[DEBATE] : That the Prayers in Harare Be Heard

[mfleshman at aol.com]

That the Prayers in Harare Be Heard 
Indeed, for seven years, we South Africans have been actively ignoring Zimbabwe. We have remained silent as Zimbabweans have run out of everything from petrol to sanitary pads. We remained silent as the state lost even the ability to purchase chemicals for cleaning drinking water in its main cities -- cholera outbreaks are now commonplace in a country that once had excellent health facilities and proud doctors and nurses. We said little when Mugabe forcibly removed hundreds of thousands of people from the streets of Harare during Operation Murambatsvina. 
 
Business Day (Johannesburg) 
OPINION
March 14, 2007 
By Sisonke Msimang
Johannesburg 
 
ON MARCH 11, the Zimbabwean state began a blitz, capturing and torturing key church, civic and opposition leaders at a prayer meeting in Harare. They also killed a young man, Gift Tandare. You will hear that Gift was a member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and this will surely be used as an excuse by some politicians not to act. The truth is that he was a citizen, someone's son, someone's brother. He was a member of the public, who had a right to protest and to support whichever political party he chose. He was killed by the police as he sought to exercise these rights. Nothing can justify this. 
 
For years, I have hung my head in shame about the Zimbabwe crisis. I am a South African who grew up in exile, hosted by countries not afraid to speak out against the inhumanity and racism of the apartheid state. It has saddened me to see my country turn its back on those who supported us in the past: choosing Zimbabwe's leader over Zimbabwe's people. 
 
Like others, I was initially sceptical of those who criticised President Robert Mugabe. I saw him as a hero. I believed that ordinary people would benefit from the country's land redistribution programme. Today, it is common cause that the programme was a ruse; simply a way for Mugabe to shore up support among his cronies. Ordinary people got nothing out of the process. 
 
As I began to work with people in the health sector in Zimbabwe, they told me a different story about land reform. They helped me to see that attempts to cast Zimbabwe's crisis in racial terms were merely serving Mugabe's purposes. Today, it is clear that the crisis is about one set of forces (ordinary people from church, nongovernmental organisations and opposition groups), who want to save their country from corruption and the abuse of power, and another set who have become vandals -- robbing the public purse and dismantling the state in their bid to maintain power. 
 
SA's inability to broker a dialogue or even to give space to civic leaders has meant that Mugabe has been left to his own devices. The economy is in freefall, with inflation predicted at more than 4000% by the end of the year. The health crisis is severe. In addition to those who died at the hands of the state during elections in 2000 and 2002, and during the civil unrest that has wracked the country for the past three years, there has been the slower, less noticeable dying that takes place when a country is in the grips of a humanitarian crisis. People die every day in Zimbabwe because the state can no longer provide basic health care. 
 
Those of us who work in Zimbabwe know this. We also know that what happened this weekend has been predicted by Zimbabweans for months. But no one outside Zimbabwe has been listening. 
 
Indeed, for seven years, we South Africans have been actively ignoring Zimbabwe. We have remained silent as Zimbabweans have run out of everything from petrol to sanitary pads. We remained silent as the state lost even the ability to purchase chemicals for cleaning drinking water in its main cities -- cholera outbreaks are now commonplace in a country that once had excellent health facilities and proud doctors and nurses. We said little when Mugabe forcibly removed hundreds of thousands of people from the streets of Harare during Operation Murambatsvina. 
 
Today a young man lies dead, approximately 50 others are in police cells, a handful have "disappeared" and a number are in critical condition with severe injuries. Those of us who work on health and human rights issues are worried because the detainees have been denied access to appropriate medical attention. 
 
The insistence that the Zimbabwe crisis is an internal affair that must be resolved by Zimbabweans makes a mockery of the efforts of Zimbabweans who have marched and protested day after day for the past decade. If Zimbabweans had said this to South Africans during apartheid, we who stood for peace and justice would have treated them with the contempt they deserved. 
 
Ten years ago, President Thabo Mbeki made those of us who are Africanists proud with his "I am an African" speech. Yet can we really be proud to be Africans if we are unable to demonstrate solidarity with fellow Africans? Can we be proud if we remain silent as other Africans -- prostrate in prayer -- are rounded up, arrested and killed simply for daring to have opinions about how their country should be run? We can only be proud if we do all that we can to show solidarity with Zimbabwe's people. Engage your MP, call the radio, write to the Zimbabwean embassy -- act now to save lives. 
 
--Msimang is an advocate on right to health issues in Africa and works as a programme manager for the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa
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