Letters

EDITOR – I am asking for help from any people travelling to and from Harare to the UK.

In October, I made a ten-day visit to friends in Zimbabwe with over 100kg of basic medical aid – made possible by the generosity of BA, who allowed me extra hold allowance. I returned on the last direct flight from Harare to UK with a list of items urgently requested by clinics and orphanages – some cancer-related medicines in tablet form, some first aid items and some small children’s shoes, clothes etc.

Is there anybody out there who would be willing to take any of these items out to Harare – just one or several, depending on how much space you have free in your luggage. I would give the appropriate paperwork with as much info as possible and obviously would expect you to examine the items before accepting them.  

If you feel you could help in any way, or would like to pass the word around to help some of the many vulnerable people in Zimbabwe, please contact me at specificaid@gmail.com.

MARY-ANN, Dorset Specific Aid

Ministerial benefits – Beijing bicycles or bungee-jumping boy-scouts?

EDITOR – A minister friend of mine recently complained that he was being treated poorly by his country, particularly as he has successfully liberated three farms, has only one RTGS Forex account in Kuala Lumpur, sent his daughter to university in Kazakhstan not Australia, flies Air Zimbabwe when planes are occasionally available, and regularly attends the Hot Cash Gospel Church.  

Further, my minister friend’s mission statement – peakpurloining – clearly states that he has always sold his agricultural fuel at a reasonable market price, miserabilised rubbish urbanite tuckshops, taken a 51% share in foreign-owned companies and is looking forward to new patriotic mining ventures. And opening a Peoples’ Store in Mudzi.  

Above all else, he has always tried to impart to His Perfumed Ecstasy only those things he likes to hear – on the manageable rate of inflation, the World Conspiracy, Intelligent Design, gays, ZTV chugga chugga, bread rolls, the new Generalissimo title for parking meter gals, blood diamonds, pretty $500m dollar notes, the Gang of Four, Puff the Magic Dragon vote papers and suchlike.

All this he has done for the benefit of our loyal rural people. In fact, he has only been able to keep body and soul together by negotiating in sundry banking trifles and a little US aid grain distribution.

Surely – he maintains – as a dedicated member of Zondo (Poof’s thinktank), he should be allowed one gesture of honour. Namely, a (smallish) motorcade to accompany him to work in the afternoon. He does not expect the full Mutoko-sunglassed Arizona outriders, battalions of bungee-jumping boyscouts, four-way bypass brain surgery unit etc. No, merely two Politbureau chefs on Zhing Zhang Beijing bicycles, a cling-wrapped scotchcart with chigoobus of candles to throw to the pulsating povo. And a couple of rickshaws in which he can write 25,000 word fairy-columns for the local press.

Would that not be fair, he asks. After all he has sacrificed for the nation?

PAUL TINGAY, Pomona

Remove all 5,000 Zanu (PF)

EDITOR – We Zimbabweans are again being divided. Now comes Makoni. He will stand for President against his mentor Zim 1, that is only to ensure that (should he win) Zanu (PF) will remain entrenched and, his being a long time associate of Zim 1 and having savoured the high life, will he be any different? No! In fact, this is a ploy to keep Mugabe there.  

The heartache is that Mutambara has again split MDC. I am sure he is a Zanu (PF) supporter (incognito).

Zanu (PF), all 5,000 of them, must be removed and those who are guilty of depriving honest Zimbabweans of life, by death and incarceration, must be punished at the Hague or preferably condemned to life in Chikurubi.  

Editor, please carry on with your listing of the terrorists, police, CIO, CID, Army, Airforce members and also the so-called Border Gezi crowd. Name all of them so that decent Zimbabweans can punish them and rebuild a great country.  

JOHNNY KUFAMBA, Kariba

Makoni plans to divide vote for Zanu victory

EDITOR – The announcement by Dr Simba Makoni of his intentions to contest the Presidency looks a set-up to divide the urban vote in favour of Zanu (PF)

For starters, Dr Makoni has no party but Zanu (PF). Dr Makoni knows full well that he stands no chance in the rural areas where Zanu (PF) has the majority of its followers. Dr Makoni and his masters know that MDC is very strong in town and is set to sweep all seats and quite a handful of votes to even unseat Zanu (PF) in the presidential race.

The best Makoni should do is not to be greedy but to join MDC (Tsvangirai) and together they can form a formidable party.

Whoever is bankrolling him – if it’s Britain or someone else – be warned: Zanu (PF) will smile all the way to the bank. The whole thing looks planned to me.

CHOKWADI HACHIPUTSI HUKAMA, By email

Don’t trust the goggle box

EDITOR – The goggle box (television) is not harmless fun. It is neither value nor ideology free. Whose and what values obtain on the screen? It is not possible to have a free and fair election, when we have one television channel. There is neither diversity nor difference nor pluralism. Everyone has the right to criticise. Criticism is healthy in a democracy and false information is the price society pays for living in a democracy.  

MILTON NJUZU MANDAZA, Zimbabwe

A single MDC forged in the election furnace

EDITOR – It’s so sad that the two MDC factions have failed to do what the nation expected, because they are all putting themselves first rather than the interests of the nation.  

I want to appeal to both factions to desist from inciting post-election violence by referring to events in Kenya. Zimbabwe is better with its current problems than if it becomes another Kenya with ethnic cleansing. We want a single MDC (whether ruling or not) after the elections, not a coalition but one that comes out of the furnace of the March 29 election.

STANFORD TAKAFAKARE, Pretoria

Don’t sell our beloved party

EDITOR – Please we want to tell the real MDC led by Mr Morgan Tsvangirai that the unity deal, which they signed with the other faction led by Mr Mutambara, is totally wrong.

They should know that these people want to use Tsvangirai to achieve their selfish ambitions. Tsvangirai, don’t sell our beloved party to these gluttons.

Let me tell you that you can still win overwhelmingly without the Mutambara-led MDC. Don’t give them any seats. If they want, let them contest by themselves and you should do it by yourself.

MUKHAISI MANDOZANA, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Democratic Mugabe – a real oxymoron

EDITOR – Mugabe announced the election date and there were murmurs of discontent and even surprise. Did anyone ever think Mugabe was going to postpone elections? Why would he give the opposition a chance to win the elections, remote as that chance might be?

Mugabe’s sole ambition is to be Life President. Did Tsvangirai honestly think he could negotiate with Mugabe?  

And Tsvangirai thought he was going to get a new constitution before elections. Whatever for? When has Mugabe ever respected the constitution? Even us Thespians can’t stage plays that even remotely suggest that Zimbabwe is burning.  

Mugabe does not negotiate with anyone and for the African Union to send Thabo Mbeki on a futile mission displays an alarming lack of vision on their part. Or maybe the African leaders want the Zimbabwean situation as it is. They benefit from the economic chaos in Zimbabwe: Zimbabweans do their shopping everywhere but their own country. All of a sudden, African countries can have the finest of Zimbabwean skills for a song: teachers, nurses, doctors et cetera. Forgive me if I smell a conspiracy amongst the African leaders.  

The British provided funds for land reform in the eighties, and it was Joshua Nkomo who was interested in land reform and he tried but got nowhere without support from government. The then Prime minister, Robert Mugabe, was not interested. He was mainly worried about Nkomo taking leadership from him. He was busy planning the extermination of the Ndebele and, elsewhere in the country, youths were running around attacking anyone who was found not attending a Zanu (PF) rally. And you thought it all started in 2000.

The word democracy cannot be mentioned in the same sentence with Mugabe unless we are talking lack of it. But we will reclaim our country. Aluta continua

SHEPHERD MANDHLAZI, Bulawayo

It’s time to get off the train

EDITOR – Mugabe and his Zanu (PF) caste has been in power for 27 good years and this is what they have provided for us: queues; police brutality and corruption; migration of educated, healthy workers in droves to countries which were nowhere near us as far as economic stability was concerned; Gideon Gono playing pre-school games with our currency (adding and subtracting zeros and then adding them again; police who, if they are not beating down desperate people’s shacks, are doing it to cabbages, or people who are trying to air their Zanu (PF)-induced grievances; beating up and torturing journalists; spending our much-needed resources sponsoring militia training camps in the name of nation-building; giving their legislators preferential treatment in awarding tenders.

This is just a tip of the iceberg. And if this is not insane and subverting democracy, I have got a very strong mind to leave this country and go to Kenya where people are fresh enough in their minds to notice when their democratic rights are being infringed. If this is not similar to sitting in a train that went off the rails at least ten years ago then, ladies and gentlemen, we might as well go on and sign our death warrants.

It’s high time we get off the damned train. Vote for Zanu (PF) again and enjoy queuing and have more policemen beating up your cabbages.

ESIGODINI, By email

Youths are trained to torture

EDITOR – As we contest yet another election in Zimbabwe, the writing is on the wall that the ‘degrees in violence’, proudly proclaimed by the Zane (PF) and its leader, will be brought into play. Again. Youth have been trained in torture, and, sadly, indoctrinated sufficiently to carry out the brutality they have learned.

The brave opposition parties are fielding candidates for council, House of Assembly and Senate. Most of them have already experienced the state’s brutality on more than one occasion, yet they fight on for democracy and to free Zimbabwe of the evil.

It is my humble request that as many people as possible in Zimbabwe and across the world pray for God’s divine intervention in our beloved country.

AMBUYA, Mutare

Hero becomes a nightmare

EDITOR – What a nightmare is life in Zimbabwe. Things are going up each and every day, making us the ordinary people suffer when the big guns are enjoying themselves. Mugabe has successfully destroyed the once number one country in Africa and l am hating it. Once my hero, now my worst nightmare. Mugabe must go now.

ANON, Harare

Stir up God’s spirit, Zimbabwe

EDITOR – God can easily cleanse Zimbabwe, cast out spirits of trickery and thievery, spirits of lying and deceiving and spirits of brutality and cruelty. God’s daughters and sons, though, must play their part, for God does not work from people apart.

ANON, Zimbabwe

Gold-diggers and career politicians

EDITOR – The stalemate reached by the two MDC formations in their bid to forge a united force against Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zane (PF) party in the coming harmonised polls next month is as unfortunate as it is regrettable.  

In fact, in my book, th MDC has ceased to be a political party, but is now a bunch of career politicians and gold-diggers.  

Robert Mugabe and his ruling party will undoubtedly romp to victory in the March 29 polls, and the MDC will have handed them this victory on a silver platter just because they cannot put aside their differences. All they worry about is the so-called ‘safe seats’, when they should be strategising about how to remove Mugabe and his Zanu (PF).

This time around, Mugabe does not need to rig votes even in the so-called MDC strongholds. People, tired of the fractious opposition’s empty promises, will just decide to stay at home on election day.  

With Simba Makoni throwing his hat into the ring by announcing his intention to contest the presidential poll, I foresee him garnering more votes than one or both of the two MDC presidential candidates.  

If the MDC is indeed serious about bringing about democratic change to Zimbabwe, they must be serious and cool-headed about it, otherwise the masses are soon going to think that they are solely in politics to fatten their pockets and not to better the lives of long-suffering Zimbabweans.

LEVIATHAN, Harare

Sceptical support

EDITOR – I support the decision made by former Finance Minister, Simba Makoni, to stand against his former boss. But I am sceptical about the timing.

Dr Makoni commands a large following in urban areas; he is little known in rural areas. The main aim here is to split urban votes within the fractured opposition party. Dr Makoni had a meeting with the President, which the public is in the dark about. Secondly, is he going to have much time to campaign to the rural electorate where Mugabe commands a large following? Lastly, how can he say he remains loyal to Zanu (PF)?     

LOVEMORE MASEKO, Durban

Rally behind Makoni

EDITOR – The introduction of Dr Simba Makoni into the presidential race is a positive and welcome idea, particularly to Zimbabweans who were tired of cheap politics between Zanu (PF) and the MDC.

This will give us a wide pool of options about who we vote for. Zimbabweans were tired of the same old politicians climbing on each other’s shoulders, blaming each other for the damage that has been done to our country.

I hope the country will rally behind him for a better Zimbabwe.

ANON, Johannesburg

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