Posted on 14-4-2004

Politics As Unusual - Zimbabwe
From Cathy Buckle, Saturday, April 03, 2004

Dear Family and Friends,

On Monday night Zimbabwe television announced that the candidate for the
ruling party in the Zengeza by-election had "romped to victory." What a
romp it had indeed been with numerous reports of violence, intimidation
and harassment in the weeks prior to the poll. Hospital officials said
that they treated at least 50 people for injuries immediately prior to
and during the 2 days of voting. Other reports told of 200 people being
attacked and chased away from a voting queue by a "riotous" group of
ruling party youths. In one violent incident on the first day of voting
the opposition said 4 truck loads of ruling party youths stormed the
house of the MDC candidate. 22 year old opposition supporter Francis
Chinozvinya was shot in the chest and pronounced dead on arrival at
hospital. In the same incident another man, Arthur Gunzvenzve was shot
and injured. The Zimbabwe Electoral Support network said the atmosphere
was extremely tense and intimidatory and said there is "not a chance
this can be called a free and fair election." Only 32% of registered
voters exercised their right to cast a ballot in the Zengeza by-election
which the opposition called "daylight robbery" and it was an election
that has made all Zimbabweans start thinking about national
parliamentary elections due in March next year.

There is already much debate about whether or not the opposition should
boycott next year's elections. If a by election in one small
constituency can leave people being shot in broad daylight and scores
injured in violent incidents where perpetrators are not arrested, we
cannot help but wonder how many hundreds of people will be hurt in a
countrywide election and how many thousands will simply be too scared to
go and vote in the first place. The most depressing thing about
Zimbabwean elections now is the tired
resignation with which people here accept the results and the almost non
existent outrage. Police, government and the state owned media say the
election was "peaceful" or that there were "minor skirmishes", they
don't talk about cold blooded murder, terror and perpetrators walking
free. There is no local radio station where you can phone in and express
your views, there is no daily independent newspaper where you can write
letters of protest, there are no public meetings at which it is safe to
stand up and say: this is a disgrace and has to be stopped. Night after
night the only way ordinary Zimbabweans can hear what others are saying
and thinking and find out what's really going on in Zimbabwe is through
the static laden voice of Short Wave Radio Africa which broadcasts from
London. On Thursday night it was agonising to listen to the father of
murdered opposition supporter Francis Chinozvinya speaking on Radio
Africa. The grieving father described how Zanu PF officials had come
and
offered to pay for the funeral expenses of Francis but the family
declined, saying they would not accept money from the party whose
followers had murdered his son

If you ask any Zimbabwean what they think can end Zimbabwe's chaotic
crisis they say: free and fair elections run by the world. But the
problem is we don't know what to do to insist on a democratic election
and instead keep meekly agreeing to whatever rules our government make
up as they go along. With almost every local and national election, the
ruling party move the goal posts and change the rules.This week
electoral amendments were gazetted prior to being debated in parliament.
These amendments will forbid anyone but governmental organisations from
conducting or funding voter education. They will take postal ballots
away from everyone except people on military and diplomatic duty and
will make the chance of a free and fair election nothing more than a
mirage on the hot African horizon.

Perhaps I'm just being particularly dense on this issue but I simply
can't see how another romping victory for Zanu PF, either in a by
election or a national parliamentary election will change anything at
all. It will still leave us with a government which is not recognised by
the world, a population in which 8 out of 10 people can't get a job and
a country where more than half of us haven't got enough food to eat and
almost 4000 people die of Aids every week. It will surely take leaders
of great vision and selfless dedication to save Zimbabwe, not a violent
romp to victory. I write this letter in memory of Francis Chinozvinya
who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country

My books on the Zimbabwean crisis, "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears"
are available outside Africa from: mailto:orders@africabookcentre.com ;
www.africabookcentre.com ; www.amazon.co.uk in Australia and New Zealand:
mailto:johnmreed@johnreedbooks.com.au ; Africa: www.kalahari.net
www.exclusivebooks.com