from government officials and ministers is “Very Soon”. It’s never completely clear if ‘very soon’ is a threat or a promise but the litany is faithfully regurgitated at every occasion. ‘Very Soon’ we will have petrol they say;
‘Very Soon’ we will grow enough food; ‘Very Soon’ we will drive out every white farmer; ‘Very Soon’ we will turn around the economy and ‘Very Soon’ we will change the currency again, this time with just one day of warning. This week the threatened promise is that ‘Very Soon’ corrupt cabinet ministers and members of parliament will be arrested.
Somewhere along the line, however, instead of arresting corrupt leaders, police this week arrested top company directors. All accused of increasing prices without government approval, the CEO’s of Dairibord (milk), Lobels (bread), Saltrama (plastic), Windmill (chemicals), ZFC (fertilizer) and Circle (cement) were arrested. It is not clear how any business can maintain prices when inflation is officially reported to be 1204% but is crystal clear that when the ideas run out it is easier just to arrest and detain.
The arrests of people trying to express their dissatisfaction at events in Zimbabwe also continued this week. At least 140 NCA members were arrested as they marched in protest over the recent abuse and torture of union leaders demonstrating in Harare. The NCA members were arrested in Masvingo, Gweru, Harare and Mutare in a clear sign that unrest is spreading in the country.
And in between the arrests there has been a whole rash of absurdity that leaves you just shaking your head in wonder. This week email and internet service was all but impossible in the country. Zimbabwe’s Internet Service Providers said there had been a 90% drop in internet traffic and it was a situation of “virtual standstill.” The state owned telecoms utility Tel One apparently owes a massive US700,000 dollars to a satellite company and were appealing to the central bank to bail them out of the debt. At one point in the week a major ISP put out an email to all its subscribers asking if anyone had a connection in high places who could intervene in the crisis.
Towards the end of the week Tel One posted an advert in the state-owned press saying that with immediate effect the cost of internet services had increased by 2,700 percent. Nothing is done in measured steps in Zimbabwe. The Big Stick comes out, threat/promises of Very Soon are uttered and prices are backdated by years not months.
The irony of arresting the baker for increasing the price of bread by 50% but ignoring the government owned phone company for increasing internet prices by 2700% is absolutely bone shaking. Until next week, Ndini shamwari yenyu
Exam time
EDITOR – It is that time of the year when trees are about to show their beautiful flowers. During our days at school we used to be reminded by these trees especially the Jacaranda tree that the exams are around the corner and I believe that thing is still on today.
Brothers and sisters I would like to wish those who have prepared enough good luck. Your destiny is in your hands and if you mess up with this precious time which your
parents have struggled to give you, you are going to find your self in big trouble. So it is up to you to decide what to do with your life. Life is tough out here and only those who have sawed good seeds in good soils are going to enjoy the harvest.
We want to see doctors, programmers and lawyers coming out of our beautiful Zimbabwe. I wish you the very best in your preparations up to the final day of your exams.
GODFREY MPAHLA LUPHAHLA, S Africa
Gonofication of Zimbabwe
EDITOR – Tight is now everybody’s second surname, in tight Zimbabwe that is. And it disregards the colour of your skin and your language.
It means getting in a mad rush to the supermarket to pick a loaf of bread for your starving family only to hear the shocking news that those hard earned bearer cheques stashed in that plastic paper bag expired the previous day. Ouch! So tight, isn’t it folks? But at least you receive consolation in employing them as floor tiles for your bathroom, a development you were unable to undertake for years even with a doubled salary.
E. MOTH, Rimuka
Speculation – but no evidence
EDITOR – I was recently sent an email containing Ruth Ndebele-Mabhande’s “Opinion & Analysis” (The Zimbabwean, 14-20 September 2006) and asked what I thought. My first response was Shakespeare’s immortal line, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”. A number of issues were raised which need further examination.
It contains lots of speculation but very little evidence. Deals with Chinamasa – really? Tsvangirai met with Mujuru – so what? Politics requires all kinds of meetings with all kinds of people. Where is the conspiracy? Houses in Cape Town? Where is the evidence? Why has the writer not raised this issue when it was supposedly happening, why now? It’s so easy to make these accusations, but where is the evidence?
Secondly, all these allusions as to Ncube’s “relationships with women”, as it is so delicately put. Relationships between consenting adults are just that – relationships between consenting adults. Why should we be so interested in other people’s relationships, unless of course we don’t have our own to enjoy.
Tsvangirai makes a protest walk to work and Welshman goes to work in a car. If we are part of a team, we all have different jobs, different specialities. What I enjoyed about Tsvangirai was his down-to-earth ability to engage with people, what I respect about Welshman is his legal talent. There is no point everybody in the team doing the same thing, we need all the players’ different skills to win the struggle on a broad front.
Does Welshman get no credit for the tedious, unglamorous work he does on the Legal Parliamentary Committee? Here, out of the bright lights, he deals with a relentless stream of increasingly oppressive legislation, pointing out the unconstitutional nature of most of them in an effort to keep some resemblance of democratic space open for us. It’s not glamorous but just as necessary as the populist strutting your stuff on the streets side of politics. Both are necessary.
As for Lovemore Madhuku, so he should be blocked from lecturing innocent students. I’ve seen him in operation over two NCA Congresses and its not pretty – hired thugs barring members from attending, changing constitutions to enable yet another term at the helm. Presidents in the SADC region could learn a thing or two from this man; he succeeded where even Nujoma failed!
The irony of 12 October is that the collective decision-making was overturned by Tsvangirai, not Ncube. One can judge a nation by the way it handles minorities and the vulnerable groups. The Senate was a complex issue and brash boycotts do little to reassure minorities that their voice is counted let alone respected.
The White City violence: politics is not a nice business; people get excited and do stupid and dangerous things. In addition, the State has a massive budget to go perpetrate such activities and cause friction between opposition groups. If you honestly think that Ncube personally organised this little group to go stab that little group, then you are naive in the extreme.
Likewise, I don’t think Tsvangirai personally organised the attack on Trudy Stevenson and her colleagues but what I hoped for was a clear statement from him about the issue of violence – that’s leadership and I’m still waiting. Denials and casually dismissive statements are not encouraging. Tsvangirai must know he has been infiltrated, right close up, and he must deal with it.
When all is said and done, none of these sarcastic and speculative comments make the long-standing and still unresolved issues of violence from within Tsvangirai’s group go away. As long as they remain unresolved, we are all undone.
Finally, Ruth calls herself one of the “ordinary and voiceless people…” – you are hardly voiceless, Ruth, hardly voiceless.
V MUNDY, Harare
Reconciliation needed
EDITOR – This is the season of reconciliation. We Zimbabwean Christians must break the anger that our people have against each other. We must pray and declare the
two tribes that live as two nations to be one nation and every stronghold be broken in the spirit realm.
WATCH AND PRAY AT ALL TIMES, www.zimbabwewatchmen.biz.ly
Zhakata said it
EDITOR – As I read the chilling accounts of the torture of officials of the ZCTU and MDC at the hands of officers of the Zimbabwe Republic Police following the
intention to express displeasure at the fast falling living standards for the Zimbabwean workers, I couldn’t help play a few songs from Leonard Zhakata’s latest album, ‘Tine vimbo’.
Before I go further, let me clear Zhakata from politics. The man has said emphatically that his songs do not carry a political motive. He simply sings about things that happen in everyday life, and the suppression of the feelings of others in society by a
brutal regime happens to be one of the fashionable happenings under the Mugabe dictatorship. After all, the songs on Zhakata’s album were penned long before
plans for demonstrations by the workers of Zimbabwe.
What prompted me to play the songs from Zhakata’s album, particularly the songs “Kuremerwa” and “Tine vimbo” is the determination to continue with the struggle by the few targets of Mugabe’s brutal attacks who spoke to the media. The brave men vowed to continue the fight to bring about a better life for all Zimbabwe.
In ‘Kuremerwa” Zhakata talks of some people who have found the going tough and gave up. Chibhebhe, Matombo and Shone have said they are not giving up, what about you the reader? I may be away from home, but I am with those on the ground, and will do everything within my means to ensure that victory comes the people’s way.
Well done Leonard. I hope your prophetic words will propel all Zimbabweans who find themselves in difficult situations to keep up the good fight.
BENJAMIN CHITATE, New Zealand
Zim needs intensive care
EDITOR – It’s worrying that our beloved Zimbabwe has degenerated into an intensive care unit like a patient. Once the breadbasket of the Southern African economies our lovely country has degenerated to a “deadbasket” of southern Africa.
It is amazing how the 82-year-old who should be taken care of in an old people’s homes keeps on terrorising innocent Zimbabweans.
The party has outlived it’s era. The era of dictators has gone, so why should the “MUGABE REGIME” cling on to power in the name of upholding democracy in the country?
NDABA NGWENYA, Bulawayo