“The Suffering Church of Zimbabwe”

A summary of observations by ten South African Church leaders

19 August to 3 September 2003

Edited by

The Solidarity Peace Trust

December 2003

I saw aged women coming to church without shoes. In my heart I felt that they were coming to church, and the only thing they were going to eat all day was the communion wafer.

What I find missing is the joie de vivre of the people – you hear them laughing, you hear them singing, but they are not joyful. Why should you be joyful when life is such a burden?

But among the priests there is division as well. One of the priests told me that the queues were not that bad and said “we have been demonised in the media.” I would have thought he could see the hardship of the people.

I struggle to sleep at night. I am just coming in to observe and I have been affected in such a bad way. I don’t know how the Government sleeps. When people speak to you they are looking over the shoulders all the time. The priest I was staying with was so afraid - the fear they have instilled in the peoples minds, is mind-boggling.

– if we don’t speak, people of God will perish: let the blood of this nation not be upon us.

COMMENTS BY SOUTH AFRICAN CLERGY
Foreword from Bishop Kevin Dowling

Dear friends and all who seek for peace through justice,

This report from priests and pastors is both tragic and at the same time instructive for those who have “eyes to see” and “ears to hear”. To those who are wilfully blind and deaf, the cries of the poor, the marginalised, the vulnerable, and the oppressed in this report will go unheard – and yet another shocking injustice on our continent will not be addressed, and the “little ones” in Zimbabwean society will once again be sacrificed for political ends which have nothing to do with the ideals espoused by the African Union.

The Solidarity Peace Trust has prepared this report for one purpose only: to proclaim the truth in the ongoing quest for justice in Zimbabwe, and so that the suffering and cries of the oppressed millions in Zimbabwe will be heard. This quest of ours faces formidable obstacles, above all the obfuscation and manipulation of the reality by the Zimbabwe regime supported by an African leadership, particularly in the SADC region, which is nothing short of shameful.

It belongs to the Church and faith communities, especially but not only in the SADC region, to raise its prophetic voice in the name of all those who have been tortured, killed, raped, and denied basic human rights in Zimbabwe by a regime which callously disregards its fundamental duty in terms of the UN Charter. This duty and responsibility is very simple and clear: to protect and promote the rights and quality of life of every human being in Zimbabwe, regardless of race, religion, sex, economic condition, political persuasion, or any other distinguishing characteristic – but especially of the poor and marginalised in that society. That the Zimbabwe Government has not done so is abundantly clear from what you will read here.

What is truly iniquitous is the way the “land issue” and ideological red herrings such as “standing up against Western imperialism” and “you are getting engaged in the Zimbabwe question only because white farmers have been affected” have been used by African political leaders to mask what is the real issue. And that is, that President Mugabe and his Government have systematically engaged in human rights abuses of the very worst kind in order to retain political power.

To politicise food distribution in a time of famine; to deny access to health clinics by the poorest members of Zimbabwe society, i.e. by those who are regarded by the regime as MDC supporters and who are systematically excluded from such access, has nothing whatsoever to do with the “land issue” or anything else. It is simply a blatant abuse of power to make political opponents, and those who simply want a change of government, suffer for a choice which should be free.

To engage in systematic torture of MDC supporters, either real or perceived, on a countrywide scale is to engage in what is specifically prohibited by all conventions accepted by the world community; to train at least 30,000 young people as a youth militia and then unleash them on civil society to create mayhem by arson, torture, rape, murder and intimidation on behalf of the ruling party flies in the face of United Nations conventions on child soldiers, and borders on what is defined as “crimes against humanity”.

Such examples are not idle speculation. These human rights abuses have been carefully documented and attested to by Zimbabwean people themselves, aided by Churches and NGOs who care about people and not about meaningless myths. I personally witnessed victims of torture by the Zimbabwe regime in Bulawayo in June 2002, and I participated in the release of documentary evidence of systematic use of torture and the training of youth militia in Zimbabwe at 2 news conferences this year. The second news conference brought before the media three former youth militia who gave chilling evidence of the above - quite apart from the heartrending account of a young woman repeatedly gang raped in the youth militia training camps, and who was now trying to come to terms with the fact that she had AIDS - and a baby to care for.

For African leaders to commit themselves to “solidarity” with President Mugabe and his regime, and to turn a blind eye to the suffering of millions of ordinary Zimbabwe citizens, again has nothing to do with the “land issue”, nor with “standing up against Western imperialism”. It has to be named for what it is, and Church leadership must fearlessly proclaim this.

Such “solidarity” is to take an option which clearly states that the ordinary African citizen in Zimbabwe does not have basic human rights which should be protected and promoted at all costs by African political leaders. Indeed, by African leaders who should be publicly proclaiming now their solidarity with their suffering African sisters and brothers in Zimbabwe – just as they did when their South African brothers and sisters were suffering under the brutal apartheid regime. Their silence and denial at the moment is deafening.

It is to take an option which, in effect, proclaims to the world community that ordinary African citizens can be “used” and “sacrificed” on an “altar”, i.e. not for some valid reason, but for what amounts to an ideology. It is this: that the protection of and support for manifestly unjust African political leaders like Robert Mugabe must be pursued against all odds and at any cost by African heads of state to ensure the “sovereignty” of African nations, to find “African solutions to African problems”, to resist “the use of human rights by Western nations to whip Africa into shape”, or whatever. It is to state that fundamental human rights, as enshrined in the United Nations Charter, mean one thing for the rest of the world, and entirely another thing for Africans. And that, I would submit, is an appalling affront to the dignity of African people in Zimbabwe and on this continent. Human rights are objective realities and belong to the essence of what it means to be human both as individuals, and as communities and nations. Human rights, therefore, mean exactly the same thing whether one is in Europe, or in Zimbabwe.

I hope that this report, and the others released by the Solidarity Peace Trust, will help in some small way to conscientise our African people everywhere, supported by all who have a concern for justice and human rights, to challenge African political leadership to fulfil its fundamental responsibilities on the African continent, and to stop hiding behind obfuscations and manipulation of truth and reality. Nothing less than decisive action on these issues is demanded by the present situation in Zimbabwe. We cannot allow the cries of so many poor, suffering and unprotected people in Zimbabwe to remain unheard. That would be to “walk by on the other side” and to condemn our sisters and brothers in Zimbabwe to a truly hopeless future.

Bishop Kevin Dowling

Trustee: The Solidarity Peace Trust

Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace representative within

South African Catholic Bishops’ Conference

Contents

Introduction 6

1. Impact of the trip in general terms 9

2. Fear, torture and intimidation 10

3. Poverty and Starvation 11

4. The rich and powerful 14

5. The urban council elections 15

6. Youth 16

7. Media 16

8. The suffering church of Zimbabwe 17

9. Queues, shortages and corruption 18

10. Positive observations 20

11. Understanding of dynamics – who is to blame? 20

12. What needs to be done? 22

13. Detailed torture accounts 25

Photographs (- these have been removed to make this file smaller)

Front cover: Procession with crosses to commemorate those who have died in political violence since 2000 in Zimbabwe: 29 June 2002, St Mary’s Cathedral, Bulawayo.

Back cover: Laying on of hands by pastors, 29 June 2002, St Mary’s Cathedral, Bulawayo.

Produced by: The Solidarity Peace Trust, Zimbabwe and South Africa

Contact info: email: selvanc@venturenet,co.za or leopard@metroweb.co.za

phone: + 27 (0) 83 556 1726

Introduction

The Solidarity Peace Trust has a Board consisting of church leaders of Southern Africa and is dedicated to promoting the rights of victims of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. The Trust was founded in 2003. The Chairperson is Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, and the Vice Chairperson is Anglican Bishop Rubin Phillip of Kwazulu Natal.

In August and September of this year, The Solidarity Peace Trust organised for ten priests and pastors from South African parishes to spend a fortnight in Zimbabwe. The priests came from Kwazulu Natal, Gauteng and Cape Town, and were billeted with Zimbabwean priests in urban centres around the country. They came from a cross section of denominations, including Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Baptist, and various Evangelical churches. The hosting towns were Harare, Chitungwiza, Bulawayo, Mutare, Kwekwe, Gweru, Masvingo, and other small towns. The priests arrived in mid August and left on 3 September.

The vision behind the exchange was that it would give South African priests the opportunity to to experience at first hand the problems being faced in our parishes at this time, and to carry this knowledge back with them to their bigger church communities in South Africa, to express solidarity with their Zimbabwean counterparts.

The visit also coincided with the Urban Council Elections in Zimbabwe, and while the priests were not formal observers, they were able to informally observe and comment on the elections in their hosting parishes.

There was no precise agenda given to the visitors apart from this – to be in Zimbabwe in solidarity and to live the life of a local parish priest for two weeks, to meet with ordinary parishioners and gather impressions of the current state of the nation.

On their last day in the country, the South African priests gathered in one city, together with a few Zimbabwean facilitators, and spent many hours discussing their observations with one another. The entire conversation was recorded and transcribed. In addition, priests also submitted their written findings at a later date.

Summary of findings

What was clear was that all the South African priests were deeply saddened and moved by what they observed. Some had been to Zimbabwe before in the recent past, and even they were shocked at the decline and the current poverty and starvation in small urban centres. Everyone commented on the high levels of fear in the general populace. Some had very personal exposure to intimidation, with one South African priest being chased out of his hosting parish by suspected CIO threats, and several others hearing terrible accounts of State torture from victims themselves. Priests were shocked at the inability of victims to receive justice, particularly as in several cases the torturers were the police.

Several witnessed what they considered election irregularities over the Urban Council Elections. All were horrified at the endless queues, the depression, the hopelessness, the exorbitant cost of basic commodities. Starvation and poverty and also the impact of HIV/Aids were frequent themes. The plight of the youth in particular was another common theme.

The visiting clerics also commented on the divisions within the Zimbabwean church, the silence of many priests and the collusion of yet others with government. They also noted the persecution of those priests who spoke out. Zimbabwean priests were able to learn much from their visitors, who were mostly very active in the struggle against apartheid in their own country, and who can remember facing the same timidity and insecurity in their own recent pasts.

The South African visitors drew their own conclusions as to who is to blame for the state of Zimbabwe today – western imperialism? or misrule by its own government? Observations were also made about the “land issue”.

Finally, the South African priests all felt there was a real need for them to do more – all were touched and wanted to return to South Africa and spread the word of their experiences, and to be available to help their Zimbabwean counterparts in any way possible. All felt they would pray for Zimbabwe, and some felt there was need for real action, that prayer without action was meaningless. The South Africans intend to lobby their own government based on their findings, and to inform their own parishes. Several have already spoken out strongly since their return including to the media.

Report structure

The rest of this report is made up of selected extracts from video transcriptions and written reports from the ten South African priests. The extracts have been reorganised in terms of theme, as the report-backs threw up common observations and concerns. In accordance with a request from the visiting priests, anonymity is preserved. There were concerns about negative repercussions for Zimbabwean priests if critical comments made by the visitors could be traced back to hosting parishes. There was also awareness from the visitors that they spoke as individuals and not on behalf of their bigger church communities in South Africa, and anonymity precludes the linking of their precise parishes to specific comments by themselves.

Rather than try to summarise or paraphrase, the priests’ words have been left as they were spoken. However, the report does not include every comment by everyone, for the sake of space and in order to avoid repetition. Italics and plain print alternate to indicate a change from one speaker to the next. All speakers should be assumed to be South African unless otherwise indicated. In the few instances when Zimbabweans spoke out, this has been indicated clearly.

Accounts of torture

There are a few very detailed reports of torture, which are included exactly as written by the priest who met the victims. Because of their length, they are added in their own section after the main body of the report.

The way forward

The South African visitors were very aware that their fellow citizens do not have the full picture of what is happening in Zimbabwe, and nor do others in the SADC region. They formally requested that a final report be compiled based on their observations and that this be sent to both political and church leaders in the SADC region, as well as to others.

It is the wish of the priests who visited Zimbabwe that their observations are shared with as many others as possible in order to create greater understanding and empathy with ordinary Zimbabweans and their parish priests. The editors of this report have summarised these observations in good faith and in accordance with this request.

It is the hope of all participants in this exercise, that further exchanges of this nature will take place, in both directions, with Zimbabwean priests visiting countries in the region to relate their experiences, and priests from SADC coming to Zimbabwe at regular intervals. It was the perception of the Zimbabweans that the visit had given local church leadership hope and new ideas at a time when preaching to parishioners without hope has become the challenging task for many Zimbabwean pastors.

Regarding this present report, the Solidarity Peace Trust sees its only role in acting as a multiplicator, making the South African visitors’ impressions known to a wider audience in the region and beyond. Apart from this, the Solidarity Peace Trust would like the following statements to speak for themselves.

1. Impact of the trip in general terms

We came to work in solidarity, to see the suffering of ordinary Zimbabweans - to be a witness - and most importantly to take back what we’ve seen to our churches, to South Africa, to our own government – I can say, “I came, I saw, I witnessed - and I don’t like what I saw.”

We will take back a message of suffering. People are living lives that are so desperate, and people across the border don’t know what is happening. The church is supposed to be for everybody. If a pastor was arrested in South Africa because he gave a practical ministry, the others would protest in solidarity. Priests here need to stand in queues and sing “we shall overcome.” We need to take back a message to South Africa, to take back the truth.

At the moment I’m ashamed to be Catholic, because so many people doing terrible things in this country are Catholic. The President is Catholic and the Foreign Minister is Catholic, Stan Mudenge. I was told Stan goes to church every week. Can you imagine what that has done to me? - knowing that that man sits in a Catholic service every Sunday, and yet he isn’t moved by the suffering of his own people? I found a lot of poverty and things like that, but I also found a lot of people who are oblivious to what is happening on the ground.

I am ashamed to be Catholic because a lot of people who are causing the hardship and pain in this country - they are Catholic. There is only one man prepared to stand up and be counted and he is also Catholic – Archbishop Pius Ncube.

I was very fortunate because I spent my time with a man obviously close to the people. He is aware of the suffering the people are going through. He spoke passionately from the minute I got there until the minute I left. He prepared his parish for my arrival. He had come through the war - he told me of some of his escapades during the war, how people protected him and warned him where not to go on certain days.

The woman in Kwekwe whose sons were beaten for being MDC, when I was talking to her at her little vendor’s stand, I said I came through Bulawayo. She told me that when I went back to Bulawayo, I should tell Fr Ncube that “we are suffering in Kwekwe.” And I found it consoling that the person they were looking up to was the Archbishop Pius, who is Catholic.

How can a whole nation be subjected to that? This violence is black on black and it is people who live next door doing these things to each other. I cannot understand, I cannot comprehend.

2. Fear, torture and intimidation

The level of fear in this country is tangible – you can feel it.

I had to leave the small rural town I was staying in. That is another kind of situation. You know, I had heard that people were being intimidated for supporting another political party but I thought it was not going to happen to me, because I came as a minister of a South African church and was not supporting any local political party. But last Friday when I got back to the house there, as I entered the door Fr C said “we need to talk”. He got me into a panic, I was saying, “what have I done?” He was in a very anxious state - he had received a few calls from a man who later called himself Dube, who asked by name --where was I? Fr C said, I think you need to go. It was a scary situation – was I safe to stay another night there? This caller Dube had said about me – “get out of town, get out of the country, you are causing problems for us here.” But I felt I wasn’t even doing anything political, I was just meeting church leaders, praying with them, meeting one NGO, World Vision, in order to understand what was happening in the country.

I’ve been through that in South Africa, I’ve been intimidated. I prayed with Fr C and left. But I have seen, and I have heard - and I know it is true people are suffering in this nation. People are dying in this nation.

I had the privilege of meeting a couple of people during the week, who shared with me horrific stories of torture. I thought we were through with all this in our region. I have never ever come across such brutality as I have this last week and it is haunting.

If these MDC people are treated so badly, who stands with them? They stand by themselves. They are all alone. What do you say to a man who has been forced to eat his own faeces? Forever he will be a broken man.

Zimbabwean response: I wouldn’t agree that forever he will be a broken man, because what you said before - they are all alone - that is not true. People know that these things are happening to so many people, because so many people want change. It is important for you to speak out back in South Africa, because when we hear of protests outside the country, it gives hope to people here. They feel not alone. The fact that you listened to him is factual proof that he is not alone, but that other people realise and that other people care.

It is no longer humiliation, torture becomes a political statement if others will listen.

I went to the house next door. The guy has a big problem. The Ruling Party attacked him, because they wanted him to vote for them and they took everything – his ploughs, all his tools for farming. And what they did is they came back at night and chopped the tails off his oxen.

I said to him don’t worry, they did this because they know that oxen get their power from the tail - but they didn’t know the Power is from above - have courage. And he said, I said to them “What do you want? I am a man of God - there is nothing I can do. I won’t vote for either party.” He said to me “what must I do in this situation?”

I said you have answered yourself – you have to pray.

He said, “You go and report to the police, they report to the same people who did this, so it’s no use.”

I had time to visit cities around Gweru. To sum up what I’ve seen is that power in the wrong hands is destructive. I have seen that Zimbabwean people –their rights have been violated. Nobody has the right to have freedom to abuse whoever he wants, yet the State does that here.

Zimbabwean: Politicians are afraid of pastors. I have heard of pastors with midnight knocks on their doors. For weeks we have to put pastors in safe houses. The reason they pursue us, is because they are afraid of us. Once they know you are monitoring them, they become afraid and we should not forget that.

3. Poverty and starvation

In Y, which is a poor area, I saw aged women coming to church without shoes. In my heart I felt that they were coming to church, and the only thing they were going to eat all day was the communion wafer.

I have seen pain. The way I can describe the situation here is pain, pain, frustration, depression, fear, you name it - this is what I have experienced.

I was very conscious of eating better than others. The meals in the presbytery were very simple -there was no lavishness and I felt they were trying to be at one with the people around. This upset me really at X parish itself, this lady told me that she wasn’t sure where she was going to get her next meal from, or how to get money for her children to go to school. Her dress was beautifully washed and ironed – but her shoes, there were no laces in her shoes and they were too small for her.

I went out with World Vision to distribute food - it was a heart-moving situation. I saw how people are suffering there. At one distribution point we found hundreds of people who were waiting. The sad thing is that most of these people are not working and I found myself asking how people were surviving out there. I met people who said they hadn’t had food for more than a day.

What I find missing is the joie de vivre of the people – you hear them laughing, you hear them singing, but they are not joyful. Why should you be joyful when life is such a burden?

We saw people selling mealies and the police arrested them - it was pitiful because you can see these people are hungry - they are very hungry.

Yesterday I went to a supermarket and asked a vendor outside how much he earns a month and he earns Z$400 a week - but one loaf of bread is Z$1,000 and maize is Z$1,000.

In fact, even going to the restaurant, a lot of lessons were learnt. As an outsider, I asked for certain things like chicken, like beef, and the restaurant would say we have run out of food in the country.

I remember another incident -I was at Gwanda train station and a goods train came along and stopped. People around there ran to the goods train to see what it is carrying and I heard people shouting “mumbu, mumbu” which means “mealies, mealies,” and I realised how desperate people were – they are always waiting for people to bring something, to bring mumbu or whatever. In South Africa we are taking things for granted, but here it’s a different story altogether – even for maize it’s a big thing for them, although even to get maize it’s so expensive. I see these people in town – what about those people out there in the bush? I saw on a video this old man eating monkey bread. Others are surviving by eating roots from certain trees, and I said, “Wow, this is really bad, people are really starving.”

I think a lot of people are living in total despair. People cannot survive except from other people’s generosity.

One school-teacher, who is a temporary teacher, earns Z$20,000 a month – he pays 10,000 rent so he has 10,00 to live on. I had him to a meal, which was a simple meal of meat and sadza and relish and he said he hadn’t had such a sumptuous meal in how long, but it was an ordinary meal.

What I noticed is there is a problem – the economic situation is very bad. When you look around you can see that people are hungry. I had to go house to house and I discovered that people are hungry, they were not afraid to share their sufferings they are going through, they said bread is too expensive for them and it is very hard to get mealie meal and it is hard to go to town because transport costs too much and even transport is a problem and does not flow as it should because of fuel problems.

My pastor took me to Old Township. There it was really a poverty stricken area. What I witnessed there was heart wracking. Overcrowding, people lived in shacks, you’d find a mother trying to get some corn out and feed some babies. They live so close together and I was praying there will never be a fire there because that whole township will be destroyed.

It is impossible to even buy a loaf of bread if you are not working. It is coming towards December time. But how are people going to get anything - there are long queues and no money. I just experienced so many things, but for example I was standing by the main gate and the pastor brought a lady. She told me that she cannot buy food because she has no cash. They did try to come together to get a solution but it is impossible.

I notice there is a big difference between the poor and the rich. What is the cause of this - the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer. A gentleman said every day I wake up and come to town and queue all night, and then whosoever comes the next morning I say take my place for five thousand dollars and this is how I survive.

We saw a small little child in Harare - she came to me and said, “I am hungry.” She said they are two brothers at home and a little one and herself. Her parents died of TB and they all survive by what this little sister can do, aged less than ten, washing cars to put bread on the table.

My eagerness to chat to people landed me in a beer hall. I bought myself a beer and chose a comfortable corner. I identified a group of 4 people that I could join, two youngsters and two fairly old men. The language spoken was a mixture of Sindebele, English and a little bit of Nambian. I introduced myself to them and they did likewise. These are some of the observations in the discussion: a.) as a South African who was eager to hear about their country, I was like a hero to them. b). The semi-old man was concerned about the fact that tomorrow was a pay day for the industry he was working at. He had a family to support and a student who was waiting for money. He was concerned about what the bank would say when he wanted to withdraw his money. c). The old man in our midst, who was also a pensioner, said that he receives pensions that would buy him only three loaves of bread per month!

The plight of the mere citizens there is very real. Right now, not a single of them is prepared to tell of their experiences except if they have gained confidence in you. The old man in the bar for instance had to say that he has taught himself how to live on only one main meal i.e. dinner, since he no longer can afford three meals.

They await the year 2006 in which the President is supposed to retire. But how much damage will be caused by then?

Politicisation of food

Food is being distributed on partisan lines through the district administrator’s office. As a result, MDC supporters are beaten whilst queuing for food. They are told that they should get their food from MDC.

The first day, I saw the Daily News article about the chiefs and headmen being supposed to hand out WFP food. And a young man said, “my father lives in a rural area and because he asked a question in a ZANU meeting he was labelled MDC and couldn’t get food.”

I don’t know how people can use food to get votes and things like that.