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This blog was written by a Zimbabwean refugee living in South Africa. Visit SW Radio Africa for more about the billboard at the centre of controversy in South Africa.

Before I fled Zimbabwe, I lived in an area that strongly supported the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. I too was a supporter but was not seen to be that active.

About three and a half years ago the youth militia, who we call the Green Bombers, were deployed into our area to identify people who were MDC supporters. I was approached by about ten Green Bombers at my home and they accused me of being a member of the MDC and indicated I caused trouble in the area. They told me that I was to leave the MDC and start supporting the ruling ZANU PF party but I told them I would not give up my support for the MDC.

These militia then beat me severely until I was unconscious. This beating took place in front of my family. They threatened that if I continued to support the MDC, they would evict the family and myself from our house. They then left and assaulted other MDC supporters in the area as well as doing damage to their houses.

Over the next two to three years I was arrested on four occasions by members of the security forces and CIO, on each occasion I was badly beaten and humiliated in front of other people as an example as to what would happen should they be so foolish as to support the MDC.

When you bring a child into the world, you stare into clouded little eyes and see a future of endless potential and opportunity. You promise to move heaven and earth to make
sure your precious baby will know a better life than you.

But, in Zimbabwe the new mother stares in terror into the eyes of her newborn infant, for she knows only too well that the road ahead is one filled with potholes and obstacles, dead ends and u turns.

When Democracy dies, the ruler can make his own laws.
Democracy dies also when the press is silenced or banned, and freedom of expression is destroyed.

But in Africa we have the jungle-drum, grapevine, call it what you want. The people don't have newspapers, radios and televisions, and news travels through the air, just as it always has done.

To this can be added the ability of African people to repeat a story exactly as they heard it. It is an ability that has developed to preserve oral history over the pre-literate millennia. It was practised over hundreds of generations so that now the ability is practically in our genes.

Thus when someone hears the Word on the street in Zimbabwe, that person might take it as being mostly accurate. Some recent stuff is pretty interesting.

One example of the Word on the Bush Path in recent weeks is the story regarding the headman’s cattle and the Cold Storage Commission (CSC) cattle truck. (Note: the CSC is a ‘parastatal’ organisation that was set up by the Rhodesians to assist ranchers. It was retained by the incumbent Zanu PF regime because it was both useful and lucrative - for the new lootocrats anyway).

The activist who wrote this blog for us works very closely with victims of Murambatsvina (please also read our post written by a 14 year old child). Operation Murambatsvina took place in 2005, but the consequences will be felt for years. Operation Murambatsvina took place immediately after the 2005 elections - an act which most believe was a vicious 'lesson' and form of reprisal attack to dissuade those from supporting the opposition party. It is because of people like MaSibanda and MaMoyo that the fight for democracy is absolutely critical. For many the difference between totalitarianism and democracy is akin to a choice between life and death.

MaMoyo wakes thrashing about in a hopeless deep darkness, her heart pounding. It's that dream, the one where she falls into the well while fetching water, and her grandchildren trying to rescue her fall in too. As her terror subsides she looks through a rip in the plastic wall to see it's still dark. Exhausted, she tries to sleep again. Every night is a struggle. Alone crying, her heart racing she tries to think of some way to lift her family out of the pit. Her daughter sleeping beside her mutters something, fighting off her own demons.

This is a story written by a 14 year old child, a victim of the Zanu PF government's Operation Murambatsvina.We give it to you here, literally in her own words. We've obscured some details to protect the child from potential reprisals.

1. Read page 1 (view large)

Friday night we had a big party at the STEPS International headquarters. Everyone was there and everyone had a good time.

Everyone had a good time and we were very greatful to Don Edkins who threw the party and Nick Fraser and Mette Hoffmann who came all the way from Europe to celebrate with us. 

This weekend the Pacific Island Forum Leaders Meeting is taking place. It is believed that the Leaders of the Pacific Islands will encourage Fiji's self appointed Leader Commodore Frank Bainimarama to reinstall democracy to the islands.

Bainimarama seised power in December, 2006.

New Zealand's newly elected Prime Minister Helen Clark said:

"All of us, no matter who we are or what we are, want to see a
return to democracy in Fiji, and do want to see a definitive
timeline to get back to democracy."

This is a picture of Maxwell Mazambani's buttocks. He was lucky because his colleague, Fibion Mafukidze, was killed. A press release on the attack describes what happened and his condition as follows:

Maxwell Mazambani, the MDC candidate for Ward Five in Gutu North in last year's council elections, is battling for his life at a Harare private hospital following brutal assaults by soldiers and Zanu PF supporters on 25 September 2007.

Mazambani, 32, was abducted from his home by a white Nissan pick-up truck that belongs to the wife of Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi. The six soldiers abducted Mazambani and three others and took them to Eastdale Farm, an airforce base between Gutu and Chivhu.

One of the abductees, Fibion Mafukidze, has since died as a result of the assaults. Mazambani was later dumped in a bush near his rural home. Relatives discovered him dumped in the bush and took him to Gutu police station. He was later taken to Chivhu hospital before he was transferred to Harare on Thursday, 11 October 2007.

Mazambani is on a dialysis machine and cannot speak. He has deep tissue injury on the back. His kidneys are damaged and he has clots on the lungs.

We asked an activist living in Harare to start our day of blogging by writing a piece on the day in a life of someone living in our capital city. We wanted to highlight typical day to day experiences of living in our country, a place where democracy is something we fight for, and wish for, daily battle.

Our activist works in a middle management position in a large organisation, and in this blog he assumes the viewpoint of a church mouse, comparing the lives of two people he works with, and knows well. The disparity in income and position in our country is wide, and it is very obviously so in Harare where government officials, foreign diplomats and big business live alongside the unemployed struggling to survive in an informal sector. The disparity in this item is nothing compared to the vast gulf between them and government elite.

Had our blogger taken on the task of comparing the Zanu PF elite to the director, it would be the director who looked impoverished.

Living in the capital city of any African town is supposed to be fun and superior to that of the provincials. Londoners, Parisians and Hararians normally look down upon their "poorer" cousins from the provinces. Whether it is true or not, Hararians no longer have a reason to look down upon their fellow countrymen.

For God, Tsar and Fatherland

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