Zimbabwe: The turmoil, reconciliation, and the future!

source:http://www.galago.co.za/CAT1_019_b.htm
In late 1979 all parties to the conflict - Bishop Muzorewa and the by then Zimbabwe-Rhodesia government - under the watchful eye of Ian Smith and his colleagues - Joshua Nkomo and his ZAPU-PF and Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF were elbowed to the negotiating table at Lancaster House in London by the British, where it was eventually agreed that fully inclusive free and fair elections would take place in April 1980 under the supervision of a British governor. The security chiefs regarded Mugabe as a terrorist and were determined he wouldn't live to see the elections. A CIO bomb plot to kill him in London during the Lancaster House talks reached trigger stage, but it was called off. It was then planned to detonate a car bomb at Maputo Airport on 27 January 1980 just before he caught a plane to Salisbury. Fortuitously for him he used a different airport entrance and survived. A back-up plan to kill him with command-detonated landmines buried in the road after he left Salisbury Airport had already been cancelled. At least another eight attempts on Mugabe's life either failed or were aborted.

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Zimbabwe's government is not listening to South Africa's attempts to mediate its political crisis, says a senior African National Congress figure. South Africa has refused to criticise Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe in public, preferring "quite diplomacy". But Tokyo Sexwale told the BBC it might be necessary "to turn up the volume". South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki has been asked to help mediate Zimbabwe's political crisis ahead of elections dues next year. South Africa is the region's powerhouse and continues to supply electricity to Zimbabwe even though it struggles to pay the bills on time.

'Two to tango'

Mr Sexwale - a veteran ANC activist and one of South Africa's wealthiest businessmen - told the BBC's Hardtalk programme that a meltdown in Zimbabwe had to be avoided at all costs, as this would have serious implications for South Africa. "I'm beginning to feel my president, who's gone out on a limb, is not being listened to," he said.

"He won't fail because he didn't try. He'll fail because he's not being listened to. It takes two to tango." BBC Southern Africa correspondent Peter Biles says these comments by Mr Sexwale, a close confidante of Nelson Mandela, reflect a mood of growing public frustration about the deepening crisis in Zimbabwe. While the US and the EU have imposed a travel ban and assets freeze on Mr Mugabe and his close allies, many African leaders see him as a hero of the fight against colonial rule.

Mr Sexwale said the rule of law must be upheld by the Zimbabwean government. In March, opposition activists, including Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai, were severely assaulted after being arrested by police. Mr Mugabe said they deserved the beatings for ignoring police warnings not to hold a banned rally. Mr Sexwale said he was praying that President Mbeki's intervention on behalf of the Southern African Development Community would succeed, but he acknowledged that punitive sanctions were an option that might become necessary in the future.

Asylum

An estimated two to three million Zimbabweans are now living in South Africa. Most are trying to escape poverty in a country with the world's highest rate of inflation - 2,200%. Just one Zimbabwean in five has a job.

But some have fled political persecution. In a significant move, it has been confirmed that former MDC MP Roy Bennett has been granted political asylum in South Africa, after fleeing there last year. His request was initially turned down last May. He fled Zimbabwe after police had said he was wanted in connection with an alleged plot to kill President Mugabe.
Mr Bennett was jailed for eight months in 2004 after pushing a minister in parliament. His farm has been seized under the land reform programme and several of his workers were beaten up by pro-government militias.

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By Orla Guerin
BBC News Africa correspondent

How far would you go to put food on the table?
Would you take your life in your hands - wading through crocodile-infested waters, and walking unprotected through land where leopards roam? That is what Monica has just done, for the sake of her three-year-old daughter. She has joined the exodus of Zimbabweans crossing illegally into South Africa - the so called "border jumpers".

They travel in the dead of night, guided by traffickers. The going rate is 200 rand (£14 or $28). We met Monica shortly after dawn, as she emerged from the bush about 6km (3.7 miles) inside South Africa. She was on foot with four other women - their faces showing the strain.

Monica told us they had been travelling for four days with traffickers who abandoned them when their money ran out. "They called us baboons," she said. "They told us if you have no money we will leave you here and call the police to come and arrest you. "We have nowhere to go right now. We have no money and the police are all over. We don't know what to do."

Ordeal

Monica was driven out of her homeland by poverty, hunger, and concern for her little girl. "The situation is very bad," she said. "We will try by all means to get jobs. We can't go back. We are starving in Zimbabwe." Mary, one of her travelling companions, is a mother of four. She also talked of starvation. "We've got no jobs," she said. "We can't do anything in Zimbabwe. We are suffering." After resting for a few moments the women picked up the few belongings they were carrying, and began walking towards the highway. With no money and no place to go, their ordeal may be just beginning. A short distance away a group of taxi drivers were waiting at a favourite rendezvous point - under a baobab tree.

They are part of a highly organised and lucrative trafficking network. The taxi drivers have spotters with mobile phones, who warn if the police or army are near. A ride to Johannesburg costs a fortune for a Zimbabwean - 1300 rand (£92 or $184).

Panic

No-one knows for sure how many border jumpers arrive every day, but the estimate from the taxi drivers is more than a thousand. "Even pregnant women or women with a baby on their backs are jumping a 2m high razor-wire fence," one driver said. "Some are carrying newborns. It's bad." The taxis leave with their human cargo within three to five minutes.
"We phone the guy at the corner," he says. "If he says the place is safe, we take everyone. If not, we offload them quickly." For some the journey involves jumping fences, or cutting holes in them to crawl underneath. But there are easier places to cross the border, if you know where to look. We found an area protected by only a single fence. There is no need to cut a hole, because there is an unlocked gate. Once through the gate, the Limpopo River is just ahead, and beyond it, Zimbabwe.

Risking everything

The Limpopo is low now, but border jumpers have drowned when the river is in flood. Just downriver another group was making their crossing, holding their valuables above their heads. They arrived safely on dry land, but there was a reception committee of local thugs. They often lie in wait to rob or rape the new arrivals, sometimes tipped off by the traffickers.
The border jumpers spotted them in the distance. There was panic as they rushed to squeeze back through the fence, and return to the river. They got away this time, but the thieves are a constant threat. Zimbabwe is haemorrhaging some of its brightest and best. In Johannesburg these days you find doctors, lawyers and head masters from Harare ready to work as cleaners. Plenty of illegal migrants are arrested and sent home. So far this year, 57,600 have been deported to Zimbabwe, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

But many attempt the crossing again and again, unable to survive in a country with 80% unemployment and the world's highest inflation rate - now 2,200%. The price of corn, the staple food in Zimbabwe, has just risen by a staggering 680%. That may drive many more desperate men and women into the arms of the traffickers. Along the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa, a tragedy is unfolding - though its victims usually pass unseen. They are women like Monica and Mary - mothers risking everything for a chance to feed their children.

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Zimbabwe's rate of inflation surged to 3,731.9%, driven by higher energy and food costs, and amplified by a drop in its currency, official figures show. April's inflation rate jumped up from the 2,200% recorded last month, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) said.

The announcement came after Zimbabwe's government created a commission charged with finding a way to curb the country's spiralling cost of living.
There is high unemployment, and fuel and food shortages across the nation.
Price increases to 'worsen' The surging cost of domestic electricity, food, fuel and commuter transport fares were at the heart of last month's price surges, the CSO said.

Economists believe that these price increases will continue because Zimbabwe will be forced to import maize, a basic food staple, to make up for a lack of home-grown produce. The government has also recently warned of shortages of bread and flour, which may cause even more hardship.
Last week, households in Zimbabwe were told they would be limited to four hours electricity supply a day in a move designed to support the country's wheat farmers, who need power to irrigate their crops.

Economic crisis

Rampant inflation is a clear sign of a deep economic crisis, analysts said. Critics have blamed President Robert Mugabe's policies, particularly the seizure of white-owned farms, for damaging the once self-sufficient country - in the past described as the bread basket of Africa.
President Mugabe, meanwhile, has accused foreign governments of trying to sabotage Zimbabwe's economy and topple him.

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