Anger and excitement
Yesterday I received this on the ground report from Gerry Whitehead in Chiredzi. It makes for some interesting reading.
Husband and wife still prisoners
On Saturday I visited Digby and Jess Nesbitt who still cannot leave their home on their cane farm, this is because they know that if they do go into Chiredzi or visit friends, they will not be allowed back to their home and will loose all their possessions. Digby and Jess are looking stressed but are hopeful that the coming elections will be positive and bring the changes required to save Zimbabwe.Shelves empty and no meal
The shelves are still empty in the supermarkets and there has been no meal (the staple diet) available for several weeks now, if you have a lot of money you are able sometimes to buy grain at $150 million a bucket from the councilors who get it from the Grain Marketing Board which is controlled by the ZANU PF government. The food situation for the poor is getting very serious here now.The poor sick
Again it is the poor people who get sick first because they are stressed and undernourished. They now get turned back from the Chiredzi hospital because there is no medicine and no government doctors, there are however a few private doctors, but they are far too expensive for these unfortunates. The local chemists in Chiredzi do have some medicines but again much too expensive, so the poor are left to suffer and die. It seems that no one cares, certainly the ZPF government of Zimbabwe does not.Anger and excitement
It’s hard to find anybody in the Lowveld who is not angry with the ZANU PF party who rule Zimbabwe, everybody is suffering, and those who are lucky enough to have employment are forced to support relatives in the stricken communal areas. Mugabe will only find some support in the Lowveld from those that he has bought with farms and even many of those are saying that they will not vote. Some say that they will vote for Simba Makoni for president, I have also had several well known ZANU PF recipients of farms come to my office and admit the situation cannot carry on like this and so will vote Morgan Tsvangarai. Last week I went into the Chiredzi South Communal areas to do some ground work for the elections and met many people who are A1 settlers on farms. They are admitting that the whole land issue has been handled badly and the only way out now is to vote for the MDC. Simba Makoni is not known here and is being described as a ZANU PF stooge.In general, people are excited about the coming elections as they give them hope! I cannot see Mugabe even being able to rig the elections in these areas; the people seem to be mobilizing against this government just like they did for Mugabe when they, the people invaded the farms. The ZPF government has saturated the area with troops who are supposed to be on leave but have been told to force the people to vote Mugabe, but it seems that the troops in these areas are not very enthusiastic. A few weeks ago we did have a General arrive at Chikombedzi and threaten people at a meeting saying that if an opposition party won there would be war like they have never seen.
I used to have to work in these areas under the cover of darkness but now it seems that I am able to work in daylight and the people are waving at me.