Cathy Buckle's Weekly Letter From Zimbabwe !

Green snake!

Saturday 8th November 2008.

Dear Family and Friends,

Going to visit a friend in trouble this week I saw a very large green snake trying to cross a main road. I was on a service road which ran parallel to the highway and watched in horror at the events that followed. The snake must have already been hit by a car because as hard as it tried, it couldn't get off the road. It raised its head and neck and tried to lunge forward but barely moved at all. Thrashing from side to side, tongue flicking, the snake managed to creep forward a little towards the bush on the roadside but it wasn't enough and freedom and safety was so near and yet so far. Suddenly a stream of cars came by and one hit the snake full on. A gruesome end was inevitable and intervention was impossible. Later, when I passed the same place again, the snake had gone but a handful of people were standing around looking at something on the roadside and the assumption was obvious.

This is exactly how it feels to be in Zimbabwe this November 2008. No matter how hard we try, we just can't move forward. Change and democracy is so near and yet so far away.

People have almost given up hope of ever getting to the other side of the road to freedom and safety in Zimbabwe's journey. It's been eight years since farms were seized, Title Deeds rendered worthless and commercial agriculture destroyed. It's been five years since independent newspapers, radio stations and television channels were closed down. Its been four years since we've been able to buy fuel from filling stations and nearly two years since we've been able to buy food in supermarkets. It's been seven and a half months since we voted to change the government of Zimbabwe. Throughout all these years the assault on opposition politics, private businesses, charities, professionals and all sectors of civil society has been unrelenting as time and time again we've been hit head on but still we struggle desperately to reach the end.

Its a shocking thing to admit but most of us don't know how many Zimbabweans have died in the struggle to change the governance of the country. A conservative estimate must be of at least seven hundred people who have been killed in political violence in the last eight years. Multiple thousands have been arrested and incarcerated for their political associations or for daring to protest. Included amongst these are the outstandingly brave women of WOZA whose leaders Jenni and Magodonga were finally granted bail this week having spent 3 weeks in prison after being arrested during a peaceful demonstration in Bulawayo. We also don't know how many Zimbabweans have had no choice but to leave the country since the year 2000. A conservative estimate must be of at least four million people living in self imposed exile in the region and abroad.

As I write this letter the leaders of the Southern African Development Community are about to meet, again, to discuss Zimbabwe. We wonder if they know that ordinary people here have no food - no maize meal, flour or rice. If they know that it is our main growing season but ordinary people have no seed to plant and no fertilizer for the soil. If they know we are forbidden from drawing enough of our own money out of the bank to buy more than 2 loaves of bread and are having to buy imported food in US dollars and South African Rand. Do they know that hospitals have no medicines and that nurses earn enough to buy only two loaves of bread a month. Do they know that children at most rural government schools have had no lessons for many months and have not written public examinations.

Perhaps the SADC leaders do know all these things and will find the courage to insist at last that the voices of the ordinary people must be heard and respected. We voted in March, chose new leaders and have been writhing on the road for too long.

Until next time, thanks for reading,

love cathy