Zimbabwe: temperatures run high

Last Modified: 15 Oct 2008
By: Guest blogger

As Thabo Mbeki tries to break the stalemate in Zimbabwe, guest blogger Helen describes the people's frustrations.

It was a scorching 36 degrees Centigrade (92 F) outside in the sun on the day that Thabo Mbeki went into meetings in Harare to try and undo the stagnant, month long stalemate of Zimbabwe's power sharing agreement.

It wasn't a good day to be an ordinary Zimbabwean. The electricity was off and water had stopped coming out of the taps 18 hours before.

Shops have started selling goods in US dollars, inflation has been announced to be 231 MILLION per cent and there is no maize meal anywhere (our staple food).

The price of a loaf of bread has increased from one thousand to sixteen thousand dollars in the past fortnight and most people aren't getting enough to eat.

The weather temperature matched the heat of our tempers as the main lunch time news came on.

Using rechargeable batteries, solar panels, electricity transformers and wind up receivers it takes determination, dedication and real effort to follow the news here.

The weather temperature matched the heat of our tempers as the main lunch time news came on.

There is only one local television station that has a license to operate in the country and in the four weeks since the signing of the power sharing agreement, ZBC TV has continued to show extreme bias in their news coverage.

The reports are always about functions attended by Zanu PF, speeches made by ex-Zanu PF ministers and lengthy detail on the movements and utterings of Mr Mugabe.

The MDC may as well not exist, except as a pesky, nuisance factor to the 29 year long status quo of Zanu PF.

ZBC seldom give any news coverage to MDC events: meetings are not covered, statements not reported and no information is volunteered about Prime Minister designate Morgan Tsvangirai.

"The train is in the station and ready to move," the portly ZBC TV chief news reporter announced in the headline news story.

He went on to report on the swearing in ceremonies of Zanu PF vice presidents Mujuru and Msika and said that cabinet members had been announced in advance of Mr Mbeki's arrival.

ZBC made no mention of Mr Tsvangirai's statement to thousands of supporters at a rally at the weekend.

ZBC made no mention of Mr Tsvangirai's statement to thousands of supporters at a rally at the weekend.

Commenting on Zanu PF's gazetting of three key ministries to themselves, Mr Tsvangirai promised that he wouldn't betray the people of Zimbabwe and said: "an idiot wouldn't accept that. That is not power sharing, it is power grabbing."

While the ex President of South Africa, the unsworn in Prime Minister of Zimbabwe and the single candidate who won the 2nd Presidential election met in Harare, I kept dipping into my precious water reserve to get through the day.

Once a week, if I'm lucky, I fill the bath from the tap and use this as an emergency reservoir for the days when the water doesn't come on at all.

Dipping carefully into the bath so as not to disrupt the nasty brown sediment, I flick out drowned mosquitoes before carefully filling bottles, jugs and bowls - careful not to spill even a drop.