# Zimbabwe: We have Had Enough **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 7, 2002, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zimbabwe-we-have-had-enough/102361 "2002-04-07T20:34:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![janl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7cd45c/32.png) [@janl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janl)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2002, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zimbabwe-we-have-had-enough/102361/1 "2002-04-07T20:34:48Z")
All, here is a bit of news directly from someone in Zimbabwe. It seems to me that the blacks are going to rise up against Mugabe. He has taken many measures against them. I have for long warned that a bloodbath might yet come there. Zimbabwe has long been held up as an example of what might come to South Africa - and having lived in both countries I believe we are seeing a future South Africa 10 years or so down the line. Watch Zimbabwe - the death by starvation may be bad, very bad, but there might also be a bloodbath. Jan From Cathy Buckle cbuckle@zol.co.zw 4-6-2 Dear Family and Friends, There is a distinctly different feeling in the air in Zimbabwe this week - and I’m not talking about the approaching winter winds. For months before the elections when you asked many people how and when the situation would change, they would say “hope and pray”. Soon after the election results were announced those same people, when asked the same question, said: “we are going to suffer and we are going to die.” Now almost a month since the elections, the shock, disbelief and reality has set in. Despite all the pronouncements by President Mugabe at his inauguration about a booming economy, huge agricultural outputs and food and job security for us all, nothing has changed. No one is fooled anymore because nothing has changed. Agriculture Minister Dr Joseph Made continues to seize farms and evict owners. Health Ministers Stamps and Parirenyatwa can still not provide the most basic services such as disposable gloves and pain killers for use in our hospitals and clinics. Finance Minister Makoni has less to work with than ever before and now has to find Z$ 95 million to buy food and save us from mass starvation. But there is a distinctly different feeling in Zimbabwe amongst the most ordinary of people. When you ask that same simple question - how and when will things change - ordinary Zimbabweans respond in just a few words: “soon, now we have had enough.” People are tired of broken promises; they are tired of being beaten and chased out of their homes; they are tired of tending the wounds on the backs of their husbands and sons; they are tired of standing for hours at a time to buy sugar and oil and maize meal. People are tired of the lies, the hatred and the violence and they are hungry. People are tired of worrying where the money will come from to buy a loaf of bread, particularly this week when it was announced that price of yeast went up by 142%. People are tired of hearing that government youths have gone on the rampage and this week prevented 600 tonnes of sweet potatoes from being irrigated. I do not know of a single household where there is not a story of horror waiting to be told - a husband beaten up, a son abducted, a friend tortured, a relation in hiding, an uncle in prison. People are tired of government ministers making speeches filled with hatred and anger such as the words spoken this week by the female Deputy Minister of Youth, Gender, and Employment creation: “Zanu PF will not continue to sell maize to MDC supporters because they oppose us … anyone who continues to support MDC should be beaten.” It is beyond belief that a government minister can get away with saying such disgraceful things. How can a woman whose salary is paid by both MDC and Zanu PF taxpayers remain in government. Worse though, how can a woman who has carried life in her womb, held children and grandchildren in her arms and cooked food for her family, say that people should go hungry and be beaten because they do not believe the same things as her. 344 women were arrested this week, many had babies on their backs and children at their feet. They had gathered at the YWCA for a conference and were arrested for meeting without police permission. No doubt the deputy minister approves of this too. From a restless Zimbabwe until next week. With love, cathy [http://africantears.netfirms.com](http://africantears.netfirms.com) ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2002, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zimbabwe-we-have-had-enough/102361/2 "2002-04-07T20:47:11Z")
janl: Are you unfamiliar with the fact that Zimbabwe has a Supreme Court that’s not exactly all that friendly to the current president? ---
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2002, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zimbabwe-we-have-had-enough/102361/3 "2002-04-07T21:53:13Z")
Economicist Walter Williams supports **janl’s** POV in this [column.](http://www.townhall.com/columnists/walterwilliams/ww000426.shtml) Horribly, his predictions from two years ago seem to all be coming true. > [@](#): > > Under colonialism, and for a brief period after independence, sub-Saharan Africa was self-sufficient in food. Today, Africa is a mass importer of food. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 19 African countries – like Burundi, Niger, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda – are on the brink of starvation, or euphemistically put, “facing exceptional food emergencies.” Not on the list are Zimbabwe and South Africa, but in a few years they will be. You might wonder why. Let’s look at it. > > In an attempt to stay in power, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe is inciting blacks to take land from white farmers. Blacks are not only taking land but raping, shooting and intimidating white farmers. In the wake of increasing violence, and government complicity, the Commercial Farmers Union has warned 6,000 white families to evacuate their farms as fast as they can and go to “safe” areas. Down the road, many Zimbabwean whites will conclude that the only really safe area is another country. Whites in South Africa will reach the same conclusion. > > What’s going on in Zimbabwe is part of what has been a general pattern in Africa and elsewhere: The most productive people are forced to flee. Not only do white Africans flee, but the most productive black Africans flee, as well. Black Africans do well when they come to the United States and Europe, while their brethren at home perish. It’s noteworthy that he blames **foreign aid, and IMF and World Bank loans that make resources available to corrupt leaders so they can buy cronies, maintain a military and stay in power.** One doesn’t have to agree with this latter point to acknowledge the terrible conditions created by the present govenment of Zimbabwe.