Dear Readers This is a well written article on Today’s election The whites living here have always known the potential of this country but stymied always by Mugabe and his bunch of thieves which also included some whites, Alan Paton , a famous South African Author wrote a book a long time ago called “Cry the Beloved Country” and this has over the last years applied to Zimbabwe, as the author says it will take some decades to rectify Mugabe’s reign and unfortunately some of us will have gone already to the other world..Zimbabwe is also the story of the rest of Africa where Greed has always taken predominance over good Governmence Bloodshed has always accompanied political change in Zimbabwe, so elections should not be hopeful events in this country. And yet, somehow, they always are. Tens of thousands of people duly gathered in Harare this week for tumultuous rallies addressed by President Robert Mugabe and his leading opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai. When voting starts tomorrow, many Zimbabweans will queue at polling stations and convince themselves – despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary – that a genuine contest with an uncertain outcome is taking place, not a cynical sham designed only to give Mr Mugabe’s dominance a veneer of legitimacy. In Harare, at least, people discuss politics and wear their party colours without fear of arrest or intimidation – and the word “change” is on everyone’s lips. “Look at these crowds,” said one man waving the red flag of Mr Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) at the party’s final rally. “Tell them out there about what you saw here, about how many of us want change.” Sadly, in all likelihood, Zimbabweans will be disappointed once again. Mr Tsvangirai’s aides are optimistically predicting that their man will win as much as 78 per cent of the vote; yet in the same breath, they say the voters’ roll has been shamelessly manipulated. During his 33-year rule, Mr Mugabe has staged one compromised and often bloodstained election after another. Leopards of his 89-year-old vintage do not change their spots, although he called a rare press conference yesterday to promise that he would leave office if defeated, saying: “If you lose, you must surrender.” It is just possible that Mr Tsvangirai’s supporters will upset every calculation by voting in sufficiently immense numbers to swamp any possible system of rigging. But another MDC candidate, Welshman Ncube, is also standing for the presidency: his presence will split the anti-Mugabe vote. The Bulawayo people always have to be different. Western diplomats in Harare privately predict a rigged victory for the old president. One said that while Mr Mugabe knew his African allies would be unwilling to tolerate a win procured by violence, they would put up with one secured by technical means. Hence the apparent effort to pad out the voters’ roll with fake names, in order to create room for rigging. So unless a Tsvangirai tidal wave somehow materialises, Zimbabwe’s ever-compliant Electoral Commission will probably find a way of announcing Mr Mugabe’s seventh victory. But the autocrat is very old now. Even if we assume that nature is the only force that can prise his fingers away from power, it is surely time to look beyond the man who has dominated Zimbabwe for longer than most of his compatriots have been alive. Mr Mugabe’s nation is often presented as a ruined symbol of the damage that one man can inflict. That is certainly true. But if you disregard, for a moment, the baleful shadow he casts, then Zimbabwe is surely the most blessed country in Africa. Beneath its high veldt, the earth is stuffed with minerals – with gold, diamonds, platinum, even uranium. The lush plains of Mashonaland offer some of Africa’s most fertile land. From the blue granite of the Chimanimani mountains on the eastern frontier to the Victoria Falls and the magnificent wilderness of the Zambezi Valley, this country’s natural splendour should entice tourists from across the world. Most tellingly of all, Zimbabwe has a small, relatively homogeneous population of less than 12 million, living in a moderately large country, about 50 per cent bigger than Britain. Instead of the scores of ethnic groups and languages found in, say, Nigeria or Kenya, about 70 per cent of Zimbabweans are Shona and 20 per cent Ndebele. Put simply, Zimbabwe is an inherently peaceful place endowed with everything a nation needs for success. Its people speak English and, despite years of neglect, they still possess a relatively sound network of roads and railways. It would not take much for an economy based on mining, tourism and commercial agriculture to haul the nation out of poverty and towards middle income status in a decade or two. All it would take, in fact, is a government of only moderate corruption and incompetence, at least capable of making a handful of sensible decisions. It goes without saying that such an administration will never be led by Mr Mugabe. For an 89-year-old to seek re‑election after 33 years in power is pretty absurd. To do so without even pretending to have any new ideas for yet another five-year term is simply egregious. Mr Mugabe’s one big idea – seizing land from 4,000 white farmers – has been driven through to completion. The result was that Zimbabwe lost about 40 per cent of its economy, tipping the country into a tragic decade of hyperinflation and recession. That headlong descent was arrested in 2009, but not because of any enlightened actions by Mr Mugabe. The decline only ended because there were no white farms left to seize; inflation was only tamed because Zimbabwe abandoned its national currency and adopted the US dollar. Two decades ago, Zimbabwe possessed the second biggest economy in southern Africa; today, by contrast, Mr Mugabe’s depredations have ensured that its gross national product is smaller than that of every neighbour, including Mozambique and Zambia. If he possesses an idea for what he might do with another five-year term, it seems to be to continue the slow strangulation of Zimbabwe’s natural prosperity. An “indigenisation” law theoretically compels every business owned by foreign nationals or white Zimbabweans to surrender 51 per cent of its shares. In reality, this draconian law has been applied slowly and selectively; Mr Mugabe’s ministers have seized the chance to enrich themselves by grabbing some enterprises, and taking protection money from others. But the “indigenisation” policy serves as an insuperable barrier to foreign investment and economic recovery. For as long as Mr Mugabe is around, the best that Zimbabwe can hope for is the present state of no decline, but no take-off either. Given that he offers so little, how many Zimbabweans would actually vote for him in a free and fair election? His sins in office are legion, but Mr Mugabe is still the man who led his country to freedom from white settler rule in 1980. Before that, he endured almost 11 years in prison and four in exile, the latter spent leading a guerrilla war against Ian Smith’s Rhodesian regime. Despite everything, Mr Mugabe wears the halo of a liberation leader. In today’s election, the cities will almost certainly vote against him and so will Matabeleland, the home of the minority Ndebeles, where his army butchered thousands of people in the Eighties. These areas will, in all likelihood, vote solidly for his opponents. But Mr Mugabe’s stronghold in rural Mashonaland remains loyal. At an educated guess, he might enjoy the genuine support of perhaps 40 per cent of Zimbabweans. In short, he would lose a fair contest, but he would not be humiliated. That makes him a more complex figure than he might seem: a tyrant, a liberation hero and – even – an Anglophile monarch, all rolled into one. There is one certainty: when Mr Mugabe’s shadow eventually lifts, Zimbabwe will have a fresh chance to capitalise on its immense strengths. What might be possible? The white farmers will not return, even if that were politically feasible. It takes decades to create a successful farm; now that much of what they worked for has been ruined, few would be prepared to risk the time or investment needed to build it up again. But if private ownership of land was allowed once more, commercial agriculture could be revived. With sensible investment laws, the mining sector alone could power Zimbabwe to recovery. Once Zimbabwe becomes a normal destination, nothing will keep tourists away. In truth, this country is one of those rare places where destroying its prospects actually takes more ingenuity than releasing its potential. When the day after Mugabe dawns, a nation once hailed as “the jewel of Africa” will be able to show that it has only been temporarily tarnished
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 14:09:18 +0000
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