A visit to a country in a boiling pot and age of demolition

By Tichatonga Mangwana

Zimbabwe is a colossal and ugly tragedy. A shame to the world.

A research on micro-econometric analysis of poverty in selected southern African was to be undertaken and the Institute decided I should leave for Zimbabwe at once. On setting foot in Harare, I witnessed a county hopelessly in pain and distress.

Everywhere I looked, it was as if God had completely abandoned Zimbabwe. The many people I met and spoke with sounded thoroughly hopeless and distraught, like a broken hearted school girl. No one has enough money to do anything.

And the illegal regime pours more misery on the battered and traumatised population. From the airport to the city centre alone, we were stopped twice by the police. At both stops, the police ask the same questions: they want to see the plastic reflective triangle, the fire extinguisher, the paper reflectors on the rear and front of the car. Possessing these was not enough: they have to be from a certain manufacturer.

And in other roads the situation is worse: there are dozen police stops manned by malnourished, rude and very hungry looking police officers demanding spot-fines from virtually every driver they interrogate. While driving along Harare Drive in the Marlborough area in Harare, we stumbled into a police road block.

The police officers, there were over a dozen of them; some were wielding button sticks, a few others had iron spiked metal bars while three of them were busy writing tickets with loads of cash firmly stashed in their hands.

It`s ridiculous: a spare wheel that came with the car is rejected, the paper reflectors have to be of sizes determined by the police officer. Driving from Chivhu to Harare, a distance of 140 km, I counted 9 police stops! What investor would want throw in money in a country that is so inconvenient to do business?

Signs of lack of meaningful economic activity are shown in many areas across the capital, Harare. The Marlborough Post office, traditionally a hive of activity, is now mostly preoccupied with eco-cash transactions and a barber shop has been opened on the western wing of the building. High-Glen, a business complex located between the western and southern suburbs of Harare, is now a white elephant and deserted complex.

This business complex, in an economy operating at full capacity, should be a source of employment for many: there is no reason for Budiriro, Mufakose, Kambuzuma and Glen-View residents to go to town to buy flip-flops, to withdraw cash- all these basics services should be made available at High-Glen.

A visit to Delta headquarters, one of the leading investors at ZSE, shocked me. The company has had to drill boreholes to get water for its daily business activities. ZINWA water is unreliable. An economist friend took me to the ZSE during the last week of July. Most government companies are either underperforming or operating on the brink.

Yet a day after the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) recorded an historic turn-over of $105, Mugabe addressed a group of bussed rogue war vets at the ZANU headquarters to tell them he is in charge of the country and that he does not feel threatened at all by a communiqué issued by some disgruntled members of the war veterans. Total turn-over refers to the average number of shares traded times their value.

Mugabe thinks he is in charge. Really? In charge of what? This means that a vendor selling some maputi probably made more money on that same day compared to the total amount invested at the ZSE! And you hear Mugabe say he is in charge of such a battered economy!

The trouble with Zimbabwe, besides the leadership crisis, (which is the greatest crisis, of course), is that the country`s nostro accounts are severely depleted every day. 70% of all the goods in shops are imports (most either sell groceries or cheap clothes imported from Tanzania); the country is importing money as well.

The country`s import needs are more than the country`s reserves. 80% of the ZSE stock activity is by foreign investors, yet you hear the less intelligent of the two Patricks in cabinet talking of a successful indigenisation policy.

There are very few investors in the mining sector: Hwange is making daily losses. The ZSE is 99% dominated by Econet, Seedco and Delta. There are very few new listings on the ZSE as companies are struggling to sell products, and so very few companies are coming into the market.

The Zimbabwean economy has reached a point of financial fatigue because of weak demand everywhere. A visit to Natprint (a Zimpapers printing company along Beatrice road) and a few other companies revealed that most companies are operating on outdated technology and equipment; and this makes whatever they produce uncompetitive at all.

The level of poverty and hopelessness is shown in this: Zimbabwe`s GDP stands at $13bn. Compare this to Zambia`s $26bn, or Nigeria`s $296bn and the Port (only) of Durban`s $68bn! Zimbabwe is a serious joke and resembles a crisis ridden movie: the problems never end. The country moves from one crisis to the next. When it seems one crisis has been solved, the nation finds itself seized with another crisis. It becomes the routine. Worse still, most of the crises are ZANU PF made.

The regime is least concerned with these mounting problems and the absolute drubbing of the population. First, it`s because to them, the problems are insurmountable, and, second, they are responsible for creating the economic crisis in the first place. Instead, the ZANU PF thugs are already busy laying the groundwork for 2018 vote by dishing out residential stands to unemployed youths.

The whole Cresta farm, after Glenview 1 extension south of Harare has been seized and pieces of land awarded to ZANU youths as the party prepares to rig the 2018 franchise. These brainless youths will be employed to beat up opponents and then they will dumped after the election, claiming the stands were not allocated legally.

I had the opportunity to visit my Wedza rural area. While there, the funeral of a relative exposed the deepest depths of poverty levels in Zimbabwe. Last season`s harvest was ugly; most people failed to harvest anything at all. The situation at the funeral was horrific and unimaginable. There was nothing, absolutely nothing to cook and feed the mourners with.

While in Zimbabwe, pictures of university graduates playing street football in their gowns and caps of knowledge are circulated on social media. There are no jobs for them. At a bar in Warren Park, the owner demands $4/head for English Premier League viewers to watch their teams` first match of the new season.

No one has any money except a few to watch the Chelsea/Westham match. He refuses them entry because it`s expensive to pay for a full Dstv bouquet, he says. At half time, he eventually shows “mercy”, and asks them to come in and watch, provided they buy at least a small bottle of distilled water that costs 50c, a climb down from the original $4 he demanded.

While riding a commuter omnibus from the city centre to Marlborough, a passenger is furious that the bus will have to go through Marlborough before he is dropped off at Westgate. “Aiwa mhani, ungandiendese nekumakomba uko kuMarlborough”, he fumes. Marlborough is a low density residential area, but I doubt if it can still be described a low density residential area with certainty.

The street roads are in a thoroughly scary state due to many years of disrepair and neglect. My neighbour friend bought a second hand Toyota Raum from Japan and is hosting a small party at his house somewhere in Churchill Street. His “new” car will soon be damaged by the scary roads.

When I left the country last week, I passed through the capital city centre where the police were busy beating up protestors. A group of more than a dozen button stick wielding cops are feasting on one Tajamuka protestor. When they were done, the poor chap was bleeding profusely from the head. I couldn’t agree more with Joshua Nkomo when he averred as follows:

“The hardest lesson in my life has come to me late. It is that a nation can win freedom without its people becoming free.”

When will this current independence and sovereignty end so Zimbabweans can be free? The independence and sovereignty to barbarically brutalise citizens who are genuinely telling “their” government they are tired of hunger and living in perpetual desperation.

Nothing left to fear

I repeat what I wrote in my previous piece: the only workable solution to Zimbabwean crisis is an urgent change of government, a big shake up, a complete overhaul and revamp, by whatever means this is achieved. With the level of hopelessness, poverty and distress I witnessed for the five weeks I was in Zimbabwe, there is nothing left here to fear, and Zimbabweans are running out of time.

Considering the indelible poverty and hopelessness, there is little hope Zimbabwe can make it to 2018. The opposition and other forces should push for a transitionary authority and not wait for a rigged 2018 franchise. Zimbabweans need not be unapologetic and unflinching about their desire for complete change even before 2018.

But what is most worrying is the role (or lack of) being played by the opposition in all these crises. Instead of riding the tide awakened by Mawarire, the main opposition parties look less interested; supporting Ken`s thesis that Zimbabwean opposition parties have never mastered the art of populist politics in African electioneering.

While ZANU is dishing out “housing stands” and laying groundwork for stealing the 2018 vote, the main MDC look interested more in their leader`s health and re-organising its ‘top four’. I witnessed four ZANU ward meetings in the Wedza area and none from the MDC at all.

One thing is certain: the rogue regime in Harare, even if facing internal party chaos and rifts, will not give up power through an election. This is not a revelation. Why doesn’t all these horrific stories about hopelessness and despair among Zimbabweans change ZANU PF`s view of power and politics? Zimbabweans need to be more vigilant and face this reality. It will take something more than an election and coalitions to remove ZANU PF from power.

ZANU PF won`t agree to any meaningful electoral reforms. And without significant electoral changes, 2018 will be a non-event: ZANU will be guaranteed of a “landslide win”. Like the blatantly rigged election of 2013 in which 14million ballots were printed at No. 1 George Drive, Masasa (against a registration of 6,400,000 voters), and where approximately 305,000 voters were turned away from polls, with an additional 207,000 voters “assisted” on casting their ballots, where also more than 100,000 centenarian ghost voters appeared on the electoral roll; the 2018 will come and pass without meaningful changes to the country`s political landscape.

Unless robust electoral reforms are agreed and implemented, the 2018 vote will be a waste. The ZANU PF gangsters will steal the election again and no amount of coalitions and stay-aways will ever remove the ZANU PF crooks from power.

Writing about the 1789 French Revolution, historian David Thomson wrote as follows:

“It is a paradox that no important people or forces in France of 1789 wanted revolution. Revolutions may begin, as wars often begin, not because people want them. They happen because people want other things that, in a certain set of circumstances, implicate them in revolution or in war.”

There is growing in Zimbabwe a revolutionary spirit. This spirit, a spirit of resistance to the established powers of the absolute regime of ZANU PF.

Inonzi tamba tamba muswe ndakabata.

Tichatonga Mangwana is a researcher based at the Institute of Research and Development in Kenya. He can be reached at [email protected]