

Reports abound of female judges finding excuses not to hear it. One would have thought fellow women would be gravely concerned and falling over each other to get to the bottom of this savage abduction. But no, it seemed either too hot or not in their interest.

Yes a woman judge eventually heard it and ordered Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri, to delegate a team of police officers to work closely with lawyers from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) to search for Jestina, to search all places as maybe within their jurisdiction in terms of the Police Act and Constitution of Zimbabwe and to report progress to the Registrar of the High Court by 1000hrs each day until her whereabouts have been determined.

What about all those female politicians who only a few months ago were urging fellow women, including Jestina, to vote for them. Where are all those women today when one of their own is in trouble? What do these women stand for?

Abductions in Zimbabwe as human rights lawyers continue to point out, have resulted in many deaths. Everyone is worried that she was not even given the opportunity to put on decent clothes, get her spectacles and medication. We are even more concerned that no-one in authority seems keen to get to the bottom of the abduction.

The people who abducted her identified themselves as police officers. The police say they know nothing of the abduction and also argue that they can not search for her in Central Intelligence Organisation or military centres as they have no jurisdiction.

The fact that the Zimbabwean government is a signatory to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which recognises the protection to life and physical integrity of a person and is against arbitrary deprivation of liberty, has not in any way helped to protect those Zimbabweans who have stood up for what is right.

If anything, Zimbabweans have found themselves even more vulnerable. There is no protection for those seen as enemies of the State. And Jestina through her work had turned into an enemy of the State. A helpless mother of a 17-year-old boy and an aunt and guardian to a six-year old, Jestina was abducted at gunpoint - treated as a dangerous mass murderer.

That some people can actually live with themselves after being party to such brutality really breaks my heart. That some Zimbabweans believe life is worthless and can be treated with such disdain makes me grieve for my country. We have hit rock bottom, if we have lost all respect for the rights of others.

If anyone can wake up in the morning after participating in such brutality and look themselves in the mirror and still go around as if what they have done is the most normal thing, then the country has really hit rock bottom. We are in serious trouble.

It is indeed deeply, deeply sad, that Zimbabwe is stuck in a region where very few leaders have spoken up about the current brutality. What is going on here is happening on these men and women's watch and yet they are not moved. Where is the Southern African region's conscience?

It is a sad day indeed for all peace-loving and democratic Zimbabweans to wake up to the news that a group of armed men raided and abducted a defenceless woman in front of her shocked family.

What Jestina and several other activists who have been equally tormented stand for, is something that is so big that it scares some people. Scares them enough to get together a group of armed men to abduct one helpless, nightdress clad woman.

I am deeply sad but the more I think of what it took and how many people it took toabduct Jestina, the more proud I feel of this hard-working, soft-spoken woman. She is bigger than her tormentors. She is stronger than they ever will be.

If Jestina's abduction was meant to scare civil society then it was a terrible misculculation as this has made people stronger and even more determined to ensure that Zimbabwe becomes a country where human rights are respected and upheld and a place where ourguiding principles are of good governance and democracy.

People who use brute force and torture others, do so because they are scared of what their victims stand for. Wherever you are Jes, you are in our hearts, our trueheroine, a woman not afraid to stand up and be counted for the good of her country. We shall overcome.

Posted at 10:01 12 December 2008 by Grace Mutandwa  |  Comments[5]

Blog Action Day: Take action and make poverty history

Politicians and donor agencies speak of poverty in romantic tones. When they pour out facts and figures in passionate voices you almost believe they are actually going to tackle it in a sustainable manner.

As a journalist, I used to write equally passionately about poverty. I actually believed I was making a difference. Just like the donors and politicians, I simply spoke or wrote about poverty. I had never gone to bed on an empty stomach or failed to pay for my children's education or foot their health bills.

Today I know first hand what poverty means. I have just had to buy five bags of maize for my extended family so that they can at least survive until the new year. From a life of priviledge, I have seen some members of my family plunged into poverty. When the politicians roll out the numbers, members of my family are included in the growing list.

I have several relatives who have one meal a day or every other day. They can not afford to get proper medical care. A cousin needs Z$45 000 to fill a prescription, that is if she pays cash but if she pays by cheque it swells to Z$2.5m. She is unemployed and her husband has not had a job in five years. They have four children who until their father lost his job, were well fed, went to school and lived a life of hope. They used to be classified as middle-class. Now they are poor.

The middle-class has disappeared. People are either rich or poor and the ranks of the poor are swelling everyday. Everyday you forgo one thing or the other so you may live to see tomorrow. Eventually there is nothing to hold onto and you fall into the huge poverty hole.

My maternal grandmother is stuck in our rural home and I and two cousins have been the only people who have been able to visit her. She has 29 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren. She has three surviving children and they are all pensioners, surviving on the little doled out to them by their children. Their pensions of less than US$1 a month are worthless.

I have an aunt who has a son studying and working in the United Kingdom. That young man can not even start thinking of getting married let alone start his own family. He looks after his mum, three adult siblings, several aunts and cousins. His siblings are all out of school but they have never worked and have absolutely no hope of ever working.

I am not yet classified poor but I am surrounded by so many relatives who are, at times I feel poverty is just a stone's throw from my own doorstep. I live in fear of poverty.

It is very easy to talk of poverty in an abstract way, but it is hard when you actually have to deal with it everyday. It is there and stares you in the face all the time.

You only need to walk the streets of our capital city, Harare, to see how much of a toll poverty has taken on Zimbabweans. In the heat of the summer, you walk past masses of people who have probably not had a bath in a month. Soap, deodorant and toothpaste have become a luxury. That is poverty.

When three urban settlements get hit by cholera, killing 18 people, you know the country is not ready to make poverty history. With annual inflation now above 200 million %, reality on the ground tells you that Zimbabwe is facing; "poverty for all by the year 2010".

We have a whole generation of children who stand to be ruined because for the first time in history all the children in government schools have, according to the Zimbabwe Progress Teachers Union, had 23 days worth of education in the whole year. Teachers have spent more time on industrial action or in bank queues battling to get their worthless salaries, than teaching pupils. Some of the teachers have run away from the rural schools where they were terrorised by ruling party members in the run up to the disputed presidential run-off.

Surely it means Zimbabwe is facing unprecedented levels of poverty when the country has recorded a 78% food deficit with no real hope of the country being able to import enough grain to offset the deficit. More than five million people face starvation. And that is the number on record. There are plenty more who will die quietly and unnoticed.

The World Food Programme has appealed to donors to give several hundreds of millions with which to import food to help feed millions of Zimbabweans who can no longer feed themselves.

Poverty is surely something that most Zimbabweans are currently experiencing first hand and at the moment with the economic and political situation in a tailspin there is no hope of fighting it effectively.

We have had no substantive government for almost seven months now. With no one in control except Robert Mugabe, there are clear indications that we have a national disaster on our hands. A few will be fed by Mugabe's ZANU PF if they prove their loyalty but many will go hungry.

For us in Zimbabwe, poverty is no longer something donor agencies hold workshops over or something that you only read of in newspapers. It is very real and we see it everyday. We interact with poverty at every turn. We have seen our country turn from being a regional bread basket into a basket case. We have witnessed our country go from riches to rags. Where at independence in 1980 we had hope, we now have despair.

Yes, for Zimbabweans poverty is a painful reality and the adage; "The poor will always be with us," rings very true for us. With a good political leadership we would be a very rich country and any country that adopts Zimbabwe's ruinous policies will easily accompany us to doom. As citizens we need to reclaim our future and play a positive role in eradicating poverty.

If we do not take action and stand up now, we will fail to make poverty history - it will simply fast become our way of life.

Posted at 14:05 15 October 2008 by Grace Mutandwa  |  Comments[4]

The Horns of a Dilemma

I really liked the comment by Polez on my blog ‘The Horns of a Dilemma’ (below) about the rights and wrongs of visiting Zimbabwe - and I’d like to respond. Polez is concerned that I was putting people off travelling to Zimbabwe at a time when it is vital to help people financially and to witness the sorry state in which the country finds itself.

I’d better say up front that I understand Polez 's points 100%. But I have to bear in mind that the Foreign Office travel advice - put together by people wiser than me - is still recommending that people visit Zimbabwe only if their journey is essential. There are good reasons for being cautious about visiting. It is hard to do basic things in Zimbabwe. A casual tourist, not supported by a tour company, would have real trouble getting fuel for a car or food to eat. This is particularly true outside of Harare. There is a cholera epidemic, to add to the long-term HIV epidemic, and water from taps is now considered unsafe to drink. Add to that the political instability in the country and the result is an impressive list of reasons to avoid Zimbabwe!

But as Polez said, few travellers have any problems. Many things in Zimbabwe remain impressively tourist-friendly. Crime is low – far lower than in South Africa. Trunk roads are good by African standards. And hotels and lodges at key tourist destinations – like Victoria Falls and the Game Parks – remain beautiful places offering excellent service and life-changing experiences.

Apart from thinking about personal safety, Polez also raises ethical questions. Is it right to enjoy oneself in a country where people are starving and dying of basic diseases? Can a tourist do anything positive about such a situation?

For me, the response should be driven by what local people want. Burmese opposition groups have at times called for tourist boycotts of their own country, as did the ANC during the Apartheid years. The reason for such boycotts is to generate an extra pressure point on harsh, intransigent regimes. If a request like that is in place, it is surely unethical to visit.

Zimbabwe’s people today are in a very similar situation to the black majority trapped under Apartheid.   They wish for a change of Government, but are being denied brutally by a repressive clique.  But nobody within Zimbabwean civil society has called for a tourist boycott. So it would be wrong for me to advocate one.

If you do decide to visit Zimbabwe today, next year, next decade, then you will certainly enjoy a wonderful country. Unfortunately a fair proportion of the money you spend here will find its way into the pockets of the rich and odious old men who run the country. But much will reach companies trying to survive and to offer employment. And some will trickle all the way into the pockets of Zimbabwe’s poor to buy food and medicine. Also Zimbabweans love to chat and will give you a very clear picture of the ways in which this country is being misgoverned. They will appreciate it if you take the time to listen, and when you get home you can offer a vivid background of the plight of Zimbabwe’s people – and project your photos of waterfalls and rhinos on top of it!

The choice, Dear Reader, is yours. Thanks for the comment Polez. Philip

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Dhulamithi stood, as you will know if you are fluent in Ndebele, taller than trees. He was the bull of bulls – an elephant above four metres tall. His tusks alone weighed 110 Kilograms. He might have weighed ten tonnes. We don’t really know because Dhulamithi died in 1920.

I thought of this late mega-tusker at the weekend as I sat in Mana Pools, a shudderingly lovely National Park on the south bank of the Zambezi. I sat as still as I’ve ever sat. For Dhulamithi’s might-be great-grandson, Shamwari - "friend" as my Shona-speaking readership will know - was moving about me, gently snuffling the seed pods which fall from Mana’s sausage trees. His trunk felt around my feet, lifting the delicious scarlet seeds to his grindstone molars. His mighty forehead blotted out the sun. His eyes don’t really see much, but he could smell me as he softly placed his colossal feet. He was calm and gentle, as those who think themselves invulnerable can be.

Dhulamithi was killed by a poacher: Stephanus Barnard a man who delighted in slaughtering thousands of the animals incorporated into Southern Rhodesia after his fellow settlers had slaughtered the Matabele.

And sadly Shamwari may meet the same fate. Zimbabwe should be a wildlife haven. But its environment and wildlife is not being safeguarded. There are not enough tourists to pay for the protection of gigantic national parks. And what budget is allocated to the parks’ authority is spent – as ever in Zimbabwe – on luxury German and Japanese vehicles for politically affiliated top dogs in Harare. Nothing left to help the bottom dogs – the painted variety - that I watched this week lolling together in loyal, wagging packs, psyching themselves up for another collective hunt.

Zimbabwe’s park rangers are decent and skilled men. But on a salary of a dollar a month, lacking food, water, fuel, they cannot stand against better-resourced squads of poachers. In this law and order vacuum, created by the collapse of tourism, the disreputable and the criminal have flourished.

The disreputable are modern day Barnards: pathetic men (and they are all men) who travel thousands of miles to crawl through mud and dung to creep up on scarce animals and kill them. Zimbabwe’s professional guides stand behind ready to finish the condemned animal off – most hunters are terrible marksmen and merely wound. The professionals have to finish the job to shorten the animals’ pain.

The criminals are the poachers. Elephants do suffer, but the main target is Zimbabwe’s dwindling stock of rhinos. Thousands of these blind, armour-plated uber-cows used to roam the country. But there are now just a couple of hundred in protected private reserves. Viable populations of black and white rhino in the Matusadonha and Chivero National Parks have been recently destroyed to Zimbabwe’s great shame.

Nobody really knows who is running the poaching. But the market for rhino horn is of course the Far East, so the advent of Chinese investment here might just be connected. And there is no shortage of officials who will take a bribe to look away. Wildlife is just another part of Zimbabwe’s heritage being mortgaged or sold off for the short-term profit of the ruling elite.

That may all sound grim. Perhaps too grim given the mood of cautious optimism on the streets of Harare. So be assured there is an upside. Zimbabwe’s parks remain – welcoming, beautiful, fecund – and wildlife could recover. I could bore you with a hundred tales of carmine bee-eaters, elands and honey badgers. If the country does stabilise, tourists could return quickly to see these natural delights: creating jobs and national income, as well as the all-important economic case for a properly funded anti-poaching force.

So what is the rhino-horned dilemma? It is yours, gentle reader. Will you come to Zimbabwe’s national parks? For now our travel advice is pretty cautious, so I can hardly tell you to visit. But, if the new power sharing arrangement works - and we all hope that it will deliver justice and prosperity for Zimbabwe – there will be a time when you could think about visiting.

When that time comes, please do visit Zimbabwe: to show support and friendship to its long-suffering people; to do something concrete to help the country’s recovery; to be humbled by Shamwari’s benevolent might and to provide the resources to ensure that his grandchildren continue to grace Mana Pools.

Posted at 13:42 23 September 2008 by Philip Barclay  |  Comments[6]

A country that works

This week I am working from our offices at the High Commission in Pretoria, South Africa – job shadowing. I am working with Russ Dixon and his team.

Just one day in the Pretoria office gives you an idea of just how hard these guys work. The amount of work they do and the number of programmes they whizz through in a day make you realise just how much work we in Harare would be able to do if we were working in a normal environment. South Africa is a country that works. The guys in the Pretoria office have an inspiring fire in their bellies. They have such an overwhelming sense of enthusiasm, it is contagious.

I will admit that I am quite envious of the fact that my colleagues can actually sit down and plan various projects and programmes, set up meetings that bear fruit and confidently speak of what they would like to do in the new year. Coming from Harare, Zimbabwe, I cannot very well say I can confidently say what our public diplomacy strategy will focus on and I cannot even realistically promise that our key objectives will be achieved. I sound despondent but the reality is that my colleagues here are in an enabling environment and I am coming from a place where tomorrow is definitely not promised!

We do a lot of good work in Harare but this week has made me realise just how much more we could achieve if the political situation normalised. We could do more were the environment less hostile. The Zimbabwe story is a major story down here. The difference is that there are so many papers writing about it and all in a very different way – it is just so refreshing even though some of the papers get it wrong. There is a media diversity that makes me envious. Here is a country that has its own political problems but has seen the benefit of different views. Community radio stations are in abundance. They are at least not seen as enemies of the state. Yes, the South African government has many complaints about the media but it is mature enough to realise that with democracy comes the responsibility of ensuring that the various freedoms are respected and upheld. Journalists do not live in fear of being abducted or brutalised. Zimbabwe could learn so much from countries that allow free speech. It might even start developing in the right direction. In the early 80s, I and I am sure several other Zimbabweans took so many things for granted. We lived our lives in a vacuum and allowed so many things to go wrong. We let go of our freedoms and rights and when we started realising our mistake, it was too late. We ceded power to people we trusted to look after our welfare. We went to sleep and forgot that good governance, democracy and human rights are precious commodities that need to be kept under close and constant guard. What we did can happen to any nation that relaxes and forgets or ignores the fact that absolute power corrupts absolutely and that leaders are people who need to be constantly made to account for their actions.

Yes, my colleagues in Pretoria buzz around and get things done. This used to happen in the early years of our independence in Zimbabwe. Development and humanitarian agencies worked efficiently because the country’s wheels were firmly on and were well greased. I feel really energised and there are many lessons I will take from Pretoria but will I still have a country to apply what I have learnt to? The decline in Zimbabwe continues.

As to the negotiations between ZANU PF and the two formations of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)- we are told by the leaders that people want a deal now. Really? Has anyone cared to check exactly what kind of deal the people want? Power is good but real power should always be vested in the people. Real power should be drawn from the people. Many people are already on one meal a day but I am sure even as the days get bleaker no one wants a deal that will be meaningless. We all want our country to work again and it can work again. There was a lot of goodwill at independence in 1980 and that goodwill is still out there. We just have to do the right thing as a country.

Posted at 17:05 22 August 2008 by Grace Mutandwa  |  Comments[5]

The Land of Jam and Honey

Businesses which do well in Zimbabwe are those selling hope. 12 Million percent inflation, raids from the price police, shake-downs from ZANU-PF gangs and the prospect of a return to mass violence: this isn’t exactly the recipe for business confidence and economic growth. So most entrepreneurs have given up and moved elsewhere. But there are outlets dispensing optimism and trust in a higher power (even higher than ZANU-PF) and these are doing well.

One of the biggest hope outlets is the Celebration Centre, a huge and popular church packed out on Sundays. I must admit I don’t go to the Celebration Centre much. Their huge posters put me off: “Spiritual Success through Fasting.” I’ve never been too good at fasting.

But I’m dropping in today because the Centre’s café is one of the last places in Harare actually serving food and coffee. I sip a perfectly fine cappuccino and munch a jam doughnut. I hope that the gospel music is improving my soul a little.

I reflect that it’s a bit mean to all the fasting people to serve doughnuts right under their noses. But more seriously it just seems wrong to fast in Zimbabwe. Most people aren’t getting enough to eat anyway and those who are sick and malnourished go downhill very quickly.

So I drive out of the centre’s gates feeling a little ambivalent about my doughnut and almost run over a teenage girl who walks out in front of my car and waves at me. I wind down the window to see what’s up.

“My name is Marita. I am HIV positive and my parents have both passed away. Can I have a lift into town please?”

After a pitch like that I can’t refuse and Marita gets in with me. But before I can get started a vigorous young woman called Esther bounces up to my window and asks if she can have a lift too.

This is a tricky one. The Embassy Security Manager (who is a lovely fella, ex-Royal Navy, fists like granite and humourless when it comes to Embassy folks taking chances) is always telling us never to give lifts to hitch hikers. There’s an obvious risk that we’ll be car-jacked by the people we’re helping.

Now I’ve always taken that with a pinch of salt. I’ve always felt that I’m on safe ground giving lifts to people like Marita. She is thin for her fourteen years and has nasty sores on her skin. With the right drugs, nutrition and shelter she might rally. But she ain’t going to get any of that in Zimbabwe and - awful to say - she is not long for this world. In short, if she tries to mug me I am pretty sure I can overpower her.

But Esther is a different proposition. Not only is she fit and well, but she could be a honey-trap car-jacker . The papers often carry stories of drivers who stop for comely young women only to be overwhelmed by thugs hiding in the bushes. But I’m sitting outside a church; there’s a policeman standing by the roadside and I’m feeling full of doughnut and gospel music, so I open the door for Esther too.

“Thank you so much. The lift is for my husband Simon, this policeman.” And before you can say ‘sucker’, Simon’s in the back of my car and Esther is bounding back into the church.

I can’t believe I fell for it. So here I am driving into Harare, in a British Embassy car, with a girl who could croak at any moment and a Zimbabwean policeman. I am a headline waiting to happen. There’s nothing for it but to have a little polite conversation, in the Zimbabwean style.

Simon tells me, very matter of fact-ly, that God is sponsoring his police career. He recently prayed for advancement within the force and was immediately promoted from Sergeant to Warrant Officer. The Celebration Centre is a great place.

Marita interjects to remind me that she is HIV positive and has no money. I reassure her that the lift is free and she falls silent for a minute or two. My response is not what she had in mind.

Simon is now thanking God for his wife Esther. Can I confirm that she is very beautiful?

I feel we’re drifting into dangerous territory so I change topic. Did Simon notice all the terrible violence that took place in June? Oh yes, the Police know that hundreds of people were beaten in Chisipite just a few hundred metres from the Celebration Centre. But what can be done? The people who carry out the beatings cannot be touched. The Police have orders to let them carry out their violence.

I ask Simon what God would want him to do about the violence. That brings conversation to a bit of a halt as Simon makes little groaning noises and admits that it’s a problem.

I deposit Marita and Simon in the centre of town. Marita reminds me that she has not yet eaten and needs $200,000,000,000 to do so. I give her two shiny little new $10 coins and explain that they are worth the same as two hundred billion old dollars. She clearly does not believe me and gives me a filthy look – the look one gives a man who cheats poor, sick girls - and stalks off.

I’ve had my jam and honey (trap) for the day. Unfortunately there’s no milk, as the dairy farms have all been shut down. Welcome to Zimbabwe! Perhaps the Celebration Centre could arrange for some Manna?

Posted at 18:08 19 August 2008 by Philip Barclay  |  Comments[5]

Economic reform is in the eye of the beholder

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed by the leaders of Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU PF and the two formations of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

The politicians are talking, the economy continues to decline at an unimaginable speed and hunger is stalking the nation. On the surface all seems to be quite normal. People who still have jobs are still going to work. Students who can, are going to school or college, while vendors continue to make a quick buck from selling food in short supply at parallel market rates.

Our money has gained so many zeros, I am amazed anyone can still make sense of it. I salute my colleagues in the accounts section and those who work on our electronic accounting system to effect various purchases and payments day-in-day-out. How they can whizz around the zeros is a miracle.

This weekend I bought an imported bottle of red wine at Z$8.5 trillion, which in real money is about US$71 if you use last week's cash rate of $120 billion to the greenback. I also bought several 500ml bottles of mineral water there were no bigger bottles) at Z$1.2 trillion each.

We have had no water for more than a week. There was a time when we took having access to water for granted. Not anymore. I have become quite skilled at bathing myself in miniscule amounts of water. There is water in Zimbabwe but at times there either an inadequate supply of water treatment drugs or there is no power to pump water into our homes.

Negotiations under the MOU for a political settlement started a week ago but we have only now just learnt they have either been abandoned or adjourned, depending on who is speaking. I and colleagues I have spoken to are skeptical about the outcome of the talks. I guess we are realists.

While we wonder what our political future is going to be, the Reserve Bank Governor of Zimbabwe, Gideon Gono, has just announced that we are dropping 10 zeros from our currency!

Most Zimbabweans, even vendors, had become multi-billionnaires and now they will find their money has been re-denominated. It should make sense,but it does not. The coins that had been abandoned years ago, are once again legal tender. We will now have a $500 note which in real terms is 5 000 000 000 000 (five trillion). This will be the highest new note in circulation. A twenty-five cent coin will be part of the new currency. I am not so sure what it's real value will be.

You want to go shopping after this announcement - I can assure you, it is a mind boggling experience. There is not much to buy from shops anyway. In any case whatever money you have, loses value well before you set off for the shops. Our daily bank withdrawal limit was $100 000 000 000 ($100 Billion) which was just enough for a one way trip to work. From the beginning of August it has been set at $200 which is actually $2 trillion of the old money. You need three trips to the bank to access the equivalent of the highest note (500) now in circulation.

We are going to have to re-configure our lives. Public transport providers will have to re-work their fares and prices in shops will also have to shuffle around this new currency. We are even going to have a $10 coin and $10 note! And we have been told that we can do the switch over from old to new currency at "our own pace" until the end of the year. How very generous! I suppose this means all our problems are solved.

Unless the political situation in Zimbabwe is resolved, all these constant currency reforms will never work. They will remain temporary measures that only serve to prolong the suffering of Zimbabweans. Soon after the Governor of the Reserve Bank announced the new monetary reforms, President Robert Mugabe, who attended the presentation for the first time chided those who want him to step down. He also denounced his usual imagined detractors the leaders of America and Britain. To him it does not matter that Tony Blair no longer leads the British Government. He is still seen as a threat and behind the regime change agenda and so he also got a special mention (attack).

If Mugabe still sees himself as the main and indispensable part of the equation in a new Zimbabwe, what are the so called talks about then? Is he really serious about wanting an end to the political and economic turmoil? The opposition Movement for Democratic Change will either stand their ground and refuse to play the underdog, because they won the first round of the presidential and parliamentary elections, or accept being swallowed like what happened to the former ZAPU, led by the late nationalist Joshua Nkomo.

I am a cynic when it comes to politics so I do not see a happy ending to the talks the MOU gave birth to. It will all end in tears. We have representatives of the two formations of the MDC and ZANU PF talking in a secret venue in Pretoria, South Africa. On the other hand state radio, television and the papers seem to be still running a campaign of sorts for President Mugabe. A month after the June 27 presidential run-off war music is still being played on national radio. Do they know something we don't?

President Mugabe's wife, Grace, has become almost the main political face of ZANU PF. The state media feature her dishing out food handouts and telling people about the "virtues" of ZANU PF. Is she campaigning for her husband or is she building the foundations of her own political career? It might spice up the already hot political scene if it turns out she is aiming for the top job. She has been opening state funded "People's Shops" where goods are sold at way below their true value. She has also been dishing out free food hampers that contain a 2,5kg of sugar, 1kg salt, 2,5kg flour, a 750ml bottle of cooking oil, bath soap, 100ml of toothpaste, vaseline (a paraffin based petroleum body jelly) and a 500g laundry powder soap. When sold in the people's shops, the same hamper costs a paltry $105 billion. That amount cannot buy a loaf of bread.

All these foods are imported under the Government's Basic Commodity Supply Side Intervention (BACOSSI) programme which is bankrolled by the central bank. Our manufacturing industry continues to suffer a severe decline in output. Agriculture is almost non-existent. There is no new tangible investment inspite of all the stories we read in the state media about countries in the Far East expressing interest.

Mad does not even start to describe the everyday decisions of some of our political leaders. It is surreal. The fact that we have been able to survive this madness for seven years must mean we are all well and truly CERTIFIABLE.

There is a sense of pending doom. A sense of something being plotted. President Mugabe is still thanking Zimbabweans for voting for him "overwhelmingly" in advertisements in the state media. This is despite the fact that he won in a one-man race. We still hear advertisements promising us "100% empowerment, and total independence" but all we feel is total impoverishment and a sense of foreboding. And of course, Mugabe believes we have a "real" democracy, but then again, democracy is in the eye of the beholder!

Posted at 11:28 01 August 2008 by Grace Mutandwa  |  Comments[2]

Legacy and Long-legged Birds

Sorry there have been no posts recently from me, I’m just back from the most welcome holiday of my life.

My previous blogs have reflected Zimbabwe’s plunge from hope in March to despair and fear today. The feeling on Harare’s streets is that – yet again – the people have been denied the leader they voted for and that – yet again – the world doesn’t care. Some countries’ choice to prevent the UN Security Council from taking action last week has convinced Zimbabweans that they are on their own, facing a lethal and cruel Government with no interests beyond clinging onto power.

Despair and fear infects us working at the British Embassy too. Living through such a period is taking chunks out of us. In June we held our annual reception to celebrate the Queen’s Birthday, and give some aid and comfort to our community and friends here. Some of the guests could not attend, as they were being held as political prisoners. Others have been savagely beaten since the party. It hurts to see such cruelty close up.

Every day we see the latest victims of torture and murder – sometimes photos, sometimes face-to-face. The latest man to die horribly is a driver called Gift Mutsvungunu, whose ‘crime’ was to move the furniture of a previous murder victim. Gift was abducted. His eyes were gouged out and he was burned. Only then was he killed. His torture was sub-human. It’s only motive was the sadistic fury of ZANU-PF’s revenge on the MDC for its 29 March election victory. It is shredding us inside to see such horrors, particularly when all we can do is document what we see and hope for eventual justice. 

And we feel that our little bubble of diplomatic safety is contracting. The state-sponsored papers are loaded with hatred every day. We are accused of causing the crisis, of ordering the MDC to commit murder, of racism. When we venture out of the Embassy, we are treated as suspicious people. We are questioned and sometimes even threatened. We feel reasonably confident that the police will do us no harm. But we see ZANU-PF militias on the streets – young thugs pumped up with alcohol and drugs and indoctrinated to believe that whites are the enemy. How stable are these people?

There are rewards of course – like reading that the Prime Minister used the very latest – and particularly shocking – information, supplied by ourselves, to argue for action at the G8 summit. But real results are scarce, and after a few months of Zimbabwe in a tail-spin, we all need a break to stop our heads dropping. For me that meant a couple of weeks of safari and beach in Tanzania.

One of many sad thoughts I had about Zimbabwe while on holiday is that it can be misused as a piece of evidence to confirm the racist and incorrect prejudice some still hold that black Africans cannot govern themselves, without dictatorship, genocide, starvation or economic collapse. At the time of the Gleneagles’ summit in 2005, ‘the year of Africa’, when we were full of hope for the continent’s future, figures like Idi Amin belonged to another century. Now we have Zimbabwe, a Uganda for the 21st century. The cynicism about Africa that Zimbabwe is generating is just another piece of ZANU-PF’s rich legacy to the world. 

If I was having any doubts, Tanzania showed me that the stereotype of the corrupt African is not just unfortunate,  but also untrue. I met diverse people who didn’t agree about everything, but managed to disagree without killing each other. People were united in the desire to create a more happy and prosperous country. The economy is doing well, people speak without fear and I saw plenty of evidence of the tolerant government that Zimbabwe lacks.

While I was in Tanzania, its Human Rights’ Commission published details of violations in the last year and urged the Government to address the problem. The newspapers discussed a recent building collapse and criticised the Government for not regulating construction. Continuing tensions between the mainland and the Zanzibar archipelago were openly reported and discussed. I’m not an expert on Tanzania, but it looks like a great country, honest about its problems and trying to do better. I hope the UK looks as open, friendly and tolerant to foreign visitors.

And in case you think I spent all my time reading newspapers, let me tell you that I sat in the Serengeti watching lions gnawing wildebeest, pondered whether that bright-eyed, long-legged bird at Ngorongoro was the black-winged or Senegalese variety of plover; and relaxed on the beach, letting the Indian Ocean splash over my toes. All washed down with crates of ‘Kilimanjaro’ beer to keep my belly in shape – heaven!     

Please keep Zimbabwe in your thoughts, as its terribly put-upon people consider their options at the start of another five-year Presidency. Zimbabweans showed enormous courage on 29 March, but others have not matched that courage and the future is now grim.

And please also don’t give up on Africa, most of which is peaceful and beautiful.  And if you’re looking for a holiday – try Tanzania!

Posted at 14:39 18 July 2008 by Philip Barclay  |  Comments[4]

Give me an armoured car and open the borders

My daughter says every home should have been built with a bunker.Someone I used to consider a friend thinks the brutal deaths taking
place in the country are "absolutely normal" because according to him we got our independence through the barrel of the gun so in his view
any change has to be sealed by blood.

My daughter is not mad. My former friend might actually be on the verge of madness. At 18 my daughter does not feel safe in her home anymore. We have
seen evidence of petrol bombed houses. At times I think the whole country has gone mad. Inflation must now be above two or three million. We carry around billions of worthless paper called money and it does not buy much. You need more than a trillion Zimbabwean dollars to buy just one Greenback.

And on top of that we now have a one-man presidential run-off. We do make history in everything we do. Zimbabwe is a country of such beauty but right now it is brutal in equal measure. On the 27th of June we are all supposed to go and vote for our sovereignty. We have no choice in what we want or whom we want. We are voting for our own survival.

I used to watch the goings on in Burma on television but now what the people of Burma have been going through is on our doorstep. The whole world is condemning the violence and brutality going on as President Robert Mugabe campaigns in the one man election. Our government of course is not bothered that we have become a pariah. They do not care that no-one in the international community will recognise the results of this run-off.

Even Africa is baulking at the level of brutality going on in Zimbabwe, right under the noses of African observors.My daughter is right. Every home should be built with a bunker. But this would work only if the country was at war with another country or some rebel group but it is not. In such a situation we would all be reasonably expecting to be bombed. What we need are open borders and armoured vehicles to escape the current war against the people.

Zimbabwe has become a country where you can be snatched on your way to work and your body will be found some days later at times. A person walking to the neighbourhood shops to buy bread can be diverted to a ruling party political rally or to put up campaign posters. This is a country that used to be largely described as Christian. Even some of the leaders profess to being God-fearing, but over the past few Sundays we have had people asked to
leave church and join rallies nearby. Opposition leaders are in hiding. More people are staying home in the evenings because it is not safe to venture out. Even during the day you leave home only because you have to go to work.

State radio, television and newspapers are full of hate speech. It takes a very brave person to listen to the radio, watch television or read the papers. The blatant propaganda is hard for any sensible person to stomach let alone believe. Bombarding people with advertisements that are hard to believe and electronic programmes that assume that people are halfwits can only ensure that people continue to look for alternative news and information sources.

Anyone who believes that everyone wearing regalia of a single party is a supporter has to have their head examined. Cars are plastered with posters of a single party - the ruling party. Zimbabweans are a clever people. They catch on fast and they know how to survive in tricky situations. Singing and chanting at a rally that you have been forced to attend at times is a small price to pay for your safety.

This might be the time to ask for divine intervention because all the world can do is look on and wring their hands.

Posted at 14:25 27 June 2008 by Grace Mutandwa  |  Comments[1]

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]

Donkeys and Democratic Space

Easter Friday in Zimbabwe. It’s hot enough for flabby Englishmen like me to break sweat. Elvis the driver (seriously, that’s his name) is hammering around the uranium mountains and malarial valleys of Masvingo. We’re monitoring how ready Zimbabwe is for elections on 29 March.

We scream past a donkey plodding along the road, stoic under its sack of soya beans. Zim’s a country of worshippers and many today will be thinking of a particular Palestinian donkey carrying a man to his death. For the early Christians it was a knife-edge moment between palm-waving hope one day and injustice and despair the next. It’s a neat metaphor for Zimbabwe this week. People are visualising a better future, but don’t know if they’ll ever see it. And all that hope will make the despair all the deeper if Zimbabwe carries on down the road to Golgotha after 29 March.

For now it’s wonderful to see a country where people are engaged and alive. We pass an election rally in a field four miles from nowhere. Once Elvis has found the brake pedal, I get out to have a good look. 200 people seated in a neat circle. No police. No coercion. No youth militias. Just people voluntarily meeting to talk politics. The programme is varied – first some humorous chants about the state of the nation. Then some singing: "the fist which liberated us is now a hammer destroying the nation". The words sound grim in English translation, but there must be some extra spice in the Shona, because everyone’s in stitches. Members of the audience spontaneously spring up into the space inside the ring to offer a few words, an amusing variant on a chant, or some nifty dance steps. Their contributions are greeted with a deep ululation that sets the heart racing.

It occurs to me that the space inside the circle is the embodiment of one of those banal pieces of jargon diplomats like. It is a democratic space. And people are enjoying using it for the first time in a long time.

Then the candidate, a small serious man in his forties, gets up to speak. His delivery is reminiscent of the ‘I have a dream speech’: slow sentences, long pauses populated with moans of appreciation from the crowd, building to a cresceno: the country is hungry and dependent on food from Malawi (the crowd laughs, Zimbabwean farmers used to feed Malawians with their surpluses). People are dieing and people are leaving. But the Government says it’s stronger than ever. Seems like the Government is at its best when the country is at its worst. This point brings everyone to their feet – the candidate looks like he had a bit more to say, but a sustained bout of singing persuades him to call it a day.

As I leave, a group of women wandering down the road point at me and say: "That party has a fat white man. We should go to their rally". In the interests of balance I decide that I’d better go and stand outside the other parties’ rallies too, so everybody gets the benefit or disadvantage of the fat white man effect.

Zimbabwe feels like a country on the brink of change, but during the long sticky afternoon – no cafes, or cokes, or doughnuts for 100kms! - I hear from plenty of people, who’ll believe it when they see it:

Eli is a wily old trade unionist: "They know every trick in the book. They’ve rigged three elections in a row – there’s no way they’re going to give up power now. They’ll win this election by cheating in a way we haven’t even thought of."

Peter is a parliamentary candidate: "I am well ahead in my constituency, but all the traditional leaders have been bought. They all have cars and electricity. They are telling their people that if they vote for me, their houses will be burned and they’ll be exiled."

Raymond is a headmaster. He’s been taking part in the Government’s official voter education programme: "I think it’s good that they’re trying to educate the voters, but they have excluded me from the programme now, because I keep telling people that they are free to vote how they want and that nobody can monitor a secret ballot. That’s not a message I’m allowed to deliver in the rural areas".

Last stop of the day is dinner with a (ZANU-PF) MP standing for re-election. While I’m catching up on my calorie deficit, he’s in philosophical mood. "Our time may be up. I don’t think I can hold onto my seat. We have to admit that people are tired and hungry and some of them are angry. Of course, our problems date back to what the IMF did to us in the 1980s and that nasty letter your Clare Short wrote to our President in 1997. It might be time to move to the UK and join my family..…." We carry on into the evening. We don’t agree about the causes of Zimbabwe’s problems, but he’s an honest man and he knows that his party is facing the lash of a furious electorate on 29 March.

So what do I think? I think it’s fantastic that the Foreign Office is letting us out of the office for two weeks to assess and understand this election. There were security worries and the usual money shortages, but we’ve got past them and are busily getting waist-deep into this wonderful country and its weird election. Some other Embassies haven’t made it out of Harare’s coffee shops yet.

I also think Zimbabwe is truly hungry for a change of direction. The leaders who took it to independence are revered for that, but people want them – or anybody! – to start running a country which creates jobs and well-being and stops the punishments of abuse, hunger and premature death. But I have to agree with Eli, Peter and Raymond that there are powerful people who have no intention of leaving power, other than in a box. (This a perfect balanced Foreign Office answer – looking clever, but not committing myself to a prediction of the result!)

So that’s Zimbabwe, at Easter, less than a week away from the polls. The man on the Palestinian donkey came back from the dead. Sadly the recovery Zimbabwe needs is similarly biblical in scale. And given the barriers put in their way, it will be an Easter miracle if the people of Zimbabwe are allowed the Government that they would choose in a free vote.

Posted at 12:45 25 March 2008 by Philip Barclay  |  Comments[2]