Zimbabwe dispatches: no coincidence
Updated on 17 July 2009
Waiting for a lunch time meeting to start, the conversation amongst the guests showed vividly just how abnormal life in Zimbabwe still is, writes Helen.
The most prominent topic was the recent conference concerning the drawing up of a new constitution for Zimbabwe. One man, who had an eye witness account of the attempted registration of over 4000 delegates, described the process as "pandemonium".
There was a maze of bureaucracy with forms needing stamps, signatures and initials from a number of different officials - each of who had long queues of people waiting to see them and the lines moved at a painfully slow speed.
At the end of the day set aside for registration, less than 300 delegates had been processed.
The next day when the conference should have started, the "pandemonium" of Sunday became "utter chaos". Some accredited delegates said they couldn't even get in because the place was already full to bursting with people sitting in the aisles and standing against walls.
Another said that security was very slack and hundreds of people were streaming into the venue without being checked and it was clear that something untoward was about to happen.
One senior delegate described how Zanu PF supporters and war veterans tore up leaflets and drowned out the attempted opening speech by singing revolutionary songs, shouting Zanu PF slogans, throwing water bottles and upturning plastic chairs.
"This country was won by the gun, not the constitution," was one of the slogans being shouted and that in itself was damning evidence.
Whenever there is something important going on in the country the phone lines collapse, STD dialling codes between towns stop working and emails bounce back.
Another of the guests at our at our lunchtime meeting had received a text message from an eye witness at the Harare conference venue saying that "hooligans" were on the rampage and there was no way they would be talking about a new constitution that day.
Sure enough the police broke up the conference and shortly afterwards the finger pointing and blaming began. Despite numerous eye witness reports by independent journalists who had witnessed the uproar, ZBC TV and Radio news bulletins repeatedly said that disruptions had been caused by representatives of trade unions, the MDC and other groups opposed to Zanu PF.
For the rest of Monday police were thick on the ground everywhere - even in towns 100 km away from the capital city.
Shaking our heads in despair at how Zimbabwe seems to be going nowhere, how predictable these outbursts are and how Zanu PF just don't seem to have changed their mindset or behaviour at all, the conversation turned to the collapse of email and internet connections this week.
Every day emails are bouncing back in their hundreds. A message to subscribers from one ISP reported that the problem seemed to be coming from Tel One - the government controlled telephone provider.
"The timing of this is very suspicious," someone remarked. Whenever there is something important going on in the country - be it an election, a political crisis or some other major drama - the phone lines collapse, STD dialling codes between towns stop working and emails bounce back.
There's nothing subtle about it and coincidence is not a word we use.
Everyone nods in agreement and at that moment the lights overhead flash, flicker and then stay on. The latest power cut, only nine hours today, has just come to an end.
The kettle starts to hum, tea making gets underway, laptops are plugged in and finally we get down to the business at hand in our lunchtime meeting.
