- Dear Family and Friends,
-
- I sat listening to Short Wave Radio Africa in my kitchen
a few nights ago and could hardly believe the static-laden words filling
the room. A Radio Africa reporter was conducting a telephone interview
with a man in Insiza who was describing the horrific violence and intimidation
that was taking place in the run up to a parliamentary election. Suddenly
the man said he had to go because the place was being stormed by government
supporters. "They are coming" he shouted and left his telephone
on so that the world could hear just exactly what happens when elections
take place in Zimbabwe.
-
- In this parliamentary By Election in a remote, dusty
and very hungry corner of Matabeleland South, Zanu PF claimed victory yet
again. The ruling party's candidate apparently got 12,000 votes while
the opposition MDC candidate only won 5,000 votes. Barely 7 months
ago in the Presidential election almost these exact same figures were announced
but the results were the other way around, MDC 12,000 and Zanu PF 5,000.
On the surface, and to an outsider, it is hard to believe that a population
can change it's mind in such a short space of time but when you are beaten,
broken and hungry I suppose you will do anything. "We had no choice,
we needed food" one voter told newspapers. In the weeks preceeding
the election it would not be an understatement to say that all hell broke
loose in Insiza. 16 MDC supporters and 8 MDC activists were arrested. The
MDC parliamentary candidate was stopped by police at a road block and refused
entry into his constituency. The MDC were denied access to the voters roll
and one of their supporters was shot in the back either by the winning
Zanu PF candidate or his aid. The UN stopped distributing emergency food
aid in Insiza 10 days before the elections saying that the food distribution
was being manipulated by the government. Government officials apparently purloined
3 metric tonnes of maize from an aid organization and gave it out at rallies
telling voters they would only be given the food if Zanu PF won the
election. On voting day observers and diplomats confirmed that great piles
of maize meal stood outside polling stations.
-
- Once the counting was over and the results had been announced,
the winners did what has become the norm in Zimbabwe - they celebrated
wildly and then went on the rampage. To Zanu PF victory is vindictive
and 11 MDC polling agents were rounded up, taken away and severely assaulted.
The MDC offices in Bulawayo were stoned and several vehicles damaged. Contacted
for comment on their win, a Zanu PF offical said he was too busy celebrating
and told the reporter to "call Britain for comment." Four days
after Zanu PF won the election in Insiza two lists of farms to be seized
by the government were published in the state owned Herald newspaper. There
were 54 farms listed, 40 of which are located in Insiza. Perhaps these
40 farms will be given to the men who did the beating and abducting, the
stoning and shooting.
-
- We have all come to dread elections of any sort in Zimbabwe.
All are filled with violence and intimidation and it has become a
luxury for people to vote with their head, heart or conscience. In
Zimbabwe people are forced to vote with their stomachs. The tragedy is
that by doing so the people may get maize in their stomachs for the next
few weeks but their hunger will return when their new MP forgets
them and all the farms in the area are taken over and given to the
men who beat them into submission in the first place. It has become
a vicious circle of violence and hunger where surviving each day has
become the only thing that matters.
-
- Until next week,
-
- with love, cathy.
-
- http://africantears.netfirms.com
- Copyright Cathy Buckle 2nd November 2002.
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