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| author/source:Financial Mail (SA) |
| published:Thu 14-Mar-2002 |
| posted on this site:Sun 17-Mar-2002 |
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| Article Type : News |
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| It is not fair that Zimbabweans, who paid a heavy price to hold their first democratic elections in 1980, should pay so dearly 22 years later |
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Comment
By Elinor Sisulu
The real battle in the Zimbabwean elections was not between President Robert Mugabe and his opponent Morgan Tsvangirai. The real battle was about democracy. Distinguished figures in our own country, and continent, and even further afield may well make lofty pronouncements on the triumph of democracy. Observer teams may pronounce the elections free and fair, as may some voters. “Zimbabwe is a democratic country,” declared Bulawayo voter Jabulani Sibanda on the eve of the election. “Democracy is before, during and after the elections.” Ironically, Sibanda is a staunch member of Zanu PF, the party that has ensured that the process has been anything but free and fair.
It has not been free and fair for the judiciary who, since the land invasions began a year ago, have been continuously threatened and harassed by Zanu PF war veterans. It has been anything but free and fair for the judges whom government pressured to resign. It has not been free and fair for members of the police who were told they would lose their jobs if they supported the MDC and who have been forced to compromise their professional integrity by following “orders from above” that they should not attend to MDC complaints. It has not been free and fair for Tapiwa Matunya, who had his identity document confiscated by the police at a roadblock. Thousands of Zimbabweans have had their IDs taken away in a similar fashion, by police, the army or Zanu PF militants. Without their IDs they cannot vote.
It has not been free and fair for Linda Moyo, who was beaten on her genitals by Zanu-PF youths “so that she does not give birth to MDC supporters”. Even her exalted status as MDC member of parliament for Mutasa did not protect Evelyn Masaite from a severe beating, just two days before the election. Masaite was investigating a case in which 10 MDC polling agents were arrested. She was assaulted at Ruda police station in Honde Valley. It has not been free and fair for tens of thousands of ordinary Zimbabweans who have had to flee the violence and intimidation of the 9 000-strong Zanu PF militia. It has not been a free and fair process for Sitshengisiwe Mpofu, Agnes Dube and David Nyoni, whose rural homesteads in St Peter’s village in Matabeleland were torched by Zanu PF militants. This was their punishment for not attending Mugabe’s campaign rally in Bulawayo. Anna Sibanda, of the same village, was in her hut with her one-month-old-baby Happiness when it was set alight. She just managed to escape with her baby. The Midzi family of Bindura was less fortunate. Their son was killed for campaigning for the MDC. Their uncle was abducted and murdered for attending the funeral. After death threats forced the family to flee to Harare their house was ransacked and occupied by Zanu PF supporters.
It has not been fair that there has been a lack of moral condemnation from the governments of the region and regional institutions like the Southern African Development Community and the Organisation of African Unity. It has not been fair that observers have talked about “violence on both sides”. Of the 91 cases of torture, violence and intimidation recorded in the Zimbabwean Human Rights NGO Forum report, MDC supporters were identified as perpetrators in five cases, and arrests were made in three of those. No arrests were made in more than 70 human rights violations attributed to Zanu PF. Clashes between members of rival political organisations are one thing; state-organised violence in which trained militia, the police and the army are involved is quite another.
There are those in this region who dismiss the fuss over the violence. What are 150 lives lost and a few hundred tortured in the greater scheme of things? After all, more than 1 000 people died in the 1994 election in SA, but that election was still considered fair. What is happening in Zimbabwe “is a Sunday school picnic compared to what happened in East Timor”, noted one SA election observer. The first democratic elections in SA and East Timor were the culmination of protracted and bitter struggles and violence was to be expected in that context. It is not fair that Zimbabweans, who paid a heavy price to hold their first democratic elections in 1980, should pay so dearly 22 years later. There is no reason one single Zimbabwean should have died in the past two elections. It makes a mockery of the notion of democracy. The concept of a free and fair election has been stretched so far that for many Zimbabweans it has lost all meaning. That is why we hope and pray, with every fibre of our being, that tomorrow will be another country.
Born in Zimbabwe, Elinor Sisulu worked for the Zimbabwean government in the early eighties. An academic and writer, she published an award-winning children’s book, When Gogo Went to Vote, in 1994, and is currently working on the authorised biography of ANC leaders Walter and Albertina Sisulu.
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