Villagers who have farmed hard and against the odds and think that they have managed to do what is necessary to feed their family in todays hard times have had a taste of zanu-pf compassion and crisis management. I was attending a funeral in my home area last week and the army were moving from village to village setting aside portions of the crop of maize for the GMB (Grain Marketing Board). Will knowing their crops are going to be taken motivate people to grow more crops next year I wonder?

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, food supply, farming, army

The table below, courtesy of well-known economist John Robertson, shows Zimbabwe’s foreign exchange rate changes for the last five years, with figures forecast for this year. It’s hard to believe that US$ 1 cost a mere Z$ 70 at the the start of 2001. In December last year US$ 1 was equal to Z$ 110,000 and John Robertson has forecast that it will reach Z$ 483,682 by December 2006.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, economy, forex, black market, parallel market, exchange rates, currency, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, inflation

Gideon Gono, the governer of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, has revealed his party’s worst fears by publically warning business and political leaders that there may be food riots in Zimbabwe. He said:

To quote the wisdom of General Constantine Chiwenga, ‘a hungry man is an angry man’, and he said we must do everything to ensure the army does not one day have to face angry hungry people on the streets

He also warned that “The country is … standing on the edge of a cliff which threatens to irreversibly take us downhill if we do not boldly move forward with speed to address most of our shortcomings”.

That’s not all: Gideon Gono also told us that Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate will peak at record levels between 700-800 percent in March and then subside, falling to 220-230 percent by the end of the year. Can you even begin to imagine that? 700-800 percent! And the Financial Gazette took time to report on the fact that the Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank money printing machines were very busy in 2005:

BROAD money supply, M3, grew rapidly from 177.6 percent in January 2005 to 411.5 percent in November 2005 due to excessive money printing by the central bank to finance grain and fuel imports. Gideon Gono, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor said the lender of last resort had to print more money to stabilise external payments and support quasi-fiscal expenditures. [...] “We chose to print money in 2005 in order to survive. If we had not intervened, agriculture would have collapsed completely,” Gono said.

That made me laugh! If only I had known that the solution was so easy (and if only I could afford to buy ink cartridges for my printer!) I think I would try to print a bit of Zimbabwe’s monopoly money myself !

We on the street felt Gono’s misery like a little earth tremor when things went a bit pear-shaped at the end of last week and the value of forex on the parallel and black-markets sky-rocketed overnight . Nobody is selling their US dollars, Pounds, Rands, Euro’s or Pula’s at the moment: those with forex to sell are waiting to see where the slide will stop to ensure they get maximum Zimbabwe dollars for their precious forex. (Read this Sokwanele article from July last year which describes the differences between Zimbabwe’s ‘offical’, ‘parallel’ and ‘black’ markets in foreign currency: “The Forex Market – A layman’s guide to how it works, and why it does what it does” )

ZimPundit writes about Gono’s rant at corruption as the root of evils, quoting Gono from comments published in ZimOnline

If we do not stamp out this growing cancer especially among people in positions of authority and influence, the so-called chefs, if we do not stamp out the indiscipline as we go about our business we will soon discover too late though that policy formulation and implementation, monitoring and decisions will be based on self interests, racial overtones, regional and tribal considerations at the expense of national interests.”

ZimPundit goes on to specuate on whether Gono himself is as free of corruption as he would like others to believe:

… I wonder if Gono himself was listening to his own reprimand. He is the alleged owner of a petrol station in Malbereign at which the precious commodity never runs out. Just over a week ago the reserve bank which runs an elaborate fuel “coupon” scheme (through which they sell fuel coupons for foreign currency) was telling everyone who was buying petrol coupons that there was no petrol in the country. A window staffer at the Homelink Center at the Reserve Bank on Samora Machel Avenue speculated that it could be weeks before supplies were reestablished. Interestingly a fuel tanker was seen making a delivery to the “Gono Station” were supplies never run dry within minutes of the Reserve Bank’s announcement of the absence of fuel.

Let’s not forget either that Gono, in his zealous efforts to stamp out corruption and control the forex markets, has a lot of questions to answer too with regards to his role in Operation Murambatsvina and the homelessness, suffering, poverty and HUNGER that resulted. The following extract comes from an article titled Gideon Gono ‘… in sheep’s clothing’ – the Role of the RBZ Governor in Murambatsvina, cirulated by Sokwanele in June 2005:

The conclusion is inescapable – when formulating his Policy Framework speech the Governor of the Reserve Bank was fully appraised of the social and economic tsunami that ZANU PF was just about to unleash on the nation. Not only so, but he clearly approved the basic tenets of the policy, witness his remark: “the rot needs thorough cleansing”. He knew that the blitzkrieg would cause massive upheaval and expected a strong voice of protest to be raised against it: “Let there be no outcry when the long arm of the law (sic!) extends itself to these sectors.” He was also aware of the timing “…as indeed we believe it will soon do”, which was no doubt deliberate; based on the ZANU PF’s reading of the post-election climate “… the marked peace and tranquillity prevailing in the economy forms a solid launch-pad to deepen our turnaround thrust”.

At the very least then Gideon Gono knew and thoroughly approved the massive assault on the civil liberties of the informal sector and the urban poor which was about be launched on the unsuspecting Zimbabwean public. Indeed, in terms of political philosophy and economic policy, Murambatsvina so closely fits the successive stages of the so-called anti-corruption drive of which Gono was the author that it is difficult to resist the conclusion that this too was his brain-child Рperhaps the capstone of his intended reforms. So much for his professed strong Christian convictions Рand the pious clich̩s that he trots out regularly to spruce up his personal image (as indeed do a number of other ZANU PF heavyweights who are equally guilty of the most heinous crimes against humanity).

Don’t you think it’s just a little too late, Mr Gono, for you of all people to realise that “A hungry man is an angry man”?

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, economy, forex, corruption, black market, parallel market, exchange rates, currency, Gideon Gono, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe

I’m sure that a Martian would be no more surprised at our daily life than a visitor from America would be:

• When did you last drive up to a filling station and fill your car with petrol from the petrol pump? (Instead we buy 200 litre drums, siphon the fuel into a 20 litre jerrycan, and then siphon that into our cars…..)
• When did you last manage to go shopping with just your wallet, and not an envelope full of cash? (Instead we carry around these vast quantities of notes, given that our largest denomination note is worth 20 US cents….)
• When did you last feel free to discuss the political situation with a stranger in an Emergency Taxi? (Instead we hide what we really think, and just complain in private….)
• When did you last call a policeman when you were feeling unsafe? (Instead we fear them and run from them…..)

Normality? Only in Zimbabwe!

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe

Dumisani – not his real name – is a young man in his early 30′s. He is but one of the hundreds of thousands of victims of the Mugabe Tsunami, officially called “Operation Murambatsvina” – another “moment of madness” in which the dictator destroyed the homes and livelihoods of 700,000 of the poorest of the poor, with severe consequences for another 2.4 million Zimbabweans. Dumisani himself lost a wife, a home, and a source of livelihood in that man-made disaster. Less tangibly but of no less significance, he also lost his dignity as a human being and any hope for the future.

A clearly troubled Dumisani stands on the pavement outside a Bulawayo Church, waiting to see his pastor who has been summoned from a meeting. In his arms he carries the only thing he cares for in the world – his baby son, Themba. The baby is a little under three months old, thin-faced, clearly malnourished and restless in his father’s embrace.

The Pastor emerges from the Church. Pastor Andrew – again not his real name – greets Dumisani and enquires after the baby’s state of health. Despite the courtesy he can see well enough for himself the grim state of both father and child. He has been their pastor ever since Dumisani and his late wife were living at the Killarney informal settlement on the outskirts of the city. Pastor Andrew has a vivid memory of that fateful day in June 2005 when Dumisani and his young wife, pregnant at the time, together with hundreds of others were violently herded together like so many cattle by Mugabe’s uniformed thugs, who then torched their makeshift dwellings. On that sad day the poor but once-contented community of Killarney was brutally destroyed, the 1000 or so resident families ruthlessly dispersed.

Dumisani and his wife had been rescued by one of the Bulawayo churches that bravely offered hospitality and a place of refuge to the displaced residents of Killarney and Ngozi Mine. But that blessed tranquillity had lasted only until midnight on July 21 when Mugabe’s armed militia invaded the church sanctuaries and violently abducted the startled victims. In the case of Dumisani and his wife they were forcibly removed, first to a temporary holding camp and then on to what became a squatter camp mid-way between Pumula and St Peter’s Village. There in the bitter cold of mid winter they were abandoned by the state, without food, water, shelter or any provisions whatsoever. And there, some months later, and in those wretched conditions Dumisani’s wife gave birth to their first child, Themba. Miraculously the baby survived though, soon after the birth, Dumisani’s wife finally succumbed to the trauma and unremitting hardship.

Pastor Andrew knew all this well enough, as he could recall the plight of countless others of his flock. What he did not know however was how the young father had managed to protect and provide for the baby. Dumisani explained. He himself was earning a few dollars a day by selling vegetables on the streets. (Back in Killarney he had earned significantly more, as well as having a modest home to call his own). His new life as a street vendor however meant that he could not care for his infant son any more. He had therefore come to an arrangement with another destitute Murambatsvina victim, a young woman who agreed to care for Themba during the day in exchange for a share in the pathetic daily meal purchased with his meagre earnings as a street vendor. He had been coping said Dumisani until the young stand-in mother had informed him that she was going back to her ancestral home in Malawi. This news was the reason for his obvious consternation.

The compassionate pastor listens attentively to the tale of woe – not unlike so many others he hears every day. Then he asks quietly, “What help do you want?”

“Tell me what I should do, Pastor”, says an anguished Dumisani. What indeed should a young father do – a widower, homeless and destitute himself – with a little baby, scarcely weaned, to care for?

A long conversation ensues between the pastor and the desperate parent. In the end it is agreed that that Dumisani should take the baby to his grandmother (Dumisani’s own mother) to see if she can care for him. They talk about an arrangement for a few months though both know it may continue indefinitely. What resources Gogo (the grandmother) has and how many other grandchildren she has already have taken on responsibility for, the pastor dares not ask. The fact is there is no realistic alternative for Dumisani. He cannot himself provide the care and nurture little Themba requires.

But where does Gogo live and how is Dumisani to reach her? Another problem emerges at once because she lives at Buhera, more than 350 kilometres to the east. The journey will cost well over a million dollars each way and of course Dumisani has nothing to put towards it. Who will pay? Can the church assist? Pastor Andrew is not sure if the much depleted reserves of his church will be sufficient but he refers Dumisani to the secretary’s office to find out…

Such is the daily struggle to survive for Dumisani, Themba and countless thousands like them in Zimbabwe. This is what it means to be so poor and vulnerable that you lose control of your own life and are forced to rely completely on others on a daily basis – assuming that is, someone will be there for you. This is what it means to be one of the disempowered people of Zimbabwe who have lost hope of any better future.

And, make no mistake, this is precisely what the dictator intends. A major thrust of the Mugabe regime’s socio-political programme of the last five years has been the progressive disempowerment of the people of Zimbabwe. From the chaotic land invasions orchestrated by ZANU PF in 2000 to what U.N Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the “catastrophic injustice” of Operation Murambatsvina in 2005, this has been the regime’s one overriding objective. In the most cynical and calculating manner the ruling elite has first identified every section of the community thought to pose an immediate or potential threat to its hold on power, and then systematically set about disempowering that group. This has been ZANU PF’s grand strategy.

In the year 2000 it was the turn of the farm workers. Justice for Agriculture (JAG) estimates that prior to the land invasions some 350,000 workers were employed full-time and a further 250,000 as casual workers on a seasonal basis on the commercial farms. They with their families numbered about 2 million people which translated into close on 1 million votes. ZANU PF was probably correct in supposing that the farm workers’ employers were largely MDC supporters and that they, the workers and their families, would also tend to vote for the opposition. Hence the brutal and calculated displacement of these people from the farms. At a stroke they became unemployed and homeless and between 1.5 and 2 million people were added to the list of destitute internally displaced persons. As Pius Wakatama wrote in 2002 in a moving piece describing their plight,

they have become part of the ‘wretched of the earth’, described so graphically by Franz Fanon. The only difference is that their wretchedness is not caused by white xenophobia, but by the heartless cruelty and greed of their own black brothers and sisters.

A section of the community who, on any reckoning, have made a major contribution to the development and prosperity of the country, find themselves displaced, disenfranchised and disempowered.

So it was again in 2005 with the victims of Operation Murambatsvina. Accepting the figures of the U.N. Special Envoy Anna Tibaijuka whose estimate has never been seriously questioned, this upheaval produced another 700,000 internally displaced people, without home or livelihood. Here was a major segment of the population, this time drawn largely from the urban centres in which the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)’s influence was greatest, again displaced, disenfranchised and effectively disempowered. Aware no doubt of the seething discontent at the increasing hardships caused by their own misrule – aware also that popular revolutions tend to start in the cities rather than in rural areas – ZANU PF moved decisively to counter the perceived threat Never mind the appalling suffering inflicted on so many of the poorest of the poor – in the final analysis never mind the huge damage inflicted on their own already besmirched reputation in the international community – it had to be. According to the grand strategy it simply had to be in order to remove another potential threat to ZANU PF’s hold on power.

One can of course trace the same grand strategy all the way back to the Gukurahundi genocide in the early 1980s. Aware that he could never hope to win the willing support of those who had rallied behind the ZAPU leadership both in the liberation struggle and subsequently, Mugabe took the action he deemed necessary to neutralise the potential threat he saw from this quarter. Never mind that it was to cost an estimated 20,000 lives and that the barbarities perpetrated by his Fifth Brigade were to traumatise a whole generation of those living in Matabeleland and the Midlands, it was a price Mugabe was quite willing to pay in order to disempower those who might otherwise have challenged his own supreme authority one day. And with the so-called Unity Accord of 1987 the emasculation of ZAPU was complete.

The problem for Mugabe and his strategists has always been that as one perceived threat to his rule has been removed so another has sprung up in its place. “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown” and, with apologies to Shakespeare, we should perhaps rephrase that: “uneasy lies the paranoid head that wears the stolen crown”! ZANU PF has therefore felt obliged to attack, covertly if possible though openly if necessary, one group after another in society. Just in the last few years, in addition to the millions of farm workers and the urban poor, they have taken on teachers, students and women’s groups, to say nothing of a wide range of civic groups, the whole trade union movement and the MDC. After 25 years of corrupt, elitist and increasingly authoritarian rule the ruling ZANU PF clique finds itself in a state of undeclared war with virtually the whole of civic society in Zimbabwe.

It is this essential fact that Zimbabweans must not lose sight of as they battle the pervading sense of hopelessness resulting from the systematic disempowerment of the population. Otherwise we shall be doomed to remain helpless spectators before the unfolding tragic drama – the collapse of the rule of law, meltdown of the economy and last dying spasms of the education and heath-care systems. If we ever forget that we who oppose this destructive tyranny are the majority – the vast majority – and that those driving the nation to the edge of the precipice are a tiny, tiny minority, we shall of course give up hope.

Frankly, this is where many Zimbabweans are today – without hope. They watch the tragic drama moving into the final scenes with a sense of fatalistic despair, not thinking for a moment that they have it in their own power to avert the final tragedy and bring about some different outcome. They watch like so many dazed spectators observing a national catastrophe, thinking that only the too-long delayed death of the dictator or some spectacular divine intervention might change the pre-determined ending. Yet in so doing they overlook the elementary fact that they who oppose the trashing of Zimbabwe are the vast majority.

Those who courageously fought against the Smith regime (that is the previous dictatorship) did not forget. They knew that they were the majority and that knowledge gave them untold strength. They knew that one day they would wear down Smith-the-dictator and his minority forces, and sooner rather than later, they did just that. By the same token we, black and white, Shona and Ndebele, young and old, who oppose the new form of tyranny, know that one day we shall wear down Mugabe-the-dictator and his small clique of reactionary supporters. The future is ours, not his. The days of the dictator are numbered. The future belongs to those who believe in – and yes, are ready to sacrifice for – freedom, democracy and peace. One day Zimbabwe will be a proud nation again, a nation not run for the exclusive benefit of a small ruling elite but in which all the little people – including the likes of Dumisani and Themba – will have a share in the sunshine of security and opportunity.

Mugabe has almost succeeded in creating a disempowered people whom he and his chosen successor might keep in bondage for ever. Almost – but not quite. For we know that WE ARE THE MAJORITY. What is more we have truth and justice on our side. Therefore we know WE SHALL OVERCOME!

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Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, Mugabe, zanu pf, MDC, Murambatsvina, Gukurahundi, Unity Accord, refugees, human rights, justice, United Nations, UN, crime against humanity

Early on Monday 16 January on the approach roads to Bulawayo from the western suburbs groups of protesters tried to turn the traffic back, away from the city. Protesters were out on the roads from 7.00 a.m. at the time when commuters are normally heading to work. On Luveve Road approaching the high density suburb of Mzilikazi protesters were attempting to block the traffic and stoning vehicles that would not stop or turn back. At the same time they were chanting slogans such as “Mugabe must go”. It is understood that the protest may have been related to a letter that was circulating covertly, urging workers to stay away from work when commerce and industry would otherwise have returned to full strength after the Christmas and New Year break.

By 2.00 pm Monday the protesters had left the streets but for the rest of that day and the day following a heavy police presence was noted in both the city centre and the western suburbs. Riot police, armed and in full combat gear, were observed patrolling the streets in large numbers.

Our enquiries have revealed that there were several other incidents of youths throwing stones at passing vehicles in the western suburbs of Bulawayo the previous week. The riot police again intervened to restore order. It is not known if any of the protesters were arrested or charged.

The state media are yet to report any of the protest incidents.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, Mugabe, protest, civic action, uprising

The front cover of the print edition of the Mail and Guardian (SA) carried this image last week with the accompanying headline – ‘Zimbabwe police in new wave of ‘looting”. This week’s edition has more pictures of the looting and Grieg Henning, the farmer whose equipment was illegally taken, describes his experience in the comment section. Please note that Grieg Henning has won every case he has taken to court and that the High Court ruled that the police should return every item they seized from his farm on that day. However, in his words, “the realities on the ground make me dance to an awful tune”.

ZRP Assistant Commissioner Loveness Ndanga, head of the “procurement committee”, introduces herself. She informs me she and her crew have come to collect all the equipment they had inventoried (illegally, by the way!) in May. Everyone has moved closer and I find myself surrounded by this hostile throng. I have to be calm, cautious. I politely ask whether she has the necessary documentation to remove the equipment and is she going to pay me for it first? “No documents”, she replies. She is following her “chain of command”, and the “nitty-gritties could be sorted out” at the police station “later”.

Ndanga asks whether I have any objections. I would prefer to see proper procedure and first get the documentation, I tell her. She insists she will instead be collecting the equipment immediately. Was I about to stop them loading, she asked threateningly.

I thought that the knowledge and sight of this self-same committee looting my neighbours during the previous two weeks would have conditioned me as to what to expect. Instead, I am sick to my stomach. That menacing, monster crane, as high as a howitzer, growls into action, their lorries ease into position. The disgraceful spectacle of government agents, bureaucrats and members of the armed forces plundering my equipment is almost too disgusting for me to behold. My mechanic, clerk, security guard, garden staff, have lined themselves along the fence, folding their arms tightly against their bodies. They are visibly stunned, embarrassed, helpless. One is silently weeping.

As I watch, I think to myself, what cynical solution is this to solving the country’s food shortages? In which nation on Earth is it part of the culture to behave in this manner? And then get away with it with no one to disapprove it? Am I observing state-sponsored theft? How deeply ingrained is it? If the civil service has sunk so low, how will Zimbabwe ever extricate herself from the morass?

I recommend you read the full account on the Mail and Guardian website: the article is titled ‘Daylight robbery in hippo valley’.

Grieg Henning’s words and images convey the appalling injustice that he and others like him are experiencing at the hands of our police. But there are many other smaller stories that the outside world is probably not aware of. If everyday experiences are anything to go by then corruption in the police is rife, and ‘law’ and ‘order’ and ‘justice’ have been reduced to empty meaningless words. The top priority for the police seems to be how to avoid being caught (although, as Grieg Henning ‘s experience demonstrates, being caught in the act is irrelevant if the government condones lawlessness).

One friend described how, while stopped at a police roadblock, a policeman reached through the window of the car and stole his mobile phone off the dashboard when he was turned away for a split second. He noticed its absence almost immediately and he confronted the man and asked him directly if he had taken his mobile phone. Of course the guy denied it. My friend asked me, “What could I do? Who should I report him to? The police…?”

Another person told me that if I was ever robbed I shouldn’t worry – I should just call the police and offer them a massive ‘reward’ if they caught the thieves and recovered the property. “Just make sure that the amount you offer them is likely to be more than they would get when the crooks gave them a cut of the sales”, he said. He had done this himself, and had miraculously recovered nearly every single item stolen. “You have the advantage”, he told me, “because when you hand out the dosh the police only share it between themselves. But if they take a cut from the thieves they have to wait for the stuff to be sold and they have to share it out between a lot more people. There’s a very strong chance that your offer will always be more profitable for the cops because they don’t need to share with the thieves, they’ll just threaten them with jail instead!”.

One of the most disgusting stories I heard came via a colleague who knew an elderly couple who had been robbed twice over the Christmas period. In the first burglary a few items were taken before something disturbed the thieves and they ran away. But they came back a few nights later and literally cleaned the house out while the couple hid in their bedroom, completely alone and terrified. The police were called the next day. The elderly man was in the process of describing what had happened to a policeman when he noticed a policewomen standing near a window in the background absentmindedly picking up objects that the thieves, in their haste, had left on the windowsill. He was concerned that by handling the items she might be destroying fingerprint evidence. He noticed that one of the objects she handled was a tin can containing food. When the police left the house, the can of food was no longer on the windowsill. The policewomen, while in an elderly couple’s home investigating a burglary that had stripped them of everything they owned, had quietly pocketed something for herself too!

Grieg Henning’s words reflect the outrage that all of us feel:

Our guardians the police have failed us. They have abandoned their moral and lawful duty. When we see them on the beat, we do not see a friendly “Bobby” upholding our safety. We see a betrayal of what is right. They are systematically taking away our livelihood, dividing and distributing what already exists to those who cannot use it. In the end, there are only losers.

The Z.R.P – Zimbabwe’s Rotten Police – need to be aware though that we, the public, are watching, and noting and remembering. The gravy train is going to derail at some point, and justice has a way of eventually catching up.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, police, corruption, theft, justice, law, ZRP, Zimbabwe Republic Police

Tiny hands, none of them chubby, clapped and each child bobbed a polite curtsy as pink and white marshmallows, Liquorice All-Sorts and crunchy biscuits appeared in front of their astonished eyes. A few of the smallest hesitated briefly: making choices is something refugee and asylum seeker children from Zimbabwe are no longer accustomed to.

Soon, however, their reticence was forgotten and they were just like any other youngsters at a Christmas party, clutching brightly coloured balloons tied with festive string, experimenting with new toys and dancing around the room in excitement.

One little boy was entranced by a cuddly lion which roared when its tummy was squeezed and had eyes that lit up like miniature headlights. The boy rushed back and forth across the room, demonstrating his new find to family members and friends.

Taking pride of place in the centre of the room was a large pile of colourful toys provided through “Toy Story”, a project sponsored by a local radio station. The hula-hoops were an immediate hit. A pretty young girl with neatly braided hair spun one, two and then three so skilfully around her little body that the other children were captivated. Some tried to copy her, others just rolled their hoops up and down, laughing in delight.

Clutching a big, red teddy bear in one hand and a Barbie doll in the other, the grandson of a blind lady could not contain his enthusiasm. His granny had to feel each toy carefully and discuss its merits. Eventually the teddy took pride of place on the chair next to her and the doll was returned to the pile.

Although his grandmother could not watch the festivities, she took great pleasure in the children’s laughter and the attentiveness of her son and daughter-in-law. Soon she was tucking into a plate of briyani and chatting to a friend. For a brief moment she could forget the traumatic journey from Zimbabwe, the worries of surviving in a foreign country, and do what ordinary grannies around the world do: enjoy a Christmas party with family and friends.

Zimbabweans are by nature hospitable people. Those who work with the refugees find it inspiring that, even though they now live in demoralising and often squalid surroundings in South African cities and towns, they have retained their dignified politeness and concern for one another. The unspeakable violence perpetrated on Zimbabweans by the Mugabe regime through its armed forces and youth militia does not reflect the intrinsic character of the Zimbabwean people.

Conversations during the party were conducted mainly in Shona. Since the refugees come from different parts of Zimbabwe and are now scattered in a variety of poor areas close to the city centre, some were meeting for the first time. A number had been in South Africa for more than a year, others had left Zimbabwe after the demolition of their homes in mid 2005 by the Mugabe regime. Despite extensive international coverage of the horrific demolitions and the publication of a damning report on “Operation Murambatsvina” (Operation Drive Out the Filth) by the United Nations, the destruction continues at an insidious, low profile level.

Two organisations had helped with additional food for the group. Piled comfortingly in one corner of the room were sacks of grain, fresh bread and tinned foodstuffs delivered by Feedback Food Redistribution, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) committed to helping needy people. Feedback collects good quality excess food that would otherwise have been wasted from a spectrum of outlets and distributes it to social services organisations in some of South Africa’s poorest communities.

Gift of the Givers, the largest humanitarian disaster relief organisation of African origin on the continent, had donated a box of its high energy protein supplement, Sibusiso Foods. Gift of the Givers was the first NGO to respond to the 2004 tsunami disaster in Sri Lanka and Somalia, and has been involved in significant humanitarian work in Niger and Malawi. The venue was provided by a church committed to highlighting the plight of the Zimbabwean people and offering a daily soup kitchen service to anyone in need.

Finding a means of earning a living is the biggest challenge refugees face. Thousands of new arrivals go for days without food, shelter or even a change of clothing. Many have been tortured or beaten up by the Mugabe regime and are in dire need of medical attention. Some have been held in youth militia camps and raped repeatedly.

Schooling presents a significant problem for parents who have brought children with them as they are usually desperate for their youngsters to resume some form of education. Most parents whose children have been left behind with family members because of the uncertainties presented by life in a foreign country struggle to send money home for rapidly escalating school fees.

Two especially vulnerable teenagers who had been invited to the party were “Phillip” (18) and “Patricia” (12) – their names have been changed for security reasons. Both of their parents had died in Zimbabwe and they had come to South Africa with their elder sisters. They had grown up in a small farming town but had subsequently moved to Harare and were also victims of Operation Murambatsvina. Their family had lost everything.

Since Philip and Patricia want to continue their schooling in South Africa, an appointment had been set up with a social worker at one of the organisations tasked by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to assist asylum seekers. However, since funding is very limited and it is estimated there could be three million or more desperate Zimbabweans who have fled to South Africa, organisations in this country are ill equipped to deal with the escalating influx.

A few weeks back, Phillip, who looks far younger than his age and is reed thin, was attacked by a group of local youths who stabbed him and robbed him of his pathetically few possessions. He was unable to attend the party because it was held on a Saturday and he generates a small income selling sweets to holidaymakers. At the organisers’ instigation, Patricia carefully tied together a bundle of treats for him in a well-used bag.

Patricia and her older sisters expressed the family’s concern that there was still no news of their other brother, “Richard” (19). He had disappeared a few weeks previously and was thought to have been picked up by the South African police as an illegal immigrant. Their greatest fear was that he had been sent to the Lindela Detention Centre outside Johannesburg, or had been deported. At Lindela, thousands of Zimbabweans continue to be held prior to deportation, and a steadily growing number has died. Lawyers for Human Rights have contacted the authorities at Lindela, but so far Richard has not been found.

It is possible he has been taken from Lindela and forced to board the overnight train from Johannesburg to Mussina, which hauls vast numbers of illegal migrants back to the Zimbabwean border every couple of weeks. Since the detainees are so fearful of returning to the hunger, oppression, disease and hopelessness they face back home, many risk serious injury or death by jumping from the moving train. Detainees who are handed over to the Zimbabwean police at the Beit Bridge border post are frequently beaten before being dumped penniless at the roadside outside the small, drab, dusty town, with no means of getting home. Without cell phones it is virtually impossible for family members to remain in contact, so Phillip and his siblings can only hope and pray that their brother is still alive.

It was getting late and some of the smallest children were asleep in their mothers’ arms, still clutching newfound toys. The adults helped to tidy the room, then the sacks of grain and tins of food were piled into one of the organisers’ car. The blind lady declined a lift back to her dingy accommodation because she had arranged to meet someone at the nearby taxi rank.

At that time of day the rank was especially busy and people were congregated among the piles of waste paper and other refuse, talking animatedly. Taxis took off rapidly in different directions and it was hard to imagine how a sightless person could cope in the apparent chaos. By rights she should have been at home with her family in Zimbabwe, crocheting the beautiful tablecloths that tourists from around the world used to flock to buy. Instead, she spends her days begging for food at traffic lights so that she too can make a contribution to the meagre family pot.

If people in South Africa and further afield realised the depth of the refugees’ pain and the extent of their struggle to survive and overcome homesickness in the face of widespread xenophobia, offers of help would doubtless pour in. Every act of kindness, however small, can make a difference to Zimbabweans who, through no fault of their own, find themselves destitute in a foreign and often hostile land.

Anyone willing to provide assistance to Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa or elsewhere is invited to contact either the Central Methodist Mission, Johannesburg, or the Zimbabwe Action Support Group. Both organisations are in touch with a spectrum of churches and other support organisations that are struggling to help the millions of desperate, destitute refugees. Urgent needs include food, clothing, blankets, funds for medical assistance, training, basic set-up projects etc. The refugees have not only to support themselves in a foreign and often hostile country but also support family members back home. The Central Methodist Mission is currently setting up training programmes which require urgent funding. The Zimbabwe Action Support Group assists destitute Zimbabweans, notably pregnant women and young children, on arrival in South Africa.

Central Methodist Mission – Johannesburg:
Tel: +27 11 333 5926 or +27 11 337 5938
Fax: +27 11 333 3254
Bishop Paul Verryn
E-mail: central_district@methodist.org.za

Zimbabwe Action Support Group – Johannesburg
Cell: +27 72 032 4223
Remember Moyo

Latest report by African Commission on Human and People’s Rights condemns violations of human rights and mass displacements in Zimbabwe

Sokwanele notes that the African Union has released a second report on the grave situation regarding human rights in Zimbabwe compiled by its African Commission on Human and People’s Rights. The first, a damning report which slammed Harare’s record of abuses, was produced in 2002. It concluded that there were flagrant human rights abuses and arbitrary arrests in Zimbabwe and was the organisation’s most serious African indictment of President Mugabe’s authoritarian regime. African foreign ministers adopted the report but then agreed in July 2004 not to publish it as the Zimbabwe government claimed it had not had enough to time to study the full document.

The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights’ latest resolution expresses “alarm” at “the number of internally displaced persons and the violations of fundamental individuals and collective rights resulting from the forced evictions being carried out by the government of Zimbabwe.” It “urges the African Union to renew the mandate of the African Union Envoy to Zimbabwe to investigate the human rights implications and humanitarian consequences of the mass evictions and demolitions.”

The strongly worded document also “urges the government of Zimbabwe to cease the practice of forced evictions throughout the country, and to adhere to its obligations under the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and other international human rights instruments to which Zimbabwe is a party…”

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