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

Friday 29th May 2009

Dear Friends.
Over the years, Zimbabweans have grown used to hearing half-truths and downright lies from Zanu PF and their associated hangers-on. We learned that from Zanu PF we could expect nothing but lies and propaganda.
The emergence of the MDC on the political scene was like a breath of fresh air blowing across the arid political landscape of Zanu PF hegemony. Here at last were men and women of integrity and courage, we thought. They would not lie to us or try to mislead us. Theirs was the political and moral high ground, they stood for truth and justice for all, no 'spin' or lying propaganda from them. That's what we thought. Papa Morgan was our hero. When we saw him beaten and bloody, we wept for him and all the other brave cadres who were putting their lives on the line for the New Beginning we all dreamed of for our beloved country.

Then came the Inclusive Government. The unbelievable had happened: after months of tortuous negotiations, the MDC had sat down with their former oppressors in a so-called Government of National Unity. The past was behind us, we must forgive and forget, we were told. 'National Reconciliation' was what we must all work for now. And if that meant drawing a veil over past and present horrors then that must be done. Whatever the price, we must preserve the illusion that all is now well in Zimbabwe. We must present a united front to the world - or no money would come Zimbabwe's way.
That, apparently, is the thinking within the MDC leadership team now. How else can we explain Morgan Tsvangirai's extraordinary statement this week during an interview he gave to highlight the achievements of the first 100days of the GNU. The pictures of beaten and bloodied white farmers and terrified farm workers, imprisoned and beaten, the stories of their nightmarish ordeals on invaded farms continue to be seen and heard on an almost daily basis; yet Morgan Tsvangirai chooses this moment to refer to the " so-called farm invasions" as "isolated incidents…blown out of proportion. We have investigated examples of these so-called farm invasions…we have asked the Minister of Lands to give us a detailed report of what has been happening over all these so-called land invasions and the outcry over that."

Total disbelief as we listened to the report of Tsvangirai's words; we just could not believe what we were hearing. From the farmers themselves came stunned incredulity and deep shock. How could the Prime Minister deny the truth that was staring at him from the faces of beaten farmers, farmers to whom he had promised the restoration of law and order and punishment for the perpetrators of violence? In the week when Zimbabwe earned the dubious accolade of 'the most food-aid dependent country in the world' and the Red Cross/ Red Crescent figures showed that 80% of Zimbabwe's population is now reliant on food-aid to survive, Morgan Tsvangirai chooses to deny the widespread reality of farm invasions and the subsequent loss of agricultural production. Instead, he describes the chaos as 'so-called'. Since April, Ben Freeth reports, "We have reaped absolutely nothing. 150 farm workers have been unable to work and are living in terror." In an Open Letter to the Prime Minister dated May 26 from his Mount Carmel farm in the heat of the continuing violent invasion of his property, Freeth graphically describes the horror and blatant illegality of the invaders' actions. "As you will know", he writes, "this is not just an isolated incident. In this area where approximately 6000 hectares of irrigated winter wheat used to be grown, I do not know of a single hectare of winter wheat being sown this year."

It is utterly incomprehensible that Morgan Tsvangirai should now choose to deny the reality in the light of such facts. Is this the same man who, just four weeks ago, said, "The rule of law is a moral imperative and a business necessity. The responsibility to save and protect the quality of life for all must preoccupy us in political leadership, regardless of race, colour, tribe, religion or political affiliation." What has happened in four short weeks to so radically change the Prime Minister's vision of the reality on the ground? As he goes back to SADC over Mugabe's refusal to remove Gideon Gono from the Reserve Bank, the Prime Minister denies the reality of farm invasions and says not a word about protecting property rights or even of the urgent necessity of allowing the farmers to grow food, both issues which are specifically covered under the GPA. It is hardly likely that foreign investors will accepts the validity of Tsvangirai's claim that farm invasions are just "isolated incidents blown out of all proportion" when the evidence of their own eyes tells them that the invasions are widespread and violent and the food shortages are desperately real. Today the EU stepped into the debate. The EU's argument is that all farm and conservancy invasions should cease; not, ironically, because of the human rights issue or the rampant food shortages in the country, but because of the damage to wild life and tourism. While that is certainly true, it makes little difference to the central argument which is that farmers, be they black or white, are being prevented from growing food by violent thugs with police and government connivance. So much for the 'Moral imperative'of the Rule of Law that the Prime Minister talked about so passionately just four weeks ago!

For those of us who so much wanted to believe that Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC might bring change from within when they joined this (so-called) Unity Government, this is a moment of bitter disillusion. We see no real change from Zanu PF; it is the MDC who are now changing their tune to chime with their former adversaries. The MDC would do well to remember that their courageous supporters up and down the country risked life and limb to vote for them back in March. Half-truths, expediency, spin and downright lies are Zanu PF tactics, we did not expect them from the MDC. The people are neither blind nor deaf; a disenchanted electorate is not likely to forget when it comes time to exercise their democratic right again. The more the MDC sounds and looks like Zanu PF, the less likely the people are to vote for them. That's how I see it.

Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH.

Friday 22nd May 2009

Dear Friends.
They call her 'The Lady'. Her name is Aung San Suu Ki and she is the leader of the opposition in Mynmar (Burma). In 1990 the military junta allowed free elections for the first time in 30 years and Aung San Suu Ki's National League for Democracy won 392 0f the 489 seats. It made no difference; the military junta led by Than Shwe refused to step down. The Lady has been under strict house arrest ever since and although she is known and revered by the free world, her own supporters at home only saw her again after 4 years when she appeared outside her house in 2007. That was until May 04 this year when a mysterious American named John Yettaw swam across the lake to her house and, for whatever reason, placed the Lady in violation of the terms of her house arrest, which prohibits visitors. It was then that the world got a glimpse of Aung San Suu Ki as she stood trial inside the notorious prison where she is now being held, pending sentence for breaching the terms of her house arrest. Reports from foreign diplomats allowed inside the court to witness the trial, indicate that The Lady was in fine fettle. Her indomitable spirit shines out and her resistance is undiminished by the years of incarceration in her own home. Along with an estimated 2000 other political prisoners, Aung San Suu Ki has come to symbolise the spirit of resistance to cruel and repressive regimes the world over.

Mynmar is many thousands of miles away from Zimbabwe. The people are a different race, different culture and different colour but the intensity of their suffering under a brutal military dictatorship has evoked courageous resistance and earned the admiration of the world and a Nobel Peace Prize for Aung San Suu Ki. In Zimbabwe, too, we have seen and continue to see the courage of ordinary citizens in the face of police brutality. There was a reminder of that courage- and incorruptible integrity – this last week when the Zimbabwe Law Society, represented by a group of lawyers once again took to the streets to protest the arrest of their colleagues on patently concocted charges. The banners they carried proclaimed the lawyers' unfailing belief in the rule of law and not as one of them said 'Rule by Law', referring, of course, to the illegal behaviour of the police who appear to believe that they are above the law. This week also saw another demonstration by the tireless Woza women, accompanied by their colleagues in Moza. 1000 of them took to the Bulawayo streets in protest at the GNU's failure to bring about meaningful change in their daily lives. The small miracle of both these protests was that in neither case was a single baton raised or shot fired by the police at the protesters. The lawyers were allowed to hand in their petition at the Ministry of Justice, even escorted by a police officer. The Minister was not there – surprise, surprise! Perhaps he was hiding out in the loo? So, the petition was pushed under the door for the Minister to find when he returned to his office. The Woza/Moza women and men were similarly allowed to disperse in peace after their demonstration. No bandaged, bloody heads, no arrests on spurious charges – not this time anyway.

Is this a sign that Zimbabwe is becoming a more tolerant society, that the police are at last doing what we expect of law enforcement officers? Sadly, those two examples are not typical of what we see in Zimbabwe as a whole. There are still too many instances of the police working hand in hand with the law breakers and failing to protect the innocent victims. Farmers continue to be brutally assaulted and the shocking attack on an 80-year old farmer's mother - apparently while she was in police custody - seems to suggest that the police themselves are not a united force. The truth is that the situation varies from place to place; it all depends on the political allegiance of the local police chief. We have never been told how many of the police are in fact professionally trained officers but are in reality war veterans or Youth Militia promoted to wear the ZRP uniform and following their own agenda. The continuing, inexplicable silence of the MDC partners in the GNU on the issue of the violent farm invasions and the connivance of the police does not help matters at all. We hear that Robert Mugabe has finally agreed to swear in Roy Bennett as the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, that may be another small sign that things are changing for the better but it will be an uphill task to restore order on the farms after almost 10 years of chaos. What remains an absolute priority is that the land must be used to grow food for the near-starving population. Dependence on donors and Food Aid is not the answer to Zimbabwe's problems.

"Would you like to see President Mugabe go?" Hilary Clinton was asked in a recent interview. The American Secretary of State replied, "I think that would be in the best interests of everyone…and South Africa has a big role to play in this." The MDC's decision to refer the outstanding issues of the GPA to SADC and the AU, however comatose those bodies may be, is the only step available to the MDC in the light of Mugabe's intransigence over the Gono/ Tomana issue. While these two men remain in office there can be no meaningful reform of the economy or the justice system and without that Zimbabwe cannot move forward.

Like the suffering people of Mynmar, Zimbabweans are the victims of a power-hungry kleptocracy about which the world can do very little. Only the courage of the brave men and women prepared to demonstrate publicly their longing for true justice and democracy will keep the hope alive that true change is on the way.

Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH

Friday 15th May 2009

Dear Friends.
The inauguration of South Africa's new president, Jacob Zuma, was an opportunity to marvel once again at what must surely be one of the political miracles of the twentieth century: the end of apartheid. Speaking in 1993 when Mandela and De Klerk were presented jointly with the Nobel Peace Prize, Archbishop Desmond Tutu remarked that South Africa was a microcosm of the world with its mixture of black and white, rich and poor, developed and undeveloped. "Once we have got it right," the Archbishop said, "South Africa will be the paradigm for the rest of the world." (as quoted in Tomorrow Is Another Country: The inside story of South Africa's negotiated revolution by Allister Sparks)

The 'negotiated revolution' of Sparks' sub-title was movingly dramatised on Channel Four recently. 'Endgame' portrayed the tensions and very real fears on both sides at this early meeting of members of the ANC in exile and prominent members of the Afrikaans community. There, on one side of the table were the so-called 'terrorists', Thabo Mbeki, leading the ANC delegation and later Jacob Zuma himself joined the ANC side. Opposite them sat the Afrikaans hardliners: academics, bankers and financiers, all of them passionate believers in the doctrine of 'Separate Development'. What had brought the Afrikaaners to the negotiating table was not a conversion to democracy but the painful realisation that in strictly economic and business terms, apartheid just would not work. It was harsh economic reality that finally brought an end to a system of racial segregation that had shocked the world.
It was impossible to watch 'Endgame' and not make the connections with the present arrangement in Zimbabwe. The ANC's first priority was the release of all political prisoners. That struck a deep chord when I thought about how little the MDC had publicly addressed the problem of political detainees. Everything we have heard since the formation of the GNU has been about money and 'changing Zimbabwe's image'. There has been very little said about human rights and justice. It was the total collapse of the Zimbabwean economy that brought about this marriage of convenience. Speaking in Senegal, Zimbabwe's Minister of Finance said, "Zimbabweans don't have any other option but this experimental government. Otherwise we'll sink into the realms of failure like Somalia, Sierra Leone and Liberia." And certainly, the figures are shocking: Tax revenue 20 million, Public Servants' Wages 30 million. For the period 2000-2007, when the farm invasions were at their height, the economy contracted by 40%.

Alongside the economic collapse, the continuing abuse of human rights and harassment of political opponents goes on unabated and almost unmentioned. This last week alone we have seen the arrest of independent newspaper editors; foreign journalists arrested for being on an invaded farm and 150 white farmers facing prosecution for being illegally present on their own farms. The activists charged with various 'crimes' against the state are now be out on bail but the schedule of their upcoming trials runs solidly right through from May to July 20th when Jestina Mukoko and five others will stand trial for recruiting personnel for military training in Botswana. MDC MP's are imprisoned and as for Roy Bennet, the designate Deputy Minister of Agriculture, his trial for possessing weapons of war is due to recommence on July 1st. Mugabe has never made any secret of the fact that he regards white farmers as enemies because, he says, they oppose his so-called Land Reform that led directly to the country's economic collapse. It's ironic that the MDC should be working so hard to reverse the economic ruin caused by the man who once claimed that 'No one could have run the economy better.'

Mugabe is 'Part of the solution, whether you like it or not', Morgan Tsvangirai told an audience of Zimbabwean exiles when he was in South Africa for the inauguration of President Zuma. Back home, he went further and spoke of 'hardliners' intent on wrecking the GNU. Is it not time to name and shame these hardliners who continue to violate the rule of law? With respect, I ask what makes the Prime Minister so sure that Mugabe himself in not one of those very hardliners -or has Morgan Tsangirai been mesmerised by the famous Mugabe charm?

Only this week Mugabe demonstrated yet again where his true political sympathies lie when he received the North Korean Kim Vong Nam on an official visit. With breath-taking insensitivity to the pain and offence it would cause the families of the victims of the Gukurahundi massacre, Mugabe thanked the North Korean de facto leader for all the help his country had given Zimbabwe in the past – including, no doubt, the training of the 5th Brigade that carried out the virtual genocide against the Ndebele people. Rumour has it that the North Koreans are after the uranium in the Zambezi valley. If Zimbabwe is indeed about to sell uranium mining rights to North Korea, then it's easy to see how such an act would further alienate western donors. North Korea's recent launch of a nuclear missile in defiance of a Security Council ban has been widely condemned, yet Mugabe is said to have congratulated Kim Vong Nam on the launch. Was Mugabe speaking with the agreement of his 'partners' in the GNU, I wonder?

Watching the SATV coverage of President Zuma's inauguration and seeing the warm embrace given to the dictator, Robert Mugabe, by the democratically elected Jacob Zuma, we were reminded again how hard it is to get rid of dictators. Eradicating the system of apartheid only happened after years of negotiations, when all the parties agreed on the necessity for change. 'It's a process' says Nelson Chamisa of the GNU 'and not without pain' but no amount of 'spin' by MDC officials can persuade an increasingly sceptical Zimbabwean public that the GNU is bringing about real change.

FW.DE Klerk, the reluctant reformer who finally dismantled the apartheid state, took over from a certain PW Botha as Prime minister of South Africa. Botha was known as the 'Old Crocodile'. Zimbabwe too has its Old Crocodile. The question is, has he already swallowed up the MDC? Perhaps the arrest yesterday of the respected human rights lawyer, Alex Muchadehama, by Mugabe's own secret police, will provoke the MDC into some kind of strong public reaction – just to prove to the people that the 'New Beginning' they were promised is more than just a fast-fading illusion.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH.

8th May 2009

Dear Friends. Anyone who has ever brought up children knows that one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to issue threats you know you can't carry out. After a while even very small children get to know that their parents' threats are meaningless if they are not accompanied by action. The end result is the collapse of trust; threats - and promises - must be adhered to if there is to be a solid framework of trust between parent and child.

This seemingly trite observation about child-rearing applies equally to relationships in later life. Without trust and belief in the integrity and honesty of the other side, there can be no meaningful basis of sound relations, in whatever sphere of life you operate. It is as true in international relations as it is in politics at a national and local level. Put simply, it means that each side must trust the other to say clearly what they mean and mean exactly what they say, threats and promises included.

It is a lesson that the MDC seem not to have learned. We heard yet another ultimatum and accompanying threat from them this week. It was Tendai Biti's turn to issue an ultimatum to the Unity Government, a government of which he is himself a part. In effect what he said was 'Settle all outstanding issues of the Global Political Agreement by Monday, May 11th. or the MDC will refer the matter to the party's National Council which is due to meet on May 17'. That was the threat Biti held over the heads of his 'partners' in this Unity Government. I can't imagine that threat had any of his 'partners' in government shaking in their boots! Zanu PF's response was predicatable: 'We are committed to the GNU' they affirmed. No threats can frighten them! Why should they be scared when they know that they hold all the levers of power? That was powerfully demonstrated this week with the re-arrest of MDC activists: Jestina Mukoko and the fifteen others. Press reports said Jestina and all the others in the crowded courtroom were stunned by the magistrate's decision to refuse them bail. One can only imagine their anguish as they were taken back to the hellish Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison. The next day the very same magistrate granted them bail. So they go back to their homes again but with the very real threat of their upcoming trials hangs over them. No one can say that Mugabe's threats are not real! It would be comforting to think that this reversal of the bail decision was a demonstration of people's power but what it, in fact, revealed yet again was that justice and the rule of law in Zimbabwe have become nothing more than a tool whereby Mugabe demonstrates his complete domination of the legal process. The hapless magistrate was simply acting on orders from the politically motivated Attorney General. Meanwhile Ghandi Mudzingwa, Chris Dhlamini and the jounalist Shadreck Manyere remain in police custody. Their 'crime' is more serious we are told; they were found in possession of weapons of war; more to the point is the fact that Mudzingwa and Dhlamini are MDC officials and Manyere is an independent journalist, another of Zanu PF's perceived 'enemies'.

Speaking to the National Endowment for Peace and Democracy in the US last week, Tendai Biti made this staggering assertion to his audience of Zimbabwean observers. Zimbabwe was experiencing "Peace and stability, the biggest achievement of the inclusive government." he claimed. By the time he arrived in London and gave an interview to the BBC, Biti's message had changed somewhat. The interview was broadcast on the Today programme and I made a note of Biti's words: "People are suffering and that's the reality. When you have 95% of the population surviving on less than 20c a day that's a disaster. So I think our people need help." If that is Tendai Biti's understanding of what constitutes 'peace and stability' then we are entitled to ask whether he and the MDC as a whole have become so divorced from the reality that, like Zanu PF, the people's continued suffering - on the invaded farms, in the rural villages and in the poor townships - means nothing to them? Meanwhile the latest report on the situation in Zimbabwe from the IMF states, "Poverty and unemployment have risen to catastrophic levels. 70% of the population is in need of food assistance…These disastrous outcomes have resulted from poor policies and weak governance." And this is the government of which the MDC is now an integral part. It is becoming clearer by the day that neither their threats nor their promises have any real value without the power to implement them. And Robert Mugabe and his cronies remain adamant that they will not share real power with them. No one should be deluded into thinking that Robert Mugabe is being manipulated by some so-called third force of army generals or other assorted malcontents. It is Mugabe alone who wields the power and he is not about to surrender it.

Someone should tell Tendai Biti that the absence of outright war is not the same as the 'peace and stability' that he claims now exists in our poor, benighted country. There is no peace without justice, Mr Biti.

Yours in the (continuing) struggle. PH





1st May 2009

Dear Friends.
Over the years, Zimbabweans have become accustomed to hearing Robert Mugabe's mastery of language. We know how skilful he is at adapting what he says and how he says it to suit his audience. Linguists refer to this concept as 'register': the ability to use the appropriate language in different contexts. Mugabe is a master of 'register'. In the days when he strutted the world stage, we would hear him addressing world leaders in perfectly enunciated English, his clothes and body language epitomising their understanding of what a world leader should be. We at home heard a very different Robert Mugabe when he returned to his native land. Gone was the suave, urbane statesman, instead we saw the clenched fist and heard the language of hate and vengeance as he addressed his supporters at Zanu PF rallies up and down the country. He took to wearing the Zanu PF regalia, a baseball cap and shirt with his own image embossed on the front - a worrying symptom of ego-mania, I'd say- but since the faithful were also wearing party T shirts, perhaps he was merely identifying with 'his' people. It was all part of Mugabe's assessment of the appropriate 'register' for the occasion. For the listener, or the reader, the important point was to know the audience he was addressing. That way one could test the validity of the message and the intention of the speaker. In Mugabe's case the rallies were clearly intended to whip up his followers into a frenzy of hatred against his so-called enemies: the British, the Americans and, of course, the opposition.

Without in any way suggesting that these two men are cut from the same cloth, I was reminded of how important 'register' is this week when Morgan Tsvangirai, addressing two very different audiences, made what seemed like widely differing remarks. Speaking in front of thousands of his supporters, the Prime Minister said of Mugabe, "We respect each other although we may disagree. There's nothing Robert Mugabe does without me approving and there's nothing I do without him approving."
Bearing in mind that Tsvangirai was speaking to his own supporters, it's hard to understand what his intention was and if it was really necessary to go to such lengths to identify with a man whose functionaries continue to torture and imprison MDC party officials. I was not there at the rally so I cannot assess how this remark was received by the crowd but I can guess that if I or any member of my family had been imprisoned and tortured by Mugabe's regime, I would find it pretty difficult to 'respect' the political ideology that sanctioned such behaviour. Was Tsvangirai telling his followers that he 'approved' the patently illegal treatment of Ghandi Mudzingwa and Chris Dhlamini even though he didn't agree with it? Was he 'approving' the government sanctioned farm invasions and all the other lawlessness going on in the country, often at the instigation of the police themselves? Reading Tsvangirai's words thousands of miles away, it is impossible to escape the conclusion that the Prime Minister had seriously misjudged the mood of the country. The people may be desperate for the GNU to succeed but not, I believe, at the cost of justice for the hundreds of victims of Zanu PF brutality. To align himself with Robert Mugabe in such an abject way as Tsvangirai did, was, I believe a grave error of judgement on his part. Despite his condemnation of Thabo Mbeki's earlier 'quiet diplomacy, Tsvangirai appears to be adopting the same approach now. He says he will not use 'megaphone' diplomacy to condemn wrong doings by his partners in government but there is a difference between shouting from the roof-tops and the almost servile utterances we hear from him now.

Talking to the business community was no doubt an easier task for Morgan Tsvangirai; the businessmen and women's primary aim is to make money after all. That aim fits in very neatly with the GNU's repeated pleas to the west to lift sanctions and make cash immediately available for the bankrupt country. What was interesting was that, in marked contrast with his remarks to his own followers, Tsvangirai chose this occasion to stress time and again how important it is to restore the rule of law in Zimbabwe if there is to be a favourable economic climate.

"If business is the engine of growth," he said, "then the rule of law is the fuel that drives that engine…The rule of law is a moral imperative and a business necessity." Later on in the same speech, Tsvangirai said "The responsibility to save and protect the quality of life for all must preoccupy us, the political leadership, regardless of race, colour, tribe, religion or political affiliation…a value system (that) can only rest on the pillars of civil liberties, the right of association and the right of civil society to challenge those entrusted with government." Does Robert Mugabe 'approve' of these fine words - and they are just words since Tsvangirai gave no evidence of what steps he and his fellow ministers in the GNU can take to make them a reality - does he 'respect' the man who spoke them? We have no evidence that Mugabe respects or listens to anyone, least of all his partner in this so-called Unity Government. Robert Mugabe gained power through the barrel of a gun; he has boasted of his 'degrees in violence' but it seems that Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC ministers are prepared to overlook past and present crimes for the sake of national reconciliation - but without the necessary truth and justice prevailing. Where is the 'moral imperative' here? A police report states this week that there have been 2000 fresh reports of violence since the GNU was installed but still Morgan Tsvangirai tells his followers that he 'respects and approves' Mugabe's words and actions. The thousands of Zimbabweans who have suffered and continue to suffer under Mugabe's ruthless brutality deserve nothing less justice.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle, PH