‘Change’ is not enough: Zimbabweans want more
Zimbabweans are very good at voting: more Zimbabweans turn out to vote than citizens in many other strong western democracies. Last elections, the message from the MDC-T over the last ten years has been very simple: Vote for change. The party’s rallying call is ‘Chinja!’ – Change!
Who could argue with this? The country’s despotic regime had driven us into extreme levels of unemployment and poverty and imposed hellish conditions on all of our lives where terror and fear thrived. ‘Change’ – no matter what it was – was bound to be better than the misery we were all struggling to survive under.
So, as we all know, people turned out and voted overwhelmingly for change – year after year – until last year, when ‘change’ finally arrived. It perhaps wasn’t what we dreamed of or thought we’d get when we voted the Zanu PF party out of power, but the situation we have now in the form of the GNU is still different to what we had before: like it or not, it is a form of ‘change’.
But is it enough of a political promise fulfilled? Clearly not.
This weekend, news reports told us how Zimbabweans in London heckled Morgan Tsvangirai when he asked them to return home:
The response to his rallying cry was not what he would have hoped for. Instead of a wave of patriotic fervour, his words unleashed jeers from thousands of exiled Zimbabweans.
The Movement for Democratic Change president appealed for the best and brightest to return to help rebuild his nation. The plea was shouted down with chants of “Mugabe must go” and calls for politicians’ children to return first.
The MDC party slogan “chinja” (change), which Mr Tsvangirai used to get to power, was employed yesterday to mock his assessment of the situation in Zimbabwe, which, he said, was one of “peace and stability”.
The ferocity of the crowd was such that he left the pulpit for two minutes before returning and saying: “I did not say ‘pack your bags tomorrow’, I said you should be thinking about coming home.” (Via The Independent)
The Zimbabwe Vigil, based in London, later circulated more angry opinions from Zimbabweans in the audience:
Some comments from the many disappointed and angry Zimbabweans who came on from the Cathedral to the Vigil, many of them first-timers:
- ‘When Morgan said “the schools have re-opened” everybody cheered. When Morgan said “the hospitals have re-opened” everybody was silent. When he said “there is peace in Zimbabwe” everyone heckled and booed and you could taste the anger in the air. One lady asked the question “if there are goods in the shops and the schools have re-opened where will everyone get money to buy food and send their children to school” – this was not answered.’
- ‘He was speaking like Mugabe. He is saying everything is now ok.’
- ‘The MDC expects everyone to agree or they are treated as an enemy’.
- ‘We have been betrayed by Tsvangirai’.
- ‘Today Tsvangirai was shot down in flames by Zimbabweans in the UK diaspora.’
- ‘How can Tsvangirai encourage people to go home when all his children are in the diaspora,’
Last month Morgan Tsvangirai addressed people at Wits university in South Africa. The refugee blogger who occasionally writes for ‘This is Zimbabwe’ sent us an email revealing his own disenchantment with the Prime Minister after he heard him speak there:
The Tsvangirai I once knew does not exist at all. The Prime Minister of Zimbabwe put in by the GNU said,” “President Mugabe was the cause of the problems in Zimbabwe and now he plays a crucial roll in the building of the country.”
If Mugabe plays a crucial role, why didn’t the MDC involve him in the formation of the [MDC] party? Why did they wait for the people of Zimbabwe to die before they come to their senses….?
Now I am in the diaspora, and they shake hands and forgive each other, but I have not forgiven anyone who tortured and abused me. I do not like Mugabe and Zanu PF, and if the MDC fall in the hands of Zanu they will lose my trust, my vote and my activism.
Many refugees claimed to be disappointed about Tsvangirai’s words after he also emphasised that even those people from the MDC who committed crimes claiming they were protecting themselves will face the court of law.
I spoke to [name and role supplied] of the Movement for Democratic Change Veteran Activist association (MDC VAA) now living in diaspora. He is also angry and even said that maybe the Prime Minister has been bought by Zanu PF.
I am so angry disappointed and we have to call an emergency meeting to address this. The GNU is failing to arrest Zanu people who are still invading the commercial farms and they want to arrest us…? How can he do this and claim it is safe at home?
I do not think this GNU will be for two years as it was agreed, it will take long in Zimbabwe. This Tsvangirai that is now saying Mugabe is a good man … what will he say in two years? Will he say Mugabe must go as before? Never! He seems he has been bought so the international community will lift sanctions against Mugabe and Zanu PF.
The anger expressed in this email, and the anger shown by those in London, indicates a growing bitterness with the lack of significant progress on the issues that have caused the most anger and distress to Zimbabweans. The most basic condition, set even before the MDC-T joined the GNU – namely releasing all political detainees – has still not been met. Human rights violations continue, and there are murmurings of militia bases being set up.
Zimbabweans do not feel safe and they do not believe that if they are abused that their persecutors will ever be brought to justice. The rule of law has not returned and the culture of impunity for Zanu PF loyalists persists. Rather than acknowledging the reality and enormity of these issues, calls to ‘go home’ gloss over profound worries and fears and provoke real anger.
The growing anger and mistrust being revealed is a cause for real concern and something I hope the MDC parties are taking very seriously indeed. The call to ‘vote for change’ may have worked for the MDC in previous elections, but I can’t help but ask, what happens when the next election rolls around and the people realise that ‘change‘ wasn’t enough, and what they really want is a firm promise of the return to the rule of law and democracy from a party they can believe in? Worryingly, who will the people vote for next time if they believe the MDC is incapable of fulfilling its promises? I hope the MDC parties are listening to the people right now very closely indeed and I hope they are thinking ahead to future elections.
I also hope the Zimbabwean people keep speaking out: if our politicians are failing to do what we asked them to do for us, say so, and keep saying so again and again, until the politicians finally hear us and take action.
June 22nd, 2009 14:22
If Zimbabweans lose faith in their politicians then it’s not suprising that western donors aren’t brimming with confidence either.
My response to those who heckled MT in London is “GOOD” and “WELL DONE”. Keep it up until politicos get their act together and make REAL changes… like the ones we want and demand.
June 22nd, 2009 14:50
I suppose there is a real danger that people won’t actually bother to vote, disillusioned by the so called democratic process. They never get the change they want, crave or vote for en mass. If this were to happen, then ZPF would get a legitimate majority and we are back to square one…how depsressing.
June 22nd, 2009 17:42
As Eddie Cross writes elsehere, Mugabe has always been afraid of losing power, and has, in fact, been entirely willing to do whatever it takes to retain it. From the Shona Fifth Brigade let loose on the Ndebele in the early years to the mobs of supposed veterans seizing white-owned farms turning the breadbasket of africa into a land of famine, Mugabe has been a deeply dangerous opponent to take on. And yet the MDC have done so. they have challenged him, and in so doing they have challenged the validation of his power. The tide is with them. The murderous career of Robert Mugabe wiil, like the totalitarians of the last century, enter the history books with shame.
June 23rd, 2009 06:05
Morgan, don’t waste your breath trying to whitewash the facts and tell us things are okay in Zim – we know they’re not, and never will be while Mugabe and his thugs hold onto the justice and security apparatus and are able to white-ant any of your small improvements on the ground.
You would get a completely different reception in the Diaspora if you could show us that you have arranged for everyone in the Diaspora to have a postal/overseas vote in the next election.
June 23rd, 2009 08:20
@UK – Diaspora – I’m with you. I’m afraid that while Mugabe is in the picture Zim does not deserve anyone thinking of returning home.
It may not be in the same scale of atrocities, but it would be tantamount to suggesting Jewish people return to Germany while Hitler was alive.
A naive and foolish comment from Morgan.
So, Morgan and MDC, let me remind you how things really work. When there is freedom to title, and freedom to conduct business, and freedom to employ at will, and facilities are in place to ensure ‘institutions’ like schools, hospitals, government services and the like all function and you can guarantee that these rights will not be revoked at whim – then, by all means, invite the people who built the country to return.
June 24th, 2009 02:13
While Mugabe and his top henchmen are in government, very little will change. Mugabe has Morgan exactly where he wants him, wrapped around his little finger.
Come next election and the people will be disenchanted with Morgan. Morgan will lose another fraudulent election, and everything will be back where it was, in a mess.
Rid of the conniving and brutal top ZanuPf leadership first, then Zimbabwe will change.
Bit like Iran really. In fact, Since Mugabe is very friendly with the irrational and unbalanced Ahmadinejad, did Iran intelligence ever meddle in the Zimbabwe fraudulent elections.
July 2nd, 2009 16:25
As long as Mugabe is around, no government will provide any significant funding. Mugabe always was and always will be a crook. [...]