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Five
reasons why President Robert Mugabe should have resigned twenty
years ago
Rejoice
Ngwenya
June 20, 2007
To put it bluntly, Ian
Douglas Smith, the vestigial epitome of white colonial supremacy
in Southern Africa, in his own sarcastic manner performed better
than Robert Gabriel Mugabe, the modern-day -life president-
of the wrongly labelled 'independent republic- of Zimbabwe.
I say 'better- because as a patriotic Zimbabwean, I
am neither swayed nor sold to the euphoric claptrap of typical black
Africa hero-worshipping that accompanies dogmatic praise singing
of bogus revolutionaries. I am also not sucked into the black hole
of blind faith bestowed on African leaders like Robert Mugabe, whose
only claim and rise to fame is measured by the number of white faces
they trampled on in reclaiming land rights for a people that they
deliberately subject to oppressive rule. I refuse to be sold to
the stunted persuasion of uncouth African academics whose benchmark
for political stardom is the number of times that great pretenders
to the throne of the liberation struggle hide behind a facade of
anti-imperialist rhetoric. In short, I am one of the three out of
four Zimbabweans who can bear truthful testimony to that life in
Ian Smith-s Rhodesia was marginally better than Zimbabwe-s
Robert Mugabe, because I was born, lived and studied on both sides
of the political divide. I have my five reasons.
1. Access
to education
At one time,
Zimbabwe boasted of one of the highest literacy rates in the world.
This was no coincidence, but a direct result of the magnitude to
which the Rhodesians had invested in both public and private education.
Ofcourse the system was openly discriminatory, with blacks, whites,
mixed race and Asians clustered in separate streams, and yet the
system produced world-class professionals. Even high school dropouts
were employable back then. In so-called black schools, library and
laboratory facilities were world class, teachers extremely motivated
and where necessary, children fed with basic nutrients. Examinations
were written and promptly marked, with results published on time.
My father, who was a primary school teacher, received a salary that
supported eight of his own children plus several dependants. And
yet now the story is diametrically different. Although Mugabe-s
government still trumpets historic successes, the situation on the
ground portrays a sordid sight of barbaric neglect and primitive
disregard for quality. A typical government primary school has more
than sixty children in one class who share tattered and torn textbooks.
Even in urban centres, some children share desks and chairs because
no school authority or parent association can afford to buy furniture.
Some schools were last painted in 1980, while floors emit dust because
the cement crust has all but disappeared. There are very few schools
with intact doors and windowpanes, with toilets routinely blocked
because of lack of running water. Most teachers have fled to South
Africa and Botswana, leaving pupils and students stranded with unqualified
-temporary- staff drawn from ex-high school students.
Subsequent ministers of education have repeated, ad nauseum, exaggerated
figures of the number of schools their government has build, and
the number of students that have been churned by colleges and universities.
There has not been any attempt to assess the relationship between
numbers and quality. For the record, there was only one university
in Rhodesia, now there are close to eight. Applause, applause, but
in most of those institutions of higher learning, students eat only
one meal a day. Boarding and lodging facilities can only be compared
to a good refugee camp, teaching staff is only thirty percent of
full capacity and at the University of Zimbabwe, students go for
months without running water. More importantly, almost all products
of Rhodesian colleges were employed and employable. In Robert Mugabe-s
Zimbabwe, eighty to ninety percent of graduates cannot find employment
in their home country.
2. Access
to health
According to
several United Nations-sponsored studies, Robert Mugabe-s
government has scored 'several successes- in child mortality,
birth control and immunisation programmes. We have read reports
on how malaria, tuberculosis and other communicable diseases have
been reduced through Zimbabwe-s 'progressive health
policies-. I say cut the crap and get to real life. In any
case, the United Nations is not exactly the epitome of institutional
excellence, considering their 'success- in the Rwanda
genocide, Iraqi fiasco, Democratic Republic of Congo and of late,
the Dafur region and Horn of Africa. On several occasions, the United
Nations has played host to Robert Mugabe despite the justifiable
outcry of the free world that his violations of human rights are
a clear case for The Hague.
During Ian Smith-s
era, despite the 'real- sanctions the colonial government
was subjected to, I do not remember any hospital or pharmacy that
had no medicines, nurses or doctors. In Mugabe-s long reign,
there have been 'many walls- built to impersonate a
semblance of health delivery, with government-controlled press praising
the ruling party ZANUpf for 'policies that have improved access
to health-. I am either blind or stupid, because only ten
percent of Zimbabweans can access or afford health treatment. Most
doctors and nurses have [again] fled to South Africa and the world.
In some rural clinics, untrained nurse orderlies are known to administer
treatment only restricted to qualified doctors. In casualty departments,
patients bleed to death on stretchers in the corridors whilst waiting
for one doctor who only comes once a week. Harare Hospital, at one
time, was one of the best centres of health in Southern and Central
Africa, but now a shell, with expectant mothers either sleeping
on the floor or delivered by student nurses. Recently, the hospital
was almost closed due to lack of water, lack of electricity and
industrial action.
Even for those
few citizens who can afford medical health, they cannot receive
treatment without cash upfront. Infact, patients on medical aid
have been known to die in the waiting room because the only available
doctor will not touch them before full payment. In rural areas,
the situation of neglect has reached epidemic proportions. Hospitals
have no ambulances and patients have to travel on ox-drawn carts
for no less than forty kilometres to the nearest referral hospital.
If they make it alive, they will be politely requested to bring
their own food, blankets, injections and at times, oxygen! Even
in cities, public ambulances cannot function due to either lack
of spares or fuel. Zimbabwe-s archaic health delivery system
even follows us to the grave! Mortuaries have simply no more room,
with bodies piled one on top of another and in some, refrigeration
having ceased to function due to neglect, lack of electricity or
where there is a generator, lack of diesel. Now you tell me, with
Zimbabwean known to experience one of the highest rates of HIV/Aids
infection in the world, will Robert Mugabe ever get his medical
system right? If anything, the huge investments he makes in building
training camps for youth militias or importing anti-riot gear would
find better use in stocking up hospitals with drugs, better conditions
for nurses and restoring the dignity of doctors. But for now, his
priority is political survival. Patients can wait.
3. Food
and nutrition
It is now official
that Zimbabwe will require food aid. For President Mugabe and his
ZANUpf, the famine could not have come at a better time -
elections next year! A just concluded research by a non governmental
organisation [NGO] called Zimbabwe
Peace Projects [ZPP] has established beyond reasonable doubt
that Mugabe trades drought relief for political votes and subjugation.
In the drought-prone South Western Zimbabwe where the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change [MDC] controls most municipalities,
the ZANUpf government has put in place an elaborate system that
nullifies any humanitarian work by NGOs and replaced it with a partisan
system controlled by government appointees, war veterans and chiefs.
Yet there is irrefutable evidence that under similar drought conditions,
Rhodesian farmers, both black and white, commercial and peasant,
were producing enough food to export to and feed Africa. Infact,
Ian Smith had established a sophisticated network of agricultural
extension officers, back then known as 'demonstrators-
[maDomeni, in local lingua], who knew each black farmer by name.
My father shared his time between teaching and farming, and like
many of his type, was called a 'Master Farmer- because
he could produce enough quantity and quality to send to the nearest
Grain Marketing Board depot. Black farmers like him, some in rural,
others in small-scale farming areas, used to win accolades and prizes
in local agricultural shows.
Rhodesian beef
was 'smuggled- to Europe because of its irresistible
quality, with locally trained veterinary doctors pioneering amazing
animal treatment and fertilisation methods. Large tracts of land
owned by the public institution, ADA [agricultural development authority],
produced quality seed maize, with legendary farmers like the Nicole
family known to produce one third of the country-s strategic
grain reserves at their farms in Banket. There is not a single day
in Rhodesia I remember not finding the staple maize meal from a
shop. Also, I would find an amazing variety of bread, milk and margarine.
But that is all history now. Robert Mugabe and his band of hooligans
he erroneously labelled 'war veterans-, took up a worthy
cause of reclaiming their land rights but totally decimated Zimbabwe-s
food production. Today, millions of Zimbabweans stare starvation
in the face. Recent records from even urban authorities like the
Bulawayo City Council chronicle children that die of malnutrition
because their parents cannot afford the high price of scarce food.
In rural schools, there is overwhelming evidence of 40-50% food-induced
absenteeism, while Mugabe has unleashed his police force to arrest
anyone seen carrying or selling the staple maize, what he terms
a 'controlled product-! The little product that is available
from the Grain Marketing Board is either collected almost for free
by ZANUpf supporters, or sold to millers who can provide evidence
that they are pro-government.
4. Political
and Economic freedom
Economic think
tanks and liberal foundations the world over have empirical evidence
of direct relationship between economic prosperity in a country
and the degree of political freedom. If this sounds like utopic
hallucination to some students of socialism, Zimbabweans have the
experience to prove the theory correct. Over the past 27 years of
black rule, we have virtually lost all our political rights. Robert
Mugabe has used his shrewd political acumen to concoct laws and
regulations aimed at humiliating any individual who entertains thoughts
of opposing his rule. In 1980, Mugabe ascended to power via a Margaret
Thatcher-brokered Lancaster House Constitution that at the time
he claimed had a satanic clause 'unfairly- guaranteeing
property rights of a minority white group for ten years. So by presenting
himself as a campaigner against Thatcher-s 'bad constitution-,
he gradually amassed for himself executive powers that even his
long time ally, Edgar Tekere, publicly condemned as evil. Mr Tekere
assumed demigod status by founding the Zimbabwe Unity Movement,
a party credited with dashing Mugabe-s hopes of turning Zimbabwe
into a one-party state.
What we have
now is a country where it is even illegal to carry our own currency.
One of Mugabe-s protégés, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
governor Dr Gideon Gono, persuaded authorities to make it impossible
to withdraw, carry or deposit large quantities of local money without
valid explanations. What people in the civilised world take for
granted, like voting, in Zimbabwe, it comes with death and destruction.
In every major election, no less that one million Zimbabweans are
abducted, displaced, raped, murdered, exiled, maimed or merely prevented
from voting. There is nor gathering of citizens to discuss development
or political issues that can be conducted without police authority
and presence. Opposition candidates have to seek High Court Orders
to access the voters- roll. No Zimbabwean outside the country
is allowed to vote. Many people do not criticise Mugabe in public,
trains, buses, taxis or bars for fear of reprisal. Representatives
of a woman only group of social activists called Women
of Zimbabwe Arise [WOZA] spends millions of Zimbabwe dollars
every three months fighting to be released from crowded jails.
Lawyers have
not been spared from abuse. Constitutional activist and lawyer Dr
Lovemore Madhuku is now a punch bag for riot police. Beatrice Mtetwa,
an award-winning barrister known for defending the rights of opposition
activists, recently stripped in front of cameras to display wounds
inflicted by riot police during peaceful demonstrations.
The result of
this political terror is that both domestic and international investors
have completely lost confidence in our country. Zimbabwe-s
industrial productivity has declined by close to eighty percent
in the past ten years, with almost three quarters of the population
living well below the poverty datum line. Not even Robert Mugabe-s
government can afford to repair roads, railway lines and other public
infrastructure. Most Zimbabweans are now so poor that they can only
afford one good meal per day.
5. Access
to affordable Housing
It is almost
two years since the Zimbabwean government, in an operation code-named
'Clean
out the Trash-, destroyed homes of a million poor people
they claimed build illegal structures. Most of these victims either
migrated to rural areas or are still squatting in unprotected places.
In true Mugabe tradition, he galvanised a propaganda campaign for
a project his officers called 'Operation Live Well-,
where small box-like structures were hurriedly constructed to counter
the negative report by UN Habitat-s Anna
Tabaijuka. Her report stirred a worldwide furore against Mugabe
for his massive housing rights violations of destroying temporary
homes without a sustainable fallback strategy. On the other hand,
the private market had always generated affordable housing, with
strategic partnerships set up between corporates, housing cooperatives
and banks to build affordable houses. High interests rates; hyperinflation
and decimation of the private sector are now a potent and deadly
combination in denying millions of Zimbabweans affordable housing.
For families that have to survive with less than one US dollar per
day, it is impossible to pay rentals or build a home. About forty
to fifty percent of Zimbabweans live in urban centres. The demand
for affordable public housing is so huge that waiting lists run
into several millions. In Mbare, one of Harare-s poor suburbs,
three families share four rooms and use public toilets. The looming
danger of an epidemic is made more inevitable by lack of running
water. Put simply, President Robert Mugabe is sitting comfortably
on a housing time bomb.
In conclusion,
the euphoria characterised by Zimbabwe-s political independence
on 18 April 1980 has long faded in our minds, having been replaced
by prismatic technicolour reality of black on black oppression.
Ian Douglas Smith-s pre-1980 white supremacist rhetoric all
but seems like child play, compared to the death and destruction
that Mugabe-s North Korea-trained 5th Brigade inflicted on
innocent Zimbabweans in 1980s. More so, the numbing levels of poverty,
political distress and social disorder Zimbabweans now have to put
up with point to one thing - President Robert Mugabe has long
surpassed his 'sell-by- date.
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