Before we can take cognisance of the situation in Zimbabwe, we have to be aware that it is much easier to criticise when we are on the outside looking in, than for those on the inside looking out.

And those on the inside have to look out, to protect themselves and their families.

Firstly, Mugabe will not allow the people any freedom of speech and so they are afraid to say what they really feel. But sometimes silence speaks louder than any words.

Secondly, any words that do get spoken in Zimbabwe that are anti-Mugabe can have a devastating effect on those that utter those words, and those that ally themselves with those words.

Mugabe acts quickly and decisively, stopping any insurrection before it can start.

The population in Zimbabwe is cowed, bruised and bloody.

And this is because of the line that Mugabe takes with all things he is party to. He bullies his way into anything that may result in him making a few dollars, bullies out those that have the entrepreneurial skills that a economic market like Zimbabwe is crying for, and exercises his police, army and air force to take care of business if his instructions don’t have the required effect.

Mugabe rules by fear.

Life in Zimbabwe has taken on a whole knew meaning since we left ten years ago (the two events are not connected) and it makes sad and uneasy reading when today I read that prisoners are having to be fed and clothed by their families. What of the prisoners that have no family, or the prisoners that no one knows are there?

I despair when I read that families cannot afford the basics in life - if they are available, that is.

Accommodation, education, medical services, employment, money. Just to name a few. Things that we take for granted in the free world (and they aren’t getting any cheaper either!).

In Zimbabwe, very few people are employed, and those that are cannot afford to feed themselves or their families more than once a day - if that.

My first wage in the police was ZW$99.13 (for the last 10 days in February 1981) - and I lived like a king! Today, the privileged few that do have employment are paid in the billions - and cannot afford the transport to work and back, so have to walk…

Dissension in the ranks is building, and although Mugabe seeks to knock it back as often as it shows itself, it is a rising surge, a growing urge within the people that there must be more to life than being terrorised by Mugabe and his self-serving ZANU PF party.

The Prime Minister has just returned from a tour of Western countries where he appealed for funding to rebuild Zimbabwe. To knock down what is left and build again from scratch.

The West were happy to promise money, but only in the form of aid, channelled through NGOs and aid agencies, and with the request - nay, demand - that Mugabe and his party are in no way involved in the distribution of that aid.

And for his perceived ‘failings’, the Prime Minister will find himself on a roller-coaster ride which will have no end as ZANU PF continue to dish out the punishment, continue with their plundering and theft of all things that belong to the Zimbabwean people, with scant regard for the consequences thereof.

It is more than apparent that Zimbabwe is incapable of moving forward until Mugabe is not longer in the picture.

Zimbabweans may not say it out loud, but that is what they pray for each day.

A free Zimbabwe - a Mugabe-free Zimbabwe.

Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man