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| Percentage of the population that has registered to vote |
A picture is worth a thousand words, last week I saw the
table above showing the percentage of registered voters for each province. As
they say numbers do not lie, the opposition is in very serious trouble as we
approach the 2018 election. I am very much worried about the statistics for Harare
and Bulawayo provinces which are traditionally opposition strongholds. In these two provinces just over 50% of the
eligible voters have registered to vote. If you compare this with the picture
in a traditional Zanu-PF stronghold of Masholand East province where almost 80%
have registered this is a very big red flag. As we approach the close of the
voter registration exercise, that percentage will certainly go up in Zanu-PF
strongholds. What this means in simple
terms is that if the Delimitation committee was to meet today and allocate
parliamentary seats, Harare and Bulawayo provinces would get less number of
seats as seats are allocated based on the number of registered voters.
Currently Bulawayo and Harare has about 6 % and 19% respectively of all citizens
eligible to vote and they should get a combined seats allocation of just under 25%.
Due to the fact that only about 50% have registered in these provinces they
will be allocated less seats. I suspect this trend is the same in other major
urban areas such as Gweru, Kwekwe, Kadoma, Masvingo, Norton, Marondera,
Bindura, Mutare etc.
The truth is that if
you have not registered to vote it means you have actually voted for Zanu-PF.
Elementary Geography studies tell us that people move from rural areas to urban
areas and we should be getting more seats in the urban areas. In Zimbabwe the
opposite is true due to the voter apathy in urban areas and also the mass
exodus of people from the country especially after the economic collapse that
resulted after the disputed 2008 election which saw hundreds of thousands if
not millions of working age Zimbabweans leaving in droves. This is also partly
caused by the state which makes it difficult for urban dwellers to register to
vote. This situation with the absence of the diaspora vote greatly disadvantages
the opposition, after all this is not unique to Zimbabwe. In the mighty USA,
Democrats also complain about the voting policies of Republicans which are
meant to disenfranchise African Americans among other groups.
Another worrying
issue is that due to the high levels of unemployment caused mainly by Zanu-PF’s
policies, a lot of citizens are desperate and Zanu-PF takes advantage of that
situation to win elections. Examples are in Kwekwe where Zanu-PF would look the
other way and not enforce the law and let people pan for gold almost anywhere
in Kwekwe including the Globe and Phoenix mine premises and under the Kwekwe
town centre on condition that those people would vote for Zanu-PF. In Mbare
markets including Siyaso and Mupedzanhamo there is strict control of traders by
Zanu-PF, for example if there is a Zanu-PF raly the markets are closed so that
traders can boost numbers and I suspect traders are then coerced into voting
for Zanu-PF so that they can keep on trading. Also along the Chitungwiza-
Highfields back road there are informal settlements opposite Irvines factories
and it is not a secret that Zanu-PF tightly controls that area and as long as
Zanu-PF keeps on winning in that area those residents can stay for longer even
though they don’t have title to the land. Along the Acturus road after
Mabvuku/Tafara townships there is another informal housing scheme and all
around Ruwa there is such informal settlements meant to neutralise the
opposition’s grip in urban areas. I also predict that given the issue of lack
of title to the residential stands in Epworth this might also help Zanu-PF to
retain the vote in Epworth again. The partisan security forces are also used to
dilute votes in the urban areas, in 2013 I voted at Avondale Primary school and
I saw in the queue hundreds of police officers also voting even though it was
said police had voted earlier during the early vote, no wonder the opposition
lost Mount Pleasant seat.
A few weeks ago, I had a discussion with a group of 8
Zimbabweans also staying here in Pretoria and I told them my prediction based on historical voting patterns especially
in all Mashonaland provinces, Zanu-PF had already won the presidency and what
is still doubtful is whether they will still retain the two thirds majority. In
true Zimbabwean style they started insulting me and they accused me of being
mudhara we Zanu. Post- coup with the changes that have happened in Zimbabwe with
the demise of the Mugabe regime being labelled a Zanu-PF supporter no longer
sounds that bad. After all when I went home to participate in the demonstration
to demand the resignation of Robert Mugabe on 18 November 2018, we all knew
that Mr Mnangagwa from Zanu-PF would take over as the president. Is it just me,
this time around MDC’s supporter seems to be the more intolerant this election
season? They were all convinced that Nelson Chamisa would emerge as the winner
as he is very young. To stop the argument I asked if any among them had registered
to vote and it turned out that I was the only registered voter within the
group. Everyone had an excuse why they had not registered and they had faith
that people back home would vote for Chamisa. I could not help but point out that
most of them even those who are not documented had gone home to Zimbabwe for
the Christmas holidays last December but still did not bother to register to
vote. Remember the saying, everyone wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to
die. If you want your candidate to win you must vote and not expect someone
else to do it for you.
Last week, there was an opposition rally in Murehwa where
the opposition bused in a lot of supporters into the district ‘s business centre
and there was a lot of excitement on social media that MDC was making inroads
in the rural areas and I could not help but laugh. The village that I come from
is in Mukarakate area of Murewa under Chief Mangwende. Our village is bordered
by Mutoko district on the East and North and on the South we are bordered by
the former Virginia commercial farming areas of Macheke. I have relatives in
the neighbouring Hoyuyu Resettlement areas in Mutoko and new Resettlement areas
of Virginia Macheke. Chiendambuya and Mayo villages in Manicaland province are
about 15 to 20km away. Whenever I go home I only discuss politics with close
relatives. Politics is off topic with neighbours and strangers. In 2001 my cousin was allocated an
agricultural plot in Mutoko about 6km from our original village and he
accompanied me to the local Zanu-PF councillor who approved my request for land
close to him. There was no formal paper work to prove ownership. As I was
working in Harare, I would only attend village meetings during weekends. All
the local village leaders are also Zanu-PF local leaders and the village
meetings also doubles as formal Zanu-PF meetings. Village meetings starts with,
“Pamberi ne Zanu”. In the villages It is voluntary-compulsory for everyone who
is 18 and above to register to vote and then vote when the time comes. I explained
to them that I was already registered in Avondale, Harare where I was staying.
In 2005 towards the
parliamentary elections my cousin was seriously ill and he was staying in
Chitungwiza with his wife so that he could be nearer medical facilities. On the
day of the election after I had voted, I drove him and his wife to Mutoko to
their polling station so that they could also vote otherwise they risked losing
their piece of land. During that time I was still running a number of general
dealer shops in Mutoko and Macheke Resettlement areas. I left them at the
business centre where I also had a shop and they proceeded to vote. I had my
younger cousin who was going to vote for the first time and was working for me
about 8km away at another shop within the same constituent. I went with my
older cousin’s neighbour to go and man the shop whilst I was going to drive my
younger cousin about 60km away in Macheke. When I arrived in Macheke my aunt
was very happy that I had brought her son to vote. She told me that if he had
not come, the war veterans where going to take away his piece of land and
allocate it to someone else. I then went back to Mutoko and took my cousin and
his wife back to Chitungwiza
The following weeks
there was trouble. When my cousin and his wife came to vote they had not gone
to the village and everyone assumed they had not voted and luckily a Zanu-PF
official who was marking the register could vouch for them. The neighbour I took
to relieve my younger cousin at the shop was in serious trouble and it took
time for the Zanu-PF officials to verify that he had actually voted as he
claimed. Even then, they were very suspicious as to why he had gone to vote
that far away and they accused him of voting MDC and they threatened to kick
him out of the village and I felt sorry for him. Luckily his wife had voted at
the local polling station. Now 12 years later whenever I meet him he still
reminds me about the troubles that I caused him. Villagers have no security of
tenure and very few are willing to risk their livelihood and even their lives
by openly supporting or even voting for the opposition. The last time I planted
crops on that plot was in 2005 and in 2006 that plot was allocated to someone
else and I did not have anyone to report the confiscation of the land to. Perpetrators of violence committed during the
previous elections since independence have gone unpunished especially the
horrendous violence experienced during the period towards the June 2008 runoff
elections and Zanu-PF will be definitely benefit from the memories of that period.
In my blog of 23 August 2017, I also wrote about the
violence perpetrated against perceived PF-Zapu supporters in Amaveni Township
in Kwekwe towards the 1985 election. Traditionally in Zimbabwe whenever we
approach election period the police become powerless when it comes to Zanu-PF
supporters. With the SADC election guideline on election that was implemented
starting March 2008 elections. Results were posted outside each polling station
and if there are say 50 people that have voted for the opposition they start
doing a witch hunt. The rural folk in areas like Murewa, Wedza, Macheke Mutoko,
Mudzi, UMP, Chiendambuya etc. are on their own as they are all forced to
register to vote and then vote only for Zanu-PF. There were extreme cases
during the June 2008 runoff elections where even teachers would tell the poling
officers that they were illiterate so that Zanu-PF officials could then assist them to vote so that there was irrefutable evidence that
they did not vote for the opposition.
Last week I quickly went home for two days and on my way
back from Chivhu to Pretoria, I was given a lift in a Gonyeti (Haulage truck).
I always leave my car at the border because of the high border fees and the poor
condition of the road in Zimbabwe. Every time I drive with the car into Zimbabwe
I have to repair at least two mag wheels. I was advised that it is no longer
safe to continue repairing the mag wheels as they have been heated several
times and I am now faced with a bill of R17 000.00 to replace all four
rims. When we got to Mvuma three people
also boarded the Gonyeti. One of the guys started again with this nonsense,
“Chamisa will win because he is young”. I told the guy my sekuru (uncle) was
born in 1932 and even with my western education; I make it a point to consult
him on important matters as he has more wisdom. Also I find myself more and
more spending time with my father in law and his peers and it always amazes me
how much wisdom those old timers have. When Robert Mugabe took charge of our
country in 1980 and started messing with the rule of law and the economy he was
only 56. On the other end when Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s president in
1996 and put the country on the path of respect for rule of law and economic
growth he was already approaching 76.
I was among the people who raised strong objections to the
fact that Chamisa and his supporters in MDC quickly hurried to anoint him as
the MDC leader whilst the body of our hero Morgan Tsvangirai was still in a morgue
in Johannesburg, that conduct was in bad taste. Why the hurry?, when it was
clear that Chamisa had the numbers and would have prevailed as a leader
whenever the congress would be held. On principle I have a problem voting
Zanu-PF and I might hold my nose come election time and still vote for Chamisa.
I am very worried that MDC will likely get even fewer seats in Parliament than
they got in 2013 thereby handing two thirds majority to Zanu-PF and this is
worrying given Zanu-PF’s history of changing the constitution whenever they
feel like.
I am also worried
that with the death of Morgan Tsvangirai, MDC might disintegrate after the
election. Nelson Chamisa is at loggerheads with some of his comrades who stood
with Tsvangirai during trying times, people like Thokozani Khupe, Abednico
Bhebhe, Lovemore Moyo, Obert Gutu etc. Instead he is busy running around with
people like Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti. I am very suspicious of Ncube and
Biti given the way they left the party. I have not forgotten how Ncube despised
Morgan Tsvangirai so much that after the 2008 election, it took individual MPs
in the MDC-N such as Bhebhe to make sure that MDC-T lands the Speaker’s
position in the last parliament and they had to defy Ncube. What I see
happening is that Biti and Ncube will use the Alliance as a vehicle to get back
into parliament and since they will be contesting under their own parties
names, Chamisa will not be able to recall them from Parliament. At the same
time Nelson Chamisa will leave his Kuwadzana safe seat and contest for the
Presidency that he can’t possibly win this time around. With Chamisa out of
parliament and with MDC having a few seats, MDC-T will start to dis-integrate.
Remember Morgan Tsvangirai had a lot of political capital that is why he was
able to survive out of parliament and even when his secretary generals were
conniving against him one after the other.
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| Reading my hero's autobiography whilst on holiday in Thailand in November 2011 |
Morgan Tsvangirai will be a tough act to follow. He was one
of the first people with the courage to look the evil that is Robert Mugabe in the eye and not bling
and was consistent until the end. The
first time I was eligible to vote was in the 1995 and 1996 elections and at
that time we mistakenly thought that politics was only for the uneducated.
Towards the end of 1997 Robert Mugabe was pressurised to give Z$50 000.00 unbudgeted
gratuities to each war veteran and for comparison that year I was working as a
temporary teacher earning a monthly salary of Z$2 000.00 per month. That
reckless decision led to the devaluation of the Zimbabwean dollar against major
currencies and that had immediate personal consequences for me as I could no
longer afford to raise the British Pounds for the accounting course that I was
pursuing. To plug the gap in the fiscus, the government of Robert Mugabe
decided to increase taxes for workers and it was up to the Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions led by Gibson Sibanda as the president and Morgan Tsvangirai as
the Secretary General to fight against this unilateral decision. In December
1997 I had started to work for a South African owned Insurance company in
Harare as a trainee. One morning we came to work as usual and all of a sudden
police officers were throwing tear gas canisters and there was teargas smoke
everywhere in town. Offices and shops closed their doors for the day and there
was no transport and we had to walk home. In 1998 ZCTU arranged a number of stay aways
and eventually Robert Mugabe abandoned his plan. We then started calling Morgan
Tsvangirai, Cde Boycott. Life became harder, even though the company was
assisting me with study loans for the insurance course also payable in forex,
after repaying the loan instalments I was always broke.
Sometime in 1998, there was an invite from civil society for
the launch of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) at the Great Hall at
the University of Zimbabwe in Mount Pleasant. Some of us who did not have our
own cars were ferried from city centre to the campus by the Toyota Coaster
minibuses from the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and we were also well fed on
that day. Morgan Tsvangirai was one of the speakers and that was the first time
I saw him speaking face to face. Morgan Tsvangirai was not educated like some
of his peers in the civil society however he had a way of connecting with his
audience. Speaker after speaker identified that the problem facing Zimbabwe was
the Lancaster House Constitution that had been amended many times to
concentrate power in one man, Robert Mugabe. Robert Mugabe being the cunning
fox he is went on to establish the Godfrey Chidyausiku led Constitutional
Commission of Zimbabwe. On worker’s day in 1999 I attended the event at Rufaro
stadium which was also addressed by Morgan Tsvangirai and in September 1999 MDC
was officially launched at Rufaro Stadium with Morgan Tsvangirai as
president. After the draft constitution
came out, NCA campaigned for the NO vote and we were urged to vote and I voted
for the first time. After the result came out a lot of us were very encouraged
by the result as we realised that voting works. I then went to The Registrar
General’s Office in central Harare and registered to vote. I have since voted
for all elections after that except for the 2005 Senate Election that Morgan
Tsvangirai advised us not to vote.
The last time I attended a rally addressed by Morgan
Tsvangirai was in March 2008 just before the election at the vacant land behind
the old Sheraton Hotel. By that time I was already working in South Africa and
when I saw the crowd it was obvious that Morgan Tsvangirai was going to win the
election and I was confident that things would change and I would be coming
home for good in less than 3 months. The most enduring image that I still have
in my mind was of Morgan Tsvangirai standing by the graveside of Mr Shepherd
Janhi with the deceased’s young son. Mr Janhi was an MDC Senate candidate in
Murewa and he was brutally murdered towards the June 2008 run- off election. I
last saw Mr. Janhi around February or early March 2008. I had first met him
around 2004-2005 when I was in the company of my cousin and I had gone to buy
stock for my shops at Red Star Wholesalers Murewa. His buildings were on the
way to the wholesaler and there were traders renting some of the buildings
selling maputi and freezits and I wanted some of that stock for the shops. Mr
Janhi started talking to my cousin and he discovered that we came from
Mukarakate area and we had common relatives. After that we would meet him many
times as I passed through Murewa every weekend.
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| During the funeral of Mr Shepherd Janhi |
In mid 2007, I had lost a lot of money during the government
price control blitz and a result I had relocated to South Africa to start over.
At the beginning of 2008, I had started stocking my shops again in Mutoko. So
one Sunday morning I was driving from Mutoko back to Pretoria as I was supposed
to be at work on the following day. I was thinking of opening a much bigger
shop at Murewa business centre and I thought of going to see Mr. Janhi and tell
him of my plans and see if he was renting out any of his buildings. I arrived
at his shop around 7am and the lady told me that he was by the bus stop closer
to where the old Standard Chartered Bank’s Agency was. Luckily I got there
before he got a lift. I gave him a lift to Harare and he told me that he was
going for an MDC meeting where they were going to decide if the party would
boycott the March 29 election or not. That was the last time I saw him and in
May 2008. It pains me a lot that he was brutally murdered and no one was
brought to book for this callous deed.
I felt sorry for Morgan Tsvangirai and I could just imagine
the weight on his shoulder when all these people were being killed and some
were being permanently disabled as some had their limbs cut , severely
tortured, deliberately being burnt by Zanu-PF. Many more were displaced from
their homes due to the violence and in the cities thousands were affected by
cholera and there was serious hunger in the rural areas. For the sake of the
people Morgan Tsvangirai and to ease the suffering in the country accepted to
play second fiddle to Robert Mugabe even though he had won the first round
election fair and square. It is very rare in Africa for a politician to put
peoples’ interests above his own. Morgan Tsvangirai consistently preached peace
and insisted on democratic means to topple the regime even though us many of
his supporters where angry with how unfair the election process was since 2000.
So on the evening of 14 February 2018, I was sitting at home in Pretoria watching
news and waiting for the expected resignation of former president Jacob Zuma. I
first saw a tweet confirming the death of Morgan Tsvangirai and I was hoping
that it was a hoax. Within a few minutes many more tweets and credible news
channels started confirming the dreaded news. I could no longer remain composed
and started shedding tears and luckily it was a school night and the kids had
already retired to bed. After I had composed myself I then went and told
Manyoni of the terrible news.
During that time I was constantly thinking of one of his
trusted friend and colleague, Mr Masimba Ruzvidzo who was our neighbour when I
was growing up in Dombotombo Township in Marondera. We simply called him
babamunini Simba and the last time I spoke to him was around 2007 when I was
still working in Bulawayo and whenever we discussed about politics and MDC he
simply called him Morgan as they must have called him during their days in the
trade union or civil society movements . Rest in peace Save my hero, you fought
a good fight and we will never forget you. Thank you for inspiring us and
selling us a dream that Zimbabwe could rise again. In mid-2008 when my family
joined me in Centurion after it became clear there was no hope in Zimbabwe, I
remember our first born son asking why there were no power failures in South
Africa. It pained me that children where now growing up thinking the current abnormal
situation in Zimbabwe was now the norm and I had to explain to him that in the
early 80s when I started schooling in Zimbabwe we always had electricity
running water, good roads, low prices, at one time Zimbabwean dollar was
stronger than the American dollar, more people were employed etc.
2008 Election Violence
In April 2008, I drove overnight from Pretoria to
Chitungwiza where my family was staying. After resting a bit that Saturday
morning, I decided to visit my shops in Mutoko and Macheke. Manyoni insisted on
coming along with the boys and we went via Mutoko road. We stopped at Blue
Ridge Spar then operated by James Makamba’s wife. The previous month, I had
imported many boxes of cooking oil from South Africa and demand was very low
for the oil and I then asked in the store if they were buying cooking oil. We
were then referred to Makamba’s daughters and we started negotiating a price.
In the discussion it turned out one of the daughters must have gone to
University of Pretoria. We then promised to deliver the stock the following
day. After we left Mutoko and on the way to Virginia Macheke the car started
making a noise in the engine and I drove it slowly to my shop which was about
4km from Virginia Country club. That night I then decided to go and check up on
my other Isuzu bakkie that was being repaired about 12km away at my other shop.
I walked with the shop keeper to the shop and back. Early in the morning my
family took public transport back to Harare whilst I remained behind to figure
out what was wrong with the car and Manyoni was going to phone my boss in
Pretoria to explain that I had car trouble. Later the mechanic advised me to
buy some engine parts and not drive the vehicle further so I also took public
transport to Harare and the following day to Pretoria. I bought the parts in
Pretoria.
The following Friday, I boarded a Harare bound bus in
Pretoria and arrived on Saturday morning. I then took another bus to Macheke
and then lifts to Virginia Macheke arriving midday in Macheke. At that time the
whole country was waiting for the presidential election results which the
authorities had withheld. When I got to the shop there was a Zanu-PF rally in
session and in the rural areas attendance to Zanu-PF rallies is compulsory. The
atmosphere at the rally was charged one war veteran addressing the rally was
emotional talking about the war of liberation and singing war songs. They were
denouncing MDC supporters. When the rally ended around 3pm and I was walking to
my shop. One of the guys who had worked for me the previous year at a plot that
I had been renting in Kensington Bulawayo before I fired him for stealing
pointed to me and said he knew that me and my wife we were MDC supporters.
Luckily the war veterans ignored him as they had known me for years and I had
good relations with the community, my minibus that had been operating the
previous year from Macheke to Virgina always carried these leaders to their
homes. My mechanic told me that the environment was tense and violence had
started and he advised me to drive the vehicle in that state to Macheke town
centre. That night I drove the vehicle slowly overnight and left it with a
mechanic in Macheke with the parts and got transport back to Pretoria.
During the Worker’s day holiday in 2008, I came to Zimbabwe
again. I dropped off at Corner Store along Mutoko road and it was already dark
and I decided to walk 23km to my shop like I had done many many times before as
there was no hope of finding transport at that hour. Along the way I met a
teacher who was working at Kushinga seconday school about 8km from Corner
Store on my way. That teacher insisted that I could not continue with the
journey that night as it was too dangerous, Zanu-PF youth were putting up
roadblocks during the night and they did not want to see strangers. When we got
to his home at the school premises, he told me that he had already moved his
family to a safe place and he had already requested for a transfer to be closer
to his rural home. He explained to me that the violence was shocking and a lot
of teachers had absconded from work and were hiding in urban areas and in neighbouring
countries. He recalled that one day they had been called to a Zanu-PF rally and
strangers had come with automatic rifles. In Zimbabwe even police normally do
not carry guns and it was clear that the military was involved. In the morning
I proceeded with my journey and when I got to my cousin he also explained to me
that all men were now spending nights at bases. One of our distant relatives a
war veterans was the leader. That afternoon I got transport and went back to
Harare.
The June 2008 runoff election date was announced and I
applied for leave from work and bought a bus ticket for Harare and by the time
that Morgan Tsvangirai announced his withdrawal from election due to the
violence it was too late and I proceeded to Harare. Since I had bought my bus
ticket very early my seat was next to the Greyhound’s bus driver. In the
morning after we passed Masvingo the driver started telling me that most men
around the Churumanzu area had run away from their homes due to the election
violence. He told me that he has never witnessed such violence. My wife when
she was still in Chitungwiza was telling me things were so bad that even in
Chitungwiza people were now being forced to attend Zanu-PF rallies. I was told
that my shop keeper at the shop nearer to Virginia was badly beaten and was
injured and after that he ran away from the area. One of the local war veteran
leaders with a farm in Macheke it is said was found dead in his car close to a
railway line in Mufakose. This war veterans was doing very well on the farm and
he had relatives staying closer to my home in Burnside Bulawayo and he would
give me farm produce to go and give them. The day after the March 2008 I
remember on the way to Beitbridge since results were being posted outside each
polling station almost everyone was happy that Zanu-PF was on its way out. I
remember along the road people were openly celebrating even in rural areas and
they were making the waving sign a gesture used by MDC and people started
talking openly. So when the violence started it was easy to identify who had
supported MDC. Towards the end of 2008 or early 2009 a childhood friend who had
just retired from the police on medical grounds came to our house in Pretoria
and he told me and my wife that a number of bodies had been discovered in
Wenimbe Dam outside Marondera.
Another problem this time around there is a lot of
opposition and Independents who are contesting and I fear this will also
benefit Zanu-PF. In October 2017, I registered to vote at Mount Pleasant Hall
and people from Fadzayi Mahere’s campaign team were very visible assisting with
affidavits and at the same time the former MDC MP for the area Mr James Timba
was also around. I think Fadzayi Mahere would be a blessing to the country if
she was to get into Parliament. As things stand now, MDC will also be fielding
a candidate in the constituency and Zanu-PF is most likely going to retain the
seat.
To be honest I have
personally seen major improvements in the country ever since the demise of the
Robert Mugabe regime. The first prize is that crazy Grace Mugabe will never
become my president and to be honest I was considering voting Zanu-PF for the
very first time since 2000 when I started voting. I wanted that vote to be a
thank you gesture to General Chiwenga and our army. That was until President
Mnangagwa dismissed the 2008 election violence. I am so grateful that the
generals took personal risk to make sure that Grace Mugabe would not be near
the seat of power. Now 5 months later at times it feels surreal that Mugabe has
been removed from power, for sure zvimwe zinoda kutendwa. We were all resigned
to the fact that Grace Mugabe would succeed Robert Mugable. Other positive welcome
changes are the following; Police corruption on the highway has drastically
been reduced, the economic environment has improved and I can see changes in my
small venture and I am more confident of the future. At Beitbridge border post there is more sanity
and they have removed touts who were a nuisance, the service especially from
Zimra is now much quicker and they are now charging a lower carbon fee for all foreign
registered vehicles regardless of the engine capacity however I think the
Temporary Import Permit fees are still
too high when we compare with Botswana that charges around P150 as compared to
the almost R1 000 that one pays especially through Beitbridge.
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| God is great the nightmare is over |
The political atmosphere has changed for the better for
example President Mnangagwa and Vice president Chiwenga going to visit
Tsvangirai at his house. Robert Mugabe could not even go to the hospitals to
visit victims of cholera in 2008. This
time around election monitors from European Union have been invited; I am not
worried about the conditions put up by the Americans for the lifting of
sanctions. At the moment America has a toddler at the helm and they have their
own serious challenges and if we have peaceful elections the country’s
relations with the European Union will improve. The new leaders have indicated
that they will be applying to re-join the Commonwealth and this is a positive
development especially for post graduate students who will be able to access
scholarships once again. Also the Russians and the Chinese will also go ahead
with their projects as long as the economic environment continues to improve
and the government is making the right noises in that respect. It seems
Mnangagwa will follow the Chinese model of more emphasis on economic rights,
obviously this is not very ideal but it is far much better than Mugabe’s
regime. Last month I carried goods for a
client from Pretoria to Wedza and on our way from Wedza to Harare she told me
that many white farmers were around openly farming and they were renting farms
from the new owners. I see the government de-racialising land reform and also
allocating plots to the white farmers after the election. After all, economic
problems in Zimbabwe were mainly as a result of the chaotic land reform and
corruption. An improved agricultural output can only help the country’s
production as well as forex generation and import substitution.
I remember in the mid-90s
many airlines were flying into Harare and I would help relatives selling stone
and wood carvings at a tourist’s market opposite Meikles hotel and a lot of
tourists used to visit Zimbabwe then. In early 2000, I joined an American
insurance company in the farming claims department. Around 2001 there was a
chaotic land reform and there were shocking footage of violence on the
commercial farms which was beamed on the international news channels and the
police did nothing to stop the violence. After that many foreign embassies
issued travel advisory warnings to their citizens about the violence in
Zimbabwe and tourism suffered as a result and many airlines eventually stopped
flying into Zimbabwe. One day a number of overseas managers jetted into our
offices in Harare and they assessed the situation and a decision was made to
stop insuring farms, about 40% of the staff had to be retrenched. By end of
2005 the company closed its doors in Zimbabwe. The chaotic land reform damaged
the structure of the Zimbabwean economy and evidence of this can be seen by the
decay in the towns that traditionally relied on farming for example Marondera,
Rusape, Bindura, Mvurwi, Karoi, Chinhoyi, Chegutu, Gwanda, Masvingo etc.A lot
of rural district councils were also affected as well as parastatals such as
ZESA. The private sector including the financial sector was affected and
international companies such Aon, Zurich (Eagle Insurance), AIG, Munich Re,
Swiss Re, Hollandia Re etc. closed their office. As a result hundreds of
Zimbabwean insurance professionals are now working in the insurance industries
in South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Zambia, Mozambique, Uganda, Nigeria etc. I
once had a discussion with an insurance client from one of the Rural District
councils who bemoaned the chasing away of commercial farmers. He confided in me
that the farmers would pay their rates a year in advance after they sold their
crops and the rural district councils would have enough funds to maintain the
roads. Now if you drive around the former commercial farming areas of Chivhu,
Marondera, Macheke etc the roads are now a hazard.
Sometime last year, I saw Zimbabwean trucks carrying wooden
poles used to put up electricity lines from South Africa yet Zimbabwe used to
have wood plantations for companies such as Hunyani, Wattle Company, Border
Timbers etc. One classic example of corruption is Hwange Colliery Company. In
2005 I was part of a survey team to Hwange Colliery of insurance underwriting
managers and engineering managers from multi insurance and reinsurance companies.
That company is a classic example of corruption and incompetence that follows
the deployment of party cadres. All they needed to do is to dig coal from the
ground and sell the coal to the state power station that was nearby and make
coke from the coke oven battery and export it to neighbouring Botswana where it
was in high demand and they were failing to do those simple tasks. The
corruption in the rural party was preventing the reopening of Ziscosteel one of
the largest steel plants in Southern Africa and the country keeps on importing
steel from South Africa and China yet we complain about the foreign currency
shortages.
What keeps me awake at night is the prospect that Zanu-PF
will most likely win elections with more than two thirds majority and they will
be doing what they want like they did in the 90s. As things stand now that is
the likely scenario unless more people in towns and in the diaspora comes home
to vote as the government has made it clear there won’t be diaspora vote. I
know the situation is not fair for the diaspora, one has a choice to keep on
complaining about it or do something about it by going home to register to vote
after all for important occasions all of us go home and there is nothing more
important than going to vote after all tens of thousands paid the ultimate
prize during the war of liberation so that everyone will have the right to
vote. There are also complaints about the partisan media but if we want to be
honest towards March 2008 we only had two weekly newspapers being the
Independent and Sunday Standard and in that environment the opposition won the
election. For years people in urban areas would buy The Herald and The
Chronicle with all the propaganda and we would still vote for the opposition.
Now with the social media there is no much merit in keeping on complaining
about the Zanu-PF controlled media. I leave you with this statement that I read
in an opinion piece, written by the late Professor Masipula Sithole a few days
before the 2000 Constitutional Referendum that most thought Mugabe would easily
win and we defeated him, it goes something like this “the collective decision
of Zimbabweans as a whole is wiser”. Here is to our collective decision as
Zimbabweans , wherever we are in the world and remember even if you do not vote
you will have voted for Zanu-PF!
God bless Zimbabwe
