FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL TRANSCRIPT

TRANSCRIPT

If the word 'democracy' had any meaning at all in Mugabe's Zimbabwe, at the country's elections this Saturday, his 28-year rule would come to a screeching halt. We've all heard the horror story stats, 80% unemployment, massive poverty and a flabbergasting world record inflation of 100,000% and rising! How do you make sense of that ridiculous figure? Well, this might help. "Pay the bearer on demand," it says wait for it $10 million. Zimbabwean dollars, that is. Its current value? Try less than half of one of these, a US dollar. Not funny really. Regardless, Mugabe and his government stand every chance of being re-elected this weekend, surely a testament to the vote-rorting that will undoubtedly go on. Armed with her secret camera, Ginny Stein has made a habit of reporting from Zimbabwe. And despite considerable personal risk, here she is, at it again.

REPORTER: Ginny Stein

Today Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, the MDC, is holding a rally in a rural electorate close to the Mozambique border. People have walked for hours to listen to candidates campaigning for local office, the national parliament and the presidential seat itself.

MISHEK KAGURABADZA, MDC CANDIDATE: You were threatened that if you attend this rally you are going to be punished. Gun or no gun, militia or no militia. The Zimbabwe children are ready to march so they get their freedom.

Despite this event having official approval, people are nervous, for politics in Zimbabwe has a lethal history. Many thousands who have opposed the decades-old regime of President Robert Mugabe have been killed or disappeared. Millions have been forced to flee. Mistrust of the nation's security forces runs deep, and this gathering is keen to show that they know they're being monitored.

MISHEK KAGURABADZA, (Translation): Let's first welcome the police among us. And also welcome central intelligence guys.

I've come back to Zimbabwe on a tourist visa. A risky proposition for a journalist, but the only way to cover an election campaign in which only a chosen, uncritical few stand any chance of last-minute accreditation.

MISHEK KAGURABADZA, (Translation): An MDC government will not need the militia. If you have a relative in the militia, tell them their last payday will be 30 March.

Mishek Kagurabadza was once the mayor of Mutare, the capital of the rural province of Manicaland. We meet later at the home of an MDC supporter as Mishek Kagurabadza watches news on state TV.

ANNOUNCER, STATE TV: Stories making the headlines in this bulletin, President Robert Mugabe has urged to consolidate the legacy left behind by the country's liberation war heroes.

As expected, President Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF party features prominently.

MISHEK KAGURABADZA: These people you are seeing at the rallies, ZANU-PF rallies, they are not coming on their own accord. Either they have been threatened that if they don't attend certain repercussions will be applied to them or they have come because they have been promised they are going to get mealie meal, cooking oil or some basics free of charge.

Land has defined Zimbabwean politics for decades. And now, almost 30 years after gaining independence from Britain, it remains the number one item on the President's agenda. Today he's handing out tractors to black farmers as he rails against Zimbabwe's former colonial power, Britain.

PRESIDENT ROBERT MUGABE: They say we have robbed their sons and daughters of their land. Their land, not our land!

MISHEK KAGURABADZA: News should bring something that has not been heard of. That's news, that's the definition of news, anything that you have not heard of. But they are talking about the land since 2000, so this is no longer news at all. It is more of propaganda than news.

Land seized from white commercial farmers and meant for landless blacks has ended up in the hands of the ruling elite. It's pitted black and white Zimbabweans against each other, caused economic ruin and millions to flee. Lynne Evans is one of the few white farmers remaining in Zimbabwe.

LYNNE EVANS: We've got partners, we've got foreign investors, we've got an indigenous investor. We're actually quite nicely set up, thanks.

But meeting the government's black empowerment criteria was not enough to protect her or her partners from farm invaders. Five weeks ago her farm was seized by a senior government and ZANU-PF official. But she's fought the case, winning a high court eviction order. Today she's on her way to reclaim her farm. It's a risky mission. I'm filming secretly, as we have a policeman with us who does not know I am a journalist.

LYNNE EVANS: I would like to think that... there is a bit of respect for the High Court order now and that they have been evicted and that we don't have an incident so, but you actually never know that.

Police moved yesterday to evict the invaders. Lynne Evan's mission today is to take stock of what's left. She's finds the name of her farm has been changed.

LYNNE EVANS: Oh my word, it is Mushambe farm now. Ah, our guys have cleared the logs.

REPORTER: Is that the name of your farm?

LYNNE EVANS: No. It was blocked. They were here, the deputy sheriff was here yesterday trying to get in and it was blocked.

But we don't get very far onto the farm, for the farm invaders have come back. And it appears they have no intention of heeding the high court's decision ordering them from the property. With no phone signal and no way to call for help, a decision to retreat is made. But we're not quick enough. A tractor appears from nowhere and blocks our retreat. They target James, a friend of Lynne, who is on his own in another vehicle.

LYNNE EVANS: That's Mangorndo... Let's just watch. Ah, it makes you sick. Exactly, they wanted to come and block us from getting out. James, just sit tight, we are here with the police. Good morning Mr Mongordo. We are here with a member of... Don't tell me that, don't tell me that.

Mr Mangorndo is in charge of the farm invaders. He is a war veteran and a local ZANU-PF leader.

MR MANGORNDO, LOCAL LEADER: You are not the first one to take this place. You are playing with this land. Go call Mr Mugabe.

He refuses to accept the high court ruling, saying the only authority he'll accept is from the very top, President Robert Mugabe.

LYNNE EVANS: What about the high court decision?

MR MANGORNDO: There is no high court? There's no high court. Go and call President Mugabe, President Mugabe come here.

Told to leave, then blocked from doing so, then the invaders whistle up reinforcements. And despite the high court order we are chased away.

LYNNE EVANS: James must just head, Go James. They tried to grab his keys, wind your window up. Watch it, let's go.

REPORTER: He's going to throw a rock. Wind up your window.

LYNNE EVANS: Now come now, Mr Mangorndo. OK, it's me, let's go. Go, go, go.

From a safe position down the road tactics are discussed.

LYNNE EVANS: I think we all must just head, really, because they are angry.
But you know they have also given our labour a hard time. So we just need to get out of here.

CHRIS: This is the story. We went there, they've blocked the road and they wouldn't let us in, now they must get arrested, if the law is going to follow its course.

MISHEK KAGURABADZA: This is a chapter where Mugabe is using colour. This is a chapter in the whole big book of Zimbabwe where Mugabe is using colour, where Mugabe is using white colour so that he can get a vote.

Brian James is a second generation Zimbabwean who took up farming after hearing Mugabe's independence speech in 1980 calling for the nation to pull together. It's not safe to film openly outdoors so I'm using a hidden camera. He was run off his farm a decade ago and now stands to lose his business, an abattoir, and the only one in this province, which used to service the region and the capital, Harare.

BRIAN JAMES, FARMER: This was the main abattoir floor, separated the small stock to the bovine.

With the government last year imposing price controls overnight and now threatening to nationalise all white-owned companies, businesses have collapsed across the country. Brian James is running on empty. He's waiting on the election result to decide his next move.

BRIAN JAMES: I've no intention of restarting it until after the elections. There isn't the livestock available to us to warrant opening it and refurbishing it.

But Brian James is no passive observer. Angered over what's happened to his country, he's running as a candidate for the Opposition Movement for Democratic Change. This region has long supported the opposition, but two years ago, unable to exert control, the government sacked the council. Brian James sees this election as his last chance.

BRIAN JAMES: I lost a farm, this business that we try to keep going has more or less been trashed because of the price controls. Inflation has pushed us under as well. And I see a positive, free and fair election as a way forward and I am prepared to work for it.

And while campaigning is a risky proposition, the real danger is likely to come after the election.

BRIAN JAMES: One has to think that there are elements here that think there is only one party that can rule this country. The other side of the coin is that there is, and in my opinion, the vast majority of people know what the sentiment is and we believe that the last three elections have been won by the MDC. If they suddenly find themselves waking up on the Sunday morning and it's more of the same, it's difficult to judge what their reaction will be.

For ordinary Zimbabweans, the election is a sideshow to the daily grind of survival. This once proud nation now has the world's lowest life expectancy and the world's highest inflation rate, officially at more than 100,000%. Prices are now calculated in the millions of dollars.

REPORTER: What's the smallest note you have now?

MAN: Z$10,000 but people are refusing it because it is not buying anything. Z$50,000 we cannot take because it is not buying anything.

At independence in 1980 the Zimbabwean dollar was equal to the US dollar. This is what it costs today to buy a single banana.

REPORTER: How many do you get for Z$2 million?

WOMAN: Oh, one banana is Z$2 million?

With food subsidies scrapped, gone are the queues of a few months ago when people would scrum for cooking oil and bread and ground maize, known as mealie meal. This store caters for the well-heeled. But its goods are out of reach for all but the very rich, the party faithful, or those who have access to foreign currency.
This supermarket is one of the few that is completely well stocked. It's all imported goods. But to give you an idea of what this is worth, this bottle of tomato sauce costs more than what a person earns in a month.
With the situation deteriorating by the day, watching President Mugabe eat cake at his birthday bash in February was particularly galling for millions of hungry Zimbabweans.

MISCHEK KAGURABADZA: Well, it is very terrible. I am a family man. How can I splash on a birthday and spend trillions of dollars when my family is suffering?

While Mugabe eats cake, this man survives by eating the town's rubbish. And these scavengers pay for the right to sift through the town's garbage in the hope of finding anything to recycle. Getting enough to eat is a problem, getting sick is something most cannot afford.

MISCHEK KAGURABADZA: I've often told people at the rallies that if you want a few days of life it's better to go to Nyanga, to an African traditional healer, than to go to a medical hospital. Because the moment you go there, that's the end of it.

Once the pride of Africa, offering free health care for all, Zimbabwe's hospitals are now an embarrassment the government does not want the world to see. To be caught with a camera here would almost certainly guarantee imprisonment. And to protect the doctor we've changed his voice.

REPORTER: What's supplied by the hospital? Anything?

DOCTOR: Well, everything used to be supplied by the hospital.

NURSE: Nurses.

REPORTER: The nurses.

DOCTOR: Virtually nothing else at the moment. There are pharmacies which are empty. It's actually very difficult.
She's a stage four cancer, so she's on hormonal therapy. And she'll be going for radiotherapy.

REPORTER: If she can afford it?

DOCTOR: And that's in Harare. Chemotherapy we do here, but she won't be able to afford it.
How is your pain?

WOMAN: Ah, it is still there.

DOCTOR: She's in pain and she has got no money to buy what I prescribed.

For many Zimbabweans survival has meant fleeing the country. But getting out is not easy. People started queuing here early this morning to apply for travel documents.

REPORTER: How long have you been queuing this morning? What time did you get here?

WOMAN: 3.30 this morning.

Only emergency documents are issued, a lengthy process aimed at limiting the numbers leaving the country for neighbouring states. Passports, allowing travel further afield, can take years to get. Hoping he'll get his passport today, this man applied more than two years ago.

REPORTER: Do you think you are going to look the same as your photo from before?

MAN: Yeah, yeah.

It's estimated that more than a quarter of the country has fled, the majority to neighbouring South Africa. Political analyst Moeletsi Mbeki, the brother of South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki, says this election is a farce for many reasons, not least the number of people denied the right to vote.

MOELETSI MBEKI, POLITICAL ANALYST: As I say, the election is a charade because the population is not there. The population is outside the country. A large part of the adult population is not in Zimbabwe. And there is no provision for them to vote from where they are. And then, of course, the electoral role is controlled by Mugabe not by an independent election commissioner, even for the few Zimbabweans who remain at home. So really, as I said, the election in Zimbabwe is a caricature of an election.

As a sign of the deepening anger and disillusionment inside the country, there have been a number of coup attempts against President Mugabe. This man who does not wish his real name be used, he fled to South Africa last year. A former presidential guard, he was once willing to put his life on the line for Robert Mugabe. But no more. He admits to being part of a failed coup attempt last year, which has since led to the mysterious deaths of a number of high-ranking soldiers and the disappearance of possibly hundreds of others.

REPORTER: When you were told about the coup, who told you and what did they say you were going to do?

NDEBELE, (Translation): We were working with a commander and a lieutenant and they raised the idea with us. We were told that when Mugabe visited Malaysia, there was a plan the lieutenant had been given that originated from meetings with other commanders.

He is the first member of the presidential guard to speak publicly about the coup attempt.

NDEBELE, (Translation): Everyone was happy to hear it, because, if you look at our lives as soldiers back home, we seemed well looked-after by the President, but we weren't getting much money. That's why we were happy about the plan, as we could now get the things we'd always wanted.

But it's not just political refugees who are fleeing the country. Chido is the eldest child in her family. She left hoping to find a job to send money home. But her travel money ran out when she got to the border. Two women who offered to help her cross over to South Africa ending up selling her to a people smuggler to pay for their own journey across.

CHIDO: As soon as they went out he switched off and we were alone. He said, "I have to sleep with you and then I let you cross." I ended up giving in, but it wasn't what I wanted. It was against my will.

But he didn't help and she ended up walking through the bush at night to cross over a few weeks later. She didn't know then that her rapist had made her pregnant.

CHIDO: When I came here I tried to work because I wanted to have an abortion, that's what I wanted, but you can't do it because I think I'm almost eight months. I don't know what's going to happen to the baby but all I'm praying for is if I could get help, I get what's needed for the baby. As soon as I give birth, I know that myself I am a hard worker, I'll look for a job, I can do anything.

The Methodist Church in central Johannesburg is the first port of call for many Zimbabweans fleeing their country. Each night hundreds sleep here, packed into a building with half-a-dozen toilets. Bishop Paul Verryn says South Africa is not taking the human rights abuses across its border seriously enough.

BISHOP PAUL VERRYN, CENTRAL METHODIST CHURCH: People often leave Zimbabwe because of some fairly serious violation of their human rights because they are not belonging to the ruling party, to ZANU-PF. They come to this country and then they are hunted.

And that's a situation likely to continue in part due to indifference by Zimbabwe's neighbours. Political analyst Moeletsi Mbeki admits his views are at odds with his brother, South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki.

REPORTER: What do you say to your brother about it, you must have interesting discussions about Zimbabwe?

MOELETSI MBEKI: No, we don't have interesting discussions about Zimbabwe. He has his views, I have mine, we don't agree, and that's all there is to it.

Moeletsi Mbeki says if President Mugabe remains in office there can only be one outcome.

MOELETSI MBEKI: Well, the Zimbabweans, unfortunately or fortunately for them they have an escape route, which is South Africa. You will just have more mass migration out of Zimbabwe into South Africa and into Botswana and the neighbouring countries.

MISHEK KAGURABADZA, (Translation): The MDC will look after you better than you have been.

President Robert Mugabe has vowed to remain in office for life, but he's facing the biggest challenge to his 28-year rule. His opponents are confident that given a free and fair election it would deliver them victory, but the right to vote is not guaranteed. And even for those able to cast ballots, that's only the first step. Protecting the outcome may be the ultimate decider.