Dear Friends,
I cannot believe how this year has flown. In some ways it seems just yesterday that I was honoured and grateful to be re-elected by you as an MDC MP with a 76% majority. However that was in March and eight months have gone by since then. You will recall that in the run up to the election ZANU PF promised that if they were elected back into power they would stop the economic collapse, create more employment, bring an end to fuel queues, bring inflation down, tackle corruption and generally improve the lives of Zimbabweans. As I warned in my campaign, this regime does not have the ability, or the political will, to deal effectively with the many problems our nation is facing. Sadly the crisis created by the regime’s failed policies and incompetence has escalated greatly in the last eight months. Our nation is now facing a catastrophe of unprecedented proportions.
It has been as difficult as ever to communicate with you, my constituents. I find it ironic that despite the fact that I have now been your Member of Parliament for almost six years I have never once been invited to be interviewed by ZBC Montrose studios which as you know is right in the centre of the Bulawayo South constituency. The reason for this is obvious-the regime does not want me to be able to communicate with you. Indeed in the last year communications have become even more difficult. The Chronicle is still hostile. The Daily News remains banned and they are now reports that both the Daily Mirror and the Financial Gazette have been taken over by the CIO. I am not discouraged by these actions of the regime – it is clearly fearful of what will happen if I and my colleagues in the MDC are able to communicate with you freely. For the time being then I will continue to communicate with you through the means of report back meetings (which I continue to have regularly throughout the constituency) and these letters. I ask that you pass this letter around so that as many people as possible generally about what I have been trying to do on your behalf.
Projects
25 years of ZANU PF rule have subverted many institutions in Zimbabwe. Members of Parliament are primarily meant to be lawmakers not project managers but the regime has subverted this role. Even in the recent Senate election the regime threatened voters saying that if their candidates were not voted for, development would not come to those areas that voted against the regime. ZANU PF MPs have access to state funds for developmental projects, something MDC MPs do not have.
In the same 25 years of ZANU PF rule the economy has been devastated; 80% of people are now unemployed and as a result most people are desperate to participate in self-help projects and other projects that uplift their standard of living. I have recognised that with the regime not being prepared to yield power through the ballot, and with no immediate prospect of being able to restore sanity to the way Zimbabweans are governed, it has been necessary to assist working-class and unemployed people in my constituency to engage in projects pending the transition to democracy.
With this in mind I have conducted a fundraising drive to raise relatively limited funds to support self help projects in the constituency. I regret to advise that despite approaches made to several embassies I have not been able to raise funds from that source. However my approaches to individuals have been relatively successful. As a result a series of project meetings had been held in the constituency since March and I have now been inundated with over 30 project proposals from individuals and groups which would cost well over Z$3 billion to implement. As I have not been able to raise anything like that amount of money I have, in discussion with members of the constituency, decided to focus the funding we have available on a food growing/farming project. I am pleased to report that the project is on schedule. Land has been identified in Nketa; permission has been obtained from the City Council to use boreholes already on the land; some 20 people have been trained to date to farm the land and we are in the process of purchasing a pump, fencing and the irrigation equipment required for the project. I hope that in the coming weeks the project will get under way and that food can be grown in large quantities to supplement the meagre amount of food available to the people of Bulawayo. I’m very grateful to the generous individuals who have donated money and a pump (which alone is worth some Z$200 million).
When I wrote you last year I spoke about raising money to build Cricket nets. The cricket nets are now a reality thanks to a generous donation made by the English cricket team. In August the Henry Olonga cricket nets were opened next to Nketa Hall and are now being used by many cricket enthusiasts. I am in the process of sourcing cricket equipment for the people of Nketa and I hope that this will be delivered early in the New Year. I have also sourced a donation from the Zattner family which has been used to purchase playground equipment which also will be installed in the near future near to Nketa Hall.
I am still working with the Toc H Charity organisation to source funds to construct the aids victim support centre I have mentioned in previous correspondence in Emgwanin. I have recently been in contact with a South African-based Aids victims support organisation and hope that it may be able to make this project a reality. It is a shocking indictment against this regime that whilst it is prepared to create costly new institutions such as the Senate it is not prepared to provide funding for small projects such as these which are so desperately needed.
Parliament
Parliament is hardly sat this year since the March elections. When it does sit its sessions often end early and if the MDC does not debate hardly anything meaningful takes place. The regime has cynically used Parliament to entrench its own position. This is graphically illustrated in Constitutional Amendment Bill 17. This Constitutional Amendment will not create a single new job in Zimbabwe and in many respects takes our Constitution back to the dark ages.
I, together with my courageous colleagues in the MDC, fought as hard as we could to oppose the Bill. In conjunction with my colleagues within the MDC and in civil society I helped draft an entirely new Constitution for Zimbabwe which was tabled in Parliament. This constitutional draft was based on an amalgamation of the original Constitutional Commission draft and the NCA draft constitution, both of which were debated and discussed in detail in 2000. This draft constitution tabled by me in Parliament is in essence a reflection of what the people themselves said they wanted in the run-up to the Constitutional referendum which was held in 2000. There has been a lot of distortion in the press and elsewhere regarding the contents of that draft constitution. This was deliberately done to sow division within the MDC and to divert attention away from Constitutional Amendment Bill 17’s draconian provisions. Our draft constitution is now however a matter of public record and if you would like to read it a copy is available at the constituency office (located at Nketa 6 Housing Office). I encourage you to read the constitutional draft and to let me have your comments. If you would like an electronic copy of the draft constitution please send me an e-mail at byosouth@yahoo.com and I will send you a copy.
Because of the subversion of Parliament as an institution by the regime there has been considerable debate as to whether or not we should continue to participate in it. My own view is that we must use all institutions, no matter how flawed they have become, to expose the incompetence, corruption and selfishness of this regime. In the course of this year I and my colleagues have used every opportunity to expose human rights abuses and generally to speak out against the brutal acts perpetrated by this regime.
Murambatsvina
One of the most brutal acts ever committed by this regime occurred in May and June this year when Operation Murambatsvina was launched. Although Bulawayo South constituency was relatively unscathed, tens of thousands of Bulawayo residents were terribly affected by the destruction of their homes and businesses. Soon after the operation was launched in Bulawayo I did what I could to expose what was happening. I spoke out in Parliament. I had a lengthy meeting with the UN Special Envoy Mrs Anna Tibaijuka and am pleased to report that many of my concerns and recommendations were included in her final report released in July. Subsequently I have worked with donors to provide assistance to the victims. I have spoken out locally and internationally against what can only be termed a crime against humanity. My belief is that the actions of the regime constitute a clear breach of Article 7 of the Treaty of Rome, which is the statute which governs the work of the International Criminal Court. I will continue to work to get the perpetrators of this atrocity brought to book.
MDC legal affairs Department
2005 has been a very busy year for the MDC Legal Affairs Department. Soon after the March elections we brought some 15 Parliamentary challenges. They were not brought because we believed that we could get MDC MPs into parliament through the courts. These cases are necessary for two reasons: firstly to demonstrate the MDC’s commitment to respect the due process of law even though the regime has totally subverted the rule of law and, secondly, to use the court procedure to substantiate the allegations that we have made that the elections did not comply with the SADC standards and Zimbabwe’s electoral Law. Our success in this regard is best illustrated in the recent judgement we obtained in the Makoni North Constituency case. Although we did not win the case the presiding judge found that food had been used as a weapon throughout the constituency by the regime. The finding of this fact alone provides valuable evidence to us for the future in our quest to show that ZANU PF is guilty of yet another crime against humanity, namely withholding food for political purposes.
The presidential challenge case first launched in 2002 continues. We finally got the Registrar General to bring all the election materials to court after obtaining a contempt order against him which itself contained the threat of imprisonment against him. Since August we have been examining all the voting materials used in the 2002 election. We will shortly be issuing a report regarding our findings. Whilst it would be improper for me to reveal what those findings are at this stage, suffice it to say that the examination of the voting materials has provided us with valuable evidence that there was widespread electoral fraud in the 2002 presidential election.
The Senate elections
The Senate elections have come and gone. My own view has always been that they were an irrelevance. It is most unfortunate that they have caused such division within the MDC. I took a deliberate decision not to align myself with either those for or against the elections mainly because I believed that the arguments were equally strong for and against. I have been doing what I can in an attempt to reconcile the opposing sides in this debate and will continue to do so. I still hope that leaders on both sides will remember the tremendous contribution to the struggle for democracy that those opposed to them within the MDC have made and that that reminder will assist in the reconciliation process.
January 2006 will see the 23rd anniversary of my return to Zimbabwe. Since my return I have been unrelenting in my work to bring about meaningful democracy to Zimbabwe. Whilst I hope that the present division within the MDC will be healed, even if it cannot I need to remind you of two things. Firstly, I personally am not going to give up on this struggle to bring freedom and democracy to Zimbabwe. In saying this I invite you to make contact with me to let me know your views. You can either write to meet care of the above-mentioned e-mail address or you can drop off a letter at my constituency office. Secondly, I should remind you that there are many good people within the MDC, on both sides of this debate, and in civil society, who are equally determined to bring about democratic change to Zimbabwe. Whatever happens to the MDC in the coming months its legacy is already clear: it has exposed the real ZANU PF to the world, in doing so it has isolated the regime and in isolating the regime it has ensured that democratic change is inevitable.
The regime has no solution to the massive crisis that it has created in Zimbabwe. We for our part must remain committed to using non-violent methods to achieve our goals, to respecting the rule of law and to our vision for a new free, democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe. I fear that, given the desperation of so many Zimbabweans, some may be tempted to abandon some of these principles. In this regard I think it is pertinent to remind you of the words of Martin Luther King:
“I am convinced that if we succumb to the temptation to use violence in our struggle for freedom, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and our chief legacy to them will be a never ending reign of chaos”.
In the New Year we need to re-energise ourselves to use all peaceful non-violent strategies to force this regime to come to the negotiation table which in turn will see a new democratic Constitution for Zimbabwe, fresh elections and the restoration of a new Zimbabwe that we can all be proud of.
I am always amazed by the resilience, tolerance and good humour of Zimbabweans in the face of oppression and exceptionally difficult circumstances. I have no doubt that these qualities will ultimately win the day; that good will overcome evil and that Zimbabweans will soon be free. Let me remind you of some age-old wisdom from Psalm 37:
“Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong;
For like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.
For evil men will be cut off. A little while, and the wicked will be no more;
Though you look for them, they will not be found.
The Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.”
I thank you for your ongoing support and wish you a happy Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.
The Hon David Coltart MP
Bulawayo South
4 December 2005