Cathy Buckle's Weekly Letter From Zimbabwe !

A DAUNTING TASK!

Dear Family and Friends,

What is happening in Kenya is making us very nervous here in Zimbabwe. A
disputed election result; over 800 people killed; 250 thousand displaced
and a stable and prosperous country spiralling into chaos in just a single
month. As the violence and killing has gone on day after day, it soon
became obvious that this wasn't just about a questionable election result,
but about a number of past disputes and old grievances that had never been
resolved. It's also about poverty, unemployment and inequality - all
factors that are predominant in Zimbabwe's chronic situation.

Everyone is asking if what's happened in Kenya could be us in two months
time and as fast as we shake our heads and say, no, that won't happen here
- it's hard to find reasons why not.

For eight years we've been a country in deep turmoil. Opposition MP David
Coltart wrote recently that of the 39 parliamentary election challenges
brought after the June 2000 elections, not one had been concluded by the
courts at the end of that term in 2005. He went on to say that the 2002
legal challenge to Robert Mugabe's election as President was also nowhere
close to being concluded - and this term ends in just two months time in
March 2008.

The election challenges are just the beginning. To this day the
perpetrators of hundreds of cases of rape, murder, abduction, arson and
torture - all committed in the name of political violence since 2000 - have
yet to be brought to justice for their crimes.

Aside from the court challenges, political violence and oppressive
legislation, it is the day to day things that have brought most people to
the end of their tether. Everyone has had enough of living like this: no
food in the shops; negligible production from all those thousands of farms
grabbed by the State; electricity and water cuts that go on for days at a
time, or worse; not being able to get drugs when we are sick; not being
able to afford to send children to school; not even being able to get our
own money out of the bank. In urban areas we are fed up with municipalities
who take our money but do nothing about sewers overflowing onto the
streets, dustbins not collected for many months, drains and roadside
vegetation not cleared, long grass not cut and roads so littered with
potholes and gullies as to be almost unusable.

There are plenty of reasons why one more disputed election may just be one
too many here. This mayhem began in February 2000 when Zanu PF lost a
referendum. They have had eight years of chances just as the people have
had eight years of suffering and decline. Within the next week candidates
for the elections have to be announced and in them the hope for the future
lies and the prevention of another Kenya. A daunting task indeed.

Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy.

Copyright cathy buckle 2nd February 2008 www.cathybuckle.com
My books: "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are available in South Africa
from: books@clarkesbooks.co.za and in the UK from: orders@africabookcentre.com