Speaking on the BBC last Saturday, Ahmed Kathrada repeated some words of Mandelas that have a poignant relevance for Zimbabwe. Dont bear grudges the great man said, that was the past.
But in Zimbabwe, from the head of state right down to the thugs at grass roots of Zanu PF, the past is all they have to offer. Addressing the National Youth Assembly this week Robert Mugabe asked, Tsvangirai, tell us where were you when Zanu PF was fighting for the liberation of this country. So who are you to tell me to go? Who are you to say I should go? Mugabe hardly needs reminding that Morgan Tsvangirai is the head of the party that defeated Zanu PF in the elections. He knows that very well, hence his decision to rush ahead with elections in 2011. At 86 years old, he must know he hasnt got that much longer – even if the Womens League endorse him as President for Life. In a rather lame reminder, Mugabe told the Youth Assembly to eschew violence but clearly Jabulani Sibanda, for one, wasnt listening to the Dear Leaders words. Continuing his rampage of violence and intimidation in Zaka the so-called war veteran told villagers that he had been sent to warn all sellouts in the area that ZPF is ready to kill them if they fail to join his party before campaigning for the next elections have begun..
All the evidence on the ground points to the fact that campaigning has already begun; Zanu PF is in full election mode supported, as always, by the military and the police. Troops are deployed in Mutoko and many other rural areas around the country; the police are banning MDC political meetings on the grounds that insufficient notice has been given and Augustine Chihuri transfers the entire Avondale force to remote rural areas for no other reason one can see than that Morgan Tsvangirais home is in the Avondale area and Chihuri suspects the police based there of being MDC supporters. The UZ is sealed off by riot police and students are savagely beaten by the police, just to teach them a lesson I suspect, because no charges are laid against them. A man in Kezi is imprisoned for three months for daring to say that he hates Mugabe; journalists in Mutare are beaten on their feet by a policeman who tells them, You will learn that as the policeman I am king Farm seizures increase as the country heads for elections. It is common knowledge that Mugabe wants all white farmers off the land before the country goes to the polls. A JAG report from a farm in Chegutu tells how a group of men arrived at a womans farm and told her she had three hours to get out. I told him I was 5th generation Zimbabwean. This was irrelevant I was told. He held out his arm and said This is black and even if you were born in Kadoma (which I was) you are white and have no place here. The woman told him she had a court order allowing her to remain on her farm and he replied, There is no law for whites in Zimbabwe, we are the law.
If this is the situation in late October 2010, one can only dread what 2011 is going to be like. Amnesty reports some 1.120 case of human rights abuse in August alone and while the UK and Europe are absorbed in their economic troubles, it is not likely that Zimbabwes troubles will feature largely on the international radar. Former South African President Mbeki has just told journalists that the GPA is the only game in town for Zimbabwe but Robert Mugabe is intent on ditching the arrangement as soon as possible by whatever means he can not excluding violence and electoral chicanery. Living in the past he certainly is but it is the present and future generations of Zimbabweans who will pay for his failure to accept the reality that his time is up.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH. aka Pauline Henson.
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