Zimbabwe: visiting dignitaries
Updated on 26 May 2009
When I heard that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was coming to town, I didn’t hesitate in accepting an invitation to attend, writes Helen.
The idea for the PM's visit was apparently to meet members of the community and talk about some of the problems of the town and surrounding areas. The day, date and venue were stipulated but my eyebrows went up when the invitation said "Time 2pm (Flexible)".
I'm not sure how you attend a meeting where the time is "flexible" but nothing is normal in Zimbabwe and as the tired comment goes: T.I.A. (This Is Africa).
The last time I tried to go to a meeting addressed by Morgan Tsvangirai was back during one of the violent election campaigns in the last few years. I can't remember which one it was, there have been so many, all have been bloodstained and in all Morgan Tsvangirai has been treated as an enemy of the state.
Since 2000, Morgan Tsvangirai and other senior MDC officials have held most of their meetings on a sloping granite hill in a poor but densely populated area of the town. Rain or shine the rallies were always held outdoors on what became known as MDC Rock.
Granite hill known as MDC Rock where political rallies and meetings were held between 2000 and 2008.
If you were brave you could go and sit on the warm grey rock but if you were worried about attacks by Zanu PF supporters, or arrests by police, (both of which were very common) you could watch from a distance: over the road or even up a tree.
It seemed strange to be getting ready to go to a meeting being addressed by the man who has been accused of treason, arrested numerous times, beaten in police custody etc and yet is now the prime minister.
It was very hard not to think about political and civic activists who had been abducted from their homes and held for the past five months in police custody without trial or bail. Very hard not to think about the estimated 200 to 400 people who were killed for supporting the MDC between two elections held in the last year.
En route to the hall where the meeting was being held, the road was strangely quiet: no police, no sign that the PM was coming to town, no fanfare, no security. All very different from what happens when a Zanu PF dignitary comes to town and every street corner has police in pairs, soldiers in uniform and a swarm of luxury government cars.
Stopping to chat to a friend I was flabbergasted to hear that the "flexible" time of the meeting had been enforced and that in fact the meeting with Prime Minister Tsvangirai had started an hour early. Organisers had only found out twenty minutes before the PM’s arrival in town and there had been no time to let everyone know.
Lengths of plastic in the national colours and plastic flags were tied to fences and trees around the meeting hall. The rusty gates were closed and locked and manned by two policemen.
Plastic bunting in national colours attached to fence at the venue for the prime minister's visit.
"Full up!" they said. "No space left, no more allowed in."
A bevy of blue suited, shaven headed security men strolled around outside the complex and the men we all known to be secret police, the CIO, were evident everywhere, sporting their imitation Rayban sunglasses.
Two pick up trucks arrived loaded with Zanu PF supporters. They were led by a notorious local character who was mysteriously released from prison just before the last elections, despite supposedly serving a 15 year sentence for various violent crimes.
Trouble seemed inevitable but amazingly they were told to leave by the police – and they did.
Later I was told by someone who had managed to get into the hall that Prime Minister Tsvangirai was flanked by two senior Zanu PF officials.
"These men who used to insult me and call me names – I am their boss now," Tsvangirai said at the start of the meeting. His words were met with laughter and applause.
Plastic flags tied to trees at the venue for Prime Minister Tsvangirai's visit.
