An account of a rural political meeting in Mudzi, Zimbabwe

This was sent to us by email by a member of the MDC-T party.

On Sunday we travelled to Mudzi, Mashonaland East for a meeting/rally. It was actually a few of the successful councillors who wanted to have a small celebration and thank their supporters. The venue was about 50kms from Nyamapanda border…. talk about a remote area! Also keep in mind that this area was one of the worst hit by political violence last year, and the nearby Chimukoko area.

Bumping down a track, which could barely be called a road, we saw an MDC ‘zambia’ hanging in a tree. Standing nearby were a few men and two women. They excitedly ran ahead of us to show us the way down a path to the venue. We passed some jatropha plants which is the joke of the area: “We were told to plant these for fuel. They [Zanu PF] are mad! We want to plant crops we can eat”.

The venue was underneath a large baobab tree. Stuck on the tree was a poster of Morgan Tsvangirai and next to it a small one of our late Mother Susan Tsvangirai. Approx 500 people attended, some of whom must have walked for many many miles. There was much singing, dancing followed by serious speeches. After the speeches, it was question and discussion time and most people focused on the following issues:

* there are still some people who were injured in last years political violence who have not yet had medical treatment
* they need assistance to start projects, especially to keep their youth occupied
* they were very grateful for the seed they received last year through Helping Hands project, but requested that any future seed donations were small grains such as mhunga and sorghum, rather than maize
* health and education problems loomed large as ever for them

At 3 pm lunch was provided for every man, woman and child. Good rough ground sadza, chicken and matumbo’s. It was delicious, and very humbling to see a poor community like that produce buckets of muriwo and tins of sadza for everyone present.

So what was most positive about the visit? Well Mjudzi is a very Zanu PF area where, in the past, the MDC would not have been able (or been too afraid) to hold a rally. The gathering, attended by an MP and a member of the Executive, gave them confidence to move into other areas nearby and hold similar celebration rallies.

When one sits in a city, one forgets the vulnerability of people living in such remote areas and the distances they have to travel, mostly on foot or by scotch cart, to the nearest town ie Kotwa. The hardships they have to face on a daily basis, day in and day out. I am proud to be a member of the MDC and to be a part of the change taking place. Most of all being priviledged to share times like we did yesterday with the amazing people of Mudzi, the grass roots people of Zimbabwe.

This entry was posted by Sokwanele2 on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 12:40 pm. You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.