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Election Campaign Revives Memories of State Brutality
Wilson Johwa, Inter Press Agency (IPS)
April 13, 2004

A walk along a dusty footpath turns into a stroll among the quivering, delicate wings of brightly-coloured butterflies. Attention drawn to this surreal display of beauty, one forgets the town’s home to a far larger number of malarial mosquitoes.

Situated 170 kilometres south-west of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city, this is a place where appearance masks, rather than reflects, reality. Ironically, it is the district’s lesser revealed life and issues the media and politicians are now interested in.

So too are observers and human rights officials, who have zoomed in on the district as the upcoming parliamentary by-election -- scheduled for May 15-16 -- draws near.

Their sudden examination of the constituency is likely to reveal, among other things, a broken community disheartened by poverty. Some residents seem bemused by the ruling party’s vigorous courtship aimed at raking in votes.

Their apathy is unlikely to affect the efforts of ZANU-PF, the ruling party. The government of President Robert Mugabe is determined to win this one seat, after it lost all eight in the province to the opposition in the 2000 parliamentary elections.

Since independence from Britain in 1980, the ruling party has been unable to count on the south-western province of Matabeleland North, of which Lupane is the capital, as part of its traditional rural support base.

The key to understanding this phenomenon lies buried in the history of the early 1980, when the new government launched a brutal counter insurgency operation. It was aimed, officially, at flushing out renegade elements of a rival opposition party rooted in the province, and two adjoining ones.

An estimated 20,000 men, women and children were killed, violated and tortured in a bizarre military operation. Several human rights organisations, such as the ‘Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe’ and the ‘Zimbabwe Human Rights Organisation’, have described the massacres as ‘ethnic cleansing’ targeting southern Zimbabwe’s minority Ndebele-speaking community.

Two decades later the atrocities remain shrouded in secret. When Zimbabweans do talk about the killings, or missing loved ones, they are likely to whisper. President Mugabe has refused to acknowledge or discuss the events, dismissing it instead as a moment of madness.

But such a military operation has had far-reaching effects that stretch across generations, and communities, like tentacles. Catholic priest Gabriel Silonda says some Lupane residents are still battling to find their parents’ remains. Others, born during this period, have not been able to secure birth certificates because of missing fathers, or a belief that they were the offspring of the perpetrators of violence.

The cleric says pent up anger is preventing villagers from carrying on with their lives. This, in turn, has allowed underdevelopment to take root. "People here need some form of healing because they have been brutalised," he adds.

Unable to put the past behind them, many also feel they are yet to enjoy the fruits of independence. Activist David Nyathi says among the major grievances is the exploitation of the district’s abundant timber resource. "We don’t know where it’s going," he says. "Since independence, there is nothing of a government project to brag about."

But there are some signs of development in town, which has been demarcated as a "growth point" by authorities. While streets simmer in the mid-day heat Chinese engineers stand next to the foundations of a building. It is destined to become a government office complex.

Several blocks down a registry office, which will issue official documents, is nearing completion. But these efforts do not impress Nyathi, who says the impetus is the result of the opposition’s strengthening in the region.

Late last year the government announced it would build a provincial university, with the first intake expected later this year. The proposed institution has not been met with applause. Residents have dismissed it as a grandiose project, particularly as the district lacks quality schools to provide the university with students.

The smell of fresh cement and the sense of hope, ignited by the construction, sharply contrast with pervading fear of election-related violence. In February, the local Member of Parliament, David Mpala, succumbed to injuries he sustained months after being abducted and severely assaulted by ZANU-PF members.

His seat is now vacant and two candidates will be competing for it in next month’s by-election. The election is coming a month after the opposition lost a similar one in its urban stronghold where extreme violence, intimidation and alleged rigging characterised voting.

In Lupane the opposition has accused the ruling party of transporting hundreds of militants including the feared youth militia, blamed for much of the country’s election skirmishes, to the town. The district is bracing for the worst.

Fearing attack, Njabuliso Mguni the candidate of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) travels in the party’s special armour-plated vehicle. He says every night he has to sleep in a different hiding place for fear of being harmed. He also complains of frequent police harassment of party members and that his party is not free to hold meetings.

But he believes voters’ disgruntlement with the government will give him victory. Mguni points to local roads, which he says make it difficult for malaria patients to reach health centres during the district’s all too-frequent epidemics. "We also have a problem of water; we go for two to three weeks without water in a place said to be a capital," he says. "But these guys think a university is more important than water."

Construction of a dam to serve the district centre started recently. Ironically, the dam will displace the widow of the late legislator, Mpala. "For now there is no pressure for us to move, but maybe they are waiting for the election," she says.

The ruling party has won almost all previous by-elections held in the last four years, but has been criticised for employing violence and intimidation. Curiously, Silonda says Lupane is a place where the ruling party does not need to rely on force to win because "they have a sellable candidate" who is widely respected. "He’s not a blind supporter of ZANU-PF, like others," Silonda says. "He’s sensitive and no push-over, I could vote for him as a person."

Political analyst John Makumbe says Lupane is a key seat for the ruling party. If they secure it, they will be one seat short of a two-thirds parliamentary majority which the party will not hesitate to use in amending the constitution to suit its needs, even before next March’s legislative elections.

Makumbe say "the ghost" of the 1980s military operation will "very, very seriously" affect the outcome of the election. But the ghost can also be "rigged out" and ZANU-PF is no longer "scared" of it as before. "I don’t think the ghost will help the MDC this time," he says.

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