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

Why Zimbabwe needs to discard the bond note currency for the South African Rand

The first time I went to Zimbabwe post Robert Mugabe’s era was on Sunday 10 December 2017 and I arrived in rural Mutoko late afternoon on the following day. It is normally very dangerous to openly discuss politics in that part of the country. I was in familiar company and people were worried that ever since Mr Mnangagwa was inaugurated as the new president, their living conditions had not changed for the better and prices of basic goods were now going up. I tried to explain the economic theory to them and how he is making the right noise internationally when it comes to investment protection, trimming government expenditure, goodwill from the west etc. Obviously to the common man in the street who continues to toil and suffer this brings little consolation. Recently there was a letter circulated from Innscor to say bread price is going up and now the Ministry of trade and industry has called for a meeting of the stakeholders to try and reverse this increase. There might even be an ill-advised attempt to re-introduce price controls. In my view the whole underlying problem is the bond note currency that was introduced by Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa last year during Robert Mugabe’s era. There is a saying that says, “A wise man changes his mind, a fool never will”.  The government should scrap the bond notes. There is honour in admitting that the government made a mistake with the bond note currency.

There is so much goodwill for the new president Mr Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa. I saw this goodwill on Saturday 18 November 2017 the day hundreds of thousands of us marched along 4^th street Harare on the way to State House to demand Robert Mugabe’s resignation. It was clear that the incoming president would be Mr Mnangagwa and I saw a number of urban voters of all races who in the past have previously mostly supported MDC since 2000 elections holding placards of Mr Mnangagwa and General Chiwenga. Speaking for myself a staunch MDC- T supporter, I was resigned to the fact that Grace Mugabe would become the Vice President of Zimbabwe and there was nothing that anyone could do about it. As I took the flight to Harare from Johannesburg on the morning of the march, I was very grateful for the personal sacrifices that the army leadership had taken to make sure that the reign of Robert Mugabe comes to an end. As I have written before, even if the devil himself had come forward and said he was taking over from Mugabe, I suspect we would still have marched in support as well as we were very desperate to see Mugabe’s back. Now as the new president spelled out in his inaugural speech it is now time to rebuild the economy. I wish the president success in that endeavour as his success will be my success. I would have liked to see a transitional government for a few years to sort out the economy. At this rate if the elections are held in a worsening economic environment I do not see the incumbent winning a free and fair election as people are not seeing the changes a month after the march.

The unemployment level in Zimbabwe is estimated at around 95%, which means that the majority of gainfully employed Zimbabweans are currently employed outside the country in countries like New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia, Namibia etc. It is very important that the government engages foreign direct investors to come to the country and revive the industry, equally the government should not forget the millions of Zimbabweans based outside the country who are on average earning much higher incomes than those obtaining back home. As the finance minister had previously shown in the national budget how significant the remittances from the diaspora are in earning the country foreign currency. It is my strong belief that to eradicate the current liquidity crisis, the country must immediately start using South African Rand as the primary currency in the short to medium term until production in the country increases then we can revert to our own currency.

Currently there are approximately over 400 000 Zimbabweans working legally in South Africa on work permits, permanent residency permits or have acquired South African citizenship. There is an estimate of an even bigger number of Zimbabweans who are not documented mainly working informally but still being able to earn decent incomes every month e.g. there is a lot of motor mechanics, builders, plumbers, domestic workers, waiters, carpenters, petrol attendants, security guards, drivers, welders, painters, tilers, farm workers, informal traders etc. in South Africa. Also there are several thousands of Zimbabweans working in other Southern African Custom Union countries i.e. Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and Namibia of which the South African Rand is the anchor currency in all these countries except Botswana. There is also tens of thousands of Zimbabweans in Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia of whom South Africa is one of their biggest trading partners and these countries accept the Rand. One should count the huge number of buses leaving Johannesburg every day for various parts of Zimbabwe to see the level of integration between South Africa and Zimbabwe.

From my experience, I have failed to see the sense why we can’t adopt the South African Rand. In 2016 to 2017 farming season, I decided to grow tobacco back home in Zimbabwe. When I had to buy fertilizer at Omnia fertilizer shop along 4^th Street in Harare, I had to exchange my South African Rands first to Bond notes at the illegal money dealers at Roadport and then buy the fertilizer. This did not make sense to me as that fertilizer that I bought was being offloaded straight from haulage trucks coming from South Africa. So I come with Rands and go to illegal money changers were they change the money at a premium, I then go and pay with Bond notes. Now when Omnia now wants to go and replenish the stock, they go and line up for scarce foreign currency at the Reserve bank or go to Roadport and buy forex at a premium when they could have simply sold the fertilizer for Rand and then not bother the Reserve bank. The people who were helping us in the tobacco fields preferred that we buy groceries for them instead of giving them cash as the prices of groceries in rural areas are always inflated. So we went to Mahomed Mussa Wholesalers and when we wanted to pay for the groceries using South African Rand, they were quoting us ridiculous rates of $1:16 when the official rate was below $1:13 and we were forced to go to the illegal money changers where we got rates that were even better than the official bank rates. The irony is that when you go into Zimbabwean supermarkets the majority of the products on the shelves are from South Africa or the raw materials are from South Africa. They refuse to accept the Rand which they can use to import the products themselves without joining the queue at the Reserve bank or going to the parallel market to devalue the bond note further and then having to increase the prices of goods.

A lot Zimbabweans who were raised in the country unlike our children still have an emotional attachment to the country and they think of returning to the country one day. A lot of urban councils are failing to raise revenue when they could easily develop residential stands and sell them on instalments to the millions of Zimbabweans in the diaspora who can afford and raise the much needed revenue and foreign currency for the country. This will bring extra income when people pay rates to the councils and also generate employment and business opportunities among the builders, electricians, labourers, hardware stores etc.  Another issue is the uncompetitive prices in tourism due to the US$. South Africa used to be the biggest source market for Zimbabwe tourism but now with the rates being quoted in US$ the prices are ridiculous and this is very surprising when you note that the workers in those sectors do not earn that much, who is benefiting?

 I remember towards end of 2012 my first work permit was expiring and I had applied for a permit renewal as well as permanent residency. I was not sure that my permit would be renewed and so in December 2012, my family went back to Zimbabwe. We had finished our two bedroom cottage at the end of 2010 and we then started construction for our main house. Like many parents, I worry about the quality of primary and secondary education in South Africa and it has always been my wish that my children also get the highly regarded Zimbabwe primary and secondary education. We then enrolled our two sons in a small private school where we were paying $3 000 per annum for the two kids. I remember then I was living frugally in South Africa and having to send most of my salary earnings back to Zimbabwe to pay the builders, buy building materials, pay living expenses, pay school fees etc. During my visits to Zimbabwe, I would also meet many more Zimbabweans who were in a similar situation to mine. After the 2013 election went the way it did, I decided to bring my family back to South Africa and stopped the construction and then concentrated on South Africa. My builder, the labourers, the school that my sons were going to, our local supermarket and indeed the country lost my modest monthly income. Imagine if say thousands of people in a similar situation to mine took the same decision of turning their back to the country what is the impact on the country. I know when the government considers foreign investment they are only looking at big companies but as individuals the cumulative incomes that we can potentially bring to the country is quite substantial.

 Whilst I understand the rational why the west imposed targeted sanctions on the country's leadership, their impact are actually felt by all of us. I remember when Makro became part of Wal-Mart; they had to close their two outlets in Harare and Bulawayo due to the American sanctions. Another reason why the sanctions are not desirable is the fact that Mr Munangagwa is my president even though I am an MDC supporter. With sanctions hanging above his head, will he be able to go and sign bilateral agreements with the countries that have sanctioned him? Imagine someone telling me that he has only sanctioned me and not my kids and this is dishonesty of the highest order. If you sanction me, then you have indirectly sanctioned my family as well as I provide for them. So the sanctions must be removed. At the same time, leadership should not use those sanctions as a scapegoat for their mismanagement of the country's economy, they should continue with the reforms and proper management of the country so that we can prosper as a country in spite of the sanctions.

As the new government looks around for investments, I suggest they prioritise South Africa. Most South African companies stuck with Zimbabwe even when the economic environment was not favourable. Also the fact that South Africa has not introduced sanctions on our leaders means it will be easier for a South African company to directly invest in Zimbabwe than say an American company that will fear having to pay huge fines back home. South African companies are also reported to be sitting at hundreds of billions of Rands and we must aggressively court them as the first port of call. I remember companies like Woolworths tried to come to Zimbabwe a few years ago and they ended up closing down and the same with Shoprite that was only maintaining one shop in Bulawayo waiting for the right time. I also need to talk about my profession the insurance industry. With the problems we have had since 2000 a lot of Zimbabwean assets are now directly insured externally and this not only takes away our much needed foreign currencies but it takes away jobs in the insurance sector out of the country to South Africa. A lot of Zimbabwean informal traders in neighbouring countries are not banked because they are not documented, channels such as Ecocash can actually bring them on board if we adopt a credible currency and their families and the Zimbabwean economy in general can potentially access this forex that can run into tens of millions of Rands. This can help to cut the very high commissions being charged to send money to Zimbabwe from neighbouring countries plus the exchange rate losses when the money is changed from Rands to US dollars. As we speak more and more diasporans are now shunning the official channels of sending money to Zimbabwe due to the bond note distortions.

As we speak now this bond note crisis where transfer rates can go up as much as a premium of 80% means that the salaries of workers in Zimbabwe have effectively been halved and it seems we are going back to the undesirable period of 2008 inflation levels. In October 2017, I was offered tobacco seedlings enough for 2 hectares and when I looked at the price of fertilizer, increased costs of other inputs and the devaluing bond notes, I decided against growing tobacco again until the currency issue was resolved. In the last farming season, I brought in tens of thousands of South African Rands for tobacco farming and the Reserve bank governor had promised payment in forex. When we sold the tobacco all we got was bond notes. To access those bonds notes my cousin and his wife had to queue for weeks to access the money. At least at that time the rate was still 1:1 with the US dollar. A lot of Zimbabweans are making the journey back home for the holidays right now, why are they not allowed to bring in 1 or 2 bags of fertilizer to give their families back home. The current prices of fertilizer in Zimbabwe will affect the current farming season. As a pig farmer in Zimbabwe, I worry about the price distortions brought about by the bond notes, corrugated iron sheets that we use for constructing pig shelters that costs around R65 in South Africa, are being sold for around $21 in Zimbabwe. At the same time one is not allowed to bring in those roofing sheets without an import permit and people are forced to smuggle them into the country. Another irony is that with the way that the bond note has devalued against the Rand, petrol is now cheaper in Zimbabwe than in South Africa even though fuel is heavily taxed in Zimbabwe than in South Africa!

Despite the political differences, I wish our new government success and hope the economy turns around and that the standards of living of our people starts to improve. For that to happen, we need to get a stable currency and improve liquidity, this will certainly enable proper running of businesses and make sure that workers don’t spend productive hours queuing at banks. We need to bring dignity back to our people both inside the country and outside the country. It is hard being a foreigner and we hope by working together we can grow our economy from wherever we are so that those who want to come back home and can come back to a prosperous Zimbabwe.

 

God bless Zimbabwe!

I am for free tertiary education done responsibly

I have noticed the way Jacob Zuma operates is very much like Robert Mugabe. He operates unilaterally; he surrounds himself with incompetent ministers and fires competent ministers. Like Mugabe, Zuma seems to think that a country can never go bankrupt. Zuma’s unilateral actions in announcing free higher education is meant to help his favoured faction without regard to the economy. After the court judgements of last week, I do not think Zuma still has the moral authority to continue ringing these far-reaching changes that will surely affect the economy. For the record as a person who came from a poor working class family, I support free funded government tertiary education done in a responsible way. I started primary school education a few years after Zimbabwe’s independence. My father before his death in 1990 was a police constable and my mother was not working. I went to township schools that were fully funded by the government and I have written in my blog how we used to pay only $6 Zimbabwean dollars per year as school fees up to grade 7. For secondary education, I also went to township schools and they were very cheap. I only went to a former group A or a previously whites only school during the days of segregation (equivalence of a model C school) for the two years of A’Level as the township schools in my town only went up to O’level at that time.

After A’Level the government was fully funding university education and students were getting generous grants from the government as well. For those who did not go to university there were fully funded teachers’ colleges, polytechnic colleges, nursing training, apprenticeship, training as a radiographer etc. One could also join private sector or the civil service and get in house training. I then joined a South African owned Insurance company and I got trained internally and the company also paid for my foreign based insurance studies. After the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy starting with the fall of the Zimbabwean dollar in 1997, now university education is no longer free and university standards have fallen sharply. Top government ministers started sending their children to overseas universities to countries such as Australia, United Kingdom and United States. Now parents who can afford it now sends their children to South Africa as Zimbabwean universities standards have fallen and at the same time many university lecturers also left Zimbabwe due to the poor living standards in the country. Zimbabwe university degrees are no longer highly regarded. I am sure many people have read how Grace Mugabe got her doctorate in a record time of only a few months at the once prestigious University of Zimbabwe. I personally know someone who is working in South Africa who came to this country already with a Zimbabwean accounting degree and he is currently again studying for an accounting degree with a South African university just to get ahead in his career. With unemployment level of 95% in Zimbabwe, I advise my close family members to rather pursue their degrees in South Africa for better employment prospects. Two years ago a cousin of mine was complaining that her daughter was pursuing a degree at a Zimbabwe university of which there was virtually no industry for it in Zimbabwe and she could not get attachment in order to complete her degree.

Fully funded tertiary education is very important towards bridging the racial divide gap in South Africa especially as it allows the majority of the black citizens to acquire the necessary skills and also join the middle class. In Zimbabwe after independence a lot of black citizens managed to get training to become teachers, nurses, artisans, managers, lawyers, doctors, radiographers, economists etc. That is why it was far much easier for skilled Zimbabweans to settle in United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia etc. when the economy collapsed in Zimbabwe as they had the necessary skills thanks to the educational policies of the government. Whilst the government is pursuing that noble goal of skilling its people, it must still manage the country’s fiscus in a prudent manner so that those newly skilled black professionals join a growing economy. South African economy is not growing largely as a result of the way that Zuma has managed this country and there is looming downgrades, devaluation of the currency, high unemployment etc. I am very fearful of the reaction of the markets when they open on Monday. We can’t afford the continuous devaluation in the Rand. As we speak we are paying record petrol prices even though the oil price is nowhere nearer the $150 per barrel experienced on the world market a few years ago.

As a parent whose son will be going to university in about 3 years, I am also now looking for overseas university education or private university education locally. I had a front row seat in Zimbabwe when the decay started to manifest itself. South Africa seems to be going that way and I am very worried about what the future holds and the end result will be the same it’s a question of different cast but with the same script and it will certainly produce the same result.

THE WORLD DOES NOT OWE ZIMBABWE ANYTHING

Before I went to bed on Thursday 30 November 2017 I had misplaced hope when it comes to Zimbabwe. I had picked up this hope on Saturday 18 November the day we marched to State House to demand Mugabe’s resignation. I had advised my wife that I had decided to go to Zimbabwe the following day with plans to spend more money in our piggery project and expand it further. My wife’s answer was that she was weary of us keeping on spending money in Zimbabwe as we had lost a lot of money in Zimbabwe in the past. The same week that Emmerson Munangagwa was fired, I had over a dozen pigs ready for market and we were battling to get buyers. The day after the general went on Zimbabwe TV to announce the coup that was not a coup, I started getting phone calls from Zimbabwe and a number of people wanted to buy the whole lot. I decided maybe lets increase the breeding stock and not sell and hopefully in 12 month time we might have a stock of 500 pigs and maybe invest in the butchery equipment and open our own butcheries in Zimbabwe as we constantly get raw deals from the guys we supply meat to. Is it a Southern African thing to have these cabinets announced just before midnight, look Zuma’s dubious cabinet reshuffles are always announced around midnight?

I woke up the following day and saw the cabinet and at first I thought it was just a joke. At 5am, I went out for my 5km morning run and when I came back my wife had also woken up and she had also read the news. I have since shelved my plans and it’s time to wait and see what happens in the next election. The rulers in Zimbabwe need to know that the world does not owe anything to Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has to fight for and attract scarce resources from an open market. If I as a Zimbabwean am more comfortable to keep my hard earned money in a foreign country, do they expect a foreigner to come and invest?

Yesterday they were blaming Morgan Tsvangirai for their cabinet. Someone pointed out that if that is the case that Tsvangirai threatened his lieutenants not to join this cabinet why did they not consider other people outside MDC-T. In the previous GNU government there were many competent ministers who are not in Tsvangirai’s party, people such as Elton Mangoma, Tendai Biti, David Coltart, Whelsman Ncube, Priscilla Misihairabwi etc my question is why were they not considered? Also there are other Zanu -PF aligned MPs such as Temba Mliswa and Paul Mangwana to choose from.  There is also other qualified people such as Nkosana Moyo who were also not considered.

We had already decided as a family that we are not going to Zimbabwe this Christmas holiday as all our kids despise going to Zimbabwe. Although I have a lot of hope for Zimbabwe, I remember we used to say who ever comes after Mugabe cannot be worse and the economy will improve. However we need to see the world for what it is and not according to how we want it to be. If the economy does not improve, the generals can never win a free and fair election.

 

God bless Zimbabwe

Why I am rooting for my new president

Everyone has a story to tell when it comes to Robert Mugabe. Like millions of Zimbabweans, I was resigned to the fact that Robert Mugabe would be my president until he dies. However it was the thought that Grace Mugabe would succeed him that that made me want to puke. To be honest Zimbabweans never really liked Grace Mugabe even years before she opened her mouth and uttered those taboo words. Second wives are always accused of taking another man's wife. I remember growing up in police camps and I would hear women saying,"akatora murume wemunhu" meaning she stole someone's man/husband. Obviously this is just perpetuation of patriarchy where only the second wife is blamed but not the husband who is thought of being helpless to the charms of the second wife. In all my stay in Zimbabwe, I had never experienced such behaviour as exhibited by Grace Mugabe from any lady. I had stayed with both my grandmothers, my mother, my mother in law, all my aunts, my sisters in law etc. and none of them had behaved like our former first lady. I had only noticed such behaviour from intoxicated people or those that had a mental illness. From 1989 to 1990 we had stayed at Mbizo Police station in Kwekwe and our house was right next to the gate and around 300 metres from the gate there was the council's Garandichauya bar. There ladies of the night would walk to and from the bar and when they were intoxicated they would shout obscenities.

 I had promised myself that after Mugabe dies in office, I would visit Heroes Acre once more to make sure that he is gone for good. This would be second time I would have visited the shrine. The only other time I visited Heroes Acre was in 1999 during the burial of Vice President Joshua Nkomo, I had gone to pay my respects to this great stateman, I walked all the way from Avondale. So on 18 November 2017, I woke up in Pretoria around midnight as I normally sleep only for a few hours. I started looking for any available flights to Harare. I had two challenges that morning, firstly to wake up my wife Manyoni and disturb her sleep, she loves her sleep very much and also to convince her that I was going to spend so much money that morning. My sales experience came in handy as I was on my way to O.R Tambo airport by 4am. I landed in Harare around 10am. As I disembarked from the taxi along Robert Mugabe road that morning, I kept on pinching myself to make sure that I was not dreaming,where all these people demonstrating against the all powerful and mighty Robert Mugabe for real?


Robert Mugabe Road in the morning of the demonstration

 I really wanted to go to Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfied for the gathering but I had to go home first to catch up on sleep and also to recharge my phone. Highfield has special significance for me as I was born at Harare hospital just a few kilometres away. In line with the Shona custom as the first child, I was supposed to be born at my mother's parents home in Murewa. When the days of my birth drew closer, my mother went to Murewa hospital. She then had complications and she was transferred to Salisbury as Harare was known then during the colonial era. The referral hospital for blacks was Harare Hospital also known as Kugomo and I was delivered there through ceasarian section. My father's uncle has a house in Highfield and also at that time my mother's eldest brother had bought a house in the nearby high density suburb of Glen Norah upon his return from Zambia with his Zambian wife and we alternated among the two houses. Growing up I was naughty and my mother always reminded me that as a child born via operation (ceasarian section) I should not give her so much grief as she had suffered so much for me and also that whenever the weather was cold she would feel the pain from that operation.

After lunch I took a taxi back to Harare city centre and started moving up the road with crowds of people along fourth street on the way to State House. I passed by Eagle House where I started my insurance career 20years ago. The special place for me was along Samora Machel avenue where the president's office is housed. In August 2007 in the company of my wife a few weeks before I left Zimbabwe to escape the dire economic situation and settle in Pretoria, I was assaulted by an armed police guard in the evening on our way back to Holiday Inn hotel from First Street. I had decided that it would be safer to pass through Samora Machel Avenue as it would be safe from any potential muggers due to the presence of armed guards.


Along Samora Machel Avenue

I eventually made it to within 100 metres of the State House and everyone was jovial and the soldiers were friendly. State House induces fear in many Zimbabweans, it is not like The Union Buildings here in Pretoria where families go there for a Sunday picnic. When I was working in Harare, I tried to avoid driving nearer to State House as much as possible. Manyoni was working in Borrowdale and my biggest client was also in Borrowdale so I had to go there most days. The most direct way to go to Borrowdale was to drive past State House. I would avoid the State House by either driving up Second street (now Sam Nujoma street) and then turn right towards the University of Zimbabwe campus or go via Newlands and then Highlands. The soldiers and police guarding State House are very brutal, I once saw a motorist being forced to push his car alone all the way past State House after it had broken down. I almost had a run in with the goons around 2004 when my company issued Mazda double cab bakkie stalled next to Prince Edward school on the corner of Princes road and Prince Edward street. Unbeknown to me the motor cade of Robert Mugabe was going to pass through that intersection on his way to Zanu-PF headquarters. Two men wearing suits whom I suspected to be members of the dreaded CIO stopped and ordered me to push my car off the road, I could not push the bakkie on my own as it was very heavy. After about 30 minutes another car stopped by and I explained to them that I could not push the car on my own and the two security officers then helped me to push the bakkie off the road.



A long suffering Arsenal fan in our midst




Banner asking Zimbabweans in the diaspora to come home

 I am rooting for our new President Mr Emmerson Munangagwa even though, I have consistently voted for Morgan Tsvangirai and his party since 2000. I was hoping that he was going to put together a transitional government for a few years and sort out the economy and postpone the elections. Myself as a farmer and businessman, his success is my success. I feel like the economic failures of Zimbabwe always follow me wherever I go. Zimbabwe should move away from being the skunk of Sourthern Africa. I am tired of being a foreigner. Being a foreigner is hard my friends. My experience has been always to expect the answer,"No", and when that answer is served, it always crashes my spirits. I long to be part of a society where I have equal opportunities like everyone else without anyone telling me that I do not qualify because I am not a citizen. I also want the same for my children as I worry that if they experience what I have experienced as a foreigner they might not handle it well.

On Sunday 2 September 2007 my brother in law was then pursuing his doctorate at University of Pretoria and also my youngest sister was pursuing her masters' degree at the same university. My brother in law asked me to accompany him to the main campus in Hatfield Pretoria. Whilst he was busy discussing with fellow PHD candidates who were all from other African countries and mostly Zimbabweans, I was reading the column by the late editor of Zimbabwe Standard newspaper Mr Bill Saidi. I then wrote to him recounting my story and on the following weekend he wrote the following  column http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/sep9a_2007.html#Z20

When optimism buys you zilch

Zim Standard

  sundayopinion by Bill Saidi

IN the evening, when you and your wife are walking back to your hotel,
after tucking into expensive but delicious pizza, it is downright
humiliating to be asked to lie down flat on your belly in the street.

Depending on your threshold of tolerance, you might decide there and
then to leave the country of your birth for the wild blue yonder.

Some people might call this over-reaction; others might, at a pinch,
propose that this display of cruelty to a man's dignity was the last straw.

Which is what it was for the man who wrote this to me last week:

"Events over the past three months left me with no choice. At the end
of June, I left my position as a branch manager of an insurance company. I
just wanted to concentrate on my business(es); three grocery shops, a
seven-tonne lorry, a minibus and a pick-up.

"As much as my branch manager position gave me a lot of prestige, it
no longer made sense for me to continue earning a salary that could barely
fill (up) a tank of petrol. So I left it all - a good Toyota twin cab truck,
a three-bedroomed house, with a swimming pool in a posh suburb and all the
prestige, to concentrate on my indigenous businesses."

This Zimbabwean is writing from Pretoria: "I am starting work tomorrow
exactly 12 days after having collected my quota work permit at the SA
embassy in Harare. I had to leave Zimbabwe in a huff, maybe I had no choice
or maybe I had a choice but I am just a coward."

He was responding to my piece last week, Up Close and Personal. . .in
Agony

For him, the clincher was an encounter with armed men guarding
Munhumutapa building in Harare. In his own words:

"On our way back to the hotel, I decided that as it was past seven, it
was no longer safe for us to use Kwame Nkrumah Avenue and I suggested we use
Samora Machel Avenue and this should be safe for us since there would be
police guarding Munhumutapa building. As we approached Munhumutapa building
the metal button of my jacket accidentally hit against the metal section of
the telephone substation next to the pavement. At that time the armed police
asked my wife. Ambuya, chiyi chamakanda pahwindo? (Lady, what did you just
throw at the window?)"

Here, I am inclined to say "The rest is history". But I suspect some
people will not be content until I give them what others call the "full
Monty" or the whole enchilada. But what followed was almost routine, vintage
Zimbabwean.

After a few exchanges with the soldiers, he ended up lying flat on his
belly, in front of his understandably flabbergasted wife. It was his wife's
comment later to which he thought I ought to pay special attention:

"Shamwari, iwe ne optimism yako! Let's leave the country. You see,
that policeman could just have killed you . . . just like that (snap of the
fingers? and got away with it."

Evidently, it wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision. The couple had
been contemplating it for some time, as other couples - single men and
women, confirmed old bachelors and middle-aged spinsters and families - have
done since 2000.

Nobody with even a cursory understanding of Zanu PF politics, since
Gukurahundi, could imagine them reacting to this human haemorrhage with
anything other than "Who cares?" or "So what?"

Life in exile has never been a bed of roses, not in the Americas, in
Europe, Asia, Africa or Australasia.

Not everyone who has fled the economic and political squalor of
countries such as Zimbabwe has eventually finished up as a human Zero. The
people who escaped Nazi terror included the German-born Werner von Broun and
Albert Einstein. They became living legends in their adopted country, the
USA.

This should not encourage young Zimbabwean nerds or eggheads to flee
to South Africa in the hope that, while there, they might discover a Nobel
Prize-winning chemical that, when secreted into the womb, will ensure no
African child is born with the genes that could turn them into maniacal
dictators - although this might solve a lot of problems for the continent.

Zimbabweans have eventually done well in many fields of human
endeavour, once they have braved the scourge of xenophobia that afflicts
every country in the world.

The South Africans are divided over what status to accord Zimbabweans
escaping what has been called The Mugabe Menace: bona fide refugees or
economic asylum seekers?

So far, Zimbabweans do not enjoy the status of refugees: their country
is not in a state of civil war - well, not physically, anyway - nor has
their president declared publicly everyone who opposes his regime must be
fed to the lions in Gonarezhou.

What he has done, not in so many words, is to indicate, chillingly,
graphically, that opposing Zanu PF too openly can be very costly - at least,
to your health.

You will be starved of food, either with empty supermarket shelves or
the denial of food aid from donors.

Personally, my sympathies lie with both sides - the cowards and the
people of courage who decide to stick it out to the end.

Incidentally, I spent 17 years in another country, before 1980. I have
mixed feelings about my period there. Mostly, I wonder how I survived that
long.

saidib@standard.co.zw

Zimbabwe police favours the status quo

Here is a quick guide why the Zimbabwe Police leadership was not part of the security forces press conference on Monday.

 

The Status Quo Benefits the Police

Some people have joked that the police should now be renamed to Zimbabwe Revenue Police. Ideally any revenue that the police collect should be passed on to the Consolidated Revenue Fund at the Treasury but that is no longer the case as the police now retain all the monies. We all know that Zimbabwe has been a police state from the colonial times. Now the police commanders not only commands the brute police force but now they are in charge of all the revenue that the police now collects. At Beitbridge border there is a police post where all the border jumpers are required to pay a fine of R320 or US$20 and that money goes straight to the police. A bus I boarded from Pretoria to Harare on 2 October 2017 about 75% of the passengers had to pay that fine to the police. It is estimated that between 50 and 100 buses cross from South Africa into Zimbabwe each day and you can see how lucrative this is for the police.  A mere 50 metres from the border gate, there is the first traffic check point where all the cross border buses get stopped to pay the spot fine for being behind time. Obviously because of the delays at the border post each and every bus has to pay that spot fine as they cant stick to their official time table.

From Beitbridge to Harare if you travel during the day, you can encounter over 15 police check points. At each and every check point the police will charge motorists spot fines for various traffic offences.  During October 2017, I was going to Zimbabwe every week and I was once given a lift by a police officer from Beitbridge to Harare. The officer told me that they had daily targets to meet and that is why they never caution a motorist and  for any traffic offence they must collect a fine. My house about 18km from Harare city, there is at least 5 traffic check points along that short distance. If you board a minibus taxi even though legally they are only allowed to have 15 passengers, they can fit between 18 to 22 passengers per journey. What happens is that each morning they pay the spot fines to the police and they use those ticket receipts for the whole day. So in Harare and across the country, you will find the overcrowded and clearly not roadworthy  commuter taxis moving around each day and the police are not bothered as long as they have collected the fines for the day. In my view these fines are actually just taxes that the police charges for their own use. Zimbabwe being generally a peaceful country, a lot of the police officers are sent to collect revenue for the police.

We all know that Zimbabwe is now a failed state. From the little revenue that the Government gets, they try to prioritise the military but clearly due to the economic policies of the regime as well as the lack of rule of law there is no new investment in the country hence the government is living on borrowed time. Ordinary soldiers even though they get their salaries paid first ahead of all other civil servants, they still have to go and queue at the banks where there is no cash. Contrast this with the police; whilst the police officers are collecting fines for their bosses, they also get bribes. In government hospitals there are even shortages of penicillin but we can see police officers moving around in their new Israeli made Anti-riot water tanks, new Scania trucks and brand new ford pick-up trucks as they generate their own revenue. From my brief stay in Zimbabwe, I discovered that the most hated group of people where the police officers, the first lady, Jonathan Moyo and his G40. To borrow a statement coined by Secretary Hillary Clinton. I would also term all these group of people as a basket of deplorables.  Ordinary citizens now commends people who run away from the traffic police.

A look at the leadership of the police

Many years ago, a childhood friend who was working in the police protection unit which is a police unit tasked with protecting VIPs told me that the core bodyguards for Mugabe are made up mainly of his close relatives. Six years ago Mugabe promoted Innocent Matibiri a close relative to be the deputy Commissioner General and is now in charge of operations in the Zimbabwe police. So the current police leadership also has a vested personal interest in the status quo.

 

In conclusion

It’s no secret that the majority of the people will welcome a military coup but that will not be the solution. Also a Munangagwa’s presidency is not the answer. Some of us who grew up in Kwekwe where Munangagwa was the Zanu-PF member of Parliament witnessed the violence in the 1985 and 1990 general elections. We urgently need a National Transitional Authority in Zimbabwe as no meaningful election can be held in Zimbabwe. We must avoid the route that Egypt took after the demise of the Mubarak’s regime. I also watched Gwede Mantashe ANC Secretary General’s statement on Zimbabwe. May I remind ANC government and all the neighbouring countries that after former President Thabo Mbeki’s role in aiding and abetting the Mugabe’s regime in subverting the will of Zimbabwe people from the 2000 election. As Morgan Tsvangirai said Zimbabwe is no longer a foreign affairs issue for South Africa but it is now a domestic issue. The current ANC government should own up and help to solve this issue before it disintergrates further. One can read the Kamphepe report on the 2002 Zimbabwe presidential election compiled by former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke and Judge Sisi Kamphepe on how the elections were stolen https://mg.co.za/article/2014-11-14-khampepe-zimbabwes-2002-elections-not-free-and-fair

Happy Birthday to my best friend

 Happy birthday to my dearest Betty also known as Onita or Mai Denny  

I first saw this beauty in early 1999. One evening on my way home from work, I boarded the Chawasarira Bus from Harare City Centre to Chitungwiza. I happened to sit next to this beauty; she was sleeping half the journey. At first, I was scared to talk to her and then I was like what do I have to lose? I even tried to impress you with my newly acquired 3^rd hand Ericson cellphone by phoning my mother’s home from my newly acquired Econet prepaid Buddie line and you were not impressed. Luckily you still gave me a chance, by the time you disembarked from the bus, I had your CABS head office work number and I had also given you my office telephone number at Eagle Insurance company and I challenged you to phone me at work.

The following working day, you phoned me on my office number. From then onwards we would talk over the phone for close to an hour most days. I don’t know how even now, we can always talk for hours and hours. During weekends and after work, I would phone on your father’s cellphone and ask to speak to you.  As I got to know you, I was impressed that you knew exactly what you wanted in life and you were so opinionated. One weekend around 2000-2001 you said you did not feel like going out and I should come to your parent’s home with video cassettes. I was so nervous when I thought of all those brothers of yours. We sat in the tv lounge whilst your mother was busy with her sewing machine. The first movie I think it was from Jean-Claude Van Damme and it went very well. Your father then came in and also sat in the lounge when we started playing Leon Schuster’s Panic Mechanic. I was so embarrassed when the movie started to play and I wished I could just disapper.

For the few months I stayed in Chitungwiza, I would bump into you in the bus and it was always my pleasure to offer you my seat and then continue the journey as a standing passenger. I might have hidden from you on some days when I also very tired to stand-up the whole 25km of the journey and I will spend the rest of my days making it up to you. When our relationship got serious, we would meet after work in Harare city centre upstairs at KFC Jason Moyo avenue and those days all we could afford was the ice cream.

 Up to when I met you, I had never really thought of settling down. I knew it was time to introduce you to the beautiful and strong women in my life, my sisters, my aunt in Sunningdale and my mother. Growing up, I remember some of the stories whenever I went to the village during school holidays about marrying someone from Masvingo and my eldest cousin had married from Masvingo. When I met you I did not care what my relatives would say, I was okay with marrying Wezhira. Marrying you is the best decision that I made in my life. We share many interests such as reading widely and the love for travelling.

We have been through so many changes in our life. Remember the days we started staying together as a couple in Avondale in September 2001 when we did not have much and we could not even afford a fridge and then moving houses, relocating to Bulawayo and finally having to leave our country of birth to come to South Africa. Thank you for being a pillar of strength. They say you can be as good as the company that you keep, thank you for being in my board of directors and I know any idea that I come up with must always stand up to your usual scrutiny. Thanks for trying to make me a better man and I hope to listen more to you. I have learnt a lot from you and at times, I have to remind you that you are no longer working at CABS mortgage department as you are more forceful that I always have to pay my debts on time.

Thank you Manyoni for making me the happiest man alive in the short 16 years that we have been married. Thank you for being a wonderful mother to our boys. Thank you for also being a mother to my brothers and sisters, I owe you a lot for taking in my siblings into our home at their greatest time of need when my mother also followed my father to a better place. I know you did not have to, you just did and you never complained about it. I believe my parents were able to rest in peace knowing that you and I would take care of their children.

May the good lord bless you, make all your dreams come true and give you an awesome life ahead.

Happy Birthday baby Ra Dabbie