Like Mugabe, Museveni has stayed too long
(March 1, 2007)
TREVOR NCUBE, 44, owns The Zimbabwe Independent and Zimbabwe Standard newspapers in Harare. A former Executive Editor of The Financial Gazette, Ncube also owns South Africa’s newspaper Mail & Guardian. Ncube, born in Zimbabwe of a Zambian father and Zimbabwean mother, has fought several court battles with the Robert Mugabe government. He has been arrested for writing about Mugabe’s marriage, had his passport confiscated and citizenship cancelled by the government until the court declared him a Zimbabwean last month. While in Kampala last week, Ncube spoke to RICHARD M. KAVUMA about the situation in Zimbabwe
Were you surprised that you won the court case in Zimbabwe?
I think the Zimbabwean government had no particularly vested interest in me losing this case. It is trying to project an image of a government that is trying to rehabilitate itself. They are trying to build bridges with the international community and my case would have been a fly in the ointment.
The Zimbabwe you see in the international media appears to be on its death bed; is it that the situation couldn’t be worse?
What you read in the papers is a fraction of what is taking place. Zimbabwe is a victim of a president that has been in power for too long. The situation is very dire. Unemployment is at 80 percent. Inflation is at 1,500 percent. Interest rates are 300-500 percent.
There is grinding poverty. Zimbabweans have been dehumanised by President Mugabe because of his economic mismanagement, the corruption, and the basic abuse of people’s human rights.
Yesterday there were demonstrations; the leader of the opposition party Morgan Tsvangirai got a court order for these people to be able to demonstrate. He waved the court order at the Police; the Police don’t give a damn at what court is saying. They went ahead and banned that demonstration.
How hard is it for an ordinary Zimbabwean to get by?
It is very difficult. People are starving. There have been reports of people surviving on roots. A lot of us in South Africa are supporting our parents in Zimbabwe through sending food because it doesn’t matter if you have the money; the food is not available in the shops.
Basic things – sugar, cooking oil, salt, fuel – are not available. The black market has taken over. The politicians have chipped in; they are the ones now importing fuel and making a killing out of the people’s poverty.