ZIMBABWE - LETTER FROM THE DIASPORA !

3rd October 2008.

Dear Friends,

On Monday 29th September Robert Mugabe returned, earlier than expected, from his ego-boosting trip to the UN. It's hard to see what else the expensive jaunt for himself, his wife and forty of his closest associates was intended to achieve except to reassure the Old Man that he could still strut his stuff on the biggest stage in the world. During his absence his friend Thabo Mbeki had been forced to resign as President of South Africa. Who would facilitate the talks now we wondered? Some journalists inside the country declared that he had come back early to stall an attempted coup by the military, alarmed that they would lose all their ill-gotten gains if he implemented the deal with the MDC. Whatever the reason, Mugabe declared to the party faithful, all arrayed in shirts and zambias reflecting the Dear Leader's image back at him, that there was no deadlock in the talks. He expected a Unity government to be in place by the end of the week, only four Ministries remained in contention, Mugabe affirmed, "There is no deadlock" and later Chinamasa, his erstwhile Minister of Justice declared that the mediator was not needed. So, despite all Mugabe's praise for Mbeki's mediation at the UN, the former president is no longer needed. Not surprising really!

On that same day, Monday 29th, the women and men of WOZA marched in an entirely peaceful demo through the streets of Bulawayo. 600 people marched, unimpeded by the police who, according to Jenni Williams, the WOZA co-ordinator, simply looked the other way. There were no arrests, no beatings, none of the horrors we have seen before at WOZA demos. Instead, the women and men were allowed to march in support of their demand for the immediate installation of a new government. The marchers stopped at all the major government offices in the city and civil servants rushed out to join them. Bystanders joined in too and shouted 'Well done, well done, good job' and greeted the brave women and men of WOZA with broad smiles. Could there be a more potent demonstration of people's power I thought. What is wrong with Zimbabweans if they cannot see that they have the power in their own hands to end their suffering now?

On that same day, Monday the 29th after Gideon Gono had announced the bank withdrawl maximum was increased to $20.000, there were literally thousands of people on the streets of all the cities and towns standing in snaking, sprawling queues to withdraw their money. My friend in Murehwa told me he got up at 4.30 to get in line outside the bank for his number. 29 it was, and then rushed home to search for something to eat. When he returned, that number had risen to 300! Teachers had come all the way down from Uzumba, about 40 kms away, to collect their salaries, sleeping overnight anywhere they could lay their heads waiting for the banks to open at 8.0'clock. The new notes, $10.000 and $20.000, had not reached many of the banks and at least one building society in Murehwa remained closed because they had no cash at all. It was the same all over the country. Scenes of unbelievable chaos as desperate, hungry people waited to withdraw their own money before the inflation giant swallowed it up. Morgan Tsvangirai visited the queues to see and hear for himself the people's misery. Not so the Zanu PF fat cats; they probably knew that they would have heard loud and clear the people's opinion of them and that was not something they wanted to hear. They live in their own fantasy world where as Mugabe would have it "Nothing has changed."

We are told that he is under huge pressure from his AU colleagues to implement the agreement; we are also told that his top generals and police chief have told him they will resign if he installs Morgan Tsvangirai as Prime Minister. They will not serve under the 'colonial puppet' they tell him. All week long, opinionated commentators have argued that the deal is dead in the water, they have blamed Morgan Tsvangirai for his naivety in signing the Agreement in the first place. The NCA and ZCTU have both said they would take to the streets. But where are they? Nowhere to be seen; words are cheap but what is needed now is action. Why can't they follow WOZA's example? Those brave women and men have shown the whole country that there is nothing to fear but fear itself.

The one pressure Mugabe could not withstand is the pressure of thousands of people telling him to go. If people can take to the city centres to withdraw their money from the banks then what is stopping them from taking a few more steps to become an unstoppable tide that would drive out the dictator forever. They voted against him in March, he knows that, however much he may claim otherwise. What is needed now is one final push, not by the political players but by the ordinary people taking to the streets in their thousands to show the Old Man that we want our country back. 'Now Is the Time' as the anti-apartheid activists used to say. They did it against a much more powerful regime, why can't we?

Friday October 3rd as I write this and still no unity government in place; in fact, no government of any kind for months now. Only when the Zimbabwean people themselves peacefully demonstrate to the country and the world that they want change and they want it now can there be any hope for the future. The situation is too serious to leave to the politicians alone.

Yours in the (continuing) struggle. PH