It only takes a visit to Binga to instill in one, just how totally decimated that part of the country has been over the last ten years. The Tonga people had succeeded in building themselves a life here, fifty years after the construction of Lake Kariba had forced them into what is possibly the most arid and inhospitable terrain in Africa.

They had adjusted to a life of herding cattle, subsistence farming where there is little or no rainfall, wood carving for tourism, and fishing for those lucky enough to be relocated fairly near the lake.

But in recent times, as their dislike of the hated ruling party became obvious, the wrath of Zanu-PF descended on them, turning a tidy little colony into the dusty begging bowl that it is today. Politics, in spite of the GNU, is still spoken of in hushed voices, many Zanu PF supporters had been moved in to Government positions here to keep an eye on the people, and the entire Binga area, a total of 1500 hectares, with a population of 130 thousand, has been under siege virtually since the constitutional elections in 2000. (more…)

My tour guide is Gift, 18 years old, with fiercely red eyes that stared out from a gaunt sallow face. Gift is from Nyanga originally, he left school in Form one, and has never had a job. He “works” the streets, the systems, watches cars, cleans cars, buys and sells commodities – and he lives in a ditch.

I have watched Gift grow up from a skinny little kid into even skinnier adulthood. There is a home for street kids in Bulawayo run by a wonderfully caring church group, but after Gift’s initial stay with them, he ran away, preferring the freedom of the streets. We took a trip to his “Home” which is not far from his main haunt – a suburban shopping centre in what was once an affluent residential suburb. Not any more! (more…)

So Robert Mugabe has made a donation of 300 million Zimbabwe dollars to the Catholic Church, or to a women’s group, the Marian Association, within the Church. Bishop Patrick Mutume confirmed the donation and said it is to be invested on the money market until a decision is made on how best to use it.

Shame on the Catholic Church for accepting money given in this cynical, calculating way from the bloodied hands of a dictator. Can they not see they are being used again as the dictator has used and abused the Church over and again in the past, for his own shameless political advantage – in this case as a shabby electioneering stunt ? And this from a man who, only a few weeks ago, was openly gloating at the discomfort caused to his nemesis, the fearless Archbishop Pius Ncube, by the state-initiated and CIO- directed campaign to undermine the Bishop’s massive popularity among the millions of victims of mis-rule. That vicious campaign which touched new depths of moral depravity misfired, causing widespread revulsion and hence more damage to its instigators than to the beloved Bishop whose reputation for courage and integrity remains intact. Hence the need on the dictator’s part to recover some of the further ground lost by the disgraceful antics of his CIO/state media mafia.

300 million Zimbabwe dollars, or just over one thousand US dollars in real money…. It represents a pittance to the man who has robbed his nation blind and secured for himself a life of opulence beyond the wildest dreams of his poor, wretched fellow citizens. Surely an insult to God. Were it a sign of true repentance the Biblical measure, taken from the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector (Luke 19), would be a half the dictator’s possessions given to the poor and four times the amount he has ever cheated returned to those he has wronged. On that scale we might see the whole Zimbabwean economy re-floated ! No further need for any assistance from the IMF, and the WFP could call off their campaign to feed two million starving Zimbabweans …

But the size of the gift apart, it was morally wrong of the Catholic Church to accept it. It is blood money received from a man who as Fr. Oskar Wermter has already observed, has effectively excommunicated himself “that is to say put himself outside the community of the Church, by resisting the word of the church and attacking the bishops in a most offensive, vulgar form”. Once again the church has been outmanoeuvred by the wily dictator. The damage having been done however, perhaps the church could make one smart move to redeem something of its moral authority. To this end I would suggest that instead of investing the donation on the money market (sic !) they donate the 300 million to one of the following causes.

• To the orphans, widows and widowers of some of the 20,000 victims of Gukurahundi, whose deaths can fairly be attributed to the man who called in the North Korean military instructors in the early 1980s and who then sent in the notorious Five Brigade under his command
• To the estimated 150,000 former farm workers still homeless and destitute as a result of the chaotic and violent take-over of the commercial farms
• To some of the 700,000 odd victims of Operation Murambatsvina whose homes and business were trashed in 2005, and most of whom are still homeless, unemployed and hungry
• To some of the 2.1 million urban and rural Zimbabweans already dependent upon food aid from the international community through the catastrophic impact of the dictator’s political whims upon the economy
• To a fund in support of some of the 3 to 4 million Zimbabweans (a quarter of the population) now forced into exile in order to survive, and many of whom are living in abject poverty and squalor.

The list could go on, but after all Mugabe’ derisory gift (already halved in value due to hyper inflation (!)) will not go all that far. However to donate the paltry sum, publicly, to such a cause would at least be a token of the Catholic Church’s repentance for allowing a vicious tyrant to use the church (again) to promote his own sickening propaganda.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, church, catholic church, mugabe

A lady observed to be carrying four loaves of bread as she emerged from a supermarket was promptly arrested by a police officer who charged her with “hoarding”. She was not given any opportunity to explain how many mouths she was responsible for feeding or how long it had taken her to purchase the precious loaves of bread.

She was detained in the police station from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm and then released – on condition she sold two of the four loaves to the police!

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, justice, police, ZRP, corruption, economy

A long queue was forming at the OK Store in Bulawayo as a limited amount of the exceedingly rare commodity, sugar, was on sale in small quantities. It wasn’t long before a few police officers entered the store to ascertain the cause of excitement of the growing crowd. On discovering that sugar was on sale the police officers pushed in ahead of the queue and demanded to be served. At this point the assistant manager intervened. Politely but firmly he informed the members of the ZRP that they would have to take their place in the queue like everyone else. There was a murmur of approval from the waiting crowd who overheard the conversation.

The officers however were livid. They stormed out of the store after telling the manager in no uncertain terms that he would pay for his impudence.

A short while later another small contingent from the ZRP was observed entering the premises. They walked up and down the aisles for a few minutes and then demanded to see the manager. When he appeared they produced a bottle of face cream on which had mysteriously appeared a new price tag indicating a price in excess of the maximum decreed by the price commission. The assistant manager was promptly arrested for over-charging customers and taken by the ZRP members to the Donnington police station where he was detained overnight.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, ZRP, corruption, police, economy

So honour is satisfied and Dr Gideon Gono, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, is satisfied that he has put the record straight and proved himself entirely innocent of the charge of squandering the country’s limited foreign exchange reserves by purchasing for himself through the Reserve Bank one of the world’s top performing and most luxurious cars, a Mercedes Benz Brabus E V12 Biturbo, costing US$ 365,000. The facts are, as Dr Gono has now established, that the vehicle purchased for him by a Reserve Bank very grateful for his services, was a Mercedes Benz S600 V12 (with a 5,5 L 493 hp twin turbo engine and a top speed of 250 km/h). And it cost no more than US$ 138,000, plus Z$ 23 million for related importation expenses.

Moreover, not only has the much-maligned Dr Gono cleared himself of any suspicion of unfairly enriching himself at the expense of his fellow Zimbabweans in a time of certain financial belt-tightening. He has also shown that he is a man of true magnanimity by holding no grudges against The Standard which published the original story, and even persuading the Reserve Bank’s Board not to sue that newspaper. Truly the man is not only a paragon of virtue; he also has the forgiving nature of a saint. Zimbabweans can be truly proud of the man who has made such a fine job of running the country’s economy almost single-handedly for the last three years. Look around you and see for yourselves what he has achieved. Surely it is little wonder then that our revered leader has in mind even greater honours for such a man as this. (The rumours are that it is His Excellency’s wish that when he finally hands over responsibility for the day to day running of the Mugabe Family Estate, to assume the role of titular head of state, those responsibilities should devolve upon none other than Gideon Gono, under the style of Prime Minister)

So yes, Dr Gono has set the record straight and we are all deeply indebted to him for the time and trouble he has taken to do so. And surely the Z$ 34 million of taxpayers’ money and the many pages of advertisements, penned by the Governor himself and appearing in our English, Shona and Ndebele newspapers, were fully justified in order that we might all be so enlightened, and the slur on the Governor’s character be removed.

Of course it is not excessive for any public official of the stature of Dr Gono to purchase for himself at the taxpayer’s expense a vehicle costing US$ 138,000 – even if this is several hundred times the annual salary of Zimbabwe’s doctors – isn’t Dr Gono worth it, I ask. And never mind the dismal chorus of unpatriotic citizens who now claim that the majority of Zimbabweans are living below the poverty datum line. Indeed some of Zimbabwe’s enemies – aided by the scare-mongering U.S. Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) – are now putting out the story that the country does not have the foreign exchange needed to pay to import even a fraction of the maize required to feed the nation. But I have no doubt that our illustrious Governor would have informed the nation in good time if this was the case, and even made a few personal sacrifices as an example to us all.

No, I say a man of Dr Gono’s stature whom our revered leader has already tipped for even higher service to the nation, is entitled to a few perks. It seems entirely appropriate that he should have a taste of the lifestyle reserved for Zimbabwe’s most patriotic (ZANU PF) citizens.

In conclusion I have to say there is just one matter on which I am a little unclear. Dr Gono referred to the apology and retraction published by The Standard for their infamy. I have scanned the pages of that newspaper and cannot find any such explicit apology – only a report (published on 21 January) of what Dr Gono said about the matter, set alongside the paper’s original allegations. I do hope The Standard is not trying to undermine the authority of the Governor by any subtle insinuation.

Technorati Tags: Gideon Gono, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Mercedes, Zimbabwe

In my worst nightmare I had never imagined Zimbabweans being reduced to this level of poverty and degradation.

Themba (not his real name of course) lost his nine-year old daughter in a car accident earlier this year. Soon after he was diagnosed as HIV positive himself, and he began attending my friend’s clinic for counselling. Troubles enough to contend with, one would have thought, but that was just the beginning …

Themba, his wife Noma, and their nine-month old baby, Memory, were living in a shack at Mbare. It was all they could afford seeing their only income was the pittance Noma earned from selling vegetables on the streets six days a week.

Then Mugabe’s Tsunami struck Mbare. Within 24 hours all the dwellings and informal businesses of thousands of Mbare residents had been flattened in the infamous Operation Murambatsvina. Themba and Noma’s shack was destroyed along with the rest. As Mugabe’s uniformed thugs withdrew all that remained of the once-vibrant street community was so much charred debris, under a dark pall of smoke. A good night’s work for the dictator.

When she learnt of their plight my friend found the desperate family a room in Borrowdale – a temporary measure to put a roof over their heads at least. Alas it was too late for the baby, Memory, who died within a few days of the move. Died of what, it is difficult to say. Malnutrition, an infant infection, the deadly virus, or exposure ? Over exposure to a heartless and cruel world, I say.

Another victim of another whim of the fascist dictator – for order, martial discipline, vengeance and power. Another statistic, this one not even recorded. Who cares ? Who will remember Memory ? Her distraught mother and father, of course. But it was too much for Noma. No sooner had she buried her baby daughter than she took her own life, painfully, with a double dose of rat poison.

Leaving just Themba – with no wife, no child, no house, no work – and precious little dignity. Thank God he later found his way back to my friend who had been counselling him, and she, through dogged perseverance, found him a job sweeping a factory floor.

Themba was so grateful to be offered a job, but there was a problem. He did not own a single pair of shoes and he could hardly report for work barefoot. Could my friend help with this too ? She sms’d her friends and soon enough had found a pair of shoes, size 7, second-hand.

So Themba reports for work as a factory hand, still not defeated. An incredible testimony to the indomitable human spirit. But how will he ever heal the hurt and grief within ? Wouldn’t rage be more appropriate than resignation?

Poverty Mugabe Zimbabwe Human Rights

I heard the following story the other day, which I thought you might like to include among your blogs. It was from an impeccable source, though for obvious reasons I can’t give names, and it just goes to show how deceptive appearances can be. Not every high ranking police officer is a supporter of ZANU PF or an enthusiastic supporter of their hate and violence brand of politics. Far from it. Many senior and junior ZRP officers hate the trashing of professional standards and the zany orders they receive from the party top brass.

Some of our pastors from Bulawayo who are following up on victim
s of the infamous Operation Murambatsvina are obliged to travel widely in the region to make contact with those dumped in remote rural areas. Pastors and church workers alike are trying to extend the helping hand to these unfortunate victims of Mugabe’s ethnic cleansing. Once they have established contact, they then take them food and blankets, as well as trying to cover school fees, so far as the church’s slender resources will allow.

One of these brave church workers – let’s call him A.B. – recently had to visit a rural area in Matabeleland south for this purpose. His journey took him deep into territory now under the rule of terror imposed by one of the imposter ZANU PF Members of Parliament. (You will understand that I have place names and the names of the individuals concerned but dare not mention them for fear of retribution to those concerned) Anyway A.B. was speaking with one of the District Administrator’s assistants, a very helpful lady, when a phone call came through from the ZRP. A.B. was to return to the police station at the local growth point immediately.

This he did, in fear and trepidation, taking with him two other church workers who were accompanying him. On arrival at the police station they were summoned into the office of the ZRP inspector. The inspector dismissed the other two and when they were quite alone he addressed A.B. “Are you A.B. ?” he enquired (using the man’s real names of course) “Yes”, replied A.B. “Are you the same A.B. who was talking on Studio 7 the other night ?” asked the inspector. A.B. had indeed been interviewed on the radio a short while before, when he had spoken quite candidly about the terrible suffering caused by Operation Murambatsvina. Now, fearing the worst, he replied directly, “Yes, that is me.” A long pause followed, during which our church worker began to think his next stop would be in the police cells. Then at last from the superintendent, “Well done ! You are a brave man”.

A.B. let out a huge sigh of relief, as the superintendent went on to explain that these were the most difficult and dangerous of times. But the superintendent was himself a Christian who was trying to do the best possible thing in the worst of times. “When you want to visit your church members in this area,” he said to A.B., “You must be alert. Come to my office first and get a letter from me, saying you have my authority to give them food. If you don’t, you may be stoned or arrested or worse”.