Crisis in Zimbabwe

I was perhaps too sweeping when I said yesterday that it is not in the personality of Zimbabweans to take to the streets. Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) have made brave peaceful protests as have the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), lawyers and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), Crisis in Zimbabwe etc. They have all been met with brutal attacks by police.

On the whole, though, Zimbweans do not see open protest as an option. We see it as an excuse for further crackdowns and the instilling of fear. We have been in a desperate situation for some time now and whenever there is a crisis, we just make a plan. That's what Zimbabweans do: they make a plan.

The stay-away approach was reasonably effective at one stage but it did nothing to change the situation so we gave up on it. I went to the shops yesterday and bought a bottle of gin - I needed it!

NGOs have held meetings over many years and discussed the question of popular uprisings. But NGO personnel are not the ones who are going to lead the action: we are too comfortable with our Pajeros and cellphones and US dollar salaries. We are waiting for the ordinary person in the street to take the lead which may be selfish but is the reality.

So my reasoning is that why should this time be any different? It could be the straw that breaks the camel's back but why was it not Murambatsvina or the price blitz which very seriously affected people's lives adversely?

In the eighties I had told an old friend of mine that South Africa would be free by the end of the century and she hadn't believed me. I proved to be right by about four years because I knew the South African government would have to give in in order to save the country from ruin.

Treating me as a trustworthy soothsayer, my friend asked me in around 2000 when it was all going to end in Zimbabwe. I told her that we would first have to become like Mozambique. I said there would have to be no electricity, no water, no fuel, virtually no roads and no food. The entire infrastructure would first have to grind to a halt so that the lies would no longer be believed. Then we would vote ...!

We are lucky to have electricity at the office today but there was no power or water when I left home. I struggle to buy food and driving to work is becoming a nightmare because the potholes have become ditches and most of the traffic lights don't work. The infrastructure has ground to a halt. The only reason why anything is standing is because it hasn't yet fallen down.

So we have reached the situation that Mozambique once found itself in at the height of a bloody civil war. We voted. Now what?

We have looked to SADC but the only time SADC is going to take any action is when the situation starts seriously to hit their pockets and I mean individuals personally and not nations as a whole. It would make them squeal neocolonialism but it is the only way to go. I wonder who could make that happen?