Andrew Meldrum

Street vendors, lawyers, restaurant staff, doctors, gardeners and office accountants — all are among a growing number of Zimbabweans who have fled the chaos of their country for refuge in South Africa. Virtually all agree that, although they love Zimbabwe, they do not want to return until conditions improve.

The blaze of publicity surrounding Madonna’s whirlwind adoption of a 13-month-old Malawian boy and her plans to create a facility to care for 4 000 orphans have raised deeper questions about how best to care for Africa’s vulnerable children. By 2010, there will be 18-million African children who will have lost at least one parent to Aids, according to estimates by the United Nations.

Andrew Meldrum reported from Zimbabwe for 23 years. On May 16 he was forcibly deported. He describes how a country that offered so much hope to Africa became a pariah nation.
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<li><a class="standardtextsmall" href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=14652">Dissent is needed</a>
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<li><a class="standardtextsmall" href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=14675">Zim lawyer pushes for journalist’s return</a>

Gripped by severe food shortages, with a potentially vast famine looming, the Zimbabwean authorities have rejected a United States government donation of 10 000 tonnes of maize, worth $6-million, because it has not been certified as free from genetic modification.