Hi guys
Well here's the supposedly weekly report. I am sorry I haven't been communicating more regularly, however there is a good excuse.
That is that I had to be very careful what I wrote, due to the monitoring of emails here by the Zimbabwean government. And so I have had to wait until I could get an encryption system in place before I could write anything in detail of what's happening. I guess I could have still written obliquely, but that's always a lot of work.
So to bring you up to speed with what I've been doing the last few weeks.
Well basically, I've been sent to the provinces. Zimbabwe is broken up into 8 provinces, (I think its eight), and I have been sent to help run the campaign in one of them, Manicaland. The reason I am here is basically because it's the area Roy comes from. Its also one of the safest areas in Zimbabwe, with a very strong support for the MDC. It's a Shona speaking area, but while the maNica's are shona people, they also have a strong individual identity as separate from the Mashonaland mob.
I have also been sent here because that is the least politically problematic solution. Because of the young nature of the party here, there is no really encrusted hierarchies of authority. Because of this, for a white foreigner who doesn't speak Shona or Ndebele, it's a bit of a minefield apparently. In spite of my lack of political campaign experience from an Australian perspective, the freshness of the politics here means pretty much everyone is making it up as they go along. So comparatively, I seem to know a lot. At least the guys over here seem to think so, which freaks me out.
But, anyway, my assignment to Manicaland has been great. It means I get to work on the ground, driving around and documenting violence, helping organize rallies and fundraising. In some ways, It's actually a lot like a student union campaign again, with poster runs and leaflet production. Then in other ways its completely different. Like a steady stream of people who have been beaten to document and send press releases out, and continual paranoia about our phones being bugged or our cars being followed.
But as for election, things are looking quietly optimistic. Certainly where I am, Zanu-PF are history, with virtually everyone wanting to get rid of them. That is the vibe in Manicaland, Masvingo, Matabeland and Midlands. The only real stronghold that Zanu-Pf has left is the three Mashonaland provinces, and no-one really knows how they will vote, but we would still expect a 50/50 divide in that area. The reason for this is people are not happy with how the country is going. There is food shortages everywhere, with no mealie meal or cooking oil in any of the shops, and their hasn't been for weeks. So the only place you can by mealie meal, the staple of the country, is on the black market at about 3 or 4 times the standard price, which is $98 for a 2 kg bag.
Also the violence has been incredibly haphazard, and from a pragmatic assessment, unstrategic. As it is mainly instigated by Zanu-PF youths in mobs, it scares the hell out of people, but is not an effective deterrent, because you can easily be beaten up whether you are involved in politics or not. The worst has been the Border Gezi youths, who were trained by the Zanu-PF as a militia, but tended to attack anyone were they are deployed who didn't have a Zanu-Pf party card, including off duty police officers and staunch Zanu-Pf supporters.
This has led to most of the population buying Zanu-Pf cards, as a means of guaranteeing safety. Its especially important for our MDC youth to have them so that they can go into the communal lands and campaign. This has raised some ridiculous amount for Zanu-PF, but they already have access to all the state coffers, so it's a drop in the ocean.
It has been on the communal lands that the worst violence tends to occur, as well as the small towns. The cities like Harare and Mutare there is virtually no violence that I have seen.
But far worse than the violence over here is the poverty. With 50%+ out of work and food prices rising weekly, a lot of people are going hungry. And if you're a black worker, the minimum wage is $4000 a month, which converts to $26 Australian dollars. Considering a meal of sudza and stew costs $80-$100, $4000 a month doesn't go very far.
Because of these factors, most people are sick of the Zanu-PF. So the prospects for the election look good, except for the unknown problem of how much the Zanu-PF will be able to rort. In many ways it will be a contest between our real votes and their rorted votes. One reason to be optermistic however, is that in the parliamentary elections, the MDC won 200,000 more votes across the country than Zanu-Pf, and this included all their rorted votes. And this is with ballot boxes coming back from rural booths in Mashonaland with more votes in them than there are enrolled voters in those areas, and almost 100% for Zanu.
This is where the election observers are so important. Although the Commonwealth not kicking Zim out, and the EU backing down on sanctions may have seemed like failures, the acceptance by Mugabe of observers from everywhere except UK is great. We really need them as soon as possible, to quell the violence, but more importantly, so they know the situation and are up to speed with the possible methods of rorting before the election proper. In terms of the big picture, the effectiveness of the election observers will determine the level of rorting that will occur, and as a result, who will win the election.
Anyway, I will try and write up a more comprehensive and organized report on the situation over here in the next week or so, rather than getting into things further here.
But I am having a really good time, working flat out. The day starts at about 8am, and we go until between 7 and 11 at night. Which I guess is like campaigns everywhere, but over here, you always get something new thrown up at you, or you have a new idea and can jump right in to implementing it. I guess the haphazard way of organizing things here kinda suits my style of last minute processes. Mind you, I am missing people like crazy. Working all the time means my contact with people is work based and often accord cultural and language barriers. I have some great workmates, but its not the same.
I here that there are all kinds of fun and games in the alp over the refugee situation. It sounds quite heartening, with the differences in the party becoming more openly shown between the forces of evil and good.
I promise I will write again soon.
Dave
