Dear Family and Friends,
On a few days away, heading south from the capital, the view from the window is a Zimbabwe that is hot and dry and golden brown. Rivers that were churning and thundering, overflowing their banks and breaking bridges just three or four months ago are again dry, littered with rocks and boulders and filled with deep yellow sand. The grass everywhere is very tall and completely dry, brittle and golden. Every day we hold our breath waiting for the inevitable fires that will this year have enormous amounts of fuel to feed their flames.
Out in the hot and scratchy bush the dust is thick, red and choking; the deciduous trees are losing their leaves fast and if you are lucky you may see a magnificent Zimbabwe Aloe (Aloe Excelsa) in full flower, towering higher than many of the trees, a beacon of red in a golden landscape.
Returning to ‘civilization’ newspaper reports rapidly bring you back to what has become our often un-civilized life in Zimbabwe. On the front page a picture of a woman in South Africa who had allegedly been assaulted by Zimbabwe’s First Lady, Mrs Mugabe. The shame of these scandals, which are growing in frequency, are making a laughing stock of Zimbabwe; scandals of privileged youngsters living an unchecked life filled with excesses and outrageous extravagance while ordinary people are scrabbling in the dust to survive back in Zimbabwe.
While the international media scrutinize attempts by South Africa to hold Mrs Mugabe accountable, there is an even more disturbing report going almost un-noticed; a report far more serious, more worrying than a First Lady and an assault in a luxury South African hotel. In his speech on Heroes Day, President Mugabe said that there would be no prosecution for the people who killed white farmers in Zimbabwe’s “fast track land reform programme.”