As we marked Zimbabwe’s 36th independence anniversary, exiles in the UK were joined by Mugabe himself at Saturday’s Vigil outside the London Embassy. His Excellency, in the form of Fungayi Mabhunu in our Mugabe mask and carrying a poster reading ’36 years of me. What else can I destroy?’, answered some of our questions.
The first was how he justified spending $20 million on foreign trips so far this year at a time when the economy is alleged not to be booming. ‘Well, this trip to London is costing nothing’, he said. ‘As you may know I have recently had to make one or three essential visits to the Far East so I have collected lots of air miles’.
Our second question to his well-travelled Excellency was about the 300 cattle that he announced he had donated to the African Union last year to reduce the AU’s dependence on Western aid. ‘It just struck me that no one had ever thought of a gift by way of cattle to the AU’, he said, brushing aside reports that none of the beasts had been sent . . .
Mugabe was then asked about Zanu PF’s rejection of genetically modified food – a move condemned by Zimbabwean farmer Nyasha Mudukuti in an article in the Wall Street Journal: ‘So my country – a country that can’t feed itself – will refuse what millions around the world eat safely every day . . . we’re apparently better dead than fed’.
The nonagarian went on: ‘What some people don’t realise is the effect of illegal sanctions. As well as inflicting aids on Africa and causing our drought the West is now determined to exterminate us with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) so that they can control us like they do the troublemakers who caused chaos in Harare on Thursday in an attempt at regime change’.
The Vigil is pleased to see that our sister organisation the Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe was prominent among those who took part in the MDC T demonstration on Thursday. ROHR in the UK followed it up by gathering outside the Zimbabwe Embassy on Friday carrying posters such as ‘Old Clueless Mugabe must go’. As usual, the Embassy was closed. 38 people attended.
Other points
A meeting of the Zimbabwe Action Forum after the Vigil congratulated the British government on refusing to accept Mugabe’s proposed new ambassador to London. He recently stole a farm in Figtree. We wonder whether the British government’s move follows the fuss we made over the Nottingham farm looting GP Dr Sylvester Nyatsuro.
We agreed to send our congratulations to the government and ask them what action they were taking to remove Nyatsuro’s British citizenship so that he can pursue his new found mission as a farmer in Zimbabwe. It was agreed to have another protest outside Dr Nyatsuro’s clinic on Friday 13th May. See ‘Events and Notices’ for details.
The Forum decided to approach the Botswana High Commission in London to arrange a date to hand over our petition to be passed on to President Khama as Chair of Southern African Development Community. The petition calls on SADC to prepare to take action to stop a meltdown in Zimbabwe.
It was good to welcome back Takunda Maravanyika who performed a piece of political theatre at one of our forums in January. For his PhD work he interviewed several people to get their reactions to his performance.
Thanks to those who arrived early to help set up: Humphrey Dube, Isabell Gwatidzo, Etines Kapiya, Traiphine Maguwu, Phillip Mahlahla, Jenniffer Maritsa, Cephas Maswoswa, Eletha Mpofu, Roseline Mukucha, Marlon Nyamakanga, Chipo Parirenyatwa and Elector Zvorwadza. Thanks to Roseline, Etines and Eletha for looking after the front table and to Chipo and Isabell for supervising the lucky dip to raise funds for ROHR. Thanks also to Phillip, Humphrey and Cephas for putting up the high banners and tarpaulin and a final thank you to Chipo for her efficient selling of the “Mugabe must go / has gone’ wristbands.
For latest Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/. Please note: Vigil photos can only be downloaded from our Flickr website.
FOR THE RECORD: 45 signed the register.
