wfn.org | Zimbabweans await election returns

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

March 12, 2002  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.  10-31-71B{102}

By Dean Snyder and Jane Malone*

HARARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS) - It is late afternoon on March 12, the day after
the polls have closed and the day before the presidential election results
are to be announced, and the streets of Zimbabwe's capital are calm.

A soldier with a rifle slouches against a lamppost at a downtown street
corner, and a police officer with a holstered handgun stands outside a
building near the National Gallery. The ever-present street corner merchants
are selling peppermint candies and cigarettes. Otherwise, most people seem
to be hurrying home or stopping at the corner store to pick up milk and
bread. 

In the lobby and restaurant of the Holiday Inn on Fifth Street, country and
western music is playing over the hotel speaker system, as it has been all
week. It is mostly music from the '50s and '60s - Tammy Wynette singing
"Stand By Your Man" and Buck Owens crooning "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail."
Occasionally, a Bob Dylan song is interspersed with the cowboy music. It is
unclear why this hotel, occupied mostly by Africans, has chosen this
particular assortment of music to play.

The leaders from a suburban Harare United Methodist congregation, scheduled
to have dinner with visitors from the United States, have canceled tonight's
meeting, preferring to stay off the streets after dark on this particular
night in case there is trouble. 

CNN is reporting that the government is announcing an early lead by
President Robert Mugabe, who has occupied the State House since 1980. 

The results of the election will be announced the next morning, according to
CNN. An election observer from South Africa protests that the ballots could
not be counted so quickly. He thinks such a quick result does not bode well
for the election's credibility. 

The South African observer has heard that riot police and soldiers are out
on the streets in force in some sections of Harare, where support for the
opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, is particularly strong.

It is widely reported that Harare residents seem to feel that it is time for
a change in Zimbabwe. One member of a United Methodist congregation said
Tsvangirai's party, the Movement for Democratic Change, didn't necessarily
have a lot of support, but that people were voting for its candidate as a
way of protesting against the current government, which is controlled by
ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front).  

It is generally believed that urban areas support the opposition party and
rural areas do not. But some say that recent acts of intimidation and
harassment in the rural areas suppress the voice for change there.  

Some United Methodists are careful not to let others know whom they support
in the election. One annual conference leader said his daughter asked him
which candidate he had voted for. He said he would eventually tell her, but
not yet. People seem to fear possible negative consequences if their
candidate does not win. 

Many urban Zimbabweans support Tsvangirai because they are distressed about
economic conditions. Inflation is reported to be at 117 percent and
unemployment at 60 percent. Cornmeal, called "mealie meal" and used to make
the dietary staple "sudza" in Zimbabwe, is in short supply. Long lines of
people, hoping to buy food, form at supermarkets early in the morning,
especially in low-income, high-density sections of the city. A drought has
left people in some rural communities without food for several weeks, except
for bags of mealie meal handed out by ZANU-PF to potential voters. 

Mugabe and ZANU-PF blame Zimbabwe's economic distress on white farmers who
own the majority of the African nation's arable land. In recent years, they
have promoted abrupt and violent takeover of farms by veterans of the
guerilla war that won Zimbabwe its liberation in 1980. 

Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change believe that incompetence
and corruption in the current administration are the real causes of economic
problems. They agree that land redistribution is needed but argue that it
can be achieved peacefully and without creating economic crisis.

Not all Zimbabwe looks like it is in trouble. Some newly developed Harare
suburbs showcase prosperous-looking commercial strips and luxury housing. A
new mall has been built, and an upscale ice-cream shop offers 20 different
flavors. 

"Yes, there are some people with money," a United Methodist layman
acknowledged, "but there are also long queues of people trying to get just
enough food to keep their families alive. In Zimbabwe, the rich are get
richer and the poor are getting poorer."     
# # #
*Snyder is the director of communications for the Baltimore-Washington
Conference. Malone, a United Methodist laywoman and Snyder's spouse, is an
advocate for affordable housing. They are in Zimbabwe on a mission trip.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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