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This last week in Zimbabwe, we have seen a distinct settling of the ‘new’ status quo. On the internet I saw an interpretation of that Latin saying as, “Maintaining the same old mess.” How apt…
But maintaining the status quo in Zimbabwe would be a huge step forward. Each week, the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. Sounds like a time old tradition, but this is done in real time, practised upon the people today, right now, this second.
Few people can survive the inflation - gauged at 165000% (and that’s the figure from the government - so it is probably nearer twice that!). I will attempt to explain.
When my family left Zimbabwe in 1998, the three plane tickets (return) cost ZW$42 thousand. A staggering amount to me at the time. Each of us were only allowed to take £300 in foreign currency - that cost us each ZW$19200 as the exchange rate was 64:1…
Fast forward ten years to today. The last return flight figures I saw for a return flight from Harare to Heathrow, was… hang on! …shouldn’t you be sitting down?
ZW$804 billion! I visited the Air Zimbabwe web site and was unable to get ANY fares to anywhere - the site just reported that it was ‘updating’ - obviously a full time job. Air Zimbabwe no longer flies into the United Kingdom (as far as I know). I believe that the Zimbabwean national carrier had fallen behind on the payment of landing rights, and therefore suspended flights in as they were worried their aircraft might be impounded! On the official exchange rate (I’ve taken Friday last week’s figure - and let’s remember that the ‘official figure is not a true reflection of the interplay between the currencies), to obtain £300, you would need to take ZW$17986200 (seventeen million, nine hundred and eighty six thousand, two hundred Zimbabwean dollars) to the Bureau d’Change…
Okay - maybe leaving the country is a little bit too far-fetched. Many people in Zimbabwe cannot afford the passport fees, let alone the airfares. The last price I saw for a standard British passport, was over ZW$5 million!
Only twenty percent (estimated) of the workforce are actually employed. And many of them fail to earn enough money to feed themselves for the month. Even more are unable to afford the huge bus fares, and are obliged to walk to work. Chitungwiza is one of the main dormitory towns on the outskirts of Harare, and is a good number of kilometres to walk to town - but many make the daily trek.
I heard of one Zimbabwean family where one of the working parents had to give up work as their take-home salary in any given month in barely enough to buy three litres of petrol!
I have hardly touched the surface about daily life (Life? A grind more like it!) in Zimbabwe. But space does not permit me to go much deeper.
A Slain MDC Activist...
But now the good people face another round of voting, and with it, a campaign of violence in which pro-Mugabe police, soldiers, militia, war veterans and militia are intent on ‘re-educating’ the voters on their voting options.
Mugabe wants to stay in power. And is prepared to beat that into the voting public. For him, losing is not an option.
Yet the alternative is the acceptance by the international community of Zimbabwe as a democracy and the world bodies swinging alongside to help rebuild the nation.
Until Mugabe is removed from power, the people of Zimbabwe remain between a rock and a hard place.
Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man
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a synonym for evil in just the same way Hitler became so...
Ok Robb you asked me why I called you arrogant and wanted me to elucidate in one of your previous posts, right? The reason is that you pride yourself to be a product of the education system that was under Ian Smith's Rhodesia whose maladies I already discussed.
Your arrogance is reflected when you talk about well nourished but elitist and almost non-black participant education of Rhodesian education setup. It is also reflected when you say that Mugabe came to power in Zimbabwe in 1980 through terror, intimidation, mayhem and murder [Ref].
I agree that the Gukurahundi took place just after Mugabe attaned power. But that doesn't mean that a world hero at that time attained power through what you termed as terror, intimidation, mayhem and murder because of his role in the white-termed Bush Wars. I cited the example of your fellow countryman and champion anti-apartheid campaigner Peter Hain. But you chose to ignore my points just to play to the gallery. THIS IS BAD.
Though I agree with you in principle about whatever you say against Mugabe, but your tone in your articles smacks of justifying a white rule in Zimbabwe just because you had to leave behind your satellite dish.
You can afford to do so because of the hue of your skin, your native origins and your present comfy zone your tush rests now.
See friend, talk sense and talk real. Don't spew rhetoric. I shall be with you to support you as a black Zimbabwean. Just for the sake of earning a few brownie points talking from an elated platform and clicking 'send' rubbish from a remote mouse doesn't help. I just want to be honest with yourself. I can understand that making a livelihood is essential, but compromising ethics is altogether a different ball game.
Take upon Mugabe the way his crimes have to be counted before the people of Zim and the world. But don't try to create prejudice against a man who once was our champion.
”Mugabe”
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a synonym for evil in just the same way Hitler became so...
You are shallow. Do you have any idea about Mugabe's history and Hitler's history? See, I am perhaps as opposed to Mugabe as the guy whose father was tortured to death by North Korea's Kim Il-sung's brutal army trained 5th Brigade. That doesn't mean that you can label one evil with another. Hitler is a convenient name for you ignorant fellows to label despots. You are pathetic actually. Go and get yourself some history lessons. Don't make yourself a joker here.
Thank you for your candid reply.
Trust me, I am not ’comfy’ here in the UK!
And I had/have nothing to do with Peter Hain. I do not disrespect those who fought on either side of the Rhodesian war. I myself was not old enough to fight, and joined the police within a year of Independence.
I was a good cop, damned good. But politics and the Gukurahundi got in the way, and I was made most unwelcome. I resigned. (Look up my book ”Without Honour” on Lulu or Amazon for that story.)
But I stayed in Zimbabwe for another 14 years. Because I love the country, I love the people.
If circumstances change, I will consider returning to Zimbabwe. I may have been born here in the UK (not really any badge of honour), but I do consider myself a Zimbabwean first and foremost.
I am not trying to write from an elevated platform or to do the Zimbabwean down. I just hate and abhor what Mugabe has done to Zimbabwe.
End of story.
Like you, I only want peace and prosperity in the country that you and I both call home.
Take care.
Robb
