Churches can play a major role in changing Zim

Who are the brave ones? Those who stayed, or those who left?

LONDON – Churches should be the conscience of the nation and Christians who are determined, organized and full of energy can play a major role in changing Zimbabwe for the better, delegates to the first Zimbabwean International Diaspora Conference were told on 1 October.

We have a unique role to play and an unique contribution to make and we should play it, Dr Michael Cassidy of the Johannesburg-based African Enterprise organization told over 100 delegates to the meeting which was attended by leaders of the Zimbabwean Christian community in Britain, MDC activists, sociologists, human rights workers and journalists.

Organised by the Council of Zimbabwean Christians Leaders UK (CZCLUK) and sponsored by Tearfund, the one day meeting enjoyed the full support of two of Zimbabwes best known political analysts, Dr John Makumbe and Professor Ken Mafukwa as well as leading academics.

This has been a breakthrough gathering, CZCLUK Chairman, Reverend Levy Moyo told The Zimbabwean. The exchange of opinion on a large number of subjects has been extremely useful and this is the start of a dialogue that involves Zimbabweans from all walks of life who, for a variety of reasons, are living in the United Kingdom.

Star of the one day conference was Makumbe, who delivered a half hour speech, without notes, that left his audience half way between joy and anger.

Noting that members of the four million strong international Zimbabwean diaspora for sending money home which enabled people to pay their mortgages and eat basic foodstuffs he asked one of the hardest questions Zimbabweans in the UK ever to have to ask themselves – Who are the brave ones? Those who stayed, or those who left?

Said the highly-respected political analyst who has faced down the bullies in Zanu (PF) and lived to tell the story -There are no cowards or brave ones. We are all in the trenches. Fifty percent of the homesteads in Zimbabwe are sustained by the diasporians and that has meant that people have stayed alive instead of dying and who, in their right mind, would say that should not happen?

But he lashed out at most of the estimated 450,000 Zimbabweans who live in Britain for not doing enough. He said that they should realize that under the law of Zimbabwe, most of the people at the conference were not Zimbabweans.

Pointing towards Ken Mufukwa he said: Ken is not a Zimbabwean. I dont know why he speaks Shona.” Professor Mufuka has lived in the USA for 30 years.

Earlier, delegates had been told by Dr Julius Mugwagwa of the UK Open University that there are over four million Zimbabweans in exile, including 10,000 state registered nurses, 3,500 qualified doctors and well over a million people with high school certificates.

Makumbe said that in 1976 students and schoolchildren throughout South Africa rose and defied the apartheid system because the Vorster Government in South Africa ruled that all subjects including mathematics be taught in Afrikaans. But the Soweto schoolchildren had no outside help, no diasporians to help them or to effectively distract them from the job at hand the fight against oppression.

Ken told me how much he sends his mother so the mother would not go into a riot against Mugabe because she would be in a queue changing the money from Ken. So anyone calling people to demonstrate against Mugabe they are at the Western Union. But money has never run a country. Whether you have money or not – money doesnt depend on whether youll get a good government or not.

Hungry for change

He said that ordinary men, women and children were hungry for change. A Mass Public Opinion survey recently discovered that only 10 percent of the voters of Zimbabwe would vote for Mugabe and Zanu (PF) if elections were held today. To get that figure for their survey, they (team workers) went in to the heartland of Zanu (PF) support. They went to Western Mashonaland where Mugabe himself comes from.

He said that even in Mashonaland West ordinary people who have seen education and health services collapse since 1980 are seething with anger, adding Yet despite this, Zimbabweans are seeing supermarkets full of South African goods. You will not starve because there is no food. You might starve because you dont have money but the food will be there and people are saying Morgan Tsvangirai is wonderful. But people are burning Zimbabwean dollars. I use them for cleaning the car. They do a good job. Some people use them for other things which I shall not go into

Organise yourselves!

During the wide-ranging master class speech in biting sarcasm, razor-sharp wit and bitter irony, the best known political commentator in Zimbabwe declared: One of the things that frustrates us back home is to see you guys with so much freedom and not using it. We know that most of the time you are eating very nice things but can you spare a Saturday and go to Trafalgar Square and say We are Zimbos! and We just want to go home! The first thing you people must do is organize yourselves. Here is a classic organization (the CZCLUK) but there are many others groups other than Christians in the UK business people, professionals, civil groups, You have to organize yourselves and organize yourselves now!

He suggested that community leaders choose people with passports and registration certificates (because under Zimbabwean law any0one who has lived overseas without returning for over seven years is effectively disenfranchised) to submit proposals to one or several of the 17 Thematic Committees in Harare and Bulawayo whose job is to help prepare a new constitution.

He said that in his opinion there would be a new constitution. The MDC has come up with an alternative to the Kariba Draft which is one of the worst illegal documents you could ever find. Its unbelievable. It leaves Mugabes power untouched. You can see Patrick Chinamasa waxing lyrical about the Kariba Draft. He wrote it.

“Morgan and Arthur are actually conditioned to respond to Mugabe and its sad to see. So sad. All of us are actually victims of that. We wait for Zanu (PF) to do something so we can criticize. But the idea is to light the fires and let Zanu (PF) run around putting those fires out!

Whatever happened, he said, sanctions against the ruling partys elite (there are 52 members of the Politburo) must stay because “they want them lifted in order to gain access to frozen funds which would be used to build an election ‘war chest’ that would keep Zanu (PF) in power for years. They want access to their money (in US,UK, Canada, France, Brazil) and then contribute to a war chest. Then they will tell the militia : Civil servants are getting US$150 a month. We will give you US$100 a week depending on how many people you rape, how many houses you burn, how many people you murder.’ And Zanu (PF) will win the election June 2008 style. The sanctions have to stay! They have to stay! They must never be removed!- AFRICAN FORUM NEWS SERVICES (AFNS)