Zimbabwean
Written by Pauline Henson
23 July 2010
Dear Friends,
I suppose it’s not really surprising that Zimbabwe doesn’t feature very highly on the world’s news agenda at the moment. The problem – or one of them – is that nothing seems to be happening. The conclusion most non-Zimbabweans draw from that, if they think about it at all, is that things must now be OK in Zimbabwe. On the basis that ‘No news is good news’ they assume that the GNU must be working and all is now quiet in the formerly troubled country. It is no longer one of the world’s trouble spots. Zimbabwe, it seems has solved its problems by the formation of a coalition government with former enemies working amicably together. That’s how it looks from the outside to the uninformed and even to Zimbabweans in exile in the diaspora the news is sometimes very confusing. Take this week for an example. The KP’s decision to allow Zimbabwe to sell her diamonds on the open market was welcomed by both sides of the political divide regardless of any previous condemnation of human rights abuses and the militarization of the diamond fields. And in Harare there was the big news was that Mugabe’s politburo and the two MDC leaders and their delegations had met “to discuss ways to end the violence.†On the face of it that seems a very positive development and that’s exactly where the confusion comes in. If, as both sides are repeatedly claiming, everything is going well in Zimbabwe and the MDC and Zanu PF are getting on fine, why is there still violence on the ground and particularly in the rural areas? Why is the Constitutional Outreach Programme beset with problems of violence and attempts to silence dissenting voices by Zanu PF thugs? Why are MDC officials constantly being harassed and arrested by the partisan police force?
Has the Unity Government lived up to expectations? Are things improving or are they not? Watching David Coltart’s interview shown on the World Service’s Hard Talk I was struck by his equivocal answer to that blunt question. Things are much better than they were, he said, the problem was that people’s expectations were too high! There is food in the shops now he claimed but made little mention of the fact that it was often unaffordable to the poor, though the economy has improved he maintained and the media has been partially freed up. This in the same week that the ZTV/BC resumed its playing of Zanu PF jingles denigrating the GNU and their MDC ‘partners’. Schools and hospitals are functioning again, Coltart claimed. It all sounded quite rosy but then Coltart would say that wouldn’t he? He and other MDC and Zanu PF ministers are in the UK on a begging trip, appealing for funds. They have to put a positive spin on the situation to attract the investment they so desperately need. What Coltart couldn’t quite bring himself to say was that no one is going to invest in a country where the rule of law is meaningless, where property rights are ignored and the police continue to turn a blind eye to Zanu PF’s blatant disregard of human and democratic rights. Coltart admitted that the situation on the farms has deteriorated even further in recent months but he was careful not to say what every Zimbabwean knows: that Robert Mugabe’s so-called Land Reform has been nothing short of disaster for the country leading to widespread hunger and unemployment.
As for the question of what should happen to Robert Mugabe and his cronies in the police and the army, it was Tendayi Biti, the Finance Minister, back in Harare who put forward the argument that the only way to get him to give up power was to offer him and his cronies immunity from prosecution in exchange for the promise that they would not be arrested or lose their stolen farms if they just quietly retire from the scene. This extraordinary suggestion seems to have provoked very little comment back in Zimbabwe but speaking personally, I cannot accept that any Minister from any party has the right to set aside an individual’s rights in such a way. How can a Government Minister decide that property that was legally owned and paid for by virtue of Title Deeds can now belong in perpetuity to the thief who stole it? That is nothing more than a criminals’ charter and every land grabber in the country must be rubbing his hands in glee at the thought that his ill-gotten gains – be they farms, crops, tractors, irrigation pipes or household goods stolen during the land invasions – cannot now be taken from him. There seems little difference to me between Zanu PF Minister Chinamasa’s statement this week that Zimbabwe would ignore the rulings of the SADC Tribunal in favour of the Zimbabwean farmers and an MDC Minister’s offer of immunity in exchange for retaining stolen property. In neither case is this a true reflection of what is meant by adherence to the rule of law. While an international Advocacy Group calls on the UN Security Council to prosecute Robert Mugabe and warns of the imminent threat of 2008-style violence in the forthcoming elections, the MDC continues its support for the status quo on the grounds that the GNU is the only way forward for the country to avoid the terrible violence of the past. MDC people such as David Coltart are no doubt well-meaning, sincere and utterly committed to Zimbabwe but in going along with Zanu PF and Robert Mugabe, knowing their violent history, the MDC is guilty of extreme naivety that may well bring down even worse violence on the heads of innocent Zimbabweans in the months ahead.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH.aka Pauline Henson author of Case Closed published by Mambo Press, Going Home and Countdown, political detective stories set in Zimbabwe and available from Lulu.com