Zimbabwe - A letter from the diaspora

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30th January 2009


Dear Friends.
Today's the day! This thirtieth day of January 2009 the National Executive of the MDC will decide whether or not to join the so-called Government of National Unity under Robert Mugabe's presidency. ‘Political analysts' have been very vocal on the subject all week. I've never quite understood what qualifies someone to be called or to describe him/herself as a ‘political analyst' but they certainly have an awful lot to say for themselves! They are ready to air their opinions on every aspect of the subject; supported by unnamed sources these political analysts seek to sway public opinion one way or the other depending on their own political affiliations no doubt.

Like many others in the diaspora – anxious about the future of our country - I too have spent the week trying to analyse the decision that has to be made by the MDC. Armed with a pencil and notepad I have attempted to use my own knowledge and understanding of the situation to list what considerations should be taken into account before making this crucial decision for Zimbabwe's future. Before one can even start the process there are certain facts that have to be acknowledged. In the eleven or so months that have elapsed since the March elections Zimbabwe and the world have changed. Cholera has killed over 3000 people in Zimbabwe, 94% of the population is unemployed and on Zanu PF's own admission the country can no longer feed its own people. " We cannot eat what we do not have" said the Acting Minister of Finance in his Budget speech And in an acknowledgement that the Zimbabwean currency is now worthless, Chinamasa announced that price controls will be abandoned and the Zimbabwe dollar will "operate alongside the US dollar and the SA rand. How that will actually work is not at all clear but what is clear is that Zimbabwe is teetering on the edge of complete collapse. That is the reality that the decision makers have to face. In the wider world too the economic collapse means that the so-called developed world will look very carefully at economic help for poorer nations, let alone those that have collapsed through gross mismanagement. Those people who thought that a GNU would bring immediate western aid for Zimbabwe now have to think very carefully in the light of the changed situation before they make their decision today.
For me there are two internal considerations that take absolute priority. One, is it the right decision for the mass of the people, now and for the foreseeable future? No one in their right mind can believe that joining the government will bring about an immediate change in the desperate plight of the people but maybe, just maybe, the presence of the MDC will moderate some of the more extreme policies of Mugabe's government. Two, the release of the activists rotting in gaol is non-negotiable. Jestina Mukoko and all the other activists must be brought to court immediately and either tried in open court or released. There can be no just settlement while fellow Zimbabweans are unjustly detained. Those as I see it are absolute priorities before the MDC can enter into this alliance with the Mugabe regime.
Making decisions is never easy but I have found it useful to list the arguments For and Against and then decide which side carries more weight. In addition to reasoned argument, there is the emotional aspect which cannot be ignored. More than anything else, Zimbabweans need to feel hope for themselves and for their children's futures. So, why should the MDC enter this ‘unholy alliance' The first point in its favour is that the people appear to want it, presumably because they believe that their lives will be improved once there is a settlement. By joining a GNU the MDC will gain experience in government and finally this is the much vaunted ‘African solution'. Whatever we may think of SADC and the AU there is no doubt that failure to join will bring down Africa's wrath on Tsvangirai's head and give further weight to the notion that he and his party are no more than puppets of the west.
On the other side, Against joining is the undeniable fact that Mugabe is not to be trusted. Bitter experience has shown us that his word means nothing. It is a power-sharing agreement with no real power for the MDC; even in the matter of ministerial appointments we have absolutely no guarantee that Robert Mugabe will play fair. To join such a government will severely damage the MDC's image. Up until now they have held the moral high ground, how will the world and the west in particular respond to an illegitimate government that now contains those very same people they once believed were on the side of democracy? If the MDC decides to join, it will be seen to be an endorsement of Mugabe's policies. It will take the pressure off his regime, leaving him unpunished for the destruction he has wreaked on the country. Even the MDC's majority in the House cannot be relied on, knowing how Zanu PF operates. There is a very real danger that the MDC will become no better than puppets of the regime unable to exercise any autonomy. Mugabe is after all the man who has blatantly ignored the will of the people as expressed in the March elections. Can he now be trusted to abide by the rules? Will not Morgan Tsvangirai and this party be swallowed up in just the same way as the late Joshua Nkomo?
These questions and so many others must be going through the minds of every thinking person as the MDC considers the options. What will happen if the deal collapses in a few months, what might that mean for Zimbabwe? For me, as a Zimbabwean in the UK diaspora and longing to go home, all I can do is hope that their decisions are guided by what is best for the people, all the people, and not by their own dreams of power, big motorcars, handsome salaries and lucrative perks. Having considered the arguments For and Against and although I can clearly see the latter is the stronger side, I have very reluctantly come to the conclusion that the MDC must go along with this flawed Agreement. There are some small signs that their presence in government may well find sympathisers even within the ranks of Zanu PF. The truth is that Mugabe needs the MDC as much as they need to be part of government. It requires, in the words of the BBC correspondent, nothing less than a leap of faith on the part of the MDC. I believe they will make that leap.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle, PH.

January 9th 2009

Dear Friends.
It's not exactly an original observation but every week I find myself thinking, 'If it weren't so tragic, it would be funny!' I'm talking about events in Zimbabwe, of course. With every day that passes the situation becomes more surreal as the authorities use ever more nonsensical arguments to convince the long-suffering population that Mugabe's government is actually in control of the country and if it were not for pesky outside influences and foreign-inspired 'banditry' Zimbabwe would be just fine. Sanity and reason have flown out of the window as the regime clings ever more desperately to power.
Consider the events of this week alone: magistrates and judges hand down decisions which are immediately countermanded in other courts; the police totally ignore all of them and do what they want to do anyway; a Minister admits in court that the State ordered the detention of Jestina Mukoko and other MDC activists; Mugabe appoints 'Acting' ministers to his as yet unannounced cabinet; the 'Minister' of Education, none other than the hapless and hopeless, Aeneas Chigwedere, announces the postponement of the beginning of the first school term because last year's exam results are not available – not surprising really - the papers haven't even been marked yet! And if you need more evidence that the Zimbabwean ship of state is floundering on the rocks, you need look no further that the currency. Have you ever heard of a country where workers threaten to strike if they ARE paid? Zimbabwe's Mineworkers are threatening to withdraw their labour if they are paid in local currency! Zim dollars are now so useless that you can't give them away. Thanks to a friend visiting from home I am now the proud owner of a 50 billion dollar note. It's called a Special Agro Cheque – whatever that means - and I use it as book-mark. It makes for some very interesting conversations! The new 'Minister' of Finance by the way is none other than Patrick Chinamasa, what his expertise in finance is remains very unclear but then he didn't know much about justice either in his former post as 'Minister' of Justice did he? Not that it will make any difference, Gideon Gono is still there at the Reserve Bank to hand out precious forex whenever Mugabe tells him to, as for example when the Old Man goes on leave. For annual leave, read 'retreat'. George Charamba tells us the President will only spend part of his annual leave out of the country on holiday. Instead he will be 'on retreat' meditating on the future of his government we are told and no doubt that includes considering more diabolical ways to eradicate the MDC from the face of the earth. While Jestina Mukoko and the other activists rot in gaol and the cholera death rate rises and starvation looms ever closer, Mr Mugabe cogitates the way forward, or should that be the way out?
In yet another hysterical sign of the state's paranoid mindset three Boy Scout trainers are arrested in Ruwa. The three men actually advertise the training camps for scouts and tourists in the national press but that didn't stop the army mounting a military style operation on the training centre on the grounds that the three white men were training terrorists. The men have not been charged as yet but we hear they are still being held while the police investigate. "The men were all Selous Scouts," the police inform us, ergo they must be up to no good. I don't know much about modern scouting but I do know the Scouts' motto is 'Be prepared' but nothing can prepare you for the idiocy of Mugabe's henchman. With every day that passes they look more ridiculous as they seek to defend the indefencible. Compared to this lot, the antics of the Keystone Cops look like models of common sense!
Meanwhile the Herald does its best to make the MDC into Public Enemy NO.1 and portrays the party as riven by disagreement over the issue of joining Mugabe's Government of National Unity. 'Intense debate' they report has rocked the party's leadership as they discuss the way forward, to which I say 'Well good for them!' Open debate is a clear sign of democracy at work; only by frank and honest exchange of views can a democratic consensus be arrived at. Unlike Zanu PF whose party conference is no more than a faithful echo of His Master's voice, the MDC leadership at least listens to its membership. The decision they have to make is far-reaching in its consequences for the whole country, whether they should or should not join Mugabe's government is a delicate and complex issue and I for one will not condemn Morgan Tsvangirai on the basis of what the despicable journalists at the Herald report.
Back to the ridiculous: "Let them eat potatoes' Mugabe was reported as saying some years back when there was a maize shortage. " We have plenty of potatoes." Apparently we have plenty of elephants too and the jumbos are being slaughtered to provide food for Zimbabwe's soldiers. No maize, no potatoes, no mombes…so, like the punchline of a very poor joke, Let them eat elephants!
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH




2nd January 2009

Dear Friends.
I know that I am not alone in my anger and indignation at the continued imprisonment of Jestina Mukoko and the other abducted MDC activists on trumped up charges of plotting to overthrow the regime in Harare via a military operation based, the State alleges, in Botswana. We had a few brief moments of relief at the end of 2008 that perhaps there was still justice in Zimbabwe after all. The High Court had ordered the abductees' release to a hospital of their choice and further ordered that they be accorded full access to their lawyers and visits from relatives. Our relief at the good news was short-lived. Having denied that they had any knowledge of Jestina's whereabouts, the police finally produced her and thirty two other activists who the appeared before Magistrate Misrod Guvamombe. What happened next could only happen in Zimbabwe as the activists' lawyer, the courageous Beatrice Mtetwa commented, " It's only in Zimbabwe that an inferior court can really implement a High Court order differently. The High Court made an order that was deliberately subverted by the state." The reason for Magistrate Guvamombe's decision to disobey Justice Omerjee's ruling was that the State had already filed an appeal against Omerjee's ruling. Wearing prison garb with shackles and leg irons, the accused were paraded in court and then dispatched to Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison to await trial.

Thus 2009 began in Zimbabwe with yet another gross abuse of human rights, another travesty of justice that makes the Mugabe regime even more of a pariah state in the eyes of the world. Shamefully South Africa and SADC continue to protect Mugabe, claiming that even the arrest of activists need not be a bar to the implementation of a Government of National Unity. Today we read that Police Chief Chihuri has declared a ban on all political meetings, citing the security situation in the country which he describes as 'volatile'. The courts and the police have become totally complicit in the regime's increasingly desperate hold on power. Any hope that Zimbabweans had that justice might ultimately prevail has once again been cruelly dashed. With magistrates, judges and police supporting the regime's every move, there seems little hope that 2009 will be any better than the previous year for long-suffering Zimbabweans. The rains are falling but there is no sign of planting and without the NGO's to feed the people, starvation looms while the cholera toll continues to mount. And Mugabe just sits back and allows it to happen, knowing that the world will not allow the people to starve. He has virtually abdicated all responsibility for the people's welfare; his only focus now is on his own survival and he will use every means to ensure it, assisted by the greed and avarice of his cronies whose own survival depends entirely on his staying in power - as his does on their continued sycophantic support.
I am reading Heidi Hollands' book Dinner with Mugabe at the moment and it makes an engrossing read. Holland's central purpose is to attempt to understand Mugabe's psyche and disabuse the popular notion that he is a madman, another Idi Amin. She interviews all sorts of people, friends and enemies of Mugabe's, who throw light on his very complex personality and in the course of her analysis she asks the question, 'Does it actually help to understand the sort of man he is?' Understanding why Hitler was the way he was does not after all make the murder of six million Jews any less shocking. Similarly, Gukukahundi and the massacre of 20-30 thousand Ndebele people or the terrible violence now meted out on innocent Zimbabweans for no reason other than their opposition to his rule is hardly excusable on the grounds that his father left home when Mugabe was ten years old. More understandable perhaps is his supposed hatred of whites. What is not excusable is that the confiscation of white-owned farms has caused such dreadful suffering to the very people Mugabe claims to have liberated. Early childhood trauma hardly explains such an act of massive injustice. Perhaps the explanation is more to do with the fact that Mugabe simply cannot tolerate opposition or criticism whether it comes from inside his own party or from the MDC or the populace at large. Does it help to understand why Mugabe is like this? 'By your deeds shall you know them' says the Christian doctrine which Mugabe claims to espouse. On that basis, history will not, I believe, judge him kindly and neither will the thousands of victims of his arrogance and cruelty.
May 2009 be the year when the hope for change becomes reality for Zimbabwe.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH