Some of you may know I was lucky enough to spend part of my childhood growing up in Harare, Zimbabwe. The time I enjoyed there has made me even more angry about the decline of the country that was once known as the ‘bread basket of Africa’.
This is a whistlestop tour, just to pull together some good resources and hopefully get you up to speed with the key factors that have led to the current power-sharing stalemate. I’m hoping to go into a bit more detail on some more positive elements of how we can help.
Farming Collapse
Don’t get me wrong, when properly exercised, land reform is a fundamentally sound principle. Where land was unlawfully taken by the colonial white settlers in Zimbabwe, absolutely it must be reapportioned to those from whom it was taken.
Reports have shown that as few as four and a half thousand white farmers owned up to 32% of some of Zimbabwe’s most fertile land and had the pegging of land been properly coordinated to avoid the loss of jobs and the closure of some of the most productive farms in southern Africa, I’m sure I could sympathise.
But to drive north out of Harare on my last visit in 2006 and see a tobacco farmer close to tears at the limp, yellowed crops that once stood twice the height, and ten grain silos which could hold enough food for most of Zimbabwe and some of its neighbours empty and decaying, really drove it home to me that this was such a short-sighted shambles.
Super farms, generating hundreds, even thousands of jobs and millions of tonnes of food a year, split into 1/2Ha plots for individual claimants to farm for only themselves and their family is absolutely heart breaking. Unemployment has skyrocketed and through economic mismanagement inflation has led to stores being unable to stock food as they can’t afford to sell it at government-stipulated prices, so there is none.
These shortages were further exacerbated by Operation Murambatsvina which Bob used to drive urban hubs back out into the rural areas that he finds easier to control with the food supplies.
Nice to see that Bob’s downsizing whilst the country slips further into famine and a cholera epidemic.
Rising Violence
Reports of violence are many and often, MDC supporters, members and leaders are often arrested, beaten and intimidated, violence between rival factions of the current ruling ZANU-PF party is just as common and increasing recently at an alarming rate.
Current Political Stalemate
Power sharing is the main focus of most of Zimbabwe’s international coverage, but unfortunatley Mugabe shows no sign of relenting key cabinet positions, thestory has been the same for months now. Until governments like South Africa start to condemn this crisis and step in, we can only concentrate on helping those affected.
Anyway, enough of the moaning and onto the useful stuff.
How can you help?
Many charities are lined up to help Zimbabwe (i’ve listed a few in the resources section) but personally I feel like the one thing we should be ensuring is that safety and education of Zimbabwe’s youngsters. Once the most educated state in Africa, education is now one of the scarcest resources.
So if you have anything at all that would be useful for children’s schooling; books, clothes, CDs and toys, please send them to:
THE PASTOR
RICHARD MUPASU
P.O.BAG 1015
MUDZI
ZIMBABWE
More information here (they’re even looking for bras!)
Resources
So I’ll round up with some links to help those of you interested in what must be one of the most avoidable humanitarian crises in modern history:
http://www.zimbabwesituation.com – Daily news digest from local, neighbouring and international press.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/africa/2000/zimbabwe/ – BBC’s Zimbabwe: In depth section is excellent
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/oxfam_in_action/where_we_work/zimbabwe.html – Oxfam helping out with the cholera epidemic
http://www.zbf.org.uk/ – Zimbabwe benefit foundation
http://www.justgiving.com/hiz – Just giving page for a housing project