Today Morgan Tsvangirai announced that he would pull out of the run off for Zimbabwean presidential race. I received an sms this afternoon and was numb. What now? Over the last days I had almost no sleep, forgot about breakfast, lunch and dinner to try and arrange all the last minute scenario, media coverage and getting resources to react to the various possible election outcomes. Despite all the news of torture, de emails and other messages that we received “my brother was badly beaten up in our rural home yesterday”, “four of our comrades were found dead” and despite the fact that we knew that this run-off would be stolen, Morgan’s dedication could make me believe that – even if I don’t think that MDC is necessarily The Answer for Zimbabwe – another Zimbabwe is possible. Now I wonder when this time might come.
Saturday night I went out with some news people from the Netherlands to the “make some noise for Zimbabwe” concert by “Comrade Fatso”, his band and slam poets play and fight for a free Zimbabwe. Last time I saw Fatso was in Harare, almost two months ago. That time they played the day before the first election round. Their last tune finished with “Freedom – take it to the streets” – two months ago it was inspiring; you could almost smell the possibility for freedom in the air. The café was going crazy, everyone was dancing or singing. This time around the song kept a bitter taste. They did not play in Zimbabwe but in Johannesburg where I met up with quite a lot of people who’d fled Zimbabwe. Lawyers, womenrightsactivists. One of them told me, after I had picked him up from the airport how the Central intelligence officers were looking for him and about the torture “Pascal, baby’s – they torture baby’s in front of their mothers so they say where the men are. The women crying “I don’t know where they are””. The kids are dead he told me.
Tendai Biti, the Secretary General of the MDC returned to Zimbabwe teruggekeerd and has been arrested for “treason”. Jenni Williams en Magodonga Mahlangu, womenactivists are in prison for 4 weeks now for having “intended to provoke public violence”. Every morning I am wondering if I’ll get an sms telling me they’re dead too.
Tonight President Mbeki said on television ““I would hope that the leadership would still be open to a process which would result in them coming to some agreement about what happens to their country, and most certainly it’s what we would try to encourage”. With one of the MDC leaders in prison.. Is this what he then calls “African solutions for African problems”?
