OCT 2007 - A brief glance at Zimbabwe’s second city and Bulawayo looks as prosperous and beautiful as ever. But the mask is starting to crack. One Tearfund worker journeyed to a country that is running out of time. He writes:
The irony wasn’t lost on me, finding myself caught in the poverty paradox that is suburban Bulawayo. The vibrant colours of spring, mauve jacaranda double-lined avenues and litter-free tarmac surfaces: evidence of a once intact infrastructure. I had to double-take the lawn sprinklers. Some big houses have deep bore-hole sources, but the roads are crumbling, markings have faded away and streetlights stand idle as power is frequently cut.
It’s only the big new cars of government and party wealth and favour that move now - and any others that can find fuel from the sporadic arrival of tankers across the border. On the western side of town the queues resemble car parks – a mile long. Vehicles are pushed, left at the roadside. And so the rush-hour walks. Here the majority of people can’t afford the bus fare, even teachers, engineers and medics whose salaries quickly become worthless as inflation soars. Few will have eaten before they leave at dawn and won’t until dusk. Then there might be some beans or a little maize meal, on a good day - imagine a Tesco with nothing in it: bare shelves with just a couple of tins, dish cloths laid in a line - a pathetic attempt to fill some space.
Residents scavenge for water from a broken pipe in the suburbs of Bulawayo.
This is the picture in the ‘prosperous’ suburbs. These are the images I wanted to get and bring home to show; how even the middle classes are close to the edge in this country now - people who once could cope with a low patch are running out of resources. But for the greater majority, the people who were always poor, things are already desperate. The World Food Programme predicts four million people are at risk of starvation unless something is done to help them in time.
But Robert Mugabe has a different point of view, and so tries to block mine. I was speaking to a pastor running a water distribution facility at his church and he told me that of the city’s five reservoirs, four have run dry. Mains water is limited to a few hours a week. People had dug pits, desperate for even a little dirty water. We took some pictures of the water tank. Then the pastor said we should leave – and fast. Somebody had reported us to officials. I suppose we had about two minutes’ grace before the truck load of thugs passed us in the opposite direction.
These are the people we found. The desperate need and despair from Zimbabwe’s second city to the rural suburbs. Their testimony further shatters the illusion. And yet some maintain a life-line of hope.
A family in a rural suburb of Bulawayo.
Sifiso (40) explains her family’s desperate situation to Thabani, a monitoring and evaluation officer for a Tearfund partner agency: 'We really need to pray for the situation as a country. Volunteers with such a willing heart, but they themselves are becoming vulnerable with food shortages and schooling to worry about. Some volunteers find themselves affected by HIV – if you could think of that in your prayers.'
Thabani
Joseph (37) and daughter Faith (10) at home in a Bulawayo suburb.
Joseph is suffering from chronic diarrhoea due to contaminated mains water supply, as Zimbabwe's infrastructure deteriorates:
'My hope would be… it’s quite a difficult question. I would say God has got the answer to this. I know someone out there can help me. Someone can feel for me and this family. Someone can give some mealie (maize) meal, some clothes, some financial assistance. I think a prayer can be the answer to all this question. I would say so, because I believe in God anyway. That’s all I can say.'
Joseph
Mannymore (44), senior pastor of a church in Bulawayo. The church is managing a water distribution facility funded through Tearfund partner agency, Churches in Bulawayo: 'Because of the current situation people are coming. We’ve tried our own strength, we’ve tried politics – it doesn’t work. The only salvation is in the Lord. When faced with no alternative he provides something to eat and some water.
'When you get back there (to UK) just remember us. Please remember us. We have got a lot of challenges for sure.
'We can’t leave these people alone. We have to help them. At the end of the day they do not have anything. Praise the Lord for raising people who supported us.' Mannymore
Margaret (74) with her granddaughters Thandolwenkosi (6 - with hat) and Sithembinkosi (9). The girls are cousins. Margaret cares for four orphans, the children of her two sons, who have died of AIDS-related illnesses. Their desperate mothers abandoned the children as conditions deteriorated in their rural village south of Bulawayo.
Geoniwe (74) is blind, but as grandmother to her orphaned grandchildren still keeps her family together despite the family falling on hard times, compounded by Zimbabwe's crisis.
Left to right: Geoniwe, Hlengiwe (3), Sloniphari (18) and Beatrice (20) holding her daughter Lindsey (9 months): 'We have no livelihood. We are struggling with no food. I worry that if I was to die, who would take care of them. They need food. Who will care for them?'
'The church has been a help to me for a long time.' Geoniwe