CLAD in full Zanu PF attire, a black cap bearing the face of President Robert Mugabe and a green T-shirt with key words to the party’s manifesto, Roselyn Ngwenya has no idea what her party will do for her if it wins the national elections tomorrow.
Report by Staff Reporter
Ngwenya (32) a mother of two, mills around a local business centre in the Mtshabezi area of Umzingwane district, Matabeleland South, as she waits for her friends so they can attend a rally in the next village. Quizzed, the single mother does not have a clue on how July 31 was arrived at as the date for the national elections.
She does not know when the party launched its manifesto and the only thing she remembers is the day party officials came to the area distributing Zanu PF regalia.
“We got the party regalia last week before President Mugabe’s star rally in Gwanda on Friday,” she says. “The regalia was brought by members from the party’s province for supporters to wear on the day of the star rally and they urged us to go and vote for Zanu PF in the elections on July 31.”
The ignorance about the country’s political processes is not peculiar to Ngwenya, but is shared by many people living in the rural areas of Zimbabwe.
“We are just going to vote for our party in the next election and see what happens afterwards,” Ngwenya added.
The community, where a majority of the youth have relocated to neighbouring South Africa, does not have access to news on political processes in the country, as newspapers reach them almost the same number of times the boys come down from “down south”.
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And that is rare.
On the other hand, radio and television coverage is extremely poor, with the region being literally an information “black hole”.
“We rely on our party for information,” Paul Siziba, a fellow Zanu PF member, chips in.
“We were advised to register to vote some time ago, as we needed to prepare for the elections, but I do not know how they decided that the polls be held on July 31.”
Siziba does not have any idea what a Constitutional Court is and is puzzled at the mention of the name, Jealousy Mawarire, the man who won a court order compelling Mugabe to set an election date. About 2km from the shopping centre is a couple in their mid-’50s walking from a grinding mill.
It takes a lot to convince the couple that this reporter is not a State security agent or a plainclothes policeman and after some hesitation, they reveal that they are members of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T.
They, like their Zanu PF, counterparts do not know exactly how the date for the national polls was arrived at.
“What we heard is that the elections would be held on July 31,” the woman who identified herself as Clara Sibanda, said.
“We do not know how that date was decided on, but our political leaders have urged us to go in our numbers on the day and vote for our party.”
The husband, Norman, bemoans the lack of access to newspapers and radio.
“If you noticed, cellular networks do not reach this side,” he said.
“There is also no radio or television signal. If you want a cellphone signal, you have to go to particular spots and the young and strong boys either climb trees or go to the top of mountains to get a telephone signal.”
Most of Matabeleland South, 33 years after independence, does not have access to State broadcaster, ZBC, with some districts resorting to watching South African and Botswana television stations.
On the other hand, State media has been accused of being rabidly partisan, openly campaigning for Mugabe and his Zanu PF party, in total disregard for other parties and the Global Political Agreement. With voting due tomorrow, most people appeared to be in the dark on what the main issues for this election were, with most strongly indicating that they were only voting on party lines.
Observers say Zimbabwean elections are never about policies, but rather individuals leading the parties. Mugabe faces off with long-time rival, Tsvangirai, Welshman Ncube of the MDC and Zapu’s Dumiso Dabengwa, in tomorrow’s polls.
