”We are the only country in the world not at war whose economy is shrinking at an alarming rate. Inflation is running at 620%. Eighty percent of our people live in poverty,” says Tendai Biti of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Gibson Sibanda, deputy president of the MDC, adds that 70% of Zimbabweans are unemployed.
”The manufacturing sector has shrunk by 40% … The situation is very grim,” he says.
Sibanda, along with his colleagues, is in South Africa to draw attention to the plight of Zimbabwe. They are, yet again, calling for pressure to be brought on the government of President Robert Mugabe, which has presided over a political and economic crisis in the country. Since the start of 2000, the country has witnessed two elections that were dogged by violence and allegations of vote rigging.
”Pressure must be brought to bear on Mr Mugabe’s regime to release the population from the reign of terror and economic meltdown,” said Paul Themba Nyathi, MDC secretary for information and publicity.
For several months, South African President Thabo Mbeki has insisted that diplomatic levers are being pulled behind the scenes to persuade Mugabe into negotiating a settlement to the ”meltdown”. On certain occasions, it was even announced that talks were imminent, or already under way.
But earlier this week, Mugabe again took a hard line on negotiations. He accused the MDC of being a front for Western countries that were allegedly seeking to topple his government.
”As long as they are dictated upon from abroad we will find it difficult to talk with them,” he said on Monday in an interview broadcast on state television. For talks to take place, Mugabe added, the MDC would have to cut its alleged ties with Western states.
”President Mbeki is overly anxious to see progress made in Zimbabwe. But his anxiety is not shared by his colleague, Mr Mugabe,” said Nyathi.
”Right now, there is no talk going on in Zimbabwe.”
The 80-year old Mugabe and senior officials from the ruling Zanu-PF party have been barred from travelling to the United States and European Union since 2000, because of concern about the government’s failure to uphold the rule of law in Zimbabwe.
Human rights groups claim that at least 300 people, most of them opposition supporters, have died in Zimbabwe since the start of politically motivated violence in 2000. Thousands of people are also said to have been tortured, and a number of women have alleged rape on the part of security forces and pro-government militias.
Harare denies claims of human rights abuse.
The start of 2000 also saw Zimbabwe’s controversial land-reform programme get under way. Under this programme, the government seized land from thousands of mainly white commercial farmers — apparently for redistribution to landless blacks.
While some peasant farmers have been resettled on confiscated land, a number of farms have also made their way into the hands of government officials and their associates.
In addition the land programme, combined with drought, has led to severe food shortages in Zimbabwe: the United Nations World Food Programme says seven million people — more than half the country’s population — are now in need of food aid.
While in South Africa, the MDC officials also launched the Zimbabwe Institute, a think-tank that will be based in Cape Town, South Africa, for the immediate future. The unfavourable political climate in Zimbabwe prevents the institute from operating there, according to its chairperson, Brian Raftopoulos.
”The launch of the Zimbabwe Institute adds a new dimension to the struggle for social liberation in Zimbabwe and the collective pursuit of social justice,” he said.
”This is a struggle which is taking place within a political environment characterised by unrelenting state repression and a virtual closure of the democratic space.” — IPS