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Let my people go
The story of Moses in the Old Testament chronicles the time when the
people
of Israel liberated themselves from slavery in Egypt. In the story,
Moses
goes to Pharaoh and demands that he allow the Jews to leave Egypt and
travel
to a land that has been promised to them by God. Seven times this
demand was
made and in an unusual aside, the Bible says that God 'hardened
Pharaoh's
heart' and he denied them their freedom.
There was more to that of course - there were nearly 3 million Jews in
Egypt
and they formed the backbone of the indentured labour and much of the
administrative skills needed to run the country. It was only after
every
Egyptian family had lost a child that the Egyptians drove the Jews out
and
they were able to flee into the desert and eventually enter to Promised
Land.
I do not want in any way to draw a parallel to this story and the
struggle
for freedom that we are engaged in here, but there are similarities. We
have
prayed, our people have suffered and we have had no outside help and
indeed
cannot expect any help. We are virtual slaves to Zanu PF who run a
kleptocratic State that keeps the rest of us working hard and poor.
The conditions under which we are living are pretty horrific - all our
civil
liberties are being violated, we are short of all the basic foods, our
average life expectancy has halved in a decade and is now one of the
lowest
in the world. We live in a country where the GDP has halved since 2000,
exports are down by two thirds and 80 per cent live in abject poverty.
Yet
those in power live the life of Pharaoh - luxury homes, every
convenience,
frequent first class travel and ample supplies of all that they need -
in
the process stealing a third of our annual GDP or more. They also
control
the armed forces and the State and are willing to use both in the
ruthless
pursuit of power and security. If you want to escape their grasp, you
must
swim the Limpopo and live in the desert of our neighbor's inhospitable
slums
for what will seem like 40 years.
We have raised up leadership that has demanded our freedom - first in
the
late 90's when they demanded some say in how we were governed, then in
2000
when we demanded a new constitution of our own choosing, and then in
2000,
2002 and 2005 in hotly contested elections on a totally subverted
playing
field. We have demanded our freedoms in the Courts, fighting successive
battles to get the Courts to hear our case for freedom - after each of
the
past three elections and been denied justice by a subverted legal
system.
I make that 6 challenges - one remains and that is now rapidly
approaching.
We could say that each time we have challenged Pharaoh he has simply
hardened his heart and increased our burdens. Will this final challenge
be
the one that breaks the back of Pharaoh's will and sparks a willingness
to
let our people go? Perhaps it is that point in our story.
Certainly if God was working behind the scenes you can see the results.
On
Monday we see the old bearer cheques lose their value and there is
consensus
that this will lead to chaos. People in the remote rural areas have not
even
heard the news, the Banks are simply swamped, there are not enough of
the
new notes available to exchange with the old. Trillions of dollars will
be
wiped out and fortunes lost on Monday - and it will not be the rich and
powerful or the crooks who suffer, they have their positions well
covered,
it is going to be the millions of the poor and disadvantaged who will
be the
main victims.
Right now, just to compound the problems of the people, there is no
maize
meal available. I think Zanu PF actually believed their own fiction
that we
had grown 1,7 to 1,8 million tonnes of maize. We have stated as often
as we
can that this is pure fiction and make believe. If, as I estimated some
months ago, we have only gown about the same as last year (750 000
tonnes)
then this will have already been exhausted as people will have held
onto
stocks for their own use and what little surplus would have been traded
or
eaten by now. The price of this basic staple has doubled overnight - if
you
can get some. We brought a truckload of maize meal into town yesterday
and
it was sold out in 30 minutes.
I bought some Rand for a trip to South Africa last week - at 65 000 to
1.
When I came home 6 days later, the price was 90 000 to 1. Fuel is in
very
short supply and prices rise daily. The army officer who runs our
Energy
Ministry declared this week that fuel prices would be fixed at half or
less
their present value and that they 'had plenty of fuel to meet our
needs'.
The immediate reaction of the trade was to simply stop trading. The
Minister
of Industry weighed in and declared a 3-week price freeze - in an
environment where our prices are doubling every two months. He was
ignored.
We must pay our staff on Friday next week - 850 000 workers expect to
be
paid their pittances, 10 days later we must pay school fees for three
million kids. Nearly all of these transactions will be in cash. We
simply do
not have the smaller denominations needed for these payments. There is
no
sign of them being available. I will try to draw change on Monday, but
I
have little expectation that it will be available. Yesterday we were
still
trading at about 90 per cent in the old notes.
The Egyptians had everything on their side - armed forces, control of
the
State, regional hegemony. They felt that the Jews constituted no threat
and
would never rise up against the authorities. They were regarded as
being
compliant and subservient.
In the end the Jews won - without arms and without fighting and the
price
paid be Pharaoh and his cohorts was terrible in every way. They were
virtually wiped out and never again really recovered. All the Jews had
to do
was walk and trust God. I have a strong sense that this time something
extraordinary is going to happen and that when it is all over, Zanu PF
will
be no more. The Promised Land - that is quite a way off, but at least
we
will be free and walking in the right direction!
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 20th August 2006
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