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.
Click here to find out more or buy online

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 March 2010

Dear Friends.

Just minutes after I had pressed 'send' for last week's Letter in which I had bemoaned the lack of resistance on the part of Zimbabweans, I was delighted to see pictures of hundreds of MDC demonstrators in central Harare. The demonstration, reckoned to be some three kilometres long, was actually escorted by the police. It seemed like a miracle of democratic transformation until one remembered that President Zuma was either still in or just on his way out of the country. Mugabe would have been keen to demonstrate to the South African mediator his democratic credentials; perhaps that explains why the police allowed the demonstration and even escorted the demonstrators. The MDC Youth deserve huge credit for their initiative and strategic thinking in mounting their demo while Zuma was in the country. It might be one of the very few positive things to have come out of his visit; certainly the Zimbabwean people are not being told what, if anything, was achieved. It is strange, to say the least, that Zimbabweans themselves are the last to be told about arrangements which will vitally affect their lives. Even now, a week after Zuma's departure we remain in ignorance of the "package of measures" apparently agreed on - but as always, rumours abound.

Back in South Africa, Zuma tells parliamentarians in Cape Town to 'Give this unity government a chance' and yet again calls on western powers to lift sanctions. Has he really been so completely hoodwinked by Mugabe that he believes the lifting of sanctions will solve Zimbabwe's problems? Zuma says nothing about human rights abuses and the blatant attacks on MDC supporters taking place all over the country in every province. This last week alone, we have seen the police arresting and detaining MDC supporters for daring to raise their voices in song while passing a Zanu PF meeting! The story goes that the MDC in Mutasa, Manicaland Province, had police permission to hold a meeting at an agreed venue. When the MDC arrived they discovered that the local Zanu PF had taken their place and were holding their own meeting. Predictably, the police arrested the MDC leaders and locked them up - for 'disrespectful' singing! No charges have been preferred. In a separate incident another 12 MDC people in the area are being held, including a very pregnant woman. In Marondera, Mashonaland East, too, the MDC is under attack with the arrest of the MDC Mayor, councillors and former police officers discharged from the police for their MDC sympathies. In Masvingo Province, Zanu PF and local war vets have set up 'liberated zones' such as we saw during the Liberation War, because, they claim, the 'war is not yet won.' The 'enemy' is the MDC, the partners in the so-called Unity Government. While the leaders have their secret talks in the capital, their followers in the rural areas are not even allowed access to food relief. According to local traditional leaders in some areas, only Zanu PF card holders are entitled to food relief. Mediation talks in Harare but confrontation in the rural areas where villagers must prove their allegiance to the former 'ruling' party before they can feed their families.

But the week has not been without some light relief. As the rumours of the Zuma-mediated talks trickled out to the news-starved journalists, there came the astonishing report that Zuma had suggested to Johannes Tomana that he might give up his contentious appointment as Attorney General in exchange for a judgeship. Not hard to tell which way his judgements would go! And Gideon Gono that other contentious Mugabe appointment has apparently been offered the post of Zimbabwe's Ambassador to South Africa in exchange for relinquishing his Governorship of the Reserve Bank. As a mediator, Zuma simply uses the Mugabe technique; when things don't work just move the personnel around but never actually change anything that would impinge on Zanu PF's monopoly of power. Another rumour has it that Roy Bennett has been offered the dropping of the treason charges against him in exchange for a post as Deputy Minister of - something, anything other than Agriculture where he would be able to expose the multiple farm ownerships by Zanu PF 'fat cats' and other greedy land grabbers.

Speaking of 'grabbing' what doesn't belong to you, the Minister of Mines, Obert Mpofu, this week gave evidence to a parliamentary committee on the goings on at the Chiadzwa diamond fields. Mpofu admitted that there were some crooked diamond officials operating there but, he claimed "it was virtually impossible to get clean people in the industry." He had done his research, he said, and he had discovered that globally the diamond industry consisted of drug dealers, smugglers or just plain crooks.

"That is the world-wide trend." Mpofu maintained. Birds of a feather, you could say!
Not content with locking up MDC personnel, two truckloads of police invaded Gallery Delta in Harare and confiscated 65 graphic photographs for an exhibition organised by Zimrights Director Okay Machisa who was briefly arrested. The pictures showed the victims of horrific police brutality including one of Morgan Tsvangirai himself. The police argued in court that the pictures were 'lewd' and taken without consent but High Court Judge Samuel Kudya ruled the police case had no basis in law and ordered the police to release the photographs within the hour. Amazingly, the exhibition was allowed to open but the police returned after the official opening and attempted to remove the pictures again. Clearly, the police are not happy to have evidence of their appalling brutality on public view despite the fact that all the images are in the public domain. "Change will come whether you like it or not," said Morgan Tsvangirai, opening the exhibition. "It is like a flood. You cannot stop it."

This weekend Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara meet to 'iron out' the remaining problems. Now we shall see the fruits of Zuma's mediation efforts - or perhaps not! There will be no Letter from the diaspora next week but perhaps by the time I return, the flood of freedom will be more than the present trickle. I am not optimistic.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH.

19th March 2010

Dear Friends.

I ended last week's Letter with a question posed by Prime Minister Tsvangirai himself and slightly re-worked to read 'How do you solve a problem like Mugabe?' But Zimbabwe is no Sound of Music, no happy ending is in sight with thousands of Zimbabwe's children marching forward to freedom and a better life.
I admit my heart skipped a beat when I heard the tail-end of a BBC News bulletin stating that "thousands of red shirted demonstrators had thronged into the main square in a show of defiance against the government." But my momentary joy that maybe it was Zimbabwe and the people had at last found their courage quickly turned to disappointment when I realised it was not Harare but Bangkok where 100.000 people had gathered in a peaceful demonstration of people's power. Why doesn't that happen in Zimbabwe, I wondered. Surely we know by now that it is only people's power that will dislodge the dictator but Zimbabweans remain the passive and silent victims of Mugabe's continuing grip on power.

Instead of thousands of people in Unity Square voicing their anger and discontent at this sham of a Unity Government, Zimbabweans were waiting this week - with very little hope, it must be said - for President Jacob Zuma to fly in and mediate the current impasse. While we waited for that to happen, Prime Minister Tsavangirai went on record to say that he and Robert Mugabe are "in a good relationship. We are eating together every Monday," he said and the expanding waistlines of the politicians illustrate that truth only too clearly! What a slap in the face for the thousands of Zimbabweans who do not even know where the next meal is coming from. Reading Cathy Buckle's Letter from Zimbabwe, which described the state of the invaded farms, it was too easy to understand why there is widespread hunger, there is no food being grown. 'Righting colonial injustices' as the so-called Land Reform was touted by Mugabe and his Zanu PF has come at an enormous price to the people and the economy of Zimbabwe. For ten years, Cathy Buckle pointed out, the new farmers have been on the land but there is precious little to show for it. Despite all the free imputs given to the new farmers: seed, fertiliser and tractors, vast tracts of land, formerly flourishing farms growing food for the nation, are now empty fields where only grass grows. Compare Cathy Buckle's picture with the view of Joseph Made, the eagle-eyed Minister of Agriculture who sees (from a helicopter!) maize growing where there is none. Made argues that the state of the farms is all due to the effects of sanctions. It is the pernicious and racist sanctions that have destroyed Zimbabwe's agriculture, he claims.

And after Land Reform, that so-called 'righting of colonial injustices' we have the Indigenisation Act, which it is claimed will enable all Zimbabweans to access the country's wealth. Even Gideon Gono, the Reserve Bank Governor, has seen through this charade. "Let us avoid" he said, "falling into the trap of being driven by the shrill war cries and voices of a few who are driving their own private agenda for personal gain in the name of empowerment of the masses. We definitely need to sober up." Unbelievably, the MDC leader appears still to be under the influence, not of liquor but of Zanu PF politicking. Speaking at a symposium on public/private ownership the former trade union leader told his audience of business people, "I want to assure you that the policy (of Indigenisation) is in the best interests of the people of Zimbabwe." Just exactly which 'people' he was talking about was not clear, since the definition of 'indigenous' in the Act is more than a little vague. Later in the week, Tsvangirai was singing from a rather different hymn sheet.

"We are caught between a rock and a hard place," he admitted to his own followers at a meeting in Masvingo. They were urging the MDC leader to quit the Inclusive Government. It has done nothing for them they said as they described to Tsvangirai the ongoing violent attacks by Zanu PF on their members. But, as they were told by their leader, "We have to try and soldier on, we are not going back."

And then Jacob Zuma arrived in the country to mediate. One could almost feel sorry for the man in his thankless task of knocking heads together. The truth is that politicians on all sides are now living such comfortable lives that they have forgotten what it is like to go to bed hungry, jobless and without hope. On Thursday we were told that President Zuma was "Pleased with the progress. A packet of measures as per the decision of the SADC Troica in Maputo has been agreed." The parties were apparently told to attend to these outstanding matters and report to the Facilitator by 31 March. Today, Friday, it is being reported that Mugabe has quietly restored to MDC Ministers the powers he took away from them. It is further reported that the Attorney General will go but the Reserve Bank Governor will stay. We will only know the truth of that in the weeks ahead but experience should have taught us all by now that sticking to agreements is not in Mugabe's nature. Politics in Zimbabwe continue to be dominated by one man - and his army - and HE is still there.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH.

12th March 2010

Dear Friends.
"How do you confront a dictator using democratic means?" That was just one of the questions that Prime Minister Tsvangirai asked at the launch of a new book detailing the horrific experiences of the victims of political torture, 'Cries from Goromonzi' at the Book Café in Harare this week. One of the victims, the wife of an MDC MP, had courageously given her evidence in person, describing how a gang of ten men burst into her house and raped her in front of her nine month-old son. Seven years have passed but the memories of that experience have left the victim physically and psychologically scarred. It is the same for all the victims of the political violence; the passing years cannot erase the memories or the pain. Three years ago it was Morgan Tsvangirai, Sekai Holland, Lovemore Madhuku and other brave human rights advocates who were also the victims of politically motivated violence. "It is very difficult to come to an occasion like this and not feel the cries of the victims." Tsangirai commented after he had listened to the brave woman's evidence. "There cannot be real forgiveness without justice."

But the fact is that there has been no justice for any of the victims of the Zanu PF onslaught on MDC supporters and activists, an onslaught which continues to the present, on a lesser scale perhaps, but violence is still Zanu's preferred method of dealing with their opponents. If anyone thought that all of that would change with the setting up of an Inclusive Government, the events of this week merely illustrate that the violence has taken a different form. Without consulting his so-called partners in the Unity Government and in direct contravention of the GPA, Robert Mugabe has unilaterally stripped MDC Ministers of their powers. He has in effect stolen from them what was theirs by legal right, leaving them 'naked' as Nelson Chamisa put it. His own Telecommunications Ministry has now been handed over to Nicholas Goche, the head of the CIA. The Ministry dealing with human rights is now in the dubious hands of Patrick Chinamasa, the Minister of Justice. No blood has been shed, there are no bruised and bloody victims but the result is the same; Mugabe has used his presidential powers to take back authority which is not in his gift. No wonder he and his supporters are delaying the constitutional process. They know that once Mugabe loses his presidential powers as enshrined in the present constitution, he will no longer be in control of ministerial appointments. Meanwhile, the so-called Kariba Draft is being violently endorsed in the rural areas and poor urban townships. Threats and intimidation are being used to force the people to support a constitution that leaves the president with absolute power. It is all part of the same picture of violence aimed at thwarting the genuine will of the people.

Morgan Tsvangirai's question, "How do you confront a dictator using democratic means?" is tragically relevant in Zimbabwe 2010. If Jacob Zuma does indeed return to Harare next week, it will be interesting to see how he deals with this new situation. Robert Mugabe is in blatant transgression of the GPA, everyone can see that, but he remains utterly defiant in the face of world opinion. Rather like the Israelis who choose to announce the building of new homes for Israeli settlers on the eve of the US Vice President's visit to mediate in the long-running Arab/Israeli dispute, Mugabe will be similarly impervious to any criticism of his actions; that is always supposing that Zuma dares to criticise the great Liberation Hero at all! Secure in the support of his generals, a partisan police force and judiciary and upheld by his parasitic praise-singers in his conviction of his own immortality, Robert Mugabe continues to do and say exactly what he wants. Despite his own repeated claims that no one must interfere with 'his' country's 'sovereignity' Mugabe this week decided to have his say on British politics when he lent his support to the conservative party in the UK's upcoming elections. He could 'deal with these fools' he is reported to have said of David Cameron's party, believing no doubt that a conservative party victory would mean the UK would radically change its stance on the 'Zimbabwe question' and the sanctions issue. The man's arrogance knows no bounds and under the guise of Affirmative Action, his cronies like Saviour Kasukuwere reflect their master's arrogant self-belief and, coincidentally, make a great deal of money out of taking what does not belong to them on the basis that it is their god-given right to own everything in Zimbabwe. "You British!" Kasukuwere spat at the BBC reporter who interviewed him recently and dared to question him on the Indigenisation Act currently being implemented. Reverse racism is the order of the day and from all the comments I read, no one in Zimbabwe even questions the morality and twisted logic of Zanu PF's definition of the term 'indigenous'. Instead, all the talk is about the financial benefts that will accrue to a few Zanu PF 'fat cats' while a Red Cross report today tells us that one third of the population faces starvation.

The question remains: How do you solve a problem like Mugabe when you have only democratic means at your disposal and the dictator ensures that the democratic process itself is whittled away? No one, not the UN, not the AU and certainly not SADC - or President Zuma - seem to have an answer to that question.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH.

5th March 2010

Dear Friends.
The tabloid press here in the UK has had a three-day bonanza with the state visit of Jacob Zuma. It wasn't his politics but his polygamy that gave them column inches of coverage! Zuma's spokesperson immediately condemned it as 'racist' - which it probably was, knowing the politics of the Daily Mail and The Sun - but a much more likely explanation is just plain ignorance of Africa. What was overlooked was one of the crucial issues behind the South African Premier's visit. The clue lay in the fact that a 240 strong delegation of business leaders accompanied Jacob Zuma to London. It was all about business opportunities between South Africa and the UK.

In putting the case for the lifting of sanctions against Zimbabwe, Zuma argued that sanctions made it harder to implement the GPA because, "There may be some in Zimbabwe who would use the issue of sanctions as a reason not to implement the Agreement in full." And we all know who that is! It was Mugabe and his Zanu PF who had spelt it out loud and clear at their recent party congress: No more negotiations until sanctions are lifted they resolved. Jacob Zuma claimed that sanctions made his job of mediating the dispute more difficult but perhaps the reality is that South Africa's concerns are more to do with business interests than the blatant abuse of human rights and the breakdown of the rule of law in Zimbabwe? With the countdown to the World Cup now less than 100 days away it would seem obvious that a settlement of the Zimbabwe problem would be uppermost in Zuma's mind. Instead, the South African President, supported by the AU and SADC, has chosen to echo Mugabe's call for the lifting of sanctions. In the same week that the US renewed its sanctions against named Zanu PF individuals and firms, it was never likely that Gordon Brown would agree to Zuma's call. Human rights, press freedom and issues of governance, have to be resolved first, Brown insisted, before we can consider lifting sanctions.

While all the pomp and ceremony of Zuma's state visit was going on in London, back in Zimbabwe there was increasing evidence of human rights abuses and repression of people's rights. Gertrude Hambira, the brave leader of the farm workers' union, together with the entire leadership are in hiding following CIO and police harassment. Their 'crime' was to produce a film showing police violence against their members, 'Bringing the police into disrespect' was the charge. What that really means of course is telling the country and the world how the police treat its own citizens. Not white farmers, this time, but black farm workers, the poorest of the poor, driven out of their homes and jobs by greedy Zanu PF recipients of the land grab. While Jacob Zuma calls for the lifting of sanctions in London, Robert Mugabe tells the media in Harare that "We are not the biggest violators of human rights in the world." Rather like saying, "Well, yes, we've killed, tortured and imprisoned a few but not nearly as many as other countries have." Such childish immaturity from an 86 year old man, who has, incidentally just announced that he will stand for re-election, does not suggest that wisdom is a necessary adjunct of old age. If, or should it be when, he is nominated by the party to stand for another five years, Robert Mugabe will be over 90 years old! Time enough for him to have learned some wisdom and plain common sense?

While the Old Man maintains his vice-like grip on power aided by friends like China and South Africa, the Forgotten Children of Zimbabwe were the subject of Xoliswa Sithole's harrowing documentary shown on the BBC this week. In a truly shocking portrayal of the suffering of Zimbabwe's children, the film maker, Sithole, a young woman who was herself brought up in Zimbabwe, repeated time and again, "It wasn't like this when I was at school here. I have filmed all over Africa" she said, "and I have never seen anything as bad as this." A tiny girl, no more than seven years old by the look of her, was nursing her dying mother and caring for her little sister. There was no food, no money and no compassion from the school authorities who turned her away from the education that is her right because her mother could not pay the fees, not even one dollar could the poor woman find. In an appalling slum settlement a man and two school-age daughters, were reduced to picking over waste in search of bones to sell. And an orphaned boy somewhere in the rural areas, acknowledged by his teachers to be the brightest in his class, was desperately panning for gold to pay his school fees. By the end of the film, Xoliswa Sithole was herself in tears. "It wasn't like this when I was growing up." she said again as the tears streamed down her face.

And the man who has been in power for the last thirty years, overseeing the steady decline of everything that Zimbabwe once was, is Robert Gabriel Mugabe. It is not sanctions that have ruined the lives and futures of these children, it is Mugabe and his conviction that 'winning the Liberation War' entitles him and his Zanu PF cronies to lay claim to every asset: the farms, the mines, the diamonds and now the businesses .While Mugabe's praise-singers laud him to the skies as "a special gift God gave to Zimbabwe and Africa" (Didymus Mutasa); "a great visionary and revolutionary - constant as the northern star" (the Manyika Post), the children of Zimbabwe live in utter penury and are denied their basic human right to education and hope for the future.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH.