Cathy Buckle's Weekly Letter From Zimbabwe

VACATE THOSE FARMS!

Dear Family and Friends,

I am writing this letter on the 9th anniversary of the commencement of farm seizures in Zimbabwe. I am also writing this letter on the day when Mr Mugabe's 85th birthday party is being held in Chinhoyi.

It is hot and humid day during which I have been forced to fill and carry buckets of water into my urban home so as to flush toilets, wash dishes and bath. Taps have been dry in the whole town for a couple of days and none have been spared including schools, hospitals, an orphanage, old age home, residences and businesses.

Television coverage of the birthday party began when Mr Mugabe's speech was already well underway in the afternoon. A long, pale, slate coloured tent adorned with sweeping sashes of golden yellow cloth stood in the fields of the Chinhoyi University. A red carpet lay in an avenue through the rough cut grass. Dignitaries and officials sat in the tent flicking paper fans while everyone else sat on the ground a respectable distance away in the baking sun.

Wearing a dark suit and tie and leaning on a red, fabric covered podium Mr Mugabe spoke at length and in Shona about the 2008 elections. Suddenly straightening up 40 minutes later Mr Mugabe said: "I want to say this in English." A murmured titter of life ran through the crowd. Mr Mugabe said that there were farms in Mashonaland East, West, Central and in other areas around the country which had been properly designated in accordance with the Land Acquisition Act and were now to be taken.
"Let not the original owners of the farms refuse to vacate those farms," he said. "They must vacate those farms," he repeated his words three times.

This then was Mr Mugabe's 85th birthday present to the starving people of Zimbabwe, seven million of whom are receiving international food aid. While more than half the population of the country eat donated food, the remaining commercial farmers are ordered to vacate land because of the colour of their skin. As for the SADC land tribunal ruling protecting Zimbabwean farmers, Mr Mugabe said: "that's nonsense, absolute nonsense; we have courts here that can determine the rights of our people."

As deep purple clouds turned black over my home town and thunder rumbled I abandoned the birthday speech for a few minutes to rush outside with tins, buckets and plastic baths to catch rain water. Water for cooking, cleaning and washing.

When I came back inside live coverage showed the birthday cake being cut. It apparently weighed 85 kilograms and was being served by waiters wearing white gloves. Their uniforms were white too, trimmed in navy blue at shoulder, collar and cuff. Other reports told of extravagant menus, lavish foodstuffs and imported drinks for the 85th birthday event. It is all so remote and removed from the hunger, disease, poverty and water collection of our daily lives that we, or they, may as well be in another country.

Until next week, thanks for reading and for the overwhelming support for my new book,
love cathy.