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Hello and welcome to our program “Where God Weeps”. Some of you may remember of
the country call Rodesia. Since 1980 this is the Republic of Zimbabwe. At present Zimbabwe
is in a disastrous mess.
As you know, there was a tremendous feeling of hope in the early 1980s, when Robert Mugabe
became the Prime Minister and later the President. And those years he did a lot of good for the
people. Very strong infrastucture was created, and health services, and education, roads,
bridges, dams. It was one of the great success stories of African independence. At the moment,
as we speak, the hospitals are closed, the schools have not reopened.
If there’s no education, there’s no life
And why are schools closed?
Teachers are not longer paid a living salary.
There’s been an exodus of teachers going for greener pastures outside the country
We have lost many professionals; they are going to neighbouring countries
People take their lives into their hands and swim across the Limpopo River infested by
crocodiles.
South African employers realized very quickly that these people can be exploited. They have
no papers they are illegal. Therefore, what the refugees hope, to be able to do and to
find work and earn enough to support their relatives back home, is not possible.
It must be horrible for you to see – that you had enough food ten years ago, and now
suddenly there is no more food left.
It is. It is.
How do you cope with that?
Families have to survive on one meal every two days. Some people survive on eating grass
seeds, roots they find in the bush.
Is there also something positive, you can tell us?
I think the great hope for Zimbabwe is the people themselves. Relationships between the
people of all races are peacefull. We do live together, we can live together and we want
to live together. And what there is of racist rhetoric especially against whites is largely
imposed by our leaders. At the level of the ordinary people having lived through the terrible
experience of the liberation war.
People want peace, they want to live together and they want to work together. And that will
come. But I have to say we don’t see the end of the tunnel yet