Zimbabwe, once the second largest industrial power in Africa and known as the “bread basket” of Southern Africa for its prodigious agricultural production, is now plagued not only by an enduring economic collapse and widespread hunger for millions, but by a very serious political crisis. With an annual inflation rate of well over 100,000 percent, the highest in the world, the economic state of Zimbabwe is simply surreal. Shelves in stores are empty and basic necessities, when found on the black market, are simply unaffordable for the majority of people. More than 25 percent of Zimbabwe’s 12 million people have fled the country for attempts at a better life in Britain, Botswana, South Africa and Zambia. The health care system, once among the very best in Africa, has completely collapsed. Except for the rich, most of whom have private clinics for basic levels of care and afford to fly out of the country for serious care, the medicine and the doctors available for average Zimbabweans are spare. The life expectancy of adult Zimbabweans is now 37 years, the lowest in the world. Combined with the AIDS pandemic killing more than 1,500 people each week, and nearly half the population receiving international food aid, life for Zimbabweans is brutally difficult. Yet, the people have suffered peacefully, in relative silence, waiting for the opportunity to exercise their rights to choose a leader with the democratic process. The opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), campaigned for free and fair elections, facing great difficulty and harassment from police and political thugs. A scheduled, national election for the presidency and legislatures was held on March 29, 2008. The current president, 84-year old Robert Mugabe, has been in office for 28 years, spending his first seven as Prime Minister prior to becoming president. Although he is known as the “Liberator from Colonial Rule,” Mugabe has mismanaged a once prosperous, dynamic and beautiful country, bringing Zimbabwe to its current state through disastrous government policies, corruption, violence and intimidation. He has used his position to enrich himself, his close supporters and high government, army and police officials. Most people had hopes that the elections, if free and fair, might bring about change. More than two million Zimbabweans lined up peacefully to cast their votes, as early as 6:00 a.m. At closing time, the totals of votes of each individual polling station throughout the country were posted on the outside of each polling place. Over the next 14 days, the official Zimbabwe government Electoral Commission slowly released the official tallies from the parliamentary elections, but not the presidential elections, though the results that were released did make clear that President Mugabe’s political party had lost its majority in Parliament. The reluctance of the government to release the results, and its lack of transparency, hints strongly that something shocking and unpalatable to the ruling powers has occurred with the election of the president. Three days after the elections, the MDC declared victory on the basis of digital photographs it took of the results posted at each polling station throughout the country. President Mugabe, with the staunch support of his army and police commanders, along with his cabinet ministers, party members and other supporters have taken a hard line in refusing to allow release of any presidential election results. The Zimbabwe Government holds that these results are a matter of national security. It speaks of contesting the results and calls for a recount, all without releasing any details or numbers of the Presidential election results. Meanwhile, there are credible, detailed reports that reprisal attacks on opposition supporters, and repressive and intimidation activities by the army, allies and youth militia organized by the President and his party have begun around the country. Zimbabweans are in an anxious, somewhat fearful mood, waiting for the situation to be clarified and stabilized. Rumors abound. There is talk of a possible runoff between Mugabe and the opposition party. There is talk of the imposition of martial law. These tactics by the president are very familiar to Zimbabweans after 28 years. The people clearly voted for change and want the man who has led Zimbabwe since independence from Great Britain, in 1980, to step down. They want to give someone else a chance to make life better than the way it has become. The Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, has called for the full release of the election results, as has Great Britain, the United States and the European Union. The future of Zimbabwe seems very uncertain. With the denial strategy of the old regime, Zimbabwe can only look forward to a prolonged period of more suffering. The dramatic and tragic decline of such a once prosperous country is detrimental to, and a drain on, the Southern African region, yet almost no African leaders have spoken critically about the elections in Zimbabwe or of Robert Mugabe. There have been no condemnations by African leaders concerning his mismanagement or his denial of the democratic rights of the Zimbabwe people. Only the President of Zambia has seen fit to call for an emergency meeting of the leaders of Southern African states on the election crisis situation in Zimbabwe. The President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, has stated that there is “no crisis” in Zimbabwe, and that the people should be “patient.” Was Thabo Mbeki content to be “patient” when apartheid was the rule of law in South Africa? Did he counsel the people of South Africa to be “patient” during the apartheid regimes? ( This is the same leader who at one time made a public statement disclosing he personally knew no one with AIDS in South Africa, in a country where it is estimated 20 percent of the population is infected with HIV/AIDS.) This inaction leads one to the following question: What criteria are required for outside assistance to be given to people who are suffering with malnutrition, abuse, assaults, starvation and lack of basic human rights? In Asia and South America, indeed around the globe, there are countries where human rights are said to be systematically violated. How is it that the world can stand around and simply watch these crimes against humanity? In Darfur, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe, human rights are being violated on a massive scale, daily, for years. At what point should the world feel a need to intervene? At what point does the world look onto suffering and say “Enough!” Krystle Countee is a New Upper from Zimbabwe.
