Ziso: 'Red and Yellow Dance for Change'

Zimbabwe, 22 March

‘Lets get Zimbabwe working again’ is the simple campaign slogan. The parliamentary and senatorial candidates travel from constituency to constituency supporting each other’s rallies. ‘Simba kuVanhu’ is the chant – ‘Power to the People’ (a clever play on words). In Hatcliffe, a crowd draws round the campaigners, skeptical at first but slowly intrigued by the speeches. Is Fay Chung going to speak in Shona? She breaks the ice with her opener, “Sei muZhingzhong anokwanisa kutaura Shona?” (“Do you wonder who is this ‘zhing-zhong’ (slang for Chinese) who can speak Shona?) “How many people here have jobs?” she asks. “Hapana!” shouts the crowd (‘we don’t have!) A punter on the street tells me, “I won’t vote for Mugabe because he’s the reason that I had to leave college. With him a doctorate holder will be forced to be a tomato vendor”. And Tsvangirai? “The last time I voted for him, but it didn’t bring any change, so I’m not voting for him this time.”

In Avondale, at Trudy Stevenson’s rally a fascinating collaboration is taking place. The red of MDC mingles with the yellow of the Makoni camp. Behind the table sits Trudy Stevenson, one of Tsvangirai’s earliest and most hard-working supporters who now protests his autocratic leadership. Beside her is Arthur Mutambara, whose withdrawal of his nomination for presidency has allowed many former MDC supporters to rally behind Makoni. Fay Chung and Rudo Gaizdanwa sit in yellow, two former members of ZANU, now women leaders in the Makoni camp. MDC slogans are shouted, “Change! Change!” followed by Makoni chants. Activists in yellow dance with MDC supporters in red, the Zimbabwean flag waving above them. There is a sense of real camaraderie between former ZANU and MDC activists, a sense of reconciliation and moving forward. Trudy reminds the crowd that people from ZANU can change, after all Morgan Tsvangirai was once a member of ZANU!

A vibrant dialogue takes place between the leaders and the crowd who burst into song at any pause. “We are not fighting the white man,” shouts the chair, “we are fighting a system that needs to be dismantled!” Mutambara is the final speaker; he is vibrant and charismatic, “Be the change you wish to see in your country.” The rally ends in song. The atmosphere is festive and colourful, the leaders black, white, Shona, Ndebele and Asian, the crowd full of MDC and ex-ZANU supporters, with the odd real war veteran and white suburban. A reminder of the rainbow nation Zimbabwe boasted of being in the eighties before the flames of racism were once more inflamed.

Anticipation is growing for the Makoni rally on Monday in Highfield, the climax of the Easter weekend.

Ziso: 'Hushed Expectation in Harare'

From today until the elections on the 29th we will be posting a series of articles direct from the election campaign trail in Zimbabwe. Written by Ziso, who is following events from the ground, we will try and convey some of the unseen aspects of the elections as they affect those immediately involved and those directly affected by them.

Harare, Zimbabwe, 21 March

Harare waits in hushed expectation for the 29^th. The atmosphere in the city is amazingly peaceful. Before other elections, the city has been charged with fear of intimidation and an angry frustration bordering on riot, but in 2008 there is an uncanny quiet. On one street corner MDC supporters leaflet. A few streets down Makoni is holding a rally to a cheerful crowd. A happy yellow is the campaign colour and a confidence surrounds the team. It is Easter Friday and leaving the rally an equally large crowd of churchgoers sing their way down the street behind a cross. Political posters and graffiti line the streets. Whispers are a foot. Will more party heavyweights swing over in the last seven days? Its been calculated that for everyone on the voter’s roll to complete their ballot paper (filling in four different votes) each person will have to take less than 9 seconds at the polling booth. It’s going to be chaos. And the new constitution states that the presidential votes will not be counted on site but at central headquarters. The probability of free and fair elections undermines the positive determination of this opposition camp.

Everyone has their analysis of how the vote will breakdown – a runoff for the presidential election is inevitable, but who will it be between? Some say Makoni has saved the day by pulling votes away from Mugabe who would otherwise win through his hold of the rural areas. Others say Makoni is taking votes away from Tsvangirai who should win as Zimbabweans are surely fed up with the lack of food, clean water, electricity, fuel, soap, toilet paper, milk, seeds, drivable roads and money that works. But all opinions are speculation. On the one hand the Zimbabwean people are exhausted at the concept of elections; they have voted before with passionate determination without any change taking place. On the other hand, in this glum and hopeless atmosphere, there is a genuine interest in Makoni’s challenge and hope that it might mean that change is possible. The truth is that nobody knows what will happen, and thus the hushed silence in anticipation of the 29^th when the match kicks off and those who are quietly hedging their bets will finally have to take sides.

Zimbabwe: What Prospects from a Flawed Election?

Zimbabwe: Prospects from a Flawed Election, is the latest report from the International Crisis Group

In their opinion, the international community needs to have contingency plans ready in anticipation of rigged elections in Zimbabwe on 29 March that could precipitate a potentially violent crisis.

The report examines likely scenarios for Zimbabwe’s simultaneous presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections. Even though President Robert Mugabe has two serious challengers, including for the first time one from within his own ruling party, they conclude that he probably has the means to manipulate the process before, during and after balloting, sufficiently to keep his office, though possibly only after a violent run-off. If that happens, they predict that no government will emerge capable of ending the country’s long crisis.

Read more at http://www.crisisgroup.org/

Zimbabwe: a plane without a pilot

ZANU PF’s major weakness is the failure to renew its leadership, says Fay Chung, a former minister under President Robert Mugabe who, she says, may now be remembered only for the “sewage” that litters the streets and the “endless nights” without electricity.

Chung, a parliamentary candidate under Simba Makoni’s Mavambo formation, is widely acclaimed for her role in reforming the educational system after independence. In comments highlighting her disappointment with the performance of her erstwhile comrades in Zanu PF, she said they had “run down the country”.

She said there was evidence everywhere for everyone to see that the country lacked leadership.

“Even in the streets, you see pipes spewing out raw sewage, everywhere there is corruption, GMB (Grain Marketing Board) has no seeds, ZESA (Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority) has no electricity, there is general neglect. It’s clear Zimbabwe is like a plane without a pilot,” she said in an interview with The Standard.

Read more...

Makoni's Independent Candidates Attacked

Reports from the Zimbabwe Standard yesterday suggest that pressure and intimidation against the independent candidates of Simba Makoni is increasing.

OFFICIALS of Simba Makoni’s independent candidates for the 29 March elections yesterday reported two violent incidents against their members.

The Hatfield house of their Harare South candidate in the House of Assembly, Joram Nago, was besieged by suspected Zanu PF youths in the morning. In the afternoon, while driving from Hopley Farm where he was scheduled to address a rally today, Nago and his driver were stopped by youths who accused them of trying to enter a "no-go" area.

The Standard caught up with Nago as he made a report at Waterfalls police station. He told the police that after beating him, the youths took away his police clearance letter. A police officer acknowledged in the presence of The Standard they had cleared the rally. Yesterday evening, Nago was still to go to hospital for a medical check-up as he was assisting police investigators.

In the second incident, two pfficials one of their vehicles were attacked while waiting to fill up at a service station along Samora Machel Avenue and Fourth Street in Harare. Never Mutamba, one of those assaulted, said they were saved by Police Support Unit officers passing by the service station.

Fay Chung Appeals to ZANU PF

Writing back in 2004, Fay Chung, candidate in the forthcoming elections in Zimbabwe, makes a call for ZANU PF to make the space available to foster the development of political renewal.

ZANU PF as the political parent, or even grandparent, now needs to let go of its children and allow them to form their own political views, their own policies and therefore their own political parties. It is incorrect and unsound to punish one’s children for having outgrown parental controls. Our children live in a different world from ourselves: they are better educated than we were and they have had more training in industrial skills than we ever had. We of the parent and grandparent generation came from a peasant and missionary background, and were not allowed to participate in industrialisation during the colonial era. Whilst it is true that 23 years of independence is not a great deal, nevertheless, the first post-independence graduates are now in their forties, and ready to take over from us. We should not continue to treat them as recalcitrant and disobedient children.

From her essay Opportunities for political renewal in Zimbabwe written in 2004 for Zimbabwe: The Past is the Future, Weaver Press

Mugabe's Response to Simba Makoni's Challenge

The Canadian Globe and Mail describes the reaction of Robert Mugabe to the candidacy of Simba Makoni. Not for the easily offended, Mugabe's colourful use of language and invective suggests just how desperate he is becoming as the elections loom in Zimbabawe.

It was the first time Mugabe publicly reacted to Makoni’s challenge which has injected a new excitement to the presidential race which appeared to be headed for a rematch of his disputed 2002 victory over Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Mugabe blasted: "What has happened now is absolutely disgraceful. I didn’t think that Makoni, after all the experience, could behave like the way he did and in a naïve way too, boasting that ‘I am Simba Makoni’.

“He doesn’t even have a party, he says ‘people come and join me I am amazing, I am a magnate, come to me and I am there to lead you’. No! You go to the people and the people find you, you don’t become self-important when you are looking for support.

"So I have compared him to a prostitute. A prostitute could have stood up also saying ‘I have boyfriends in the MDC, others are in Zanu PF, there is no party without my boyfriends, so I am going to the nomination (court) as well’. But you see, a prostitute could have done better than Makoni because she has clients.”

Personal attacks have become a hallmark of Mugabe’s survival strategy as he battles growing resentment to his continued stay in power, manifesting itself through rampant indiscipline in the Zanu PF ranks.

Makoni's Declaration To Run for President

On February 5th Simba Makoni announced his candidacy for the Presidency, as reported by the The Times in Zambia.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s hopes of cruising to victory at polls next month suffered a severe jolt today as his respected former finance minister Simba Makoni announced his candidacy.

Makoni, a member of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) party, said he would take on Mugabe at the ballot box as an independent in a move analysts said could unite the president’s opponents.

"Following very extensive and intensive consultations with party members and activists countrywide and also with others outside the party, I have accepted the call and hereby advise the people of Zimbabwe that I offer myself as candidate for the office of president," Makoni told a press conference.

"Let me confirm that I share the agony and anguish of all citizens over the extreme hardships that we all have endured for nearly 10 years now," added Makoni who was Mugabe’s finance minister from 2000-2004.

"I also share the widely held view that these hardships are a result of failure of national leadership and that change at that level is a pre-requisite for change at other levels of national endeavour."

A Chinese Song of 'Chimurenga'

Fay's Chinese origins and the story of how her family came to settle in Zimbabwe are described by an article in The Beijing Review

More than a century ago, in 1904, a 17-year-old young Chinese, leaving behind his wife and new-born son, came to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to make a living, as he had no chance of getting a share of his ancestral property, being the youngest among the five boys of a peasant family in Nanpan Village near Guangzhou. After 18 years, his illiterate village wife adventured into Africa all by herself to join him, knowing there was no possibility of his return to China. The brave woman overcame all obstacles of language and location in the course of her long journey.

This is not a fictional story, but a true account of what happened to the grandparents of Fay King Chung, the first woman Chinese minister of Zimbabwe and the first Director of the UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA). She worked in various capacities in the Zimbabwean Ministry of Education in the 1980s, before finally rising to the position of minister.

Read more...

Fay Chung backs Simba Makoni

From The Zimbabwe Gazette

Former Zimbabwean Minister of Education and Culture, Fay Chung has officially indicated she is backing presidential aspirant Simba Makoni whilst she is also vying for a senatorial seat in the March 29 presidential and parliamentary elections.

The Zimbabwe Gazette can reveal Chung is campaigning for Makoni to be president and on the other hand, she is campaigning for the Mvurachena senatorial constituency entailing Harare South and Hatfield.

In a document titled ‘Arise and Vote’- Fay Chung (Senator), S. Makoni (President), Chung says she will tackle many challenges if voted into parliament.

“One of the main issues is poverty which is being worsened by escalating inflation. Our money must be stabilized.”

“Employment for all. Everyone should have the right to employment and this requires an economic turnaround, with planned industrialization and growth of the private sector,” she said.

Read more...

Fay Chung - A Biography

Fay Chung was born to Chinese immigrant parents in Apartheid Rhodesia. She trained as a teacher and spent the sixties working in Zimbabwe's high-density suburbs teaching black youths who were starved of education in an increasingly turbulent political climate. She attained her M Phil in Literature at Leeds University (the same year as Clare Short and Jack Straw) before joining the Liberation Struggle in 1973 and risking her life for black majority rule. She spent four years in refugee camps in Mozambique developing Teachers' Curriculum for the thousands of children and youths forced to flee the civil war.

In 1980 she returned to Zimbabwe and founded ZIMFEP, an NGO that gives education with agricultural production to war veterans and their families. She was the Deputy Secretary for Administration in the Ministry of Education before becoming Minister in 1988. In 1980, 5% of the black population had access to education; by the time she left to work for the United Nations in 1993, Zimbabwe had achieved 95% primary education - a model that she replicated in developing countries around the world as Head of Education at UNICEF. Fay left government after her attempt to develop a Ministry of Employment Creation, which she envisioned would provide opportunities for work for the now impressively educated youth population - her vision was not supported by the government and so she resigned from Cabinet and left Zimbabwean politics.

Zimbabwe's soaring unemployment and the emigration of its educated masses was an event that she foresaw and felt partly responsible for. In 1998 she moved from UN Headquarters in New York to Addis Ababa where she founded the Institute for Capacity Building in Africa for UNESCO. She is also a founder of FAWE (Forum for African Women Educationalists), ASHEWA (Association for Strengthening Higher Education for Women in Africa) and the patron of the Women's University in Africa. She concurrently attained a doctorate in Education, and while witnessing Zimbabwe's economic plunge, and most recently attained a BA in Economics from SOAS. She returned to Zimbabwe in 2004 to analyze the political situation and work on women's empowerment programmes. Her life has been committed to the principles of democracy, and education and opportunity for all, and she has written numerous articles and papers analyzing Zimbabwe's political and economic demise, including her book 'Re-Living the Second Chimurenga: Memories of the Liberation Struggle for Zimbabwe'.

Welcome to Zimbabwe Now!

Welcome to the international support blog for the electoral campaign of Fay Chung.

Fay is standing as an independent candidate for the Zimbabwean Senate in the upcoming elections on the 29th March. She is campaigning to win the Hatfield and Waterfalls Constituency of Harare North.

Fay Chung will be supporting the Presidential candidate Simba Makoni, who she believes is a viable candidate to lead Zimbabwe out of its current political and economic turmoil. Fay has an impeccable record of work and is an experienced and astute political analyst. Please show your support for political change in Zimbabwe and get involved in the campaign.