Zimbabwe - A letter from the diaspora

GOING HOME: The year is 2004 and Caleb Dube, the former detective with the Zimbabwe Republic Police has been in exile in the United Kingdom for two years. A letter arrives from his old friend and colleague, Moses Musindo, alerting Dube to the fact that his former teacher and friend, Father Hugh Malloy, is in great danger. Friendship demands no less and Caleb Dube goes home to his native land. With no help from a partisan police force, Dube and Musindo set out to investigate. In the course of their enquiries deep in the rural areas, the two men meet a host of unforgettable characters, including Sami the AIDS orphan and Sami's friend, Tatenda, the hunter. The two boys are an indispensable part of the investigation and the search leads them to an old adversary of Dube's who holds the key to the mystery of the missing priest.
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Countdown is a political detective story. It is fiction but the background is accurate and verifiable. Set in 2001/2 and the start of the land invasions, the book shows how the politicisation of the police force has led directly to the breakdown of law and order. In this hostile environment, two honest cops attempt to investigate a murder. Click here to find out more or buy online

26th February 2010

Dear Friends.
It's not often one gets the opportunity for a really good laugh when following events in Zimbabwe. This week, it was the testimony of the prosecution's 'expert' witness at Roy Bennett's ongoing treason trial that reduced me to tears of mirth. Not much to laugh about there you might think but Perekayi Mutsetse turned out to be an IT 'expert' whose knowledge of computer technology was so slight as to be laughable. He had absolutely no clue what was meant by a 'hacker', he had never heard the term he told the court. "You mean to tell this court that you have never heard of the hackers who have for years hacked into the Pentagon website?" Mutsetse was asked by the defence counsel. In response the hapless 'expert' asked "What is the Pentagon?" In fact, so great was the man's ignorance that the judge was forced to remind Mutstese that it was actually his job as a witness to answer the questions not ask them! As he left the witness box, this 'expert' had the temerity to address the learned judge with the following words, "Ndinotendai nokutambisa nguva yangu" or "Thanks for wasting my time" a remark which should certainly have earned him a stern reprimand at least but the docile judge let it pass without a word. It transpires that the man was in fact nothing more than a cable layer and not the Provincial Engineer with Africom as the prosecution had claimed!

Today, tears of mirth have been replaced by indignation as I hear that the AG intends to call another 'expert' to show that the emails in question between Roy Bennett and Peter Hitchman are genuine evidence of a plot to commit sabotage as the prosecution claims. "This is not prosecution, it is persecution" claimed Bennett's defence counsel - but then we all knew that from the start of this ridiculous farce of a trial. Once again the trial is deferred while the judge goes away to think about, or be told by his masters, what to do next. The fact is that the state will go to any lengths to get a conviction against Roy Bennett. What seemed at first laughable is now revealed for what it is, a contemptible misuse of the courts aided by an ambitious and self-serving Attorney General and a docile judge. The aim is to put Robert Mugabe's opponents behind bars; Bennett's trial has nothing to do with justice and truth but everything to do with locking up your opponents. The time-honoured dictum of 'innocent until proven guilty' has no meaning for the likes of AG Johannes Tomana, his task is to please his master, Robert Mugabe.

While this battle was being waged in the High Court, out on the streets hundreds of banner-waving Zanu PF youths accompanied by the police were marching to the US Embassy ostensibly to voice their rage at the continuing sanctions. In reality, their target was Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC. Rumours that they had been fed liquor and mbange may or may not be true but their highly inflammatory comments about the MDC Prime Minister certainly suggest that they are the forerunners in what promises to be a violent onslaught on the former opposition party in the run-up to elections. A photographer attempting to capture the Youth march on film was kidnapped and held for two hours by the marchers. What possible reason could they have to confiscate Manyere's film unless they did not want the country and the world to see the highly personal and insulting anti-Tsvangirai messages written on their banners?

Out in the rural areas there are reports of torture bases being set up at various centres around the country, another reminder that Mugabe and Zanu PF have not changed their ways despite being in a Government of National Unity. Door-to door visits in Epworth by Zanu PF thugs to track down MDC supporters is more evidence of the use of violence as a political weapon. One hopeful sign occurred this week, however. At a meeting in Masvingo addressed by Zanu PF bigwigs, the crowd responded to the usual slogans of "Pasina MDC, Pasina Tsvangirai" with outspoken complaints, questioning why such slogans were necessary when the country now has a Unity government. Perhaps people are beginning to see through Zanu PF's hypocrisy and greed at last.
And on the subject of greed, the diamond saga goes on. One look at the board members of the company mining the diamonds reveals what a bunch of crooks they are. There is an Israeli diamond smuggler who has served time in an Angolan prison, a white former mercenary in Sierra Leone and a man wanted in Thailand for diamond fraud. Who was it who said you could tell the calibre of a man by the company he keeps!

So while Zimbabwe struggles on in near darkness and even courts are operating by candlelight, Robert Mugabe and his cohorts continue to plunder the country's mineral wealth. We learn this week that it was the power company Zesa which provided Mugabe with the millions he needed to buy the war vets' loyalty back in 1997, just before the land invasions began in earnest. Speaking of land invasions, I had another moment of mirth when I read this week that Stan Mudenge the Minister of Higher Education, is attempting to push the war vets off his stolen farm. "Anyone on that farm is there illegally because I own Chikore Farm" declared Mudenge. No doubt the Honourable Minister can prove ownership of his stolen farm with the necessary Title Deeds? With the Indigenisation Law coming into force on March 1st, some fierce ownership battles lie ahead I suspect. No laughing matter there.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH.

19th February 2010

Dear Friends.
No matter how many reports I read of high-powered foreign visitors' satisfaction at Zimbabwe's progress since the formation of the Inclusive Government, my daily trawl through Zim news sources leaves me utterly depressed. The economy is improving, we are told, there is food in the shops and life is getting better for Zimbabweans but unemployment remains in excess of 90%. Does anyone in the so-called Government of National Unity care how the unemployed survive or are they all too busy getting their own share of the spoils? The reality is that the country is in the grip of deep moral decline, the selfishness and downright corruption is present everywhere you look. How is it possible that these foreign delegations can leave after their brief visits without noticing the fact that the once shining capital city is now a pot-holed, insanitary and litter-strewn urban sprawl without water and electricity for days on end, a situation repeated in towns and cities up and down the land? The answer, of course, is that the foreign visitors do not see the reality of life for ordinary Zimbabweans. They spend their time in five star hotels or in their embassies in the affluent northern suburbs, once the preserve of whites but now home to Zimbabwe's new black and wealthy elite. Watching Phillip Chiangwa's wife showing a BBC reporter round her husband's collection of expensive motors, sixteen of them in all I believe, was to witness the greed and selfishness that dominates Zimbabwe's political classes. In answer to a question from the BBC reporter as to whether such conspicuous wealth did not make her feel guilty about the contrast with the poor and dispossessed without a roof over their heads or food in their stomachs, Mrs Chiangwa replied that her husband's wealth was 'a gift from God'. Her husband, Phillip Chiangwa, by the way, is the man who once claimed that membership of Zanu PF had enabled him to become a very wealthy man!

Another, even more glaring contrast between the haves and the have-nots will be demonstrated this Sunday, February 21st in Bulawayo when Robert Mugabe holds an all-night 'Birthday bash' to celebrate his 86th birthday. Matabeleland is in the grip of a terrible drought and starvation looms for the masses of rural folk. Matabeleland's capital, Bulawayo, is a city facing an imminent water crisis but this means little to the organisers of the birthday party. They must demonstrate their absolute fealty to the Great Leader or risk losing their own wealth and privilege. So while the residents of Bulawayo face water rationing and hunger in the bleak months ahead, Mugabe's guests will tuck into a great feast of nyama from beasts 'donated' by the party faithful. The state-owned press and firms who owe their very survival to the Old Man will queue up to place their obsequious message of congratulation in the Herald and wish him 'Many more years' in which to govern the country he has ruled, some say 'ruined', for thirty years. 86 candles on a giant birthday cake would take some blowing out even for a man half his age. In a country where life-expectancy is 37 years for men and 34 for women, it is hardly appropriate that one man should celebrate his 86th birthday with such an ostentatious display while his countrymen and women are destined to die before their fortieth birthdays.

What gift is suitable for an 86 year old man, I wonder. Would diamonds be appropriate? Certainly Zimbabwe seems to be awash with the precious stones but none of the wealth from these 'blood diamonds' is trickling down to ordinary Zimbabweans to fund the schools or hospitals or to pay the wages of teachers, nurses and other civil servants surviving on paltry salaries that cannot even meet their monthly service charges for non-existent power and water. This week we have a credible report that a new diamond deposit is being mined on Roy Bennett's old farm in Chimanimani. A Week after the Indigenization and Economic Empowerment regulations are introduced limiting ownership to 'indigenous' Zimbabweans, we hear that it is the Russians who are conducting the mining operations on Charleswood. So now, we have decidedly non-indigenous Russians and Chinese exploiting Zimbabwe's natural resources, in partnership no doubt with Zanu PF top chefs and some newly affluent MDC types as well. Economic Empowerment for the already rich while the poor get poorer!

In response to the news this week that the EU has renewed some of their sanctions against Zimbabwe, Mugabe repeated his well-known mantra, "We know their attitude," he declared, "they don't want anyone, any country in the developing world to make any meaningful strides. We have resources which they envy that belong to us." Confusingly, his spokesman, Rugare Gumbo appeared to contradict that when he said, "We are not worried. It's a continuation of the struggle – just like the liberation struggle...Why should we worry?" How the issue of sanctions can be construed as 'a continuation of the liberation struggle' is beyond me but if Zanu PF and Robert Mugabe are not worried about sanctions, one has to wonder why they are making such an issue about lifting them. Nothing to do with alleviating the poverty of the masses, you can be sure of that, more, I suspect, to do with those 'blood diamonds'.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle, PH.

12th February 2010

Dear Friends.
Twenty years ago Nelson Mandela was released from prison. The South African President de Klerk had already laid the groundwork in his landmark speech a week earlier for the unbanning of the ANC and the release of all political prisoners. The free and fair elections that followed four years later were remarkable for the absence of violence and the spirit of genuine co-operation between the races. It was a truly historic moment when Nelson Mandela was installed as South Africa's first black President of a free South Africa. Apartheid was dead or that's what South Africa and the world thought.
Thirty years ago, after a long and bitter war of liberation from colonial rule, Robert Gabriel Mugabe became the first black Prime Minister of the independent Republic of Zimbabwe. It was also a joyous and historic moment. The future was bright; a 'rainbow nation' had been born. The politics of race were over, or so we hoped. It was not until Mugabe and Zanu PF's own power base began to fail that we started to hear the ugly doctrine of racism again. Whites, we were told, were the enemy within – and white landowners were the obvious first target of the attack. In the name of 'righting colonial injustices'- but in reality in a desperate attempt to distribute patronage to his own supporters - Robert Mugabe began the violent land seizures. Aided and abetted by war veterans in return for the huge payouts they had received and with the help of the notorious Youth Militia, Mugabe's 'new War veterans' as he named them, the Third Chimurenga began. The hate speech and vitriol against whites was stepped up on every possible occasion, from national events to village funerals. Whites, said Robert Mugabe, were not Zimbabweans, they were no better than settlers. So much for the reconciliation he had preached at Independence: "If yesterday I fought you as an enemy, today you are my friend."

Some two years ago, while Zanu PF still had a majority in Parliament, the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Bill was passed. Last week, without consulting its MDC partners, Zanu PF quietly sneaked the law into action. 'Indigenous' is defined as "any person who prior to 1980 was disadvantaged by unfair discrimination on the grounds of race" Clearly, by that definition, only black Zimbabweans could be counted as 'indigenous' – nothing about Asians or bi-racial Zimbabweans who are also an integral part of the population. Under this patently discriminatory legislation any business worth $500.000 or more must declare the racial origins of its directors. Failure to do so will result in a penalty of two years in prison.

Seventy years ago, the Jews in Nazi Germany and across Nazi-occupied Europe were forced to wear a yellow star, the Star of David, as proof of identity. Jewish businesses were daubed with the yellow star and Jews were herded into ghettos for ultimate transportation to the death camps. Robert Mugabe has no death camps that we know of - unless you count the stinking prison cells in his gaols - but his clear intention is to get rid of the whites. He is too politically astute to expel them outright as Idi Amin did with the Asians in Uganda, but there is no doubt that Mugabe's intention is to make life as unbearable as possible for the remaining 20.000 whites. Unwelcome in the land of their birth, that 20.000 will diminish even further as whites depart, leaving behind the graves of their ancestors over three generations. Then perhaps Mugabe will be satisfied, when there are no white faces to be seen in 'his' country. With nearly all the farms taken, Mugabe is in desperate need of more spoils to use for purposes of patronage. Now it is the turn of the businesses.
What is most revealing in the response to this Indigenisation law by the business community is the total lack of moral indignation. Perhaps they are leaving that to the churches in their Sunday sermons? Businessmen and economists have commented angrily about how damaging this law will be for investment opportunities in Zimbabwe but they say nothing about the injustice against the white minority. From all the comments I have read, even from the MDC, I find not one word of condemnation for the sheer immorality of this law. Does the silence indicate that black Zimbabweans believe whites deserve to be punished in this way for their colour – or is it revenge for the sins of the past? And what of the whites themselves, are they so brow-beaten by the farm invasions that they say nothing in the face of yet another depredation of their property rights?

Having to declare the racial origins of the directors of companies is tantamount to making people wear a yellow star, but as I wrote ten years ago when the land invasions began: "White Africans don't need a yellow star/ for you to know just who they are/ They don't need that badge of shame/ for you to know just who to blame/ for what they did one hundred years ago and more....But that was then – this is now. Shall we live forever in the shadow of the past?"
Apartheid did not die with the release of Nelson Mandela, it is alive and well in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH.

5th February 2010

Dear Friends.
Two events this week serve as a reminder that even the most intractable problems can be solved, given good will, a genuine desire for the common good and willingness to compromise - without loss of principle - from all parties. That may sound like pie-in–the-sky nonsense to hard nosed political types but the two events I referred to illustrate, I believe, an essential ingredient in solving the Zimbabwean impasse. The five British MP's currently visiting Zimbabwe may announce that they are delighted with the progress the country has made since the inception of the GNU but the facts on the ground for ordinary Zimbabweans tell a very different story.

The two events I refer to are object lessons for Zimbabwe. Today, February 5th 2010, after the near collapse of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland which had brought sworn enemies, Sinn Fein and the DPU, into an uneasy power-sharing government, the two sides today announced that they have reached a settlement. It took hours and hours of patient negotiation late into the night, but finally the Agreement is secure and Northern Ireland can face the future with some hope that life will improve for all its citizens and that the violence and extra-judicial killings will stop. What was very obvious from this hard-won solution was that, in addition to the two sides' recognition of the absolute necessity of finding a way forward, the presence of external parties, in this case the Republic of Ireland, the British Government and the US, was a crucial ingredient in helping the two sides reach a solution. It was pressure from these neutral parties that kept the warring sides at the negotiating table. In our own dispute, Zimbabweans are entitled to ask: So, where is our external, neutral party to pressurize Zanu PF and the two MDC's into reviving the collapsing GNU? President Zuma and SADC are there but what sign have we had they are either neutral or even impartial?

The second event which occurred this week was in fact the anniversary of a momentous announcement which took place twenty years ago on February 2nd 1990.It was an announcement that shook South Africa and the whole world to the core. On February 2nd FW de Klerk, the South African President stood up to open a new session of the South African Parliament in Cape Town. History records that the city was jam-packed with foreign journalists all expecting to hear that Nelson Mandela was about to be released and desperate to report on the historic event. Instead, de Klerk stunned the country and the world by announcing nothing less than the end of apartheid, the unbanning of the ANC, the release of all political prisoners and the dismantling of the entire legislative structure that had propped up the apartheid system since 1948. The present parliament would be stood down and, there would be one-person-one-vote elections, he announced. In a speech lasting less than thirty minutes, de Klerk had dismantled the power of the white minority and effectively ensured that the black majority were now in control of their destiny. No one knew, except his closest advisors and they were sworn to secrecy, what de Klerk was going to say and the effect was electric. Within days there was a joyful and entirely peaceful demonstration led by Archbishop Tutu through the streets of Cape Town. Nine days later Mandela was released and the whole world saw for the first time in twenty seven years the man whose name had become a byword for the cause of oppressed people worldwide.

What was it that made de Klerk, an Afrikaaner from a prominent establishment family and the original forefathers of apartheid, take such a courageous and far-reaching step? He was still only in his early fifties, many years of power lay ahead of him but he virtually handed over to what many whites regarded as 'communist inspired terrorists'. There were, of course, many reasons but one of them was undoubtedly the breakup of the Soviet Union with all that implied for Africa. The other was the near economic collapse that had hit South Africa because of international sanctions. South Africa had become a pariah state, suffering almost total isolation through the sporting and cultural boycott. More than anything else, de Klerk and some of his close colleagues recognised the reality of the situation. They saw very clearly that South Africa could not go on the way it was. The black majority was hammering at the door and had to be acknowledged; de Klerk bowed to the inevitable, despite the backlash of a small body of hardliners who saw him as a sellout of the white hegemony.

Tragically for Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe cannot or will not accept reality; he has not learned the lessons of history, not even from his nearest neighbour. After thirty years of unbroken power, this 86 year old man cannot accept the reality that power is slowly changing hands. And now, as Finance Minister, Tendayi Biti, articulated this week, Mugabe and Zanu PF continue to do all they can to destroy the GNU by the unlawful farm invasions, the disobeying of lawful court orders and the misuse of the media to vilify the MDC and the Prime Minister. The only possible conclusion to draw from all this is that Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF supporters lack the good will, the desire for the common good or the ability to compromise that will ensure a lasting political settlement in Zimbabwe.