Life in Zimbabwe during election time

MEDIAWATCH: Life in election-time Zimbabwe 26 Mar 2008 08:16:00 GMT

Written by: Joanne Tomkinson
A Zimbabwean street kid receives Zimbabwe dollar Z$200,000 notes, which ceased to be legal, in downtown Harare, December 20, 2007.
REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo
In the midst of an economic meltdown, Zimbabwe will hold elections on March 29. Most press attention is focused on the likely outcome of the poll, but some reporters are talking about what conditions are like for people living in a country gripped by its worst humanitarian crisis since independence.

Sky-rocketing inflation of 100,000 percent a year has left few people able to afford even the most basic goods, according to Boston-based newspaper Christian Science Monitor.

The causes of the downturn are hotly contested, but the hardship of ordinary Zimbabweans is unmistakable, the paper writes.

"In the last eight years, the economy has contracted to 60 percent of what it was before," Paul Siwela, an economist in Zimabwe's second city Bulawayo told the Monitor.

The most troubling part of this downturn is Zimbabwe's inability to feed itself and its neighbours, the Monitor writes. In 1979 the country managed to grow enough food feed itself and export around the region. Now the country has a maize shortfall of 360,000 tons, and a wheat shortfall of 255,000 tons. Food aid will only fend off starvation for a while.

The paper tells of shops stacked with food and clothes - all too expensive for ordinary Zimbabweans' pockets. Gas stations have entirely closed, and a loaf of bread is now beyond the reach of most people.

All this is especially shocking since 20 years ago the country was hailed as an African success story. Now Zimbabwe has the lowest life expectancy in the world - just 36 years - and at the start of the year around 4 million people were receiving food aid.

Britain's Guardian news website quotes a central bank governor comparing spiralling inflation to "economic HIV". Half the population now live on 50p ($1) a day, 80 percent are unemployed, and 45 percent are malnourished, the site says.

Both maternal mortality rates and the death rate for children under five in Zimbabwe have almost doubled in the past decade. There is a desperate shortage of vaccines to help protect children against measles and other diseases.

For Sarah Chekani, whose daughter died last year from diarrhoea and fever, the worsening situation in Zimbabwe leaves her with the fear that more desperation and death will follow.

"I don't know what to do if my other children get sick. Where can we go? The hospital tells you to buy the drugs yourself, but where do I get the money?" she said to the Guardian. "Some people say this election will change things. I don't know. I don't have hope. It will not bring back the dead."

For Hope, a blogger at This is Zimbabwe, a website run by the Sokwanele - Zvakwana peoples' movement, Mugabe's Zanu-PF party has left most Zimbabweans wanting drastic change after destroying the country's economy, schooling and health care system.

"The one thing I know is that Zimbabweans are tired, so tired, of struggling to get through to the next day. "

"We want to move on and have a normal life. We know what happened in the past, but it's the future we're concerned with now," Hope writes.

The Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) news website writes that with the economy at its lowest ever ebb, and Zimbabwe's infrastructure collapsing, many people are too preoccupied with food shortages to get excited by the poll.

"(The price of) food is going up every single day. Meat is now beyond the reach of the majority of people. Many people cannot afford cooking oil, margarine, soft drinks and beer. Imagine - even tomatoes and onions have become unaffordable. So have green vegetables, which were sustaining many families," Harare resident Amos Chigwida told IWPR.

"So tell me, what is there to get excited about? I have too many things to worry about than to spend time following rallies or listening to political speeches."

But not everyone feels so apathetic about the elections. Struggling single mother of three Christine Makumbe told the IWPR that her vote will make a difference.

"I pray that Zimbabweans have registered and will go and vote. I don't agree with those that have already given up - every vote counts and each of us can play our part in choosing which direction Zimbabwe should go."

South Africa's Daily Nation newspaper writes of fears that the country might plunge further into crisis if President Robert Mugabe's hardline supporters don't agree with the election result.

The paper reports predictions by International Crisis Group that the outcome is likely to be challenged, triggering mass violence and perpetuating the economic crisis. The Belgian-based think tank urges the African Union to start planning how to deal with it if things get even worse in Zimbabwe, especially in the event of Mugabe losing the election.

But there are some stories of hope among the hardship.

ZimOnline reports that some people are managing to make the most of opportunities presented by the economic downturn.

In Bulawayo, there is money to be made from collecting waster paper from the piles of litter left there since the city council stopped collecting rubbish.

With six grandsons and daughters to feed, clothe, and educate, women like Liz Dhumela can make enough money to survive by selling the paper she collects to a waste paper company, according to ZimOnline.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwean artists are finding inspiration in their feelings of disillusionment and frustration about the situation in the country.

Musician Samm Farai Munro, better known as Fatso, released a CD this month called "House of Hunger". As you can see from Fatso's blog he doesn't shy away from themes like corruption, hunger, fear, and violence.

He's just one of dozens of Zimbabwean artists creatively expressing their discontent with the economic and political crisis through poetry, theatre and music. Rather than quelling their creativity, hardship seems to help stir the imagination.
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