Yesterday was a scorcher of a hot day where in Pietermaritzburg, where I live. It was forecast for 37 C, but with the humidity it felt like it was probably closer to 45 C. I have lived in this city for well over twenty years, and each summer I have struggled with the really hot days here. Fortunately, although we may have two or three hot days in a row, we will then have a respite for two or three days, where the weather will cool down a little, or at least won’t be so oppressively hot, but then the heat will build up again and the cycle will continue during the peak of summer, usually January and February, before the grip of summer slowly eases. I’m sure last month and this month have been the hottest I’ve experienced here. We moved into our new home in mid 2017, and until then, we’d never had air conditioning, toughing it out like most do, with just fans. Finally we moved into a home with an air con, which is in the main bedroom. What a life saver, especially for days like yesterday. As a night duty nurse, it’s important that I get reasonable rest and sleep during the day when I am working. When I have come off work in the morning and then I have a few nights off, I still sleep for at least half the day, usually going to bed a little later than normal, catching up on laundry and housework, before having a good afternoon sleep, and waking up when my husband gets home in the late afternoon. Our small house has a tin roof and it just absorbs the heat and the walls are single brick, which doesn’t help on the really hot days. Yesterday was an exception. I was in the bedroom with the air con on by 9.30 am and only ventured out after 5 pm. Even then the house was still cooking. My hubby took me out for supper, and by the time we got back home after 8, the house was still very warm, even with windows/doors open, so the air con got switched back on for the night. Only once I woke up at 5 this morning, opened doors and windows, did the house cool down. Unfortunately in South Africa, from a safety perspective, we always close the living room, kitchen & bathroom windows at night when we go to bed – the only windows we leave open are the windows of the bedroom we are sleeping in, so during summer, it does get uncomfortable on the really hot nights, like last night. Fortunately though, most of the nights so far during summer have cooled down reasonably enough for us not to need the air con, but as I said, not last night.
Anyway, it was such a relief to wake up this morning to cool drizzly weather, and I had a lovely 5 K 6 am run on the quieter roads that the weekend sees. I haven’t run much this year, so I seriously need to start running more, especially if I am thinking of a doing a marathon sometime this year.
As I was running this morning, my thoughts were with Zimbabwe, the country of my birth and where I grew up, until I left high school, and moved to South Africa in 1990. I nursed in South Africa for four years, before returning to Zimbabwe in 94, for a couple of years, to live with my parents as I hadn’t even turned 18 when I left home. In 96, I came back here to South Africa, married, and have lived in the same city for well over 20 years now. Sadly, I don’t think the rest of the world is paying much attention to what is happening in Zimbabwe currently. There was so much hope at the end of 2017 when Mugabe was kicked out. Mnangagwa and the Army looked like heroes after convincing Mugabe his time was up, although Mugabe has gone quietly into the night and I do wonder what that horrible wife of his has up her sleeve. Sadly it seems he will never answer for what he allowed to happen in Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans were played for fools. What did we expect though, really? I had my doubts from the beginning, despite his reconciliatory talk. He had been in Zanu from the beginning, from fighting for freedom from white rule in the 60’s through to 1980, and then held Govt. positions until he was dismissed from Govt in 2017, by Mugabe. Although it was really Mugabe’s wife that wanted him out, more than Mugabe himself. Even though Mnangagwa, along with the army led a bloodless coup, he was part of an entrenched regime that oppressed and victimized ordinary citizens for nearly twenty years. Can someone like that change overnight? Highly unlikely and in the case of Zimbabwe, definitely not. During this last week, where social media has been shut down completely and the internet only allowed to open for brief periods, the outside world has no accurate idea of what is truly happening there. From reports that have managed to get out though, the army have been brutalizing ordinary citizens, by going door to door, especially in the poorer high density suburbs, dragging people out, beating them up and abducting (supposedly arresting) many – most of whom are able bodied young men. They certainly don’t want us to know how many people they have killed so far, and they have killed. Why able bodied men & mostly young men? It seems the army want to quell those most capable of fighting back against an oppressive regime, that has allowed a 90% unemployment rate to occur since 2000. The 150% petrol price increase was the straw that broke the camel’s back. So while Mnangagwa has been gallivanting around certain European countries, travelling around in a US$74 000.00 a day jet, without a doubt staying in 5 star hotels, and drumming up deals for investment (begging), his country has been going up in smoke. What a coward. Ordinary Zimbabwean citizens are being brutalized and even killed, for finally saying “enough is enough” and wanting normal lives and jobs. Poor and sick people are unable to receive decent healthcare, never mind basic medication. Mnangagwa blames them for violence, destruction & looting, yet for the last 20 years at least, the Zimbabwean Govt have enriched themselves at the expense of the man on the street. Zanu PF all but destroyed commercial agriculture in the country and politicians that were wealthy to start with, took most of the best farms for themselves When a diamond rich area was discovered some years ago, the country’s ordinary citizens did not benefit – only businessmen connected to politicians and the politicians themselves benefited. The Zanu PF govt are the primary looters of the country, did they really expect they could sit back in luxury indefinitely, while the masses would be content to sit back and live in poverty under an oppressive and brutal regime? Yet, sadly the rest of the world pays little attention, with more interest in Brexit and the US Govt. shutdown, which incidentally pales in comparison to the Zimbabwean Govt. shutdown – it makes Donald Trump look like a saint. Let’s not forget Rwanda, in 1994, where the world only intervened after nearly a million people were slaughtered in just over three months. Let’s hope that does not happen in Zimbabwe, because the rest of the world doesn’t seem to be paying much attention to an all but forgotten outpost of a wonderful country with mostly peaceful citizens, who have had to endure so much difficulty and oppression for far too long. I take the liberty to post a message from a friend living in Zimbabwe about half an hour ago –
“Back on line for a few minutes. We are safe. Traffic is back on the road. Huge queues for food outside supermarkets. People reporting standing for up to 5 hours to buy what little is left. We are still blocked by the government from social media. This situation is far from over. Please continue to pray for Zimbabwe!”
A letter I also take the liberty of posting, is by a well known Zimbabwean author who has been sending out regular letters about the Zimbabwean situation for nearly twenty years.
Dear Family and Friends,
This has been one of the worst weeks in Zimbabwe for many years and has left us shocked, frightened and very uncertain about what is happening and what lies ahead for us in the coming days and weeks. I am writing this letter from Zimbabwe during a brief window in which a court order has just been granted to re-open access to the internet but not to social media sites and communication Apps. We all know this window to the world will not last.
It has been almost impossible to follow what has been going on for most of this week. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday it was mostly too dangerous for people to venture out of their homes. A three day stayaway called by the Congress of Trade Unions and other civic groups rapidly spiraled out of control on Monday: violent protests, burning vehicles and buildings, looting shops, barricaded roads and vigilante groups running riot in our towns and cities. Many people reported hearing gun shots, helicopters hovering and pillars of black smoke rising. On Monday and early on Tuesday many thousands of messages about what was going on and what people were seeing, flooded social media, along with horrific pictures and videos showing destruction, looting, injured and dead people and a massive crackdown by police and soldiers. By about 9.00 am on Tuesday morning the government ordered the internet to be shut down and then we were in the dark about what was going on, and so was the world. The silence of our phones and computers was very frightening. We had no way of knowing who was in trouble, who needed help, if it was safe to go out, if we’d be able to get back home if we did venture out; if our children at school were OK, if our friends in other parts of the country were OK.
By Wednesday we heard that over 600 people had been arrested including Pastor Evan Mawarire who led the This Flag movement in 2017. We still don’t know officially how many people have died in the past few days. We have heard that doctors handled 68 gunshot wounds and over 170 injuries. There are thousands of stories and eye witness accounts that cannot be told now.
On Thursday and Friday people have ventured out, restocked as many groceries as they can find and afford and about 50% of shops are still closed. In my home town today there are riot police and armed soldiers on the streets, outside the supermarkets that are open and at the road blocks out of town. The sight of armed soldiers in our towns is very un-nerving. There are big gaps on supermarket shelves where goods have not been restocked because delivery trucks have not been coming from Harare. Vegetables and perishable goods are in short supply, there is no bread and we have not had water for a week. During ongoing internet blackouts we are unable to use our bank cards at many outlets as they require internet connections; we cannot pay for essential services, cannot pay wages, cannot contact our families, cannot keep up with national developments.
We do not know what next week holds for us, we do not know what tomorrow holds; we do not even know if the internet will still be on by tomorrow morning. The silencing of our voices is very chilling. Please keep Zimbabwe in your hearts, thoughts and prayers in this very frightening time in our country. I will write again when I can…”
How, I ask in 2019, when we live in such a high tech world, when so many countries are relatively safe and prosperous, do countries like Zimbabwe end up in the situations they do? Well, answering as simply as I can, it’s because there are greedy politicians out there who don’t give a fig about their own citizens. They trample on the basic human rights of their citizens for decades, oppressing them by whatever means they can, then appear unable to comprehend why the masses eventually rise up against them.
At the very least, please keep all the innocent people of Zimbabwe in your thoughts and hope and pray that the situation there does not worsen!
It was wonderful to run along the riverside alone and feeling safe. Sure, I know people can get attacked in any country when running alone, but the chances of it happening in South Africa, sadly, is way more, which is why I do not run alone in isolated areas and most of the time I run with my club or my husband. In South Africa, it is not advisable for a woman to run alone, especially along the likes of a riverside where there is a lot of bush and trees, ideal cover for opportunistic attackers and criminals. I could let down my guard for the most part while in England, and I thoroughly enjoyed those early morning riverside runs. That picture was taken around 6 am and it was a lovely cool morning, which became a lovely warm, if not hot day. I completed what our club calls a progressive marathon – 7 ks for six days in a row. Maybe one day I will actually run 42 ks all at once. Maybe this year, although if so, I will need to take my running more seriously than I am now.
I will go back next year, for this year, I will remain on South African soil.
Rants and Raves of an old hen. 