Just 28 minutes

Dear Family and Friends,

Source: Just 28 minutes – The Zimbabwean 09.12.2016 by Cathy Buckle

On the same day that many thousands of people sat, stood and crowded the pavements outside the banks waiting to try and withdraw a few dollars of their own money, President Mugabe gave his annual State of the Nation Address.

It was a hot afternoon in Parliament where MP’s were squashed in like dried kapenta fish in a tight plastic bag. There was a titter of laughter when President Mugabe invited everyone to sit down and a scramble for positions ensued because there aren’t enough seats to accommodate members of Zimbabwe’s bloated parliament. Shoulders touching, bottoms squashed, many MP’s had to sit forward on the benches, perch on the edge or sit sideways. They waited in anticipation, but of what?

Perhaps Mr Mugabe was going to talk about the collapsed economy, the chronic shortage of US dollars in the country and the recent introduction of Bond notes, a surrogate currency forced upon us by Presidential decree. Perhaps he would say something about a year filled with demonstrations and protests which were squashed by horrific police beatings, the images captured on mobile phones for the world to see. Perhaps he’d say something about 90% unemployment or continued company closures, about 80 % of our food still being imported 16 years after farm takeovers, or about our crippled health care system or rampant corruption in government departments. So much to talk about; this was surely going to be a very long speech.

While we waited to hear just exactly what Mr Mugabe was going to say about the state of Zimbabwe in 2016 it was also a hot afternoon out there on the pavements where people had been queuing outside banks since 2 or 3 am in the morning. The vendors, Zimbabwe’s saviours, were there too, cruising the queues: selling air time, bananas, cold drinks, apples, boiled eggs and more. No one was holding out any hope of salvation or reprieve from the State of the Nation address but acknowledgement and a clear path ahead would be a good start.

As President Mugabe made his way slowly through his speech you couldn’t help but wonder if we live in the same country. Apparently everything’s fine in Zimbabwe at the end of 2016. The economy is on the road to recovery; tourism is on the increase; hotel occupancy has increased from 41 to 42 percent; milk production is meeting one third of local demand; gold production is up , electricity generation is on the increase and government is working on zero tolerance to corruption.

Oh really!

Nothing, not one word, was said about Bond Notes which the Reserve Bank is congratulating Zimbabweans on embracing, ignoring the fact that there’s nothing else to embrace because all the US dollars have disappeared into the vast hole behind government doors. No acknowledgment was made of thousands standing in bank queues everyday; of people not being able to withdraw enough of their own money to pay their bills, buy their food or medicines or even get on a bus. Not one word was said about unemployment or company closures or about human rights violations and police brutality.

At the end of just a 28 minute speech describing his version of the State of Zimbabwe in 2016, 92 year old President Mugabe said: “I commend our forces for the peaceful environment we have here…. I conclude by paying tribute to our peace loving people who have endured all manner of hardships since we embarked on our land reform programme.”

With hardly a sound Zimbabweans turned back into place in the bank queues. Tragically we expected nothing better, we demanded nothing better and we got nothing better. Until next time, thanks for reading,  love cathy. 9th December 2016.