by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

In the early hours of April 25th, Tariro Gweru and her husband Wellington awoke to a deafening knock on their bedroom hut. Wellington says he identified the frantic voices of his two friends, Simon Takavada and Misheck Dzikamai, got up and quickly opened the door.

As his two friends made their way breathlessly into his house, Wellington knew there was something seriously wrong. Simon and Misheck indeed had bad news: while coming home after having a beer, the two spotted trucks packed with ZANU PF youths, war veterans and soldiers making their way to their village.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

"The moment the people stop supporting you, that's the moment you should quit politics."

These were the seemingly reasonable and even wise words President Robert Mugabe used in the Highfield suburb of Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, when he cast his vote on March 29th. He was responding to a journalist who asked whether he would step down in the event of defeat in the presidential election. Until Saturday it looked as if Mugabe might have spoken too soon.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

On Saturday, March 29th, I was one of the millions of Zimbabweans who went to the polls to choose a new president. I cast my vote to choose both a lower and upper house of assembly representative in parliament and a councilor in my constituency.

• MDC opposition, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, claims victory in Zimbabwe's presidential election. Photograph courtesy of the Movement for Democratic Change. •

They say “your vote is secret” but mine is not: I went and voted President Robert Mugabe and his cronies out of power. I believe their time is up -- they have done enough damage to our lives. This is why I woke up at 5am on Saturday morning to vote, just like many other disheartened Zimbabweans who are ready for change. I was determined to vote dictatorship and tyranny out.

And, so far it appears we have succeeded.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

Tinashe Choruma and his wife Irene live in the suburb of Epworth here in the capital, Harare, where many of city's poor reside. The housing is poorly constructed - some homes are made from mud and pole, with no clean water or sanitation services. The suburb could very much pass as a shanty town.

Tinashe came to the city in 2000 from rural Murehwa to take up a job as a librarian; he was staying with his wife and their two children in the high-density suburb of Glen View. But after Robert Mugabe ordered all "illegal" houses to be destroyed during Operation Murambatsvina, the backyard cottage he used to call home was destroyed. He was left homeless.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

On March 11th, 2007, 64 year old Sekai Holland woke up unusually early. She was restless and anxious because of the scheduled protests that her party was going to go ahead with against the police's will. She knew it was going to get nasty.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

In my last article I wrote that the situation here is so dire that many Zimbabweans, including myself, can now only pray for divine intervention to rid us of this dictator, Robert Mugabe.

Based on events that are currently unfolding, I think God may be answering our prayers in a way that we couldn’t have ever imagined!

I reported previously that by using former war veterans to help him garner support, Mugabe was "endorsed" as the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front’s (ZANU PF) candidate for the harmonized March elections.

Mugabe joined the presidential and parliamentary elections through a constitutional amendment. In previous years these two elections were held two years apart. When I vote in March I will drop two ballot papers: one for president and one for a legislator or member of parliament.

The “harmonization” is part of Mugabe’s exit plan; after these elections are held simultaneously, he can elect his trusted party members into ministerial posts and then retire. By doing so, Mugabe will have ensured that he will not be prosecuted for crimes against humanity.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

In Zimbabwe 2007 closed on a very sad note. December was a very eventful month: it was President Mugabe’s busiest and most desperate month, as he fought to stamp out the criticism of his leadership arising even from within his own party, in order to cling to power.

• In a desperate bid to maintain power, Mugabe coordinated a massive march aimed at intimidating his rivals. Photograph by Sibongile Mlilo. •

It required an “extraordinary special congress” in order for Mugabe to be able to be chosen to stand in the March 2008 election; however some within the party ranks were opposed to Mugabe’s re-election, while others supported his appointment.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

On October 23rd, I sent my young sister Farai off to the Republic of South Africa (RSA) to seek employment. In 2005 she graduated from the University of Zimbabwe with a BSc Honors in Information Technology, and yet she never managed to find any paid employment in this field (save for a one-year unpaid industrial internship she completed as part of her four-year training).

• As capable professionals leave Zimbabwe in search of a livable wage, industry and the economy continue to crumble. Photograph by Gary Bembridge. •

But of course the policies of our despotic leader, Robert Mugabe, meant there would be a different future in store for her. With unemployment levels at a staggering 80 percent (although the government continues to insist preposterously that unemployment is at 9 percent) my sister's future was doomed even before she got her degree.

By Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

I am always left cursing and depressed and angry after covering assignments where I meet with People Living With HIV and AIDS. (We call them PLWAs here.)

• Weighing only 90 pounds when she began antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, this woman has benefitted greatly from both the New Life Support Group as well as ARVs. She now weighs a healthy 132 pounds. Photograph courtesy of PSI-Zimbabwe. •

I know almost everyone's "story", including deep secrets they say they never have and never will tell anyone else. I am invited to their private family parties; they ask me to cover their support group functions. They even phone to update me on their health; when they are too sick to call me, they ask their relatives or spouses to do it on their behalf.

I always listen, comfort, offer advice and help where I can; I have become very close to many people affected by AIDS. I appreciate the fact that they trust me that much. And I love talking to them. But when these " friends" confide in me, they usually have problems and depressing news.

Often I am left stressed, because I cannot help. This special community of friends all know I have no financial means to help them, being the underpaid journalist that I am. They know that I, too, struggle to make ends meet in this harsh economic environment that is Zimbabwe.

What is my life like? I have chosen to work for the so-called independent press. Supposedly I am playing a very crucial part in writing the history of Zimbabwe. Yet I live on less than $0.43 USD a day! Here is how I calculate this $0.43 USD cents per day: it’s very simple. I currently earn a salary of Z$13 million a month. When divided by 30 days in a month, this means that I earn $43 USD per month!

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

“The stories we listened to made us bleed inside, the genital wounds we later had to help nurse evoked us, the long distances we traveled every day and night to educate girls on their rights made us strong, the songs of joy and sorrow the girls sang made us more passionate, everything to do with girlhood and the fact that we were there for the girls pushed us to do even more and more from the heart, soul, mind and all. The fact that we finally claimed the girls' spaces where the girls now live and develop free of violence makes it imperative that we share these great tidings” - GCN Director and Founder Betty Makoni

• Betty Makoni has led thousands of girls towards a brighter future.
Photograph courtesy of GCN •

When I first heard Betty speak back then, I immediately fell in love with her. This woman spoke with so much passion and emotion about the issue of rape and abuse of young girls. She was equally disturbed by girls’ general lack of opportunities in life when compared with those given to boys.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

Most of us here in Zimbabwe thought he was joking when we first heard President Robert Mugabe tell the public that his government was going to "pounce on greedy businesspeople" because they were increasing the prices of goods by the day to deliberately fuel inflation.

• Mugabe's inflation control scheme has left Zimbabwe's shelves empty as retailers can't afford to restock
their plundered goods.
Photograph by Anthony Easton. •

On that day in June, Mugabe was speaking on national television at a state function. We all knew his anger and fury had been caused by the then US ambassador to Zimbabwe, Christopher Dell.

In an interview with Britain's Guardian Newspaper, Dell had predicted that Zimbabwe's inflation would reach 1.5 million percent by the end of 2007 and that Mugabe's government was "likely to inflict regime change against itself through mismanaging the economy."

Dell also predicted that hunger would lead the people of Zimbabwe to forcibly remove Mugabe from power. He was quoted as saying:

"Things have reached a critical point. I believe the excitement will come in a matter of months, if not weeks. The Mugabe government is reaching end game, it is running out of options. By carrying out disastrous economic policies, the Mugabe government is committing regime change upon itself."

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

As I write this piece, a soldier is in critical condition at the army hospital after residents from the notorious suburb, Mufakose attacked him and three of his colleagues for "harassing innocent civilians". It’s another manifestation of what everyone in this country knows: Robert Mugabe has for all intents and purposes succeeded in turning the Zimbabwean army and police against their own people. Effectively, the police and the military have become extensions of his arms.

• Dzivarasekwa residents step over raw sewage leaking from unrepaired pipes. Photograph by the Combined Harare Residents Association. •

The police and army attack women and children who sell their wares to earn a living. Confiscating their goods, they charge that the women are conducting businesses in "undesignated" locations, yet the government destroyed these "legal" vending areas during Operation Murambatsvina! (To find out more, read Constance's article on Operation Murambatsvina)

The police and army have been known to disrupt demonstrations and protests - they are not ashamed to even beat up women with children on their backs. The unlucky ones arrested at these demonstrations are denied food and water, medical care and access to legal representation. When human rights lawyers seek their release, they are either chased away from the police stations or threatened with arrest themselves.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

• Harare, Zimbabwe.
Photograph by Gary Bembridge. •

The new legislation grants the president the right to intercept any communications he considers necessary to protect "the interests of national security or the maintenance of law and order".

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

Hopefully, readers may remember the piece I wrote for The WIP in May 2007 about prominent Zimbabwean playwright Cont Mhlanga, and the premiere of his most recent and controversial play yet, “The Good President.” The play had opened in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital and largest city, on April 12, to good crowds. While theatre buffs praised it as a highly entertaining play which was admirable for calling for the society to take the moral high ground, its plot certainly provoked serious debate.

To quote myself from the May article, the play kicks off with a scene in a police station where two police officers are assaulting the leader of an opposition party, acted by a look-alike of Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of Zimbabwe’s strongest opposition, Movement for Democratic Change.

In addition to beating him up, they search his pockets and steal all his money and leave him for dead. And it goes on from there.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

In 2003, gender activists from the Zimbabwe Women Writers group published a book entitled A Tragedy of Lives: Women in Prison in Zimbabwe. It revealed shocking human rights abuses in the country’s prison system.

Irene Staunton, publisher of the Weaver Press of Zimbabwe, not only published but also co-edited the book with Chiedza Musengezi, a founding member and director of Zimbabwe Women Writers. (Musengezi also co-edited other compilations of women’s voices, such as Women of Resilience and Women Writing Africa.)

The distinguished Weaver Press, which publishes books from and about southern Africa on political and social history, the environment, media issues, and women’s and children’s rights, among other things, works closely with the award-winning James Currey Publishers in the UK. Currey Publishers won the 2000 American Sociological Association’s Special Achievement Award for “the most extensive and impressive Africanist list in print.” In short, the Weaver Press keeps good company.

The Zimbabwe Women Writers expected that once A Tragedy of Lives: Women in Prison in Zimbabwe was published, it would cause a huge outcry that would surely result in prison reform. But nothing of the sort happened. The book wasn’t even reviewed, because newspaper publishers feared political prosecution because the findings in the book were so sensitive.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

• A woman cries amongst her possessions. Photograph by Fidelis Zvomuya. •

At just about this time of year in 2005, I traveled to Bindura on assignment to observe first-hand the devastating effects of Robert Mugabe’s Operation Murambatsvina. Officially known as “Operation Restore Order,” but directly translated as “Operation Drive Out the Filth,” it wreaked havoc, leaving millions of the urban and rural poor homeless or destitute.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

“When elephants fight, it is the grass which suffers.” – African Proverb

When this program was launched, the Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr David Parirenyatwa, openly admitted that his government had no resources to expand. Rather, Zimbabwe was counting on the assistance of the international donor community to provide more people with the ARV treatment.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

On March 30, 2007 Zimbabwean journalists here woke up to sad and disturbing news: Edward Chikomba, a former cameraman with the government-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (the country’s only television station), had been abducted from his home by state security agents.

The circumstances of his abduction were chilling. According to his brother, unknown assailants had arrived at the journalist’s house in the capital, Harare, the day before, on March 29. They hit him savagely on the mouth with rifle butts in full view of neighbors, then threw him into an unmarked vehicle. In a desperate attempt to save him, Edward’s brother ran after the vehicle, but he could not catch it, stumbled and fell hard on the tarmac.

We had every reason to worry about Chikomba’s safety. Edward’s abduction occurred just two weeks after police had disrupted a scheduled prayer meeting organized by a Christian opposition organization known as the Save Zimbabwe Campaign in Harare.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

Zimbabwean theatre lovers have had something to talk about for the past two weeks. Cont Mhlanga's riveting new play, The Good President, premiered here in Harare, Zimbabwe, on April 12.

This politically charged satire, written and directed by Zimbabwe's most controversial playwright, summarizes the country’s 30 years against British colonial rule, focusing specifically on events leading to Zimbabwe's independence. It goes on to highlight what has happened in the 27 years since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980. All in one tight hour of compelling action.

The play kicks off with a scene in a police station where two police officers are assaulting the leader of an opposition party, acted by a look-alike of Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of Zimbabwe’s strongest opposition, Movement for Democratic Change.

In addition to beating him up, they search his pockets and steal all his money and leave him for dead. One of the police officers, Wangu, who had been shown in a previous scene sadly telling his girlfriend that he had no money to meet her demands, is suddenly ready to finance all of her requests.

These events bounce back to haunt Wangu when his grandmother comes to the city for an eye treatment. In one of their many conversations, Wangu is told that his father, himself a former leader of the opposition, was murdered by state agents during the 1983 Gukurahundi, the civil war that erupted in Zimbabwe soon after independence between two ethnic groups—the Shona and the Ndebele.