Cockroach culture – Zimbabwe Vigil Diary

That prosecutors have now charged civil rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa with calling police ‘cockroaches’ shows an unexpected sensitivity. Mind you, the police do seem to be all over the place, scuttling away as soon as the light shines on them, only to regather in the dark.

But their boss Patrick Chinamasa shows more than sensitivity. He says the UN cannot visit Zimbabwe to discuss funding the elections. To check if things are ok would, in his paranoid mind, be furthering the regime change agenda. The UN must instead just hand the money over. The cockroaches will look after it.

The Vigil believes that Zanu PF is putting every obstacle in the way of fair elections and we will mark the 16th monthly 21st movement diaspora protest next Saturday by appealing to SADC to stop Zanu PF foot dragging and, in particular, its determined efforts to prevent MDC supporters registering to vote while itself engaging in vote rigging.

At the same Vigil we will mark the 33rd anniversary of Zimbabwe’s Independence, joined by activists from Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA), the successor to the Anti-Apartheid Movement. Not that many Zimbabweans have much to celebrate, as Herbert Moyo made clear in an article on cockroach-infested Mbare

After the Vigil there will be one of the bi-monthly Zimbabwe Action Forums at which Vigil Founder member Ephraim Tapa will talk about his recent undercover trip to Southern Africa (For details see ‘Events and Notices’).

It was yet another sodden Vigil, raining from beginning to end. Water dripped through our tarpaulin making it difficult for people to sign our wet petitions. This winter has been particularly difficult weatherwise: freezing winds, snow and rain!

During the week a Vigil delegation (Ephraim Tapa, Fungayi Mabhunu, Rose and Dennis Benton) had a useful meeting with the Zimbabwe Desk at the UK Foreign Office. We told them that we expected rigged elections and Ephraim Tapa spoke of the tangible fear he detected during his undercover visit to Zimbabwe.

Ephraim said that Mashonaland East had effectively been sealed off. He found a cowed nation that had accepted its fate and predicted that disillusionment with the MDC would produce apathy during the elections.

We were assured that the British government’s only aim was to see free and fair elections resulting in a government of the people’s choice. The Foreign Office expressed confidence in the facilitation of SADC.

They categorically dismissed allegations that Britain was softening its approach to Zimbabwe to reclaim economic ground lost to the Chinese. They pointed out that, in the recent easing of sanctions, the measures had only been suspended and not lifted and this was well understood by Zanu PF.

For our part we explained the activist role played by the Vigil together with our sister organisation the Restoration of Human Rights Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Yes We Can Movement, both led by Ephraim.

We told them all three organisations participate in our bi-monthly Zimbabwe Action Forums where we discuss ways to help those back home fight oppression and achieve true democracy. We also cautioned the Foreign Office about Zanu PF infiltration in the UK.

For latest Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/. Please note: Vigil photos can only be downloaded from our Flickr website – they cannot be downloaded from the slideshow on the front page of the Zimvigil website.

FOR THE RECORD: 39 signed the register.