| The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
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The
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Weekly
Media Update 2004-18
Monday
May 3rd - Sunday May
9th 2004
CONTENTS
1.
GENERAL COMMENT
3.
INDICATORS OF AN AILING ECONOMY
ELECTION
reporting fatigue appeared to be taking its toll on the media as was reflected
by the way they covered the run-up to the Lupane by-election scheduled for this
weekend (May 15th and 16th).
While
the private media generally have reported political violence and manipulation of
the electorate in recent weeks, there were virtually no stories updating their
audiences of the situation in the final week leading to the election, and
precious little information about the electoral process itself. For example,
none of the media fully examined the state of the voters’ roll, which the
opposition has previously accused government agencies of tampering with to
ensure a ruling party victory, or other related electoral mechanics, such as
logistics on the number and nature of polling stations, or the composition and
number of election officials, including monitors and observers, all crucial
elements in the exercise of democracy.
Rather,
the government media, as epitomized by The Sunday News (9/5), seemed
pre-occupied with campaigning exclusively for the ruling party in its two
articles, Zanu-PF vows to bury MDC in Lupane and, A choice between
barren politics of protest and fruitful politics of
progress.
On the
other hand, the private media did not carry any specific stories on the Lupane
by-election, focusing instead on broader interpretative reports exposing ZANU
PF’s methodical but unorthodox plans to tilt the outcome of next year’s
parliamentary elections in its favour. For example, the Zimbabwe
Independent (7/5) quoted the MDC alleging that the ruling party wanted to
eject food aid agencies from the country on the pretext that the nation has
enough food, so it could “use total control over relief food distribution
as a key campaign tool in the next year’s parliamentary election”.
The
MDC’s shadow agriculture minister, Renson Gasela, is reported alleging that ZANU
PF had stocked maize for the purpose.
The
Standard (9/5)
also viewed government’s recent hefty salary awards to chiefs as part of the
ruling party’s attempts to buy their support as happened during the March Gutu
North by-election.
Besides
the vote-buying claims however, The Zimbabwe Independent
also warned that ZANU PF was likely to intensify its violent campaign to subdue
the opposition during the parliamentary election due in 2005, but which the
paper suggested could be held as early as October this year. It cited the recent
retribution exercise conducted by ZANU PF supporters against the MDC supporters
in Chiendambuya, Manicaland, as an example. Opposition supporters were severely
assaulted for attending a rally addressed by MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Despite
such adversity an optimistic MDC secretary-general, Welshman Ncube, told The
Financial Gazette (6/5) that he expected the ruling party would concede to
his party’s demands to overhaul the flawed electoral laws and level the playing
field ahead of the parliamentary poll.
The
paper did not however question the source of his confidence.
THE
docile manner in which the government-controlled media, particularly ZBC,
covered the government’s use of the police to enforce its closure of private
schools it accused of massively hiking school fees further underscored the
extent to which the authorities have transformed these media into unquestioning
conduits of racial bigotry.
The
government broadcaster allowed Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere to claim –
without substantiation – that private schools were “racist” and
were therefore increasing fees to discriminate against black
people.
The
broadcaster’s complicity in this regard was more pronounced in the way it
regurgitated these claims without subjecting them to any analysis or balancing
them with comments from the affected parents and the school authorities on the
reasons behind the increased fees.
Notably,
Zimpapers’ publications, which usually adopt a similar stance to ZBC on topical
issues, initially steered clear of Chigwedere’s unproven racial claims and
preferred to carry factual, fair and relatively balanced event reports on the
matter. Thus, unlike their electronic counterpart, the papers also quoted the
affected parents’ condemnation of the closures. However, by the end of the week
their “independent” stance was brought into line following more racist remarks
made by Chigwedere on ZTV’s Face the Nation programme. Opinion pieces in the Chronicle (8/5),
the Sunday News and The Sunday Mail (9/5)
unquestioningly echoed Chigwedere’s allegations and called for tougher action
against the schools.
Like
ZBC, the government papers did not fully discuss the legality of the government
action.
The
private media however, categorically condemned the schools’ closure as illegal
since the Education Act, which the authorities and the media they control used
to justify the shutdowns, has no provision for this
action.
As news
of government’s closure of the 45 private schools emerged in The Herald
(4/5), ZTV (4/5, 6pm) tried to justify the move saying it was meant to
“preserve the gains made by government in the education sector since
independence”. The station and Power FM (4/5, 8pm)
then quoted Chigwedere contriving a racial factor to defend the illegal
shutdown. Citing St George’s College and Peterhouse as examples, Chigwedere
described the private schools as “racist schools” which wanted
“to throw the black majority out of education” and added that,
“government won’t hesitate to deal with this racist
attitude”.
To give
the government action a seal of public approval, ZTV (4/5, 8pm) then conducted
street interviews with selected members of the public and claimed that most
parents had condemned the fee hikes because they felt the move was aimed at
discriminating against “the black majority and move back to the era when
some schools were meant for whites only.” No comment was sought from the
schools’ authorities. Neither did the broadcaster try to relate the fee
increases to the runaway cost of living. Instead, it quoted Chigwedere
downplaying this by allowing him to claim that the “Prices of most goods
are going down.”
Some
corroboration of these claims appeared in The Herald (6/5). The paper
quoted parents as having told Chigwedere that 80 percent of children enrolled at
private schools were blacks thereby “significantly exceeding”
government’s stipulated quota of 60 percent. The
paper also deviated from its usual passivity when reporting government policies
by quoting parents condemning the closure. The authorities should “raise
standards at its own schools” rather than “focusing on closing
private schools”, said one parent. Similar views appeared in The
Herald (5/5) and even The Sunday Mail.
But the
public broadcaster refused to exercise even this minimal professional standard.
Rather, it meekly provided Chigwedere (ZTV’s Face the Nation (6/5,
9.30pm) with an unbridled platform to divert public attention from the real
issues bedeviling the education sector in Zimbabwe by allowing him to dabble in
racial and nationalist rhetoric.
Said
Chigwedere, fully exposing the source of deep-seated racial hatred that has
characterized Zimbabwean politics for the past four years: “These schools…
are the factories that manufacture the Rhodesians. At any rate, look at their
history; they were established by the Rhodesian regime to produce future
Rhodesian leaders and they have remained Rhodesian to this day. And the
ownership is foreign, it is British. The very war that we are fighting against
Britain is the very war we are fighting against these schools… this is another
front of the racist war that we are fighting”.
Instead
of subjecting these absurd allegations to analysis, the Chronicle (8/5),
Sunday News and The Sunday Mail rehashed and approved such
insidious racism. For example, the Chronicle’s Busybody column,
notable for its crude attacks against perceived government opponents, celebrated
government’s crackdown on the schools, describing them as an “extension of
apartheid”. The column claimed that “whites” established
“whites only” schools after realizing “that they could not
practice racism in independent Zimbabwe”, adding that it
“liked” Chigwedere’s comments.
The
Sunday News’s Goings-On column also welcomed the closure saying
“little Rhodesians” were “unacceptable” while The
Sunday Mail’s Tafataona Mahoso likened government’s action to the
“Third Chimurenga”, which would prevent private schools from
producing “another bunch of Rhodies in African
skin”.
These
papers however, conveniently ignored the fact that not all the closed private
schools are white-owned, as illustrated by Tynwald Primary School, owned by
retired army commander, Vitalis Zvinavashe.
Eventually
however, the schools’ response to their closure obliged the media to reveal the
illegal nature of government’s action. ZTV (6/5, 8pm), The Herald and the
Zimbabwe Independent (7/5) reported that the High Court, with the consent
of the State, had ordered the reopening of Hartmann House Preparatory School,
which had filed an urgent application against the government’s action.
The
Herald and the
Zimbabwe Independent also revealed that other private schools in Masvingo
and Bulawayo had also filed court applications seeking to nullify the
closure.
The
Independent quoted the schools’ lawyer, Richard Majwabu-Moyo, saying,
“There is no provision in the Education Act that gives the Minister of
Education powers to shut down schools for raising fees and what he has done is
illegal.”
The
Standard and
Studio 7 (6/5) quoted other legal experts making similar
observations.
Despite
this, ZBC (6/5, 8pm), The Herald and the Zimbabwe Independent
(7/5) still reported the police as having arrested some of the school
headmasters accused of unilaterally hiking fees.
Unlike
the Independent however, The Herald did not name some of
the arrested headmasters or their schools. Rather, it only revealed that those
arrested in Marondera had paid deposit fines after signing admission of guilt
forms and quoted police spokesman Andrew Phiri saying the police “were
enforcing the laws that exist and we will continue to do so until everyone
complies…”
The
paper did not question this falsehood.
Studio 7
(6/5), however, quoted Harare lawyer Simon Ziva saying there are no legal
provisions for such arrests as private school staffers “do no fall under
the essential category in terms of the Public Service
Act.”
But the
authorities’ disdain for the law and their continued abuse of office to
formulate self-serving legislation without regard to other people’s freedoms was
clearly demonstrated by Chigwedere’s remarks on ZTV’s Face The Nation.
Chigwedere pointed out that government would circumvent the law by amending the
Education Act so as to legitimize its demands on private schools. Citing the
Hartmann court victory, he said private schools might “win (court cases)
because they have exploited a loophole somewhere. In two, three weeks, we will
have plugged the hole. They discover another one and exploit it, six months
thereafter, we plug the hole… there is no way they can
win…”
3.
Indicators of an ailing economy
BARELY
three weeks after the government media hailed the Reserve Bank governor Gideon
Gono’s monetary policy review statement as the tonic for the country’s economic
ills, symptoms of economic recession littered media space in the week. Even the
government Press, which so assiduously assures the public of the country’s
economic recovery, gave the game away when they increased their cover prices,
attributing the hikes to increased production costs including
newsprint.
The week
also witnessed an increase in the price of a loaf of bread from about $2,000 to
$2,900, The Herald (5/5), Radio Zimbabwe (5/5, 1pm), Power FM (5/5, 1pm),
and The Manica Post (7/5). In their reports, these media quoted bakers
justifying the bread price hike by citing the increase in the price of flour
from $2,5 million to $3,4 million dollars a tonne. Other factors such as
increases in wages, electricity, transport and spare parts were also
cited.
However,
the government media merely presented these problems as peculiar to the baking
industry and not representative of the broader economic environment.
The
Sunday Mail claimed
that price increases were not justified because of the “decline in the
country’s inflation rate and the cheap funds being made available to the
manufacturers through the Reserve Bank’s Productive Sector Facility”.
The
paper then tried to give the impression that government policies have resulted
in phenomenal growth in the manufacturing sector. It quoted unnamed
“retailers” as saying “manufacturers who increase prices
unreasonably risk going out of business as there is increased
competition” as “indigenous players are now venturing into
manufacturing, with some of them even running promotions to outdo established
manufacturers”.
The same
article quoted the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) calling on government to
reintroduce food subsidies on basic commodities “to make them
affordable”. The implications of
this were studiously avoided. In fact, the failure by the government media to
examine the adverse effects of subsidies on the economy manifested itself in the
manner they reported the increase in the producer price of
maize.
ZBC
(4/5, 8pm), The Herald and the Chronicle (5/5) announced that the
government-run Grain Marketing Board would now buy a tonne of maize from farmers
for $750,000 up from last year’s $300,000 a tonne while maintaining its selling
price to millers at $400,000 a tonne and to drought-stricken areas at $9,000 a
tonne.
However,
none of them examined how this economically senseless decision would affect the
fiscus. Neither did they examine the inflationary effects of offering resettled
farmers free transport to ferry their produce to the GMB, The Herald
(7/5).
The
private media paid lip service to the issue. Nevertheless, they highlighted the
continued erosion of workers’ incomes due to the recent price increases. For
example, The Sunday Mirror (9/5) pointed out that although
CCZ and the Central Statistical Office (CSO) use different figures to measure
workers’ incomes, they both illustrated the difficulties workers are
encountering. For instance, the conservative CSO figures show that a family of
six, whose breadwinner earns a minimum wage of
$47,696 “needs $475 525 a month for the food basket alone…”
while CCZ figures put the poverty datum line at “$968 525 a
month”. The Tribune (7/5) carried similar CCZ
figures.
The week
also witnessed the Zimbabwean currency sliding from $5,200 to $5,333 against the
US dollar. The Daily Mirror (5/7) attributed this to the central bank’s
decision to allow the local currency “to operate in free market
conditions”. The paper (7/5) quoted an economist pointing out that this
would result in increases in the price of most goods, including basic
commodities. Said the economist: “All these changes will lead to demands
for higher wages as price increases will erode the disposable income of workers
and consumers and this will have an inflationary impact on the
economy”.
The
MEDIA UPDATE was produced and circulated by the Media Monitoring Project
Zimbabwe, 15 Duthie Avenue, Alexandra Park, Harare, Tel/fax: 263 4 703702,
E-mail: monitors@mmpz.org.zw
Feel
free to write to MMPZ. We may not able to respond to everything but we will look
at each message. For previous MMPZ
reports, and more information about the Project, please visit our website at http://www.mmpz.org.zw
SOKWANELE
Enough
is Enough
We have a
fundamental right to freedom of expression!
|
Sokwanele : 14 May 2004This weekend, the people of Lupane will
be queuing to cast their vote in a by-election resulting from the death of David
Mpala, the MDC Member of Parliament elected in 2000. Theirs is no ordinary
constituency: Lupane is a name synonymous with some of the worst human rights
violations imaginable. This drought stricken remote rural area of Zimbabwe has a
long acquaintance with violence. During the liberation struggle, international
newspapers carried reports of vicious attacks on missionaries and civilians in
the area. But freedom did not bring peace; international attention was once
again focussed on Lupane in post-independence Zimbabwe in July 1982 when six
foreign tourists were allegedly abducted.
Within days of the disappearance of the
tourists, Robert Mugabe deployed troops into the Matabeleland North areas of
Lupane and Tsholotsho under the pretext of searching for the whereabouts of the
missing six tourists. The Mthwakazi Action Group on Genocide and Ethnic
Cleansing in Matabeleland and Midlands 2000 (based in London) maintain that the
abductions were orchestrated by Robert Mugabe to justify a crackdown on the
area, resulting in the torture and murder of thousands of civilians with the
intent to undermine the main opposition at the time, Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU. They
note: "Scores of villagers and communities were raped, beaten, tortured, killed
or disappeared. Hundreds of thousands more were compelled with threats of
torture, beatings and killings to join and buy ZANU-PF membership cards".
It was not until the late 1990s that the
full extent of the atrocities reached international public attention through the
publication of the Breaking the Silence report, but that is not to say that the
International community was unaware of what was happening during the 1980s.
Donald Trelford, editor of The Observer
(UK) recalled an interview that he had with Robert Mugabe in 1984 where he asked
Mugabe whether he would ever consider a political solution to the Matabeleland
issue rather then the military one. Trelford describes Mugabe's response to his
question as 'blunt' and 'chilling'. Mugabe replied:
'The solution is a military one. Their
grievances are unfounded. The verdict of the voters was cast in 1980. They
should have accepted defeat then… The situation in Matabeleland is one that
requires a change. The people must be reoriented.'
The Breaking the Silence report
describes in detail what a militaristic reorientation programme involves:
curfews are imposed, journalists are forbidden to enter the area, but worst of
all, troops trained in 'counter insurgency', or, to use Mugabe's euphemism,
'reorientation' are let loose on a community.
In 1983, the infamous red-bereted 5
Brigade was deployed in Matabeleland. These were no ordinary troops: they were
soldiers equipped with unusually cruel skills, trained by North Koreans
recruited specifically to impart this knowledge. We learn through the Breaking
the Silence report that the methods used to address "reorientation", "change",
"unfounded grievances", to teach a community to "accept defeat", were methods
that involved civilian murders, civilian rapes, civilian torture and the
destruction of civilian property.
"Five Brigade passed first through
Tsholotsho, spreading out rapidly through Lupane and Nkayi, and their impact on
all these communal areas was shocking. Within the space of six weeks more than
2000 civilians had died, hundreds of homesteads had been burnt and thousands of
civilians had been beaten. Most of the dead were killed in public executions
involving between one and 12 people at a time."
The same report describes in detail some
of the techniques used. Most would defy the most creative imagination of
Hollywood's horror film directors; all techniques were intended to maximise
terror, pain, grief and humiliation.
One of the most difficult things to
comprehend is that these perverse barbaric acts of cruelty were not the actions
of psychopaths, but soldiers. Their 'enemy' was not an invading army from
foreign borders, nor were they fighting for freedom against a repressive racist
regime; the 'enemy' were our fellow Zimbabweans - men, women, children, the
elderly: the innocent and the defenceless; the helplessly isolated.
Lupane is singled out in the Breaking
the Silence report as being the area where, more than other areas, entire
villages were destroyed - huts deliberately burned down by the 5 Brigade,
sometimes while people were still in them. Lupane is also singled out as an area
where people were frequently denied the right to bury their dead:
“burial was on occasion forbidden, and
relatives of the dead were reportedly forced to observe the remains of their
dead rotting away and being scavenged. In these cases, bones were sometimes
buried months or years later, and in other cases, bones were removed by the 5
Brigade, who came past in trucks and collected them. In cases where bones were
removed by 5 Brigade, chances of recovery now are almost non-existent” (Breaking
the Silence 1997).
Offences for Lupane are conservatively
estimated in the report as follows:
Death: 275 Missing: 41 Property loss: 58 Physical torture: 2 Detention (by Govt. agencies):
158 Physical torture: Assault with Sticks,
or other blunt weapon: 186 Physical torture: Assault with Burning
object, or enclosure of victim in burning building : 10 Physical torture: Assault with
Bayonette, or other sharp weapon: 1 Physical injury: Gun Shot Wound:
37 Rape: 6
"Reorientation" and "Accepting defeat":
these were the words used by Mugabe to sweep away and justify the calculated
cruelty, murder, torture, degradation, humiliation and intimidation of his own
people, his fellow Zimbabweans.
In an open letter to Mugabe in 1997,
Amnesty International called on Mugabe to acknowledge the horror that had
happened years earlier. But it was not until 1999, at Joshua Nkomo's funeral,
that Mugabe flirted, for the first time, with the notion of accountability by
acknowledging the impact on innocent people, saying, "The conflict which took
place caused great suffering among innocent people, we regret that". His 'almost
apology' was immediately qualified, however, with the words "but these conflicts
always do that".
A year later, in July 2000, Mugabe tried
again to perpetuate the myth that his specially trained troops were fighting a
justifiable conflict, a war against an identifiable and dangerous enemy, rather
than indiscriminately massacring thousands of civilians. This time he was
speaking at a memorial service for Joshua Nkomo. Possibly still reeling from
shock at the number of seats won by the MDC at the general elections earlier in
the year, Mugabe said: "It was an act of madness, we killed each other and
destroyed each other's property" and "It was wrong". But again, the 'almost
apology' is qualified with the ready words "both sides were to
blame".
This is unacceptable to the communities
who endured 5 Brigade's special brand of cruelty, as the words of one
Gukuruhundi survivor clearly illustrates:
"Mugabe, whose praises we were made to
sing while these people were being murdered, is not saying anything. "The people
whom we regarded as our leaders in PF Zapu, are now living in glass houses, and
our children remain where the killers decided they should remain. Is that the
type of country we fought for?"
If this was a 'war', a 'national
security issue' where 'both sides' were wrong, why has Mugabe been so reluctant
to release the findings of the Dumbutshena and Chihambakwe reports into the
Matabeleland atrocities? Further, are we to believe that it is purely
coincidental that the only existing copy of the Dumbutshena report was
reportedly removed from the National Archives by the CIO? Why have the mass
graves of those killed 'in action' (as Mugabe would like us to believe) been dug
up and the bones moved to unknown locations?
Years later, the ruling party's efforts
to impose 'reorientation' and 'accepting defeat' on a civilian population
continues. The familiar pattern emerges once more - an absence of journalists,
no-go areas : yet another "curtain of silence". The people of Lupane found their
voice in 2000 despite all the 'lessons' ruthlessly forced upon the people of
Lupane by Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF over the years; despite the fact that the
genocide, rapes, murders and torture incurred very little response from the
international community; and despite the fact that they were once again isolated
from the media. They collectively, and courageously, spoke through the ballot
box by electing David Mpala of the MDC as their Member of
Parliament.
Once again, the response was
murder.
In February 2001 the MDC's ward chairman
for Sizangobuhle ward, Jameson Sicwe, was murdered by a group of war veterans
who dragged him from his home and beat him with thick sticks all over his body.
He died on the spot.
One year earlier, in April 2000, David
Mpala had been abducted and severely beaten by a group of about 40 ruling
ZANU-PF supporters. A year after the death of Jameson Sicwe, the Daily News
reported that David Mpala was fighting for his life after being abducted by
ZANU-PF supporters on a Sunday afternoon, who then went on to "slit his abdomen
with knives" and try to crush his skull. Unlike Jameson Sicwe, David Mpala's
wounds did not kill him immediately. He died earlier this year, in February
2004, two years after being stabbed. The MDC have stated that Mpala's death was
brought about by injuries sustained in 2002, while the state-controlled media
trumpeted that he had died of meningitis.
Whatever the cause of David Mpala's
death, Lupane is once again the centre of attention. Dates for the by-election
have been set for 15 and 16 May 2004. The two main candidates are Njabuliso
Mguni for the MDC, and Martin Khumalo for ZANU-PF.
The 5 Brigade have not returned, but the
'curtain of silence' that has once again fallen now conceals the activities of
another specially trained wing of ZANU-PF; the 'Green Bombers' - so-named by the
public because of their green uniforms and thuggish brutality. (A recent Herald
article suggests too that the notorious red-beret, a visual reminder of the
infamous 5 Brigade, is also a part of their uniform).
These are not soldiers: they are our own
youth. Young people whose minds have been deliberately and systematically broken
down through a programme of calculated abuse to teach them to accommodate
ZANU-PF's unpalatable view that torturing and attacking their own communities,
sometimes their own families, is their duty. The following transcript details a
conversation between Hillary Andersson, a BBC correspondent, and Edward, a young
man who now works in the Ministry of Youth Development, Gender and Employment
Creation:
ANDERSSON: […] The next vital stage of
training is an intense programme of indoctrination. The youths are taught to
think like Mugabe. Edward, back in the ministry, only qualified for his job
monitoring the camps after going through the process of psychological training
himself.
EDWARD: They have to deal with you
physically and then they have to take out the stuff which you have in your mind
and then put in the new stuff which is literally brainwashing.
ANDERSSON: Is that what they told
you?
EDWARD: Yes.
ANDERSSON: That they
wanted….
EDWARD: Yes, they want to empty your
mind out and then once you're called in, you go with an empty mind.
ANDERSSON: This is a lesson taking place
inside a camp. The youths are taught Mugabe's own version of history. The manual
they learn from is written by the President himself. The lesson is simple and
racist. Mugabe and his party Zanu, are the heroes of blacks. The opposition
party, the MDC is backed by whites and is bad. Questioning this is
forbidden.
EDWARD: I was taught that the enemy was
obviously the opposition and mostly the whites. Those were the main enemies of
Zimbabwe.
ANDERSSON: Mugabe repeats this message
again and again to the youth and the nation. Enemies of the state, enemies of
Mugabe's party Zanu-PF must be made to repent (BBC, Panorama, 6 March
2004).
On the 28th March 2004, The Standard
reported the inevitable: hundreds of green bombers were being bussed into Lupane
to prepare for the upcoming by-election. The success of the MDC in 2000 showed
that grotesque violence might not be enough to support Mugabe's party; perhaps
realising this, ZANU-PF has adjusted to accommodate other vote-acquiring
tactics. It was not long before the MDC called attention to the fact that
hundreds of green bombers were now also being registered as voters in the Lupane
constituency. One political analyst observed that the ghost of the 1980s, which
had previously helped the MDC win support from this embattled community, was no
longer a threat to ZANU-PF: he commented that the "ghost can also be "rigged
out"".
Nevertheless, violence is deeply
instilled in the ZANU-PF pathology and appears to be a hard habit to break.
Favourite techniques are still being employed to lend support to any rigging
operations set in place. The MDC's candidate, Njabuliso Mguni, campaigns daily
with the sobering knowledge that the previous MP was abducted and brutally
stabbed, later dying from his injuries; that Lupane's ward chairman was also
brutally murdered. He takes the precautions of travelling around this rural
constituency in a special armour plated vehicle, and of sleeping in different
hiding places every night. During the day, he has to contend with his campaign
meetings being disrupted or cancelled, as well as constant police
harassment.
This testimony from an eyewitness at one
of Njabuliso Mguni's campaign rallies has been extracted from a report carried
in The Standard:
"As suddenly as they arrived, some of
the vehicles - laden with war veterans and Zanu PF youths - started moving fast
in a circle right round the open space entrapping hundreds of MDC supporters who
were listening to a fired up Mguni. Mguni, a veteran educationist, was urging
them to shun the ruling party in the by-election set for May 15 and 16 and
instead vote for the MDC. At the same time, other vehicles with menacing looking
occupants, were being revved, making such ear-shattering noise that it was
obvious this was a deliberate ploy to make it impossible for Mguni to
communicate with his audience. Apart from that, the vehicles also raised so much
dust that engulfed the gathering within seconds.
Confronted by this frightful scenario,
it didn't take long for the faint-hearted to take to their heels escaping from
what turned out to be the Gomoza circle of despair. Among those caught up in the
stampede were elderly men, women and children. Only a few people, mainly MDC
officials and ex-Zipra combatants stood their ground and remained at the venue
until the hullabaloo died down. Out came the leaders of the war veterans and the
militia who announced that the meeting was illegal and everyone had to disperse.
"Abandon your rally and get away now," said a fierce looking war veteran
threateningly, as he and his mates pranced about like prize
fighters.”
The journalist who witnessed these
events went on to report that two people, civilians, were fighting for their
lives as a result of attacks by war veterans and ZANU-PF supporters. In a
chilling reminder of the circumstances surrounding the deaths of David Mpala and
Jameson Sicwe, the same newspaper reported a week later that five opposition
supporters had been abducted by ZANU-PF supporters and taken to a place where
they were severely assaulted. Two days before polling was due to start,
newspapers reported that at least 64 MDC supporters had been indiscriminately
arrested by the police.
When the people of Lupane queue to vote
on the 15 and 16 May, they must do so with mixed feelings. Without doubt,
everyone in the community will know the story of the Gukuruhundi, many will have
heard tales about members of their family, many others may have had families who
preferred silence, because the pain of the story is too hard to tell. This is a
community with a collective scarred psyche. But it is also an incredibly brave
and defiant community.
Many of us fear speaking out in Zimbabwe
these days, because the repercussions are thuggish and swift. We have slowly
learned too that the likelihood of the international community coming to our
rescue is small, infinitesimal. The people of Lupane know this far better than
any of us can ever imagine, and yet they still attend rallies, they will still
try, however futile it may turn out to be, to cast their vote this weekend. In
the face of their instinct for survival, 'freedom' and 'democracy' still matter.
Their courage is humbling and an inspiration to us all.
Let us resolve this weekend that despite
the rigging, the violence and the brutality that may be taking place at this
very moment, despite our own despair at the government's efforts to continue to
break down our spirit through forced school closures and the destruction of the
economy, that each and every one of us spares a thought for the people of
Lupane. Talk about them to your family and friends. Above all, pray for
them.
Mugabe would have you believe that land
is everything in this country of ours, but a nation would be nothing without its
people. Mugabe has taken the land, but the only way he can say he has the
support of the people is through brute force, theft, deception and cruelty.
Journalists may find it difficult to do their job in Lupane this weekend, but
let us not forget that we are all storytellers. If the media cannot represent
the people of Lupane, then it falls to us, their fellow Zimbabweans, to honour
them with our memories, and to ensure that their story of tragedy, and bravery,
is never forgotten.
For a more detailed overview of Lupane, please visit
www.sokwanele.com . |