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Interrogating
Zimbabwe-s preparedness for a humanitarian crisis
Mutsa Murenje
September 14, 2010
I can see it
coming and I can also see that we are least prepared for it. There
are a number of things around us that may have diverted our minds
from seeing the obvious. What I see in the aftermath of next year-s
election is a humanitarian crisis of monolithic proportions. This
is largely a result of the fact that the man presiding over the
affairs of Zimbabwe, that man we call President, doesn-t at
all have the legitimacy and credibility to be there (at the top
job). As we all may be aware, he is very reluctant to leave the
office of President. In other words, Mugabe doesn-t want to
leave power at all. For what reason nobody knows. But we somehow
know that Mugabe, as a tyrant (an octogenarian one for that matter!)
wants to die in power.
My present location has
done little to reduce my frontal criticism of the Zimbabwean dictator.
This has to be because I am fulfilling my patriotic duty and professional
call. Mine is a humanitarian call and am wholly committed to seeing
human suffering coming to an end, I don-t want any more lives
to be lost and we are all sick and tired of witnessing the flagrant
violation of our most prized possession. We all have it, we all
want it and nobody wants to lose it. We are all born with it. Yes,
I am talking about the intrinsic value that we all have, that value
that we call human dignity. For this reason, allow me, my dear esteemed
readers, to bring to your attention the fact that I am at the present
moment very much interested in issues related to forced/involuntary
migration (refugee flows and the plight of internally displaced
persons and asylum seekers).
I will tell you for instance,
that internal displacement (forced/involuntary migration) in Zimbabwe
has largely been caused by four factors: the fast-track land reform
programme, demolition of houses and forced evictions in urban areas,
forced evictions in mining areas (kwaChiadzwa and Kitsiyatota) and
electoral violence. I won-t labour talking about the first
three causes of internal displacement (although am currently working
on a term paper on Rural Development and Land Redistribution as
Migration Controls In Africa with Zimbabwe as my Case Study of course!),
but the fourth will obviously require some attention. We have been
informed through the media, that (your) President has ordered the
Finance Minister, Honourable Tendai Biti, to budget for the election
earmarked for next year. A number of concerns have already been
raised concerning the said election with some saying Zimbabwe is
not ready for the election. We still have fresh memories of the
period immediately after the harmonised elections of March 29, 2008.
Mugabe lost the plebiscite and we all suffered for it.
The constitutional outreach
exercise has reminded people that what we actually experienced in
2008 can be replayed next year. Dr. Lovemore Madhuku admonished
us that we cannot allow politicians to lead this process. He passionately
argued and rightfully so that this was supposed to be a people-driven
process but we ignored him! Hasn-t he been vindicated? We
thought it was utter rubbish and my reading of next year-s
election may as well be read as utter nonsense by somebody who has
lost touch with the situation on the ground! Obviously not knowing
that I have not missed an inch of what is transpiring in the homeland.
I am first and foremost
a Zimbabwean and will die one. Zimbabwe is ours and we all have
a say in the way the country is governed. My hunch is that there
is a humanitarian crisis come next year hence the need to interrogate
our preparedness for the same. All of us need to be prepared including
the victims who may not have the ghost of a chance to read this
early warning. We are in a sensitive, fragile and dangerous political
environment right now and we need to be psychologically prepared
for the worst. We still have in our midst those men in uniform who
vowed never to salute anybody without liberation war credentials.
Have their mindsets changed? Have these men changed their position
on the war credentials issue?
This is the major problem
we have, that we have in leadership people whose vision cannot go
beyond the liberation struggle, people who constantly remind us
of how bad and evil white people are. Where is the reconciliation
of 1980? I sincerely don-t think that their (men in uniform)
position has altered. Personally, I have not altered my position
that Mugabe is illegitimate and a sizeable number of people haven-t
also changed. These are the very people, who like me, are saying
we want to finish off Mugabe come next year! Mugabe and his people
would also want to finish us off! But how? Rigging instruments,
like we have witnessed in the past, are already in place. Just think
about the idea behind the amendment of the Electoral Act (certainly,
results will be announced in five (5) days time but for Mugabe-s
early inauguration!). There are still many electoral petitions filed
with the Electoral Court and we will continue to file them ad infinitum.
We are going to challenge the outcome of next year-s election
and we will run to and fro for help and SADC and AU are not going
to do anything. I am sure they have pressing issues to attend to.
The AU for instance has Sudan, Somalia and Chad in mind. Why should
the AU be worried about Zimbabwe for God-s sake? SADC on the
other hand has brought us this nonsense we call the GNU and nothing
much has changed in terms of political tension. We have heard of
parallel structures in the coalition government for instance. Where
will all this lead us to?
The thing is what seemed
to be a peaceful election in March 2008 ended up being something
else. Believe me; call me whatever you want, an alarmist or a prophet
of doom. History and painful experience have taught us that elections
and violence are an inseparable duo. What I also know is that: Surely
the LORD GOD does nothing without revealing his secrets to his servants,
the prophets (Amos 3:7). I mayn-t be the biblical prophet
Amos but do I really have to be him to be saying what I have been
saying all this time? I pray GOD to give us the necessary intelligence
and calm to decipher and read correctly the national mood especially
in view of the 2011 election. Our failure to correctly grasp this
mood will lead us into a national humanitarian crisis of surpassing
difficulty. Only Mugabe-s death then (as some have suggested
time without number) will save us. But why not retiring peacefully?
Why wanting to die in power? Dying in power will again be very disastrous
for us.
Zimbabwe is a fragile
emerging democracy and there are serious security and safety implications.
We need to be extra-careful come next year. We need to prepare ourselves
for anything including a potential humanitarian crisis associated
with the election. We must borne it in mind that people deprived
of shelter and their habitual sources of food, water, medicine and
money have different and often more urgent material needs. I rest
my case at least for now. I put it to you, fellow citizens.
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