Blogging for Sky News - our Friday entry
Sokwanele was invited to blog for Sky News this week on The Insider Blog. The Sky audience is much wider and far more diverse than ours, so we encourage you to visit The Insider Blog and please participate in the comments and discussion being generated there.
Our Friday entry for ‘The Insider Blog’
There is only one possible thing I could write about today, and it’s the looming stayaway planned for next week - I am writing this with real hope in my heart. I believe that the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions’ stayaway (nation wide strike) called for the 3 and 4 April might be successful.
I am hoping for the shops to be closed, the fuel queues gone, and the streets to be empty of cars and bicycles.
The stayaways called in the past have never been as visibly powerful as the vision I have just described.
Every stayaway is preceded by a lot of talk and soul searching on the part of both employers and employees. Everyone wants to support the stayaway, to stand united, but some people are scared. Some people have certainty about what they will do, but for others it’s more difficult.
Listening to someone talk about what to do on a stayaway is like watching a baby bird tremble on the edge of a twig: if it jumps, will it know that it can fly or will it tumble to the ground? You can almost see people nervously considering their odds.
There are many small signs that this stayaway might be different.
A very good friend of mine (who demanded I refer to him as a REAL war veteran in this blog) said to me yesterday that past stayaways presented employers with a “damned if you don’t” and “damned if you do” set of choices.
“Damned if you don’t” close your business and tell your workers to stay at home, because it means you’ll be passively accepting the terrible conditions of life in Zimbabwe. And “damned if you do”, because it means as an employer that you are publicly defying this regime and risking repercussions.
Make no mistake; those risks are still there. Even now, we are hearing stories that the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) is going around to factories and businesses in our town and threatening owners who close their businesses and warning them that they will be held responsible.
But we are also hearing that the police are abducting our leaders at gunpoint, and no one knows where they are being taken; and that the police are visiting the ZCTU offices and threatening and intimidating them; and we have fresh memories of the way Mugabe unleashed his vicious thugs on our leaders when they tried to attend the Save Zimbabwe Campaign rally.
This cannot go on anymore. We are angry and we have had enough.
My friend the real war vet has always honoured every single stayaway called and he has survived them all: his business has not been closed and his employees still work with him. He very strongly feels that the fear we all struggle with is mostly in our heads, and that Mugabe and his bullies are master manipulators of the state of fear.
The person who owns the business next door to his has never closed his business on a stayaway, but he does experience shame and guilt because he knows that fear has prevented him from supporting a cause he believes in.
My real war vet friend argues that our individual choices are different for this stayaway; they have changed to two options: “damned if you don’t” and “damned if you don’t”.
Zimbabweans are realising - just like that little bird - that the only way they will ever be able to fly free in our country is to take the risk and jump. The twig we stand on offers us no security anymore, because we can feel it breaking under our feet.
I was encouraged to hear today that the person who has the shop next door to my real war vet friend has said that this time he plans to close his business and join the stayaway.
He is still fearful, but he has no choice. His employees are talking about giving up their jobs because they can’t survive on their wages and he can’t afford to pay them more. He says he has to try and do something.
The fear he once felt for the thugs and bullies is now far outweighed by the fear he feels at the thought of losing his business and being unable to feed his family and his children.
I believe that the tide is turning and options are running out. The day when Zimbabweans all realise that they have no choice but to stand shoulder to shoulder and demand a new better government is not that far away any more.
I can feel the change in the air, and it really excites me.
Thank you for reading my blogs this past week. Please watch over us closely next week and in the weeks to come; pray for us, and stand with us in spirit.
March 30th, 2007 21:21
I really do not want to sound like a naive child, but I really did not think that people like Mugabe still existed in this era.
I just started a new job at a German Bank in New York City - making more money than middle class family in Zimbabwe does in five life times, if not more. I can honestly say that for the past 27 years I had no clue that life was so harsh in that country.
It really amazes me that a president of a nation would do the things that Mugabe has done in the name of the people. He has seven degrees, he is a Roman Catholic - I have one degree and am also Roman Catholic - we have both married twice. Seemingly we have much in common - other than I believe that Government is governed by the people and not the other way around.
My point in all this is that I have just been read about 15 articles on Mugabe and will think of the 1,700% inflation in Zimbabwe over the small inconvience of where to buy my lunch on Monday.
The citizens of Zimbabwe should not stand alone in their disenfranchisement but together with those that have won their natural and absolute right to live WITH a government of thier choice. We must all stand against this currupt and oppressive ruler - to let him know that humanity has a right to the free will of which governments are choosen.
Good luck.
March 31st, 2007 00:14
Good luck with the stay away. Your writing this week has been very meaningful, and I hope opened people’s eyes to the situation in Zimbabwe.
March 31st, 2007 08:21
It is good to read of optimism now in Zimbabwe, after so many years of reading Zimbabwe bloggers so full of pessimism. Best of luck to you on your national ’stayaway.’
‘Be free,’ Zimbabwe.
March 31st, 2007 16:01
People like Mugabe have always existed. The problem is to prevent them from seizing power. As they are devious, bullying and manipulative, this is difficult.
They are good at concealing their intentions behind a cloak of “love for the people”.
There are similar people in power in several countries, including Libya, Burma and North Korea. Venezuela is heading in the same direction.
March 31st, 2007 19:54
In England people who betray others at times like this are called scabs. To be honest, it took me a long time to understand what the word meant in relation to the Miners Strike in the 1980s that was destroyed by M. Thatcher - Mugabe’s mentor. The scabs cost all the miners their livelihood. In Zimbabwe, they will cost lives, not livelihoods, thousands of them. What choice have you got? Damned if you do, damned if you don’t! I do not think so. Its do or die. Heroes are people like you. So go for it. I offer my prayers as always.
March 31st, 2007 21:22
Tsvangirai ‘deserved to be beaten’ - Mugabe
Zimbabwe’s veteran president Robert Mugabe has openly acknowledged an assault on his opposition leader as he seeks his party’s nomination to stand in the 2008 presidential election.
If this quote is correct them MUGABE should be boiled in acid whilst he is force fed the excrement of his supporters…but if anyone can suggest something more approriate I will give it consideration..
April 1st, 2007 00:43
Very sad
http://www.zoopy.com/video_1092_Mbeki_endorses_Mugabe_Zimbabwe.html
Our thoughts and hopes are with you!
April 1st, 2007 01:59
Hi Hope, I recently visited a small part of your beautiful country (Vic Falls) and at the time never really realised how bad things really are. It wasn’t until we got back home and I started getting some more information I realised how bad the situation really is. Even though we were warned (by Zimbabwean friends) not to come I’m very glad we did and I’m very much looking forward to seeing more of your beautiful country in better times to come.
Good luck with your stayaway, I hope it will send a very clear and distinct message. And remember that there are probably more people keeping a close eye on the situation in your country than you might realise. And they are all rooting for you (the good guys like :-))
April 1st, 2007 14:07
Hope, we will be standing with you (& all Zimbabweans) in spirit & will definitely be praying really hard next week. Lets hope this stayaway will put into action a major turning point for Zimbabwe. To all Zimbabweans, be strong, positive & have faith & most important of all, stand together as one.
April 2nd, 2007 12:50
Keep your chin up and keep fighting — history is against people like Mugabe…it’s a matter of time before his gets his come uppens.
April 3rd, 2007 11:43
Good luck with the stayaway in Zim. I’ve been looking without any luck - but does anyone know if there are any demonstrations being held in Cape Town? Would like to attend.
April 3rd, 2007 20:30
Thank you everyone for your kind words of support. The stayaway hasn’t been the resounding success we hoped for, but we will carry on taking small steps forward. There seems to have been pockets of support. We’re still trying to get sense of who, where and how.
Patrick: It isn’t actually 1,700% - it’s more like 1,800% inflation, and no doubt will be worse by the time you read this comment!
a Duoist: There’s a fine balance between sounding pessimistic and telling the truth. A lot of the misery on our blog entries has to do with the latter, and a sense that we all must tell people’s stories or they will never be heard. If we sound downhearted when elections are lost or stayaways aren’t 100% successful, it’s because we’re human. It doesn’t mean we’ve given up or have a negative attitude towards our struggle. We’re in it for the long haul, and that means up times and down times.
floence: Thank you for all your comments on our blog. You’ve been a loyal reader and we appreciate it so much.
John: Your comment slipped through our moderation net!! We’re not a group that is for violence or advocating violence. Seriously, we don’t want Mugabe to be killed or injured. We just want justice. I personally think that time spent in jail after a trial in an International Court will mean he’ll be quickly forgotten. There is no better way to punish a power-hungry, ego-centric, control freak than to put him in a place where people forget about him.
April 10th, 2007 11:23
the zim situation is pathetic and i feel it is the duty of every zimbabwean tomake an effort to liberate the country from the hands of a dictator. the world has placed us on the sidelines of history and everyday we are faced with new challenges which see to destroy us. the zimbabwean child does not know happiness because of hunger, fear and lack of models especially in the following of truth. it is sad.mugabe and his yes-boys have shown that they do not want to leave power after they have done us a lot of harm. it is logical that the cry of inequality has reached despicadle heights . i thank you mag for giving us a taste of truth.