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My heart is bleeding and my spirit vanquished
Maggie Makanza
November 10, 2008

I think the negotiation process between the political parties in Zimbabwe has gotten out of hand and is now more of a leadership circus. The SADC leadership have once again failed as they have many times before with regards to the Zimbabwean issue. Allocation of ministries in my view is a peripheral matter. Instead, the SADC leadership should have insisted that the Zimbabwean political leadership discuss issues of substance rather than dwell on peripheral matter which, once substantive issues of policy, level of authority and decision making processes have been outlined, will naturally fall away. I am amazed that it has taken three SADC meetings, after Mbeki had referred the matter to them just to get a decision on ministries, but still no agreement has been reached. That tells you something about the capacity and quality of the political leadership we have in the region. What are we to say of our leaders who cannot resolve an issue as minor as this?

The political leaders in Zimbabwe have not even begun to talk about the economic and social policies that will inform this unity government and hence guide the programme implementation at the ministry level irrespective of which party is heading which ministry. I think the process by all accounts has broken down and will not extricate Zimbabwe from its quagmire. All evidence points to the fact that these two parties cannot and will not work together. I therefore see this process going on for another six months leading up to the UN resolution for new elections under UN supervision. Anything else by SADC and the AU will unfortunately not yield any momentous result. So what action can we as Zimbabweans take? Are we to just sit and watch while our leaders shuffle from one meeting to the next, issuing communiques? In the meantime, many in Zimbabwe continue to perish from hunger and disease. Most Zimbabweans today can hardly put a meal on the table, the school children are all back home as the teachers are on strike, some hospitals have closed and child mortality rates and women dying after pregnancy has reached unprecedented levels, many continue to leave the country in their thousands. The prices of food in USD are unheard of anywhere in the world even for people working and earning in dollars.

Does any of these political leaders perceive the exigency to get a solution on Zimbabwe now as a matter requiring an emergency response. Is there an end of this story of ours were the worst seems unimaginable but actually happens. 'Maybe, just maybe, if women were involved and leading in the current negotiation process on Zimbabwe, perhaps a solution would have long been found-. Hear ye Oh leaders of Zimbabwe our cries for human dignity and respect for human lives! I feel the birth pains of many women struggling to feed their families, care for the many hiv/aids patients and orphans. I have seen many children with stunted growth in the rural villages in Zimbabwe due to hunger and malnutrition. Lonely child headed households with teary eyes that have lost their youthful zest for life having been thrust prematurely into adulthood. With no means of survival and no one to care for they are vulnerable and exposed to the vagaries of abusive predators. There plight is not anyone-s concern. They can wait another day and another meeting. The many women who have demonstrated for a speedy resolution have their calls go unanswered, their voices unheard. The many who speak on behalf of the poor and marginalised are themselves well fed and clothed and their children attending private schools. The political parties which purport to represent us have no clue of the suffering of those whom they claim to fight for. They have never slept on an empty stomach, with nothing in their storeroom to eat the following day. They do not know what it is to scout the forests, hills and valleys days on end competing with baboons and monkeys for wild fruits. They have never stared into nothingness with nowhere to go and no idea where their next meal is coming from. They do not know what it is to cross a crocodile infested river in search of greener pastures to lands afar only to be brutalised and abused.

So they can afford the endless travels across the borders of the region from Swaziland, to Zimbabwe and back to South Africa talking simply about sharing a ministry. Wow! Are we supposed to be impressed by these tomfooleries of politicians who have lost their identity and don-t know who they are, have no vision of the future of the country and have completely devoured the legacy of the past? They certainly have no interest of the people but are engrossed with either acquiring power or retaining it. The deal is aptly named a -power sharing deal-. That is all that it is. It is about the sharing of power between political parties and not about serving the people of Zimbabwe. 'Hear ye Oh leaders of Zimbabwe our cries for peace and prosperity! Why are your hearts so hardened and cold, your eyes red scotched with hatred and anger? Why Oh why Zimbabwean political leaders are you full of greed and resentment, killing even the milking cows, eating the seeds without seeding and plundering the fields before the harvest. A once proud people that could feed themselves with plenty left to spare now go empty with begging bowls in hand. Why have you defiled the country and turned each and every one of us into either a thief or a beggar, despised by all nations? Even those that have remained home, you have raped, maimed and killed like blood thirsty brood of vipers. And yet you unashamedly sit and dine with other leaders in countries afar and feast while your people go hungry and many lie dying in deserted hospitals with no medicines, equipment and staff. Hear ye Oh leaders of Zimbabwe our cries for basic human rights!

You drive around in fancy cars while many travel on foot or live at work because they cannot afford bus fare. You live in opulent luxurious houses with many rooms in the leafy green suburbs of Harare lit by generators and watered by boreholes while many wallow in their faeces and die of cholera in the high density suburbs of Budiriro. You do your shopping in the best malls of the world in SA, Europe and Asia while many forage and scours the dustbins and dump sites of Harare for their next meal. When your child gets sick, they are flown for medical care to the best hospitals and are served by the best doctors and receive the best medicines and best nursing care while a sick orphan is simply taken to an empty local clinic to die. Your children attend the best universities and schools in the world while many children in Zimbabwe are sitting at home and the academic year a write off. All this while you claim to be a leadership that wants to serve the people and want to continue to lead. What a contradiction in terms. Surely, history will judge you accordingly.

What happened to selfless leadership with a passion to serve the people? What happen to the mantra 'power to the people", or in ANC terms 'the people shall govern-. I would like to join the call by Botswana President Ian Khama, to call for fresh internationally supervised elections on Zimbabwe now without further ado. These talks in Julius Ceasars words are 'much ado about nothing-. They are going nowhere and will lead us to naught. Let the political leadership declare 2008 as 'the year of the people of Zimbabwe-. Hear ye Oh leaders of Zimbabwe our cries for democracy now!

After Barack Obama won the USA Presidency, I am encouraged to believe that one day the people shall indeed govern in Zimbabwe. May God Bless Us All.

*Maggie Makanza is a Psychologist and social commentator based in Cape Town, South Africa

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