Mugabe Clings to Power

Tension Mounts in Zimbabwe as Election Results Delayed

Part 2: 'No One Believes in Honest Elections Any More'

A defaced election poster featuring Mugabe is seen in Harare.

Meeting foreign journalists is risky for Zimbabweans at the moment. It can earn them unwanted attention from the police, cost them their jobs, or -- in the worst case -- even their lives. For this reason, people do not want to reveal their real names. “Daily life is too much of an effort,” agrees one young political scientist who now works for a Western aid organization.

Because cash is in short supply and foreign currency forbidden, long lines form in front of cash machines. The maximum sum which can be taken out at one time is limited, meaning that normal workers in Harare have to wait in line for cash several times a day.

The political scientist explains that the price of a bus ticket to his workplace has jumped from 5 million to 20 million Zimbabwean dollars within the space of two weeks. Many of his acquaintances can only keep their heads above water by resorting to illegal activities. Some smuggle textiles out of their factories and sell them, others rent out beds by the hour in the guesthouses they are supposed to be guarding, and others still siphon off gasoline when they fill up the tanks of company vehicles, in order to then sell it on the black market.

Under such circumstances, it takes a lot of energy just to survive from day to day -- energy which has faded away, along with political conviction, over the years. “People witnessed how victory was stolen from them in the last election,” says the political scientist. “No one believes in honest elections any more.” In the March 29 elections, voter turnout fell to just 45 percent, with participation particularly low in the cities. It was higher in rural areas, but only because the government party had massively mobilized the people there.

The secret police, military and paramilitary forces now have the country firmly under control. Former ZANU-PF officer Kudzai Mbudzi explained how it is done: “We instilled fear in the people.” The methods are not particularly elegant, but they are extremely effective: “If you set the house of one opposition follower on fire, others change their minds too. If you beat up a few people, their friends likewise change their minds. And if two or three disappear without a trace, they all change their minds.”

There hasn’t been a free press in Zimbabwe for a long time. Last year, the cameraman Edward Chikombo was found dead shortly after he smuggled footage out of the country of a badly injured Morgan Tsvangirai, who had been beaten up in police custody. Members of the opposition are regularly beaten and foreign journalists rarely get official accreditation.

The only thing that could pose any danger to Mugabe right now is other countries. Zimbabwe’s neighbors, as well as the European Union and the US, are observing Zimbabwe these days with an unusually high level of concern.

Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa announced Wednesday that he has called an emergency meeting of the 14-member Southern African Development Community regional bloc for Saturday to discuss Zimbabwe's post-election impasse. Mwanawasa, who chairs the SADC, said the crisis needed a concerted effort by all southern African nations in order to find a solution.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso also said Wednesday he was concerned about delays in the release of the Zimbabwean elections results. "We are very concerned about all these delays and the lack of transparency in the presidential election process," Barroso told a news conference, in the EU's strongest statement yet on the crisis.

EU ambassadors in Harare met up nearly daily after the recent election to share the latest information. Yet their discrete appeal to South Africa's political elite to exercise their influence was once again brushed off by Pretoria. In February, South African President Thabo Mbeki had himself received a brusque rebuff when he tried to wrest a few democratic concessions from Mugabe before the election.

However Jacob Zuma, the head of South Africa's governing ANC party, Wednesday criticized the delay in publishing the results of the presidential elections. "I think the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission should have announced results by now," said Zuma, who met Tsvangirai earlier this week. "It is not a good thing to keep the nation in suspense."

But for the moment, nothing will change in Zimbabwe. The printing machines at the central bank, which are currently churning out only 10-million-dollar bills, continue to run at full speed. Last week, the head of the central bank announced the introduction of a 50-million-dollar bill in a bid to keep up with inflation.

And in other ways as well, Mugabe and his clique remain true to form. In May, delegations from all 19 member states of COMESA, the free trade zone for eastern and southern Africa, are expected in Zimbabwe. In order to chauffeur the visiting dignitaries around in fitting style, the government has ordered 70 brand-new Mercedes luxury sedans.