Cathy Buckle, Two young children wearing faded blue track suits ran along a dusty
roadside in my home town on a cool spring morning this week. They were
pushing home-made wire cars, the wheels made from shoe polish tins,
the steering from long pieces of steel wire, their faces alight with
glee. Further on a little boy was rolling an old car tyre down the
road; the tyre was almost as big as him and he was being pursued by a
couple of other little boys, their shouts of excitement audible over
the noise of passing cars. It’s three days before schools open for
the summer term here and while the children play and laugh their
parents are stuck in a nightmare situation trying to access their own
money from the banks in order to pay school fees. Hundreds are queuing
outside the banks, sitting on the pavements and waiting in the sun and
the dust as I write. As it has been many times in the last sixteen
years, getting children back into school is about the only normal
thing about life in Zimbabwe this September.
For the past few months the whole country has been in turmoil. On a
knife edge, the newspapers call our current situation. Zimbabwe’s
winter of 2016 will be remembered as one of extreme discontent. It has
been a time of tear gas and water cannons, of police wielding batons
mercilessly and of scores of people arrested for daring to demonstrate
against the state of our country and its governance. Hardly a week has
gone by without a protest and a rash of new activist groups have
filled our exhausted, downtrodden population with hope and a belief
that there really can be a better Zimbabwe. Then came the damning news
of Statutory Instrument 101 A.
It came on Thursday the 1st of September, the same day as a solar
eclipse dimmed the daylight and brought a cold wind into the country.
It’s a sign, everyone was saying, because S.I. 101A/2016 also came
on the same day as the latest rumour about the health of our 92 year
old President. In the last few days large numbers of police have also
become very visible in towns around the country: some are in riot gear
wearing helmets, carrying shields and the dreaded baton sticks
(truncheons), others are in blue uniform: on foot, in trucks and in
the back of open pick-up trucks with dogs. A show of force
undoubtedly.
Statutory Instrument 101 A/2016 has banned public demonstrations in
and around central Harare for the next two weeks, until the 16th
September. The ban has been imposed on both organizers and
participants and attracts a penalty of a fine of $300 or one year’s
imprisonment or both. In addition to the protests ban, the police have
banned the carrying of dangerous weapons for three months. The list
includes guns, knives, daggers, swords axes, machetes, knobkerries and
catapults but strangely enough there’s no mention of baton sticks
(truncheons): the one weapon that’s done the most damage to hundreds
of ordinary people in the last few months.
Sitting on the top of a kopje looking out at the breathtaking beauty
of spring in Zimbabwe I knew that despite this latest oppression,
there is no doubt that a new resolve and determination has been born
in the hearts of ordinary Zimbabweans because now, finally, enough is
enough. Spring has taken hold and a new beginning awaits. Until next
time, thanks for reading, love cathy 2nd September 2016. Copyright ©
Cathy Buckle. www.cathybuckle.com <http://www.cathybuckle.com/>
For information on my new book, “RUNDI,” about hand rearing baby
elephants in the mid 1980’s , or my other books about life in
Zimbabwe: “SLEEPING LIKE A HARE,” “MILLIONS, BILLIONS,
TRILLIONS,” “CAN YOU HEAR THE DRUMS,” “INNOCENT VICTIMS”
“AFRICAN TEARS”, “BEYOND TEARS” and “IMIRE,” or to
subscribe/unsubscribe to this letter, please visit my website or
contact [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
. (To see pictures of images described in this and other letters go
to: http://www.facebook.com/cathybuckleafricantears
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