Zimbabwe’s new day - Are you watching?
In the era of fake news but also swift real news, you must be careful about who you trust online and of course who you quote or retweet. In a matter of days the Zimbabwean landscape has changed, new Twitter accounts created and we are bombarded with a stream of information about the country and the current situation.
It’s almost impossible though to switch off because we are watching history in the making. We’re all having our collective “Who would have thought?” moment.
Zimbabwe is changing right in front of our eyes. This is not fake news. It’s changing in a brilliant way - no lives lost, no bloodshed, no hysteria. It all started with reports of the army’s movements and quickly developed from there. We’re still trying to figure out who was in on the whole thing other than the army. We will find out in due course. While we wait and watch the clips of men addressing the nation on the state broadcaster, the ZBC, army tanks rolling in and Jacob Zuma actually speaking concisely and definitively on a crisis for once, Zimbabweans are going through all the feels. This is unusual for me. Here’s why:
I spent some time in that country in the early 2000s when the cracks were already there for all to see. A young reporter, still drunk on our newish democracy back home- Madiba magic, rainbow nation stars in my eyes. One of the starkest memories of that time - the early morning petrol queues forming, the wait lasting for hours and many a time ending in half tank rations. My Zimbabwean friends and colleagues went about their business as usual, very little complaining, no protests. Imagine that, when protests are so engrained in what we do and how we live, right?
That though, has become one of the hallmarks of the Zimbabwean people. In years that would follow which included the most devastating economic hardships, people continued with their lives, pushing ahead. A lot of this, in my opinion, has to do with the Zimbabwean police and their infamous clampdowns on those who show any form of opposition or public dissent but it also has to do with a people who just want to survive.
When the crackdown on the media started, many acquaintances and friends packed up and left the country of their birth. Some were attacked and harassed. They feared for their lives and that of their families.
This week I spoke to a few of them, none of them in Zimbabwe - all of them emotional and anxious at the mere thought of change coming. Everyone expressed the view that they’d want to go home, that with definite change, it would not even be something to consider, it would be something to just do. For some though, it will take more than just national addresses to convince them of change. Robert Mugabe himself must address the nation and step down. That is a tall order.
The army has made the first move in signaling change but Mugabe has an almost four decade history at the helm that speaks of nothing but clinging to power and fighting to distribute it to his party friends and family.
Heads of State, SADC leaders and every conceivable body wanting to enter this fray will make its voice heard. These voices are important, but it is not the most important voices that must emerge. It will not trump the voices of the people. These voices have not been properly and unambiguously heard. Will Zimbabweans heed the call to occupy State house in Harare in the coming days? Has the time for mass protests finally come? I, for one, will be waiting. And watching.