Andrew Langa
“If you put my name they will kill me”
Sokwanele Article: May 25th, 2005“If you put my name they will kill me”, said my informant, a rake-thin lady who wore a permanently anxious expression on her wizened face. So we agreed I would tell her story under a pseudonym and in the telling I would be careful not to relay any particular details that might assist the CIO to identify her (The Central Intelligence Organization being Zimbabwe's much feared spy agency, the equivalent of Apartheid South Africa's BOSS or Bureau of State Security). The fear in her voice was palpable which made the bravery of my informant – let's call her Mai Mpofu – all the more remarkable in being willing to talk to anyone.
Degrees in Violence
Sokwanele Article: May 25th, 2005It was Robert Mugabe himself who once famously boasted that he had many degrees in violence. Indeed, if we go no further back in history than the violent farm invasions which started in the year 2000 and the mindless violence meted out to political opponents in the ensuing parliamentary and presidential elections, it is fair to say that violence has become one of the trade marks of Mugabe’s ZANU PF party. It should come as no surprise therefore to learn that, despite Mugabe’s more recent disavowal of violence (for PR purposes), many of his lieutenants in the party continue to resort to what Zimbabweans have come to regard as ZANU PF’s traditional style of politics. Andrew Langa, recently declared the member of parliament for Insiza constituency in Matabeland, and effectively the ZANU PF war lord for the area, is a case in point.
Eleventh Day of Christmas: Christmas cancelled - order of ZANU PF
Sokwanele Article: January 5th, 2005All the invitations had gone out and the preparations were well in hand. Ms Sheba Dube, founder and organizer of the Providence Orphan and Caregivers' Project, had put in an enormous amount of hard work into the Christmas party intended for orphans and poor villagers at Insiza in Matabeleland South province on December 23. Drawing on her wide range of contacts with Rotary and other local well-wishers in Bulawayo, she had sourced enough food to provide a really special meal of chickens and rice and other delicacies for the 300 or so orphaned children covered by her project, plus a number of poor local villagers. She had purchased dolls as gifts for the children and balloons to make it a festive occasion. She had also collected a large quantity of clothing to give away, plus 60 20 kg bags of mealie meal for the orphans and child-headed households in the area. And she had laid on a three tonne truck to transport all of this from Bulawayo to the remote Insiza.
