Sunday, 18 April 2010 15:28 UK
Zimbabwe gaining independence seems a lifetime
away
In our series of viewpoints from African journalists, Zimbabwean filmmaker
and columnist Farai Sevenzo asks what a nation does at 30, after times of
relentless pain.
Zimbabwe, the House of Stone, is 30 years old. April 18 1980 seems a lifetime
away.
|
The righting of colonial wrongs can take up to 30 years to
complete and do more harm to those a revolution seeks to protect |
This nation's tale has constantly divided opinion and people, creating new
histories and revisionist ones that say I told you so - but the umbilical
cord for Zimbabweans remains attached and pulsing.
At 30 a man or a woman may be feeling broody, that it is time to have some
children, set down some roots, leave a legacy.
What does a nation do?
Ghosts
I have no old men memories of the liberation struggle to offer you - like
crossing into Mozambique to fight, dismantling Rhodesia's apartheid, educating a
country, forging a peace and moving from prime minister to president and holding
on as those around me die off.
Instead, my own personal memories are filled with ghosts - the kind of ghosts
only a reporter would bother to give head space to.
For just over a decade now I have been reporting on Zimbabwe on camera,
radio, print and on the internet; and my ghosts are the kind of characters only
people like me get to meet.
And, unlike many a reporter whose reports are prefaced with, "the BBC is
banned from reporting in Zimbabwe," I have never suffered those restrictions.
House of Stone refers to the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, one of the
most famous ancinet stone structures in southern Africa
There was Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi,
the doctor and war veteran leader, who, after kicking out my
white cameraman from his office on Rezende Street, told me the revolution had
started and I should come home and claim my land.
There was former governor Border
Gezi, bearded and sharply focused, meeting me at dawn in the
town of Bindura to declare his allegiance to, "our father, Comrade RG[Robert
Mugabe]."
Both Hitler and Border have moved on to the great green farm in the sky, as
have others to whom the revolution was the very purpose of life.
There were images too of burning farmhouses, of
marauding youths stoning farm dogs to death, of battering rams and thousands of
farm workers wandering the dusty roads, homeless and jobless.
At the Commercial Farmer's
Union offices in Marlborough, the siege mentality was whole and awesome to
behold, of farmers battling through the courts to hold onto their century-old
inheritance, and others who wanted to protect their post-independence
purchases.
Shrinking and wilting
Perhaps 30 years from now, historians in Harare be applauding a new economic
class of freshly empowered black Zimbabweans.
Hopefully Zimbabwe's children of today will grow up
empowered
But I am getting ahead of myself, there was more to come in the relentless
pain of our times.
Thousands more lost their homes in the great sweep out of
"filth" in 2005, and the urban voters of a rising
opposition known as the Movement for Democratic Change found themselves homeless
and beached on the sands of political expediency.
Meanwhile the land, famed for its stunning beauty and green acres, was
shrinking and wilting like the skin of a dying man.
It is the drought, cried the politicians, we cannot farm when there is no
rain.
And no-one mentioned the departed farmers but everything was done to help the
new ones - free fertiliser, brand new tractors - and still this fertile land
failed to yield its once bountiful produce to previous levels.
Swept away
Then came the Age of Inflation,
when billion dollar banknotes mingled with waste on rubbish dumps
and those scouring for food preferred to pick up anything but those notes.
The pain has been relentless at times during Zimbabwe's 30-year
history
And the politics remained bloody. The art of persuasion which politics can be
was diminished to the swollen and battered
limbs of the opposition leaders, of trade union leaders, troublesome priests,
those stubborn farmers and hundreds of poor activists who were swept away in the
storm after the calm of the 2008 elections.
By the time a kind of peace was achieved, with a new prime
minister in this nation's 29th year, reporters had had their
fill of the drama in the House of Stone.
So what can this compressed history tell us?
A history such as this has many truths, and seems to say that the righting of
colonial wrongs can take up to 30 years to complete and do more harm to those a
revolution seeks to protect.
Other lands, other cities, other lives
Of course much of this history, by open agreement between the feuding
parties, is no longer of any relevance to the bright new future.
Instead, the Ministry of
Indigenisation says it is determined to put into the hands of the people those
platinum, gold and diamond mines which for so long
squirrelled the nation's wealth into foreign bank accounts.
The gap between the rich and the poor is wider than the Victoria
Falls
But who will benefit?
Will the ministers who took the farms also take the mines?
Meanwhile, the gap between the rich and the poor is wider than the Victoria
Falls; houses being built in affluent suburbs are large and feature imported
Italian marble; and I for one miss the cafe society feel of Harare with its many
restaurants and excellent bars.
And it is easy to spend an entire weekend at The Stones in Highfield township
watching football and eating grilled intestines at the Jambalaya Inn.
But the poor out in the villages are finding it increasingly difficult to get
their hands on a US dollar; the country still needs food aid and the citizens of
this flame lily of a nation have been leaving in droves, tucking away their
education to bolster the economies of other lands, other cities, other lives.
But wherever I am I still feel the pull of that umbilical cord and think I
should really have taken up Dr Hunzvi's offer of land.
|
Independence Day Protest – Zimbabwe Vigil Diary – 17th April 2010
First group leaves
Zim Embassy
Arriving at the SA High Commission Candles on
the steps
Mugabe outside the SA
High Commission Lovemore Matombo and Gabriel Shumba
arrive Gabriel with
Robert Mugabe
Mugabe drinks to another 30 years, Zim Embassy Lovemore Matombo addresses the Vigil Ephraim Tapa and Gabriel
Shumba
Volcanic
ash from Iceland 1,000 miles to the north
dropped gently on the Vigil as we marked Zimbabwe’s
30th anniversary of Independence. Despite this it was a lovely
sunny day and there was a big attendance at our anniversary demonstration during
which we left thirty candles at the nearby South African High Commission to
remind them of their obligation to help us achieve true independence. People
left the Zimbabwe Embassy in small groups carrying banners and candles and left
them on the steps of South Africa House around the corner on Trafalgar Square.
We were
glad to be joined by two champions of Zimbabwean freedom: Lovemore Matombo of
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and Gabriel Shumba of the Zimbabwe Exiles
Forum.
Lovemore Matombo said that despite the earlier
progress after independence there was still a lack of freedom in
Zimbabwe. The MDC seemed to have been
lulled into submission and had become a continuation of the Mugabe regime. They
had betrayed the people but the ZCTU would not give up the struggle. He said
Zimbabwe was a rich country which had
been plundered for the benefit of the few. He added that Zimbabwe’s
diamonds alone were enough to get the economy on track. Mr Matombo lamented what
he called the fragmentation of civil society in Zimbabwe.
For his
part Gabriel Shumba advised the diaspora that there must be rule of law in
Zimbabwe before they could safely go
home – so they would be free from harassment, torture and intimidation. He said
people in the diaspora must be given the right to vote and dual citizenship
should be allowed. He insisted there should be international observers on the
ground during any election. Mr Shumba stressed the need for transitional
justice. He said that people could not go home to Zimbabwe to find
the perpetrators of the violence against them were still in place. He added that
another demand was that South
Africa must protect Zimbabweans against
xenophobic violence. He said he feared a resurgence of this after the World Cup.
Another
visitor to the Vigil was Mr Mugabe (alias Reginald Gwasira in our Mugabe
mask). He joined us at the South African
High Commission with a placard reading ‘Thanks Comrade Malema’. He reappeared later outside the Zimbabwe
Embassy with a bottle of wine and large glass and a placard reading ’Here’s to
another 30 years’.
Other
points:
· Lovemore
Matombo renewed acquaintance with his fellow trade unionist and one of the Vigil
founders Ephraim Tapa (previously head of the civil service union). Lovemore
told Vigil supporters of the severe torture Ephraim suffered in 2002 and how the
ZCTU looked after him and arranged his escape.
He said Ephraim was barely alive when he was found.
· For the
first time ever one of our petitions has been signed by a pigeon. He unloaded
his bowels on our demand that the UK should not lift sanctions against
Mugabe. It must have been a stool pigeon.
· We were
all delighted by the beautiful singing of a pair of songbirds in our maple trees
completely oblivious to the hubbub below them. Also oblivious to reality is the
Zimbabwean coalition government which has apparently decided ‘that all key
stakeholders interested or involved in addressing the debt crisis in Zimbabwe,
in particular the IFIs (international financial institutions, World Bank,
International Monetary Fund and African Development Bank) and western countries
"must overtly acknowledge that Zimbabwe is operating under economic sanctions”.’
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/business/24199-zim-debt-parties-find-common-ground.html.
Presumably if they don’t Zimbabwe will refuse their food to
feed the starving or their medicines to save the sick . . .
· It is
impossible to say how many people attended the Vigil – certainly many more than
signed the register. The sound of the drums thundered down the Strand.
· It was
good to be joined by Violet of SW Radio Africa, Mark and Tony of ACTSA and Tor
and Wiz of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum.
· On a very
busy afternoon our thanks go to those who made our ‘Lights for Freedom’ protest
possible: Jonathan Kariwoh who looked after back table throughout and sacrificed
his chance to attend the activities at the SA High Commission, Luka Phiri who
ran between the Embassy and the High Commission taking the Vigil photos and Dumi
Tutani who stage managed the scenario at the South African High
Commission.
For latest
Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/.
For the latest ZimVigil TV programme check the link at the top of the home page
of our website. For earlier ZimVigil TV
programmes check: http://www.zbnnews.com/home/firingline.
FOR THE
RECORD: 225 signed the
register.
EVENTS AND
NOTICES:
· ROHR South East London general
meeting. Saturday 24th April from 1 – 3 pm. Venue: 16 Sydenham Road,
Sydenham, London
SE24 5QW. Contact P Chitsinde 07897000075, C Chiromo 07894586005 or
07838153217.
· ROHR Leeds general
meeting. Saturday 24th April from 1.30 – 4 pm. Venue: Dock Green
Inn, Leeds LS9 7AB. Contact: Wonder M Mubaiwa
07958758568, Donna Mugoni (Chair Northern Region) 07748828913, Prosper
Mudamvanji 07846621050, Beauty Sikosana 07940181761, David Munemo 07963708923 or
P Mapfumo 07915926323/07932216070
· ROHR Leicester general meeting. Saturday 24th
April from 1.30 – 5.30. Venue: St Aiden Parish Church Hall, The Vicarage,
South Oswald
Road, New Parks, Leicester LE3 6RJ. Refreshments will be served. Contact C
Ndoro 07833022167, D Sibanda 07901742649, P Mapfumo 07915926323/
07932216070.
· ROHR Glasgow relaunch meeting. Saturday
1st May from 1.30-5.30. Venue: Woodside Hall, 36 Glendarg Street, Glasgow, G20
7QE. ROHR Executive present to talk about the
current issues in Zimbabwe and the UK. Contact Kuda Mupunga 07940254328, Gugu Ncube
07534574763, Rugare Chifungo(Northern Coordinator) 07795070609, P Mapfumo
07915926323/07932216070
· ROHR Woking Branch 1st Anniversary Party.
Saturday 8th May from 3 – 10 pm. Venue: St Pauls Church Hall,
Oriental
Road, Woking GU22 7BD. Raffle for two hampers to be
won. Tickets £6 adults £3.00 kids which includes entry and meal. Contact: Mr
Mudzamiri 07774044873, Jermaine 07908522992, Sithokozile 07886203113 or P
Mapfumo 07915326323/07932216070
· ROHR
Cambridge
fundraising event. Saturday
22nd May from 4 – 10 pm. Venue: Arbury Community Centre, Campkin
Road, Cambridge CB4 2LD. African music, food and drinks hobho. Entrance fee £10
including food. Contact: Jospheth Hapazari 07782398725, Locadia Mugari
07501304116, Sibusisiwe Bafana 07765268622, Percy Marimba 07894670271 or P
Mapfumo 07915926323/07932216070
· ROHR West
Bromwich Branch fundraising event. Saturday
29th May from 1 – 11pm. Venue: St Peters Church Hall, Whitehall Rd, West
Bromwich B70 0HF. Admission £8.00 including food and drink. Contact: Pamela
Dunduru 07958386718, Diana Mtendereki 07768682961, Peter Nkomo
07817096594, Godwin Kativu 07576994816 or P Chibanguza 07908406069
· ROHR
Northampton General Meeting. Saturday
5th June at 2 pm. Venue: Carey Memorial
Baptist Church,
King Street,
Kettering, Northants, NN16 8QL. ROHR executive members present
and guest speakers. Contact:
Marshall Rusike 07833787775,WadzanayiMpandawana 07717795574, Gladys Milanzi 07846 448 711, Norian Chindowa 07954379426, Sherry Ngaseke 07869295544 Or P Mapfumo 07915 926 323 / 07932 216 070.
·
Swaziland Vigil.
Saturdays from 10
am – 1 pm. Venue: Swazi High Commission, 20 Buckingham Gate,
London SW1E
6LB. Please support our Swazi friends.
Nearest stations: St James’s Park and Victoria. For more information check: www.swazilandvigil.co.uk.
· Zimbabwe
Association’s Women’s Weekly Drop-in Centre. Fridays
10.30 am – 4 pm. Venue: The Fire Station Community and ICT Centre,
84 Mayton
Street, London N7 6QT,
Tel: 020 7607 9764. Nearest underground: Finsbury Park. For more information contact the
Zimbabwe Association 020 7549 0355 (open Tuesdays and
Thursdays).
· Strategic
Internship for Zimbabweans organised
by Citizens for Sanctuary which is trying to secure work placements for
qualified Zimbabweans with refugee status or asylum seekers. For information: http://www.citizensforsanctuary.org.uk/pages/Strategic.html
or contact: zimbabweinternship@cof.org.uk.
Vigil Co-ordinators
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place every Saturday from 14.00
to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of human rights in
Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in
October 2002 will continue until internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections are held in Zimbabwe: http://www.zimvigil.co.uk.
Zimbabwe business take overs stay, Mugabe
pledges
Apr 18, 9:26 AM EDT
By ANGUS SHAW Associated Press Writer
HARARE,
Zimbabwe (AP) -- President Robert Mugabe pledged Sunday to move ahead with
plans to hand over 51 percent control of businesses to blacks under a
controversial program.
During ceremonies Sunday marking the 30th
anniversary of independence from colonial rule, Mugabe said the proposed
business take overs are a concrete example of policies followed over the
last three decades that enable locals to own the nation's
resources.
The so-called indigenization and empowerment act was passed in
2008, when parliament was still dominated by Mugabe's lawmakers. The law
came into force on March 1 and all businesses were given to April 15 to hand
in proposals as to how they'd hand over 51 percent of their company to
blacks. This included foreign and white-owned businesses.
The party
of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the former opposition leader who was
also present at the ceremonies Sunday, has opposed the program and said
Wednesday the law had been shelved to avoid deterring much-needed foreign
investment in the ailing economy.
Tsvangirai's party on Wednesday said a
meeting of the coalition cabinet chaired by Mugabe suspended the act, which
defined "indigenous" Zimbabweans as those who suffered under colonial-era
racial discrimination and their children born after independence in 1980,
effectively excluding the nation's 20,000 whites.
Saviour Kasukwere,
a minister from Mugabe's party in charge of empowerment policy, countered
this and said Wednesday the law will go ahead, but it had only been delayed
for more discussions.
The new so-called indigenization law "recognizes
our sovereign right of ownership," Mugabe told crowds at the 50,000 seat
Chinese-built sports stadium in Harare.
Mugabe said the nation,
governed by a yearlong coalition between his ZANU-PF party and Tsvangirai's
Movement for Democratic Change, faced continuing criticism from what he
called "unrepentant and incorrigible racist forces."
He said the
coalition was proceeding with national reconstruction despite outside
opposition from Western countries.
Seizures of white-owned farms and "now
the indigenization program serve as concrete and living examples of
empowerment ... designed chiefly to redress the historic imbalances in
ownership of the economy," Mugabe said.
Mugabe on Sunday did not
elaborate on any fresh deadlines under the law.
Coalition leaders watched
military displays at the stadium which was reopened this month after being
shut down for three years for structural repairs by Chinese engineers.
Crowds cheered and whistled for Tsvangirai when Mugabe formally welcomed him
to the celebrations.
Mugabe, 86, acknowledged a need for national healing
Sunday "following a period of polarization and hostilities between our
people."
Years of political violence, much of it blamed on Mugabe
militants and state agents, and economic turmoil came with the often violent
seizures of white-owned farms that Mugabe ordered in 2000, disrupting the
agriculture-based economy in the former regional breadbasket and leading to
acute food shortages and world record inflation.
Human rights groups
say at least 600 people, mostly Tsvangirai supporters, died in the past
decade and tens of thousands of cases of torture, illegal arrests and other
rights violations were reported.
Mugabe eyes World Cup tourism boost for Zimbabwe
(AFP) - 4 hours
ago
HARARE - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said Sunday he hopes his
country's tourism industry will get a boost from the football World Cup in
neighbouring South Africa.
"With the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament,
it is government's hope that tourism will receive another boost for its
total recovery towards being a major contributor to the country's economic
growth," Mugabe told thousands of Zimbabweans gathered at the National
Sports Stadium for the country's 30th independence celebrations.
He
said Zimbabwe's tourism industry is showing signs of recovery.
"In 2009
the sector generated an estimated amount of 522 million dollars,
contributing 6.5 percent to the gross domestic product," Mugabe
said.
The southern African country is expecting to host some 100,000
foreign nationals during the month-long World Cup, mostly South Africans
looking to escape the drama surrounding the tournament.
Zimbabwe's
tourism industry has taken a beating as a result of the country's ongoing
political and economic woes.
Tourist arrivals plunged from 1.4 million in
2000 to 223,000 in 2008, as several countries in Asia and the West issued
travel warnings against going to Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwean government
has said it hopes to cash in on South African visitors who have no interest
in sport and those who are renting their homes to foreign
visitors.
South Africa is expecting hundreds of thousands of foreign
football fans for Africa's first World Cup, which runs from June 11 to July
11.
ZESA
4 remain in custody for Independence
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by WOZA Sunday, 18
April 2010 12:17
Jenni Williams, Magodonga Mahlangu, Clara Manjengwa and
Celina Madukani will remain in custody until Tuesday 20th when they will be
taken to court. The four women have yet to be formally charged. Police
officers tried to force the activists to pay admission of guilt fines, which
they refused to do as no offence had been committed. (Pictured: Jenni
Williams & Magodonga Mahlangu) The continued detention of the women
is once again a clear indication that harassment of human rights defenders
continues unchecked under the government of national unity and makes a
mockery of the Independence celebrations that no doubt will be taking place
across Zimbabwe this weekend. There is very little to celebrate in the cold,
dark, filthy cells of Harare Central Police Station.
Minister
appeals for calm over North Korean team visit
http://www.monstersandcritics.com
Apr 18, 2010, 15:14
GMT
Harare - Zimbabwe's tourism minister has appealed to activists in the
western provinces of Bulawayo to drop plans to protest against the North
Korean football team's scheduled camp in the country during the World
Cup.
The presence of the team from the dictatorship of President Kim Jong
Il has stirred up strong emotions over the massacre in the early 80s of an
estimated 20 000 civilians of the Ndebele speaking people of western
Zimbabwe, carried out by soldiers of the Zimbabwe army's notorious Fifth
Brigade who were trained by North Korean instructors.
Groups have
threatened to carry out protests against the team in the western city of
Bulawayo and in South Africa where over a million Zimbabwean exiles from
President Robert Mugabe's rule now live.
'We are totally against bringing
the team to Zimbabwe,' said Methuseli Moyo, spokesman for the Zimbabwe
African People's Union party. 'Having a team flying the North Korean flag is
very provocative.'
The team is due in Harare on May 25 and is set to play
friendly matches against the Zimbabwe national team in the capital and in
Bulawayo, but activists have warned they would make Bulawayo's Barbourfields
stadium a centre of resistance against the North Koreans.
Tourism
minister Walter Mzembi was quoted Sunday in the weekly Standard newspaper as
appealing to the groups not to mix politics with sport and to allow national
healing to take place.
'Sport must remain the bridge for people-to-people
contact, probably the only bridge that has remained standing even when
nation states are in a state of fall-out,' he said.
'I wouldn't want
to make this a political issue. It's purely a sports issue.'
He said
he had extended invitations to the major teams in the World Cup, including
Brazil, England and the United States, but North Korea was the only team
that had responded.
The North Korean instructors were brought to Zimbabwe
in 1983 at the request President Robert Mugabe to form a new brigade of the
army, composed exclusively of Shona-speaking veterans of Mugabe's civil war
guerrilla army, to put down a limited insurgency against Mugabe's rule by
Ndebele-based guerrilla veterans.
The Fifth Brigade troops
immediately developed a reputation for savage brutality, butchering children
and pregnant women to deny the guerrillas support among the population of
rural areas where they operated.
Military experts say that the Fifth
Brigade's methods were starkly different from the rest of the country's
largely British-trained army.
Mugabe, held responsible for the massacres,
has only referred to the murderous period in the country's history as a
moment of madness. Demands for acknowledgement of the brutality are rising
round the country, but two weeks ago police forcibly closed down an art
exhibition portraying the suffering of the period, and arrested the artist.
Key dates in
Zimbabwe's history
http://af.reuters.com
Sun Apr 18, 2010 1:43pm GMT
April 18
(Reuters) - Zimbabwe marks 30 years of independance from Britain on
Sunday.
Here are some key dates in Zimbabwe's past:
1965 -
Prime Minister Ian Smith cuts Rhodesia's ties with colonial master Britain,
unilaterally declaring independence under white-minority rule. The move
caused international outrage and United Nations economic sanctions.
1972
- Guerrilla war breaks out against the Smith regime; Robert Mugabe becomes
leader of the liberation ZANU-PF movement in the mid-1970s.
1979 -
Britain convenes all-party Rhodesia conference after escalation of
independence war, brokering a peace agreement and constitution for an
independent Zimbabwe.
1980 - ZANU-PF party wins independence
elections. Mugabe takes office as prime minister on April 18.
1982 -
Mugabe deploys North-Korean-trained Fifth Brigade to crush rebellion by
ex-ZAPU guerrillas. Government forces are accused of killing thousands of
civilians in the crackdown.
1987 - Mugabe and ZAPU's Joshua Nkomo
sign a unity accord, leading to the integration of PF-ZAPU and ZANU-PF.
Mugabe amends independence constitution, abolishes post of prime minister
and becomes executive president with sweeping powers.
1990 - ZANU-PF
and Mugabe win parliamentary and presidential elections.
1995 - ZANU-PF
wins parliamentary elections.
1996 - Mugabe re-elected
president.
1998 - An economic crisis marked by high interest rates and
inflation provokes riots and increasing support for the Zimbabwean Congress
of Trade Unions led by Morgan Tsvangirai.
1999 - The opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is formed and Tsvangirai is appointed
leader.
2000 - Voters back the MDC and turn down a proposed
constitutional amendment which would have given the president more
power.
-- Thousands of independence war veterans and their allies, backed
by the government, seize white-owned farms, saying the land was illegally
appropriated by white settlers.
2002 - Mugabe wins election pitting
him against Tsvangirai. Observers condemn poll as flawed and unfair.
Commonwealth suspends Zimbabwe.
2003 - IMF begins steps to expel Zimbabwe
over dues unpaid since 2001. Commonwealth summit agrees to continue
suspension, leading Mugabe to pull Zimbabwe out of the
organisation.
2004 - High Court acquits Tsvangirai of plotting to
assassinate Mugabe and seize power, a ruling condemned by the government.
Remaining charges are dropped in August 2005.
2005 - ZANU-PF wins
parliamentary election, giving it the majority it needs to change the
constitution.
-- About 700,000 people lose their homes or livelihoods in
the demolition of urban slums.
2007 - Tsvangirai says he was badly
beaten after he attempts to attend a banned protest rally, spurring
international condemnation of Mugabe's government.
2008 -
Parliamentary election results in March show ZANU-PF has lost its majority
for the first time. MDC says its leader Tsvangirai also won presidential
election and calls on Mugabe to concede.
-- Police detain Tsvangirai five
times during campaigning for a June run-off vote.
-- Run-off goes
head despite calls for a postponement from Africa and the rest of the world.
Mugabe is declared the winner with over 85 percent after Tsvangirai pulls
out and is sworn in for a new five-year term.
-- Negotiators from the MDC
and ZANU-PF hold talks to end the deadlock over Mugabe's re-election,
eventually reaching a power-sharing deal in September.
2009 - Tsvangirai
is sworn in as prime minister by old enemy President Mugabe.
Zimbabwe: a
land of struggle and strife
http://af.reuters.com/
Sun Apr 18, 2010 1:41pm GMT
April
18 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe marks 30 years of independance from Britain on
Sunday.
Here are some facts on Zimbabwe:
*
ECONOMY:
Although a power-sharing government has managed to stabilise the
economy after 10 straight years of decline, the country is struggling to
restore productivity, feed itself and repair its ruined
infrastructure.
Inflation reached 231 million percent a year in July 2008
before the country stopped announcing figures. The IMF estimated thaion
peaked at 500 billion percent in December 2008. Inflation was brought under
control with the adoption of the U.S. dollar and other foreign
currencies.
Until 2008, GDP had fallen every year since 2000. The IMF
estimated that the economy shrank 14 percent in 2008 and 6.91 percent in
2007. The IMF said per capita GDP fell from $519 in 2000 to $268 in 2008. In
1990, per capita GDP was around $900.
The majority of the population
lives on less than a $1 a day. 85 percent of people live below the poverty
line and annual per capita income is less than $400.
Once the
breadbasket of southern Africa, Zimbabwe now needs to import maize. But the
power-sharing government has projected maize output of up to 2.5 million
tonnes next season, which would mark a return to food self-sufficiency.
About 7 million people -- over half the population -- relied on food aid
last year.
Unemployment has been estimated at over 90 percent. Well over
3 million Zimbabweans are thought to have fled, mostly to South Africa, in
search of work and food.
Zimbabwe has at least $6 billion of foreign
debt.
COUNTRY DETAILS:
POPULATION: About 12.5 million, down from a
2007 level of 13.3 million. The prevalence of AIDS, falling life expectancy
and high infant death rates mean estimates are unreliable. About 3 million
have fled to South Africa.
ETHNICITY: Most are of Bantu-speaking Shona or
Ndebele origin. Other groups include the Venda, Shangaan, Tsonga and
San.
RELIGION: African traditional religions 55 percent; Christianity 45
percent.
SOME HISTORY:
In the 1830s Ndebele people fleeing Zulu
violence and Boer migration in what is now South Africa moved north and
settled in what became known as Matabeleland. In the next half-century
European hunters, traders and missionaries explore the region from the
south. They include Cecil Rhodes.
In 1889 Rhodes' British South Africa
Company gains a British mandate to colonise what becomes Southern Rhodesia.
In the 1890s white settlers arrive and a Ndebele uprising is
crushed.
In 1922 the British South Africa Company ends its administration
and the white minority opts for self-government. In the following years
black opposition to colonial rule grows. In the 1960s nationalist groups
emerge - the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and the Zimbabwe African
National Union (ZANU).
In 1963 the British-created Central African
Federation, made up of Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Northern Rhodesia
(Zambia) and Nyasaland (Malawi), breaks after Zambia and Malawi gain
independence.
Prime Minister Ian Smith unilaterally decared independence
for Rhodesia in 1965 causing international outrage and economic sanctions.
1979 British-brokered all-party talks lead to a peace agreement and new
constitution.
In 1980 independence leader Robert Mugabe and his ZANU
party win British-supervised independence elections. Mugabe is named prime
minister. Independence on 18 April is internationally recognised.
Dig your own grave
Dear Family and Friends,
Three months
before Zimbabwe's 30th anniversary of Independence I happened to get lost in
the vast urban sprawl that characterises the outskirts of the capital city,
Harare. A huge shanty town lay on both sides of the road and stretched as far
as the eye could see. Shacks and shelters made of tin and plastic were
surrounded by mounds of rotting garbage which had even been scraped into
contours in an attempt to demarcate little vegetable plots. Stinking streams
of sewage ran right outside people's shacks and children ran
barefoot through the waste and the filth. Hand painted signs were
everywhere, on pieces of battered, rusty tin and written in charcoal on
strips of warped cardboard: 'Floor polish,' 'Cement,' 'Tyres,' 'Abattoir.'
One sign said: 'Hot Recharge' and a line of people with cellphones
in their hands stood waiting for their turn to plug onto a car battery and
get a precious top up of electrical power into their telephones. A near naked
man with no legs was dragging himself by his hands along the road and I
looked away but his image has stayed with me. How can this be Zimbabwe 30
years after Independence, I keep asking myself.
Two months before
Zimbabwe's 30th anniversary of Independence I went to the local electricity
supply office to hand in an up to date reading of my electricity meter. I
needed to bring accuracy to the wild guesstimates they kept making on my
monthly bills and the even wilder amounts they were charging. The man at the
desk was eating a sausage and when I told him I had a reading I would like
entered into the computer record, he looked wildly around at the piles of
papers covering every inch of his desk. Eventually he chose one pile
and placed the sausage on top of the papers. He looked at his
greasy fingers for a moment, picked up a piece of paper from another pile
on his desk, wiped his fingers on the paper and entered my figures
into his computer. Can this really be Zimbabwe 30 years
after Independence?
Last month I went with a friend who needed to have
fingerprints taken at a government office. One by one each finger is squashed
into the black ink pad and the digit then rolled onto the paper record.
'Wait for your form,' the government official announces and you stare
at the filth on your hands and look around - no taps, no water, no cloth,
nowhere to remove the ink all over your hands. When you ask if there is a
public toilet you can use, the official mutters angrily that they are locked,
they don't work anymore. People wipe their inky hands in their hair or in the
sand. Can this be Zimbabwe 30 years after Independence?
Last week a
friend got a quote for a new garden tap but decided against installing it
because they get stolen so regularly. Stolen to be melted down and made into
coffin handles. Talking about coffins, I attended a funeral a few days ago
and was reminded that you have to dig your own graves now as municipal
workers don't, or won't do it anymore.
Can this really be Zimbabwe 30
years after Independence? Can this really be a free and independent country
when unarmed women are arrested and held in Police custody for handing out
yellow cards in protest over electricity prices. Happy birthday Zimbabwe.
Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy.� Copyright cathy buckle
17th April 2010. www.cathybuckle.com
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