THE large television set on the sideboard, the tan leather-look armchairs, the
embroidered tea cloth, the school pictures of girls in neatly pressed
uniforms and the framed photograph on the wall of a smiling young man all
indicate that this was once a comfortable life.
The television has not worked for several years. The armchairs are leaking
stuffing, the girls have died of Aids-related illnesses hastened by hunger,
the young man is in prison in South Africa after being caught border jumping
and the family cannot remember when they could last afford tea.
Nine small children squat on the floor, their eyes dull with hunger and two
broken plastic dolls between them. One cup of sadza, maize porridge, had to
serve as breakfast, lunch and dinner. All but one are orphans being brought
up by their 50-year-old grandmother Esnat. Her own child, 14-year-old
Precious, lies sluggishly on the floor barely looking up at the visitors
that her mother has scrubbed the floors for. Three-year-old Blessing still
has not walked a step and looks half his age.
Eagerly, they take the coloured pencils proffered but can do nothing with them
– the only paper was used long ago in the lavatory.
The youngest spend most mornings locked up in the three-roomed house in
Nkulumane township while Esnat goes to her job, sweeping the streets. For
this she earns Z$100m a month, which sounds a lot until you convert it and
realise that it is less than £1. Of this Z$80m goes in rent. The Z$20m left
is only enough for a single loaf. “The children are hungry the whole time,”
said Esnat. “If it wasn’t for donations from the church, we would be dead.”
The family’s decline mirrors that of their country, once the most affluent in
sub-Saharan Africa. Ten years ago they led an agreeable existence with
evenings spent around the television, eating sadza and greens with
occasional meat and drinking tea with sugar. Then one night Esnat’s husband
never came home – ashamed, she says, that he had lost his job.
Her three daughters, who had completed school and married, fell ill one by one
and died, leaving their children orphaned. Her sons left the country,
promising to send back money. They lost touch, although she has heard that
her eldest is in prison and seriously ill.
Like many other women in the township, Esnat was left as the only provider for
her orphaned grandchildren. As their shoes fell apart, they started going to
school barefoot, then not at all as she struggled to find the fees of Z$90m
(90p) a term. She has sold what she could. “I would sell the TV, but with
constant power cuts, who would buy?” she said.
“In all these houses I go into, you can see the remains of a life that once
was,” said Thabani Nkiwani, the local priest, who distributes powdered milk
for the babies and maize. “It’s like the country. Once we had good schools
and roads and farms. It’s all signs of ‘once upon a time’.”
As he spoke, a government official was on the radio inciting people to vote
for the ruling Zanu-PF. “We have brought you democracy, mass
industrialisation, land . . .” he droned. “Vote R G Mugabe for principled,
consistent and fearless leadership.”
Esnat shook her head. Yesterday she voted for Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), as she had in the past two
elections. Some of her neighbours in the township were excited, holding out
their palms and mouthing “chinja” (change) in the hope that after 28 years,
President Robert Mugabe would finally be ousted.
“It’s the first time in my life I have worn an MDC T-shirt without fear,” said
one 25-year-old man. But Esnat believes that Mugabe will leave State House
only in a coffin, just as he has vowed. “Even hope has become a luxury,” she
said.
The demise of Esnat’s family illustrates the challenge ahead for whoever
emerges victorious from the polls. Over the past eight years Zimbabwe has
endured an economic collapse of almost unprecedented scale. GDP has shrunk
every year since 1999 and is now 40% smaller than it was then.
According to a study by Todd Moss, senior fellow at the Center for Global
Development in Washington, this decline is far worse than in countries that
have suffered full-scale civil war such as the Democratic Republic of Congo,
where the economy contracted by 19%, and Sierra Leone, where it fell by 25%.
Zimbabwe has the world’s highest inflation at 150,000% and the lowest life
expectancy - Esnat is already 16 years older than the average of 34 for women.
The freshly dug graves and “coffins for sale” signs are testament to the
3,000 a week dying of Aids. As a result Zimbabwe has the world’s highest
proportion of orphans – more than 1m, or one in every 11 of the population.
Like Esnat, 90% of Zimbabweans find themselves living below the poverty line,
compared with 35% in 1996. Yet, as Moss points out, this collapse has been
caused not by war or natural disaster but by the deliberate acts of its own
leaders, desperate to stay in power.
The government’s ill-advised programme of farm seizures has left the country
that once fed the region with almost half the population now dependent on
food aid. Far from distributing land to the landless, Mugabe gave most of it
to his cronies.
In the cities, many have been forced to swap walls and roofs for cardboard and
plastic sheeting. These are the victims of Operation Murambatsvina in 2005,
a so-called “urban beautification programme” in which the homes of at least
700,000 people were bulldozed.
Where it was once common to see lines of uniformed children carrying book bags
heading off to school every morning, the education system that was once the
envy of Africa has “virtually collapsed”, according to Takavafira Zhou,
president of the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe. Salaries of just
Z$400m (£4) a month have seen the number of teachers more than halved from
150,000 to 70,000.
In the shops, the shelves are almost all empty. Price controls imposed last
summer forced most of the remaining manufacturers out of business.
If Mugabe remains in power, he has promised the “indigenisation” of business,
forcing companies to hand over 51% to partners of the government’s choosing.
Last week he said that he would seize 400 British-owned companies.
“Another five years of Zanu-PF rule will completely destroy Zimbabwe,” said
David Coltart, an opposition MP from Bulawayo who was running for the Senate
in yesterday’s elections.
Simply removing Mugabe will not be the end of the problem, however. Over the
years the president has created a network of patronage, handing out assets
to ruling party officials, judges, police commanders, military officers and
bishops. “We need to end the Zanu-isation,” Tsvangirai said last week.
His party has produced a “road map” designed to turn things around in 100
days. “Somebody has to do it,” Tsvangirai said. “We know it won’t be easy
but we have a plan and international help will be an indispensable part.”
Critical to this is the return of some of the 4m Zimbabweans who have left the
country, among them the brightest and best. Many in the business sector and
international community would be more comfortable with a victory for Simba
Makoni, the former finance minister, than for Tsvangirai, a former trade
unionist. “Without a deep analysis of how this economy has been eroded . . .
it will be difficult to have a timetable,” Makoni told the Zimbabwe
Independent last week.
Over the past year conferences in London, Brussels and Johannesburg have
estimated that an initial rescue package of US$10 billion would be needed.
Britain would be expected to take a lead. One of the biggest challenges
would be how to get the farms working again. If their land is not returned
to them, 4,000 white farmers will require compensation.
If Mugabe stays on, many will leave the country. “I’m just waiting to see what
happens in the elections,” said Costa, a waiter. “My wife has already gone
to Johannesburg.”
Everyone is agreed that as long as Mugabe is in power the situation will only
worsen. “One thing he cannot rig against is old age and the economy,” said a
Harare businessman. “It’s these which will bring him down. If not today,
surely this year.”
- Cheques to help Zimbabwean orphans can be made out to Children Alone Trust
UK and sent to Roz Jenkins, 7 Churchfields Road, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP2 7NH
