Young warriors Truth sayers | Cronin: Zimbabwe's warrior spirit - a celebration of the man who led a guerilla army to liberation from white oppression. But after two decades in power - President Mugabe's leadership is far from secure. A new opposition is gathering strength - demanding change and an end to Mugabe's rule. The president's response - to play the race card - backing a wave of invasions of white owned farms. | 00:11: |
Mugabe Super: Robert Mugabe President, Zimbabwe | Mugabe: Those farmers who are planning violence, please listen to this message. | 00:39 |
| We can unleash greater violence than they. |
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Harare riots | Cronin: On the streets of the capital Harare. increasing anger and anarchy, as elections approach. | 00:56 |
Map Zimbabwe |
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Mugabe arrives, greets party officials | For twenty years Robert Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe virtually unchallenged. His party - ZANU-PF - holds 147 out of 150 seats in parliament - a majority that has bred complacency and greed. But his grip may finally be slipping. Mugabe's allies have grown rich at the expense of the poor. Corruption and economic mismanagement have pushed Zimbabwe to the brink of financial collapse. A new political party threatens to undermine his power. | 02:26 |
Tsvangirai Super: Morgan Tsvangirai President, MDC | Tsvangirai: The man has run around amok without any checks and balances. So parliament became irrelevant, the people became marginalised, and the man ruled like a king. | 02:01 |
Mugabe/Dongo | Dongo: You know he was a person who had a feel for the nation and he was fatherly, he would listen to everybody. But there's been a sudden U-turn - a sudden change - from building Zimbabwe to destroying Zimbabwe | 02:15 |
Harare market/Cronin
Super: Katy Cronin | Cronin: In the past couple of years Zimbabweans have suddenly become much poorer. the number living in poverty has now reached more than 70 per cent and half the workforce is unemployed. Those with jobs have seen 60 per cent inflation eat into what little they have - and it's that economic crisis that's galvanised a new opposition movement against the Mugabe government. | 02:31 |
| Cronin: As elections loom Mr Mugabe is trying to shore up his party's fortunes, turning - as many politicians do - to old enemies. |
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Mugabe address | Mugabe: We cannot continue to exist here, to live as if we are extension of the British empire - or England - we are Zimbabweans, fully independent, we get our instructions not from Downing Street, directly from our people and from nobody else! | 02:41 |
Audience listens to Mugabe | Cronin: Whipping up racial resentment over land ownership, Mr Mugabe has encouraged landless peasants and former liberation fighters to march onto white owned farms. | 03:10 |
Mugabe | Mugabe: There is enough land in this country and out of 12 million hectares what we want are about half of that, 5 million plus, and only 4,000 farmers own 12 million hectares of the most fertile land in the country. Why can't they agree to 5 million plus coming our way? | 03:21 |
Guys cutting grass, building camp | Cronin: The president denies he's instructed the war veterans to act - but has done nothing to enforce court rulings that say the occupations are illegal. | 03:49 |
| Across Zimbabwe up to 900 farms have now been invaded by ZANU-PF supporters. This group has set up camp within sight of Rory Hensman's homestead. | 04:02 |
Hensman Super: Rory Hensman | Hensman: It's a very real threat when you've got someone standing there saying, chap you're on the next boat to England - you can't take it with a pinch of salt. | 04:17 |
Chirava Super: Nigel Chirava War Veteran | Chirava: Well I didn't intimidated him but I told him that we have come to occupy your farm. Maybe somebody can say its intimidating - but I was telling him that we are here now to occupy the farm. | 04:27 |
Hensman house/Hensman interview | Hensman: I was born here. I've lived here all my life. I've never had any intention of going anywhere else and I still don't. I've sunk my life into this farm - I love it, I've got people working for me here who worked for my father. We've got a number of chaps here who've been here - well - well over 50 years now. | 04:48 |
Herding cattle on farm | Cronin: Rory Hensman's father bought this three thousand acre farm in 1942. Over the years - as well as grazing cattle - he's planted soya, tobacco and seed crops. With more than four hundred workers, it's a lifestyle he simply couldn't have anywhere else. | 05:12 |
Chirava | Chirava: They've driven all of our forefathers from this land - so now I don't think they belong here. But if he wants to stay with us - there is that room for him to do so because he is a citizen by birth. we can even give him 30 hectares that everyone is going to get - or 90 hectares whatever. | 05:36 |
Farm workers | Hensman: I don't believe it's a question of land at all. there's plenty of land available - they all know that, everyone knows that. It's a political gimmick by ZANU-PF to intimidate the farmer and the local population. Cronin: Intimidate them to do what? Hensman: To vote for ZANU-PF. | 05:54 |
Bindura rally
| Cronin: But despite the poverty of Zimbabwe's rural heartland, the government-backed land grab is not endorsed by all. | 06:21 |
| Guy on megaphone: Fathers wake up, you're being ruled by a criminal! Crowd: Fathers wake up, you're being ruled by a criminal! | 06:30 |
| Cronin: Here in the town of Bindura - thousands of farm workers - fearful of losing their jobs - have come to hear the leader of the movement for democratic change - Morgan Tsvangirai. | 06:38 |
Tsvangirai to crowd | Tsvangirai: Change your ways! Crowd: You must change your ways. Tsvangirai: The government is run by a criminal! Crowd: He must go! | 06:53 |
| Tsvangirai is a popular trade union leader whose opposition party is polling strongly ahead of general election. He condemns farm invasions - saying land redistribution must be lawful - with proper compensation for those who choose to leave. | 07:00 |
| Tsvangirai: WE want you to understand the land must be distributed but it must be distributed in an orderly, transparent and equitable manner. | 07:15 |
| Tsvangirai: The government, that is ZANU PF, has failed to have fundamental land reform in the past 20 years. It has always been ad hoc - | 07:30 |
Tsvangirai Super: Morgan Tsvangirai President, MDC | no long term planning for that land reform. Some of the land stock that is in the government hands has ended up with senior government officials and ministers. The people who need that land have totally been excluded. Cronin: If you were prime minister, how would you deal with the farm occupations? Would you have those people evicted? Tsvangirai: Of course. But we will engage them and say - look if you want land you go to the people who are being registered and being trained for farm resettlement. You cannot be allowed to run around the country like outlaws, violating and deliberately breaking the law. Cannot accept that. |
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Tsvangirai at rally | Cronin: Tsvangirai peppers his rallies with calls for transparency, accountability and an end to corruption - regularly calling for Mugabe's arrest. Tsvangirai: First you must arrest the head of corruption - and it is Mugabe! | 08:21 |
Mugabe | Mugabe: He's making of course a political statement - and if I were to be arrested for corruption - you would have to say - well what corruption there has been? I don't want to say I'm an honest man but I leave the people to judge me. | 08:41 |
Tsvangirai | Cronin: You say at every rally Mugabe should be arrested, and in fact the other night, you just said arrest the bugger. What specific grounds do you have to justify that statement? Tsvangirai: Well first of all I think that ? will have to be, from the facts that are on there, on human rights abuses- on breaks of the law - when he has taken to uphold the law - on threatening opponents with death - on corruption - and I think there's so much evidence on corruption - bad deals - externalisation of resources from this country - there's so much. | 08:59 |
Performers at MDC rally | Cronin: The MDC, promoting itself as a party for all Zimbabweans, has already chalked up one significant victory over Mugabe. In February, together with other opposition groups, it defeated a referendum proposal which would have allowed the government to seize white owned farms without compensation. The result was a defining moment for businessman Bill Searle - one of a wave of white Zimbabweans who are now putting their votes - and their money - behind MDC. | 09:41 |
Searle Super: Bill Searle MDC Supporter | Searle: I realised there was a chance of very real change in this country - I believe the racism that we thought - that a lot of us whites thought existed - actually doesn't exist any longer. it's purely in the minds of the ZANU-PF people - they want it to be there. I've decided to throw my weight entirely in and help these people win this election and I believe it can be done. | 10:13 |
Mahiya at rally | Mahiya: Forward with the heroes who died for Zimbabwe! Crowd: Forward! Mahiya: Forward with Comrade R.G. Mugabe! Crowd: Forward! | 10:36: |
| Cronin: But supporting the opposition brings with it threats of recrimination. | 10:50 |
| Mahiya: If it means that all of us are going to die - MDC is never - and I'm saying never -- going to rule this country. |
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| Cronin: Douglas Mahiya is a leader of the war veterans in Harare. | 11:04 |
| Loyal to the president - he's been organising farm occupations - and threatening violence if anyone tries to stop him - especially the MDC. |
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| Mahiya: We will continue fighting until we get that land. Whoever is stopping us from the land, we will fight. |
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Mahiya Super: Douglas Mahiya Chairman Harare War Veterans | We will use all methods to ensure we have the land because it is the same struggle that is continuing - in other words - the struggle continues. | 11:25 |
War Veterans' march/MDC marchers | Crowd: Change! Change! Change! | 11:34 |
| Cronin: Conflict has already spilled onto the streets of Harare - as an opposition march turned violent. | 11:40 |
| Before the protest began authorities tried to block it - even though the marchers had a court order and official permission to go ahead. | 11:49 |
| When they finally started walking, the crowd of a few hundred grew to thousands. | 11:59 |
Violence on street | It was too much for Mugabe's loyalists. From ZANU-PF headquarters - men armed with whips, clubs, and branches ambushed the protestors. | 12:09 |
| Whites were singled out and brutally bashed. |
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Man with bloodied face | Man: I got beaten up by the so called ZANU-PF guys. They were nothing but a set of hooligans and thugs. | 12:22 |
| Cronin: Scores of others - black and white - were clubbed, kicked and beaten. Man: We are really disappointed. This country belongs to 12 million people - not 50,000 war veterans. This is our country. If Mugabe's time to goes comes, he will definitely go, we will make him go. If he wants a war, we will leave our offices and go to war. The public knows what's wrong and right. Mugabe is no longer wanted by the people. The people want a new leader. | 12:30 |
Heroes' Acre | Cronin: Twenty years ago president Mugabe led his nation from white rule to independence. | 13:01 |
| Here at Heroes' Acre, tribute is paid to those who gave their lives for the struggle. | 13:08 |
| But even one who fought with Mugabe against the forces of Ian Smith now says he's lost his way. |
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| Margaret Dongo, a former freedom fighter, says she went to war for democracy. Today, she accuses Mugabe of using the same methods as his white oppressors. | 12:21 |
Dongo Super: Margaret Dongo Independent MP | Dongo: I was fighting the system - and this is why you find me standing up again against Robert Mugabe, because it is the system I believe in - it's a question of principle. Mugabe is doing the same thing - he's even much more worse than Smith and that's why I'm standing up to remind him to say that's what we were fighting against, and you don't have to repeat it yourself. | 13:32 |
| Cronin: Her outspokenness led to her expulsion from ZANU. She's now one of only three opposition members of parliament. But in the past she was close to Mugabe, and especially his first wife Sally, who encouraged her to go into politics. | 13:57 |
Photo of Sally | Dongo: It's a pity that we lost that woman, she was quite a strong character and I want to believe that she was mother of Zimbabwe - and she was sort of a character who tried to bring all races, colour whatever it is together. | 14:12 |
| After she died the president's life changed suddenly - and his behaviour - and I want to believe that that's where things started changing - that's where he even lost his feeling for the people and his focus was diverted. | 14:27 |
Mugabe's wedding | Cronin: In 1996 President Mugabe married for a second time - to a woman forty years his junior. While Sally was an active political campaigner, Grace Mugabe is better known for her dedication to shopping. | 14:50 |
Mugabe at function | The president seems to be slipping away from his earlier ideals - constantly blaming Britain for his nation's woes - with erratic outbursts against the Blair government - whom he describes as gay gangsters. | 15:09 |
Mugabe | Mugabe: But of course we know that that government has lots of people who are psychiatry cases. Or depraved homosexuals who think a man can be a woman. | 15:24 |
| In Tony Blair's government they are homosexuals who are given to that kind of life. They believe in it, they want us to accept it. We have said no we won't accept it here. | 15:44 |
Band playing | Cronin: The president is increasingly isolated. Among the people, there is an growing sense of disappointment. Song lyrics: Guys, hey there is corruption in the land! | 15:59 |
Mapfumo Super: Thomas Mapfumo Singer/Songwriter | Mapfumo: They fought in the liberation struggle thinking that their future was going to be a better future - but today there's no better future. See it's like everyone is suffering in this country. | 16:19 |
| Cronin: Thomas Mapfumo - the lion of Zimbabwe - once made music about liberation. Today he sings songs of corruption - which ZANU is trying to ban from national airwaves. | 16:43 |
| With his finger on the popular pulse, he says the message to Mugabe is that it's time to go. |
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| Mapfumo: People don't want - I mean the president any more - they think he has stayed a long time and they have actually had enough of his ruling party, the ZANU-PF, and so they are looking for a change. And when they say they want some change, that means they want a new leader. | 17:05 |
Polo match | Cronin: For Zimbabwe's white farmers there's been a huge shock as their vast landholdings were made the focus of political rage. And their fears have been exacerbated by parliament's decision to overturn the results of February's referendum. | 17:41 |
People singing in field | Song: Start the war...start the war - The war that won't end. | 18:00 |
| Cronin: Ignoring the peoples NO vote - the ZANU dominated chamber has passed a bill allowing the government to seize farms without compensation. But it's the poor who have not received the land they were promised at independence and who have felt the worst effects of cronyism and bad economic management. | 18:07 |
Eunice and woman Super: Eunice Muzonzini Farm Squatter | Eunice: Myself, I'm a widow. I have five children, no land, the same with my father in law. With this family, a family of seven, so when am I going to get the land. | 18:26 |
Hensman | Hensman: By just giving every Tom, Dick and Harry a hunk of land, is not going to solve that problem. | 18:40 |
| Cronin: Rory Hensman still expects to get a million dollars for his tobacco crop this year - while his workers are paid just fifty dollars a month. After this bitter election campaign neither would expect much more from President Mugabe. | 18:49 |
| Singing |
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END |
| 19'10 |
| ZIMBABWEReporter KATY CRONIN Camera GEOFFREY LYE Editor STUART MILLER Research ADRIAN BRADLEY Producer IAN ALTSCHWAGER |
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