Zimbabwe senate elections: “the opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference”

It’s election day in Zimbabwe today, and the fact that the general public doesn’t care is perhaps one of the saddest indictments of the state of democracy in our country.

Zanu-pf skulduggery has run true to form. I, for example, have joined the group of the many people in our country who can say that they have been disenfranchised by zanu-pf. I doubt I’ll be the last. I’m sure zanu-pf can conjure up more spurious reasons to strip people of their right to vote. I suspect that their ultimate objective will be to achieve a voting population who only vote zanu-pf.

And in the absence of real policies or real solutions, mugabe has been forced to find something to say at rallies and, yes, you guessed, it, he pulled out the same old (boring) anti-British rhetoric while at a rally in Chipinge yesterday:

In his latest tirade, at a senate campaign rally in Chipinge yesterday, the president accused Britain of plotting to further isolate Zimbabwe.

“It is more than unfortunate that the government’s noble responsibility of acquiring land and giving it to the people should have drawn so much wrath from Britain which continues to lobby the international community to politically and economically isolate Zimbabwe,” he said. The 81-year-old president claimed his opponents, helped by whites, Britain and other Western interests including the media - “the same forces we fought against” in the 1970s’ liberation war - wanted to destroy unity (from ZimDaily).

But the worst of zanu-pf’s skulduggery for me is the unspeakable cruelty. I was utterly disgusted (but completely unsurprised) last month when I learned that mugabe had decided to bar food aid distribution until after the senate polls were over. We all know that this means food is to be the zanu-pf campaigning trump-card. And, just as expected, the day before the polls the state-controlled Horrid newspaper was quoting mugabe as saying

Grain inflows into the country will be stepped up in the next two weeks as part of efforts by the Government to ensure that no one starves because of drought-induced food shortages

And where was mugabe when he uttered these statements? Matabeleland South - an area critically affected by food shortages, and one that traditionally supports the MDC. To understand how insidiously sinister comments like these are in a place like Matableland South, you’d have to know that this is also an area that has previously suffered deliberate starvation tactics - food embargoes - at the hand of mugabe’s zanu-pf during the Gukurhundi in the 1980s. This extract comes from the ‘Breaking the Silence’ report:

There is a lot of information about the terrible effects of the food curfew which lasted throughout the early months of 1984. The embargo on food was total: stores were closed, drought relief food deliveries were stopped, houses were searched and food found was destroyed. The missions kept records of the situation and tried to feed people when they could, but this was difficult for them. They had to watch children fainting from hunger at school and know they were being beaten and detained as well. There was a real concern that people would begin dying in large numbers if the curfew continued.

Can you imagine how you would feel if you had survived that, only to hear the architect of that unspeakable act utter these words a couple of days before an election:

“We are concerned to know how people are managing in these difficult circumstances in terms of food”

[...]

“Maize comes by train, but it’s not much. We are talking to BBR (Bulawayo Beitbridge Railways) to increase the number of wagons bringing food from South Africa into the country.

[...]

“I hope that by the time we come back to Matabeleland South for the Zanu-PF National People’s Conference during the second week of December, distribution of the maize would have improved significantly,’’ Cde Mugabe said.

[...]

Later at the rally, Cde Mugabe said the Government was keen to ensure that no Zimbabwean, irrespective of political affiliation, starves because of drought-induced food shortages.

Ask yourself this: why did mugabe delay food aid distribution until AFTER the senate elections were over if he was so concerned about people starving and suffering, and so keen to make sure that the areas most critically affected received food first, and so totally disinterested in whether the voters were mdc or zanu-pf supporters? In fact, if all of this was true, then why bother to mention food at all during an election campaign?

The answer: it’s the same old sinister zanu-pf. That wasn’t concern in his speech, it was a calculated reminder of hardship, a reminder of who has the power to ensure food arrives, and a reminder of the historical relationship between voting and food. This is campaigning, zanu-pf style.

And that’s what we need to remember in the days that follow this election - nothing is going to change as a result of having a senate. These elections are not going to improve democracy in Zimbabwe; they won’t fix unemployment; they won’t bring fuel to the country; people won’t suddenly be able to feed their children and afford school fees; the sick are not going to be able to get drugs or treatment in well resourced clinics and employers will still struggle every single day to keep their businesses afloat through hyperinflation and a rapidly collapsing economy.

Zimbabweans are not fools - we know all of this. And this knowledge explains why so many Zimbabweans see these senate elections as a complete non-event. The BBC quotes Lovemore Madhuku, a pro-democracy activist, as saying the senate is “a waste of time and resources” and that “Voter turnout will definitely be low [because] people are fed up with elections.” And the Mail and Guardian quotes John Makumbe, a political scientist at the main Zimbabwe university, describing the senate as “jobs for the boys”:

“It’s a toothless bulldog that will do nothing. In the current situation, the money could be better spent on social and public services,” he said.

But it is Angelina Nkomazana’s voice that powerfully sums up for me how many ordinary poverty-stricken Zimbabweans feel:

The 26 November poll date holds no significance for Angelina Nkomazana, a communal farmer in a tiny hamlet in Matabeleland North province.

The day will be spent like any other, trying to make some money doing chores for her neighbours or collecting water for them from a distant dam with a donkey-drawn cart, while other Zimbabweans head for polling stations to vote in the country’s inaugural senatorial election.

Nkomazana, who has two orphaned grandchildren to take care of, told IRIN she knew very little about the upcoming election.

“I have heard about it [the election] but I don’t know when it is. Most people are in the dark [about it] … and I personally have little interest. I’m tired of voting and things remain the same, with life getting tougher,” she said.

“I feel I have to concentrate on fending for my grandchildren. I struggle to feed them, and what makes my situation worse is that I’ve no support - both their parents are late [dead],” Nkomazana explained (from Reuters).

I can’t help but be reminded today of the words of Elie Wiesel, winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1986: “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference”. Perhaps mugabe should take note of our apathy and our disinterest and realise that Zimbabwean voters are further away from him and his policies than we ever have been before. Our anger and pain hasn’t translated into the support that he craves; instead, we’ve moved even further away towards indifference. He should be worried.

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