Saturday, March 31, 2018

Why there is very little hope for Nelson Chamisa and the opposition in the 2018 elections

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.



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.

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.

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

No comments:

Post a Comment