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INSIDE AFRICA
Crisis in Zimbabwe
Aired October 18, 2008 - 12:30:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ANNOUNCER: Soaring prices and nearly worthless currency.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 8,000.
ANNOUNCER: The most basic human needs nowhere to be found. And the government unwilling or unable to stop the misery. What is it really like to live in such a place?
Nkapile Mabuse takes on a forbidden journey inside Zimbabwe in this special edition of INSIDE AFRICA.
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NKEPILE MABUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You join me in Johannesburg, South Africa, where the plight of Zimbabweans is evident everywhere you go. This gas station is constantly busy with Zimbabweans carrying food and goods to struggling relatives back home. Some are coming in to try and find work, so they can support those they've left behind. These people have become the lifeblood of the Zimbabwean economy.
Now, CNN and other international organizations are not allowed to operate inside Zimbabwe due to a long-standing ban by the Mugabe government. Those who violate this ban face arrest. Yet I recently made a week-long trip to Zimbabwe and was careful to avoid the notice of (inaudible). Everywhere you turn in Zimbabwe, people are struggling to survive.
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MABUSE: Once the envy of many countries in Africa, Zimbabwe is falling apart. People here go for days without electricity and months without water. They line up to get just about everything, from gas to money.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You come in the morning and go without even getting money.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People are just stranded. Some even eat here and sleep here in the queues.
PRES. ROBERT MUGABE, ZIMBABWE: We won those elections.
MABUSE: The policies of Robert Mugabe's government have brought not only international isolation; they have brought the country's economy to its knees. Millions of Zimbabweans have fled, unable to cope with the highest inflation rate in the world, now officially sitting at over 200 million percent.
The Zim dollar continues to depreciate at such a staggering rate, many store owners now trade in foreign currency. 80 percent of the population is unemployed, and even with a job, life is tough in Zimbabwe.
As one of the better paid teachers, Milundi Sevelempeni (ph) earns the equivalent of $10 U.S. dollars per month. The only reason he has so far managed to survive, he says, is because his salary is paid in food and accommodation. Employers are even paying workers with fuel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you are driving to work every day, let's say, and you earn cash and you don't earn fuel, you'll probably find for most salaries which you can earn for -- for professionals in Zimbabwe, you wouldn't be able to afford to drive yourself to work every day. Because compared to how much you earn, the fuel is very, very expensive, because the fuel is indexed in foreign currency and U.S. dollars.
MABUSE: Mugabe's government has recently imposed price freezes, in yet another futile effort to deal with an economy that is in freefall. As a result, some stores have simply shut.
But in this and many other supermarkets, there is absolutely nothing on the shelves anywhere, and the reality is it is the black market, where government restrictions don't apply, that is the real economy in Zimbabwe today, and the only way those with disposable cash manage to survive.
Zimbabweans purchase their basics such as bread on the black market, and if you want to exchange money, you can find a dealer on almost every street corner in the capital Harare. A few Zimbabweans are cashing in on the economic crisis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very difficult to -- to motivate children to aspire to be lawyers and doctors when lawyers and doctors can't afford to buy a vehicle.
MABUSE: The World Food Program estimates that nearly half of the population will need food assistance by early next year.
In stark contrast to the daily suffering here, Mugabe still manages to drive around in a vintage Rolls-Royce. His signing of a power-sharing deal with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai last month briefly brought some hope that things may change for the better here, but experts say that in the unlikely event that the agreement is implemented and seems to be working, it will take years for normalcy to return to Zimbabwe.
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Even clean water is in short supply in Zimbabwe. When INSIDE AFRICA continues, we meet a family of seven who lost its sole provider to a water- borne illness. And still ahead, the few doctors and nurses who have not left Zimbabwe struggle to treat patients without the necessary equipment and supplies.
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MABUSE: Welcome back to the special edition of INSIDE AFRICA focusing on Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe's crumbling infrastructure has led to an outbreak of cholera. The Mugabe government says it can no longer provide clean water, even in parts of the capital, Harare. Consequently, many are forced to drink from contaminated wells and streams.
Joy Kabade is among dozens who have died of cholera in recent months. He was a senior lector at the University of Zimbabwe and the sole provide for a family of seven. Now they're left to grieve and wonder where their next meal will come from.
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MABUSE: Raw sewage from burst pipes spews like a fountain contaminating everything in its path, including wells and streams where many Zimbabweans are now getting water.
Robert Mugabe's government says it does not have enough chemicals to clean water. It has simply stopped providing it in some areas. So the daily struggle that has become life in Zimbabwe is getting worse for many.
Those living in the capital Harare and surrounding areas tell us they have not had running water since October of last year.
As a result, aid agencies say there is the deadly outbreak of cholera in the country. The government confirms there have been 18 deaths, but the Zimbabwean Association of Doctors for Human Rights believes that number is higher.
29-year old Joy Kabade died of cholera last month. He was a lector at the University of Zimbabwe, the only employed member of this household of seven living just outside the capital. We met his family on the day Kabade had planned to get married. His mother was too distraught to talk; his sister is angry.
ZVISINAI KURIRAI, SISTER OF CHOLERA VICTIM: In (inaudible) young brothers and young sisters, he was the supporter, he was the sponsor of the family.
MABUSE: Kabade was in the process of building his family a new home, the project that had taken him years. His family says cholera took his life in a matter of hours.
MABUSE: It is from drinking water from a well like this one that Joy Kabade is believed to have contracted cholera. Despite this, many here, including the Kabade family, continue to use wells and other risky ways of getting water because they simply have no choice. UNICEF and other aid organizations are providing water and chlorine tablets to the most affected communities, but these are not reaching everyone. Some here drink this water without even boiling it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, we're scared but -- what are we going to do there? Just (inaudible) if you're not drinking water, not eating, what of the young, the children? (inaudible).
MABUSE: Zimbabwe's health ministry acknowledges that the lack of proper infrastructure in this impoverished nation is behind the outbreak, and says the government has dispatched teams of health workers to educate people and provide them with water tanks. But we never saw these teams, and the residents we spoke with had not either.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, they don't give you (inaudible), because (inaudible) they're drinking good water.
MABUSE: Health minister insists the outbreak has been contained, but medical activists disagree.
DR. DOUGLAS GWATIDZO, DOCTORS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: Definitely, the government is not capably -- does not have the capacity to -- to control this -- the spread of -- of cholera, or to put a stop to it at the moment.
MABUSE: If the sources of the problem are not addressed, experts say there will be many more grieving families like this one.
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MABUSE: Zimbabwe's public health care system is yet another casualty of the country's economic freefall. It used to be one of the best in Africa, but now people are dying of preventable and treatable diseases on a daily basis. That's because most nurses and doctors have left the country, and those who have stayed behind lack even the most basic supplies.
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MABUSE: This is the biggest hospital in Zimbabwe. Inside, patients wait for hours to get help, because doctors and nurses have left the country's collapsing public healthcare system in droves. We're told there is only doctor available at a time to admit the sick, and an eight-hour gap every day where there is no doctor at all in the emergency ward.
GWATIDZO: The equipments can't be repaired. In some instances, they can't even buy the (inaudible) to use on those equipments. Simply, X-ray facilities in one or two of the hospitals have not been working, because they can't get the film to process X-rays.
MABUSE: CNN is banned from reporting inside Zimbabwe, but we managed to sneak into two of the country's largest hospitals to witness the conditions for ourselves. Basic tools, such as gloves and syringes, are in short supply, and there aren't nearly enough drugs to go around. Lifesaving operations are routinely cancelled because there is either no one to perform them, or no resources. Doctors say they witness preventable death on the daily basis, mostly from AIDS. In the 15 minutes that we were in this ward, the disease claimed yet another victim.
With anti-AIDS drugs, he could have lived longer, his doctor tells us.
The only notice in the visitors' room reads, "Remember to collect your relatives belongings after they die."
This man had pneumonia and meningitis. He died two days after our visit. In his case, doctors did not even have antibiotics to give him.
Parts of what was once Zimbabwe's busiest hospital lay empty. Many Zimbabweans are having to nurse their own sick, while others watch on helplessly as their families members die.
These hospitals are in the center of the capital Harare. We're told that in other cities, as well as the rural areas, the situation is much worse, and that increasingly, Zimbabweans are turning to alternative healing methods that are often not altogether safe.
With the admission fee at public hospitals nearly half a doctor's salary, health care has become out of reach for the average Zimbabweans. A respected traditional healer we visited told us that her clientele has burgeoned.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They'd rather come to us, and they get a bit of powder for whatever illness they have. Our own charge is much less than the doctor charges them.
MABUSE: She says unlike the hospitals, she does not turn those without money away.
Years of financial mismanagement and international isolation have left Robert Mugabe's government unable to even guarantee hospitals an uninterrupted supply of water. And the people Mugabe seems determined to rule for the rest of his life are paying the price with theirs.
An opposition activist lies in the hospital bed, permanently maimed in the campaign of the political violence. When INSIDE AFRICA continues, he tells us why he feels betrayed by his own party's leader.
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MABUSE: Making business news in Africa. Kenya reportedly was spending extra $13 million this year to attract visitors. The tourism minister told Reuters the campaign will target new and traditional markets. An outbreak of post-election violence dragged down Kenya's tourism industry earlier this year. The sector is slowly recovering, but the government still expects a 23 percent drop in earnings.
GlaxoSmithKline says it will become the leading drug company in Egypt. The British company is buying an Egyptian arm of competitor Bristol Myers Squibb. The $210 million acquisition includes a plant near Cairo, which manufactured more than $48 million worth of drugs last year. Glaxo says Egypt's pharmaceutical market is worth an estimated $2.1 billion.
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MABUSE: Welcome back to INSIDE AFRICA. I'm Nkapile Mabuse, reporting from Johannesburg on the situation in Zimbabwe.
Now, political violence left scores of Zimbabwean opposition supporters maimed, injured or dead this year. An activist named Kudakwashe was severely burned and so two of his friends die. They were all doused with petrol and set alight in the MDC office they were working and sleeping in. He shared his story with us, but we must warn you that the following report contains images that some viewers may find disturbing.
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KUDAKWASHE TSHUMELE, VICTIM OF VIOLENCE: I'm not feeling .
MABUSE: Kudakwashe Tshumele is angry, and says he's in excruciating physical pain. Four months ago, this 22-year-old was an energetic and passionate campaigner for Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC. Today, he can't walk, has lost sight in one of his eyes, and most of his body has third-degree burns.
During the height of political violence in Zimbabwe, he says he and four of his colleagues were doused with petrol and set alight in an MDC office, allegedly by supporters of President Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe's government says those responsible whoever they are should be prosecuted. Police have not named any suspects in Tshumele's case.
We met Tshumele in Zimbabwe, where he is recuperating. Doctors say he is lucky to be alive. Two of his friends were killed during the incident; two others survived. While Tshumele`s wounds were healing, his political leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the MDC, was signing a power-sharing pact with the man Tshumele blames for his friends' death and his injuries. A deal that, Tshumele says, legitimizes Mugabe's presidency, despite Tsvangirai having received more votes in the only election declared credible in Zimbabwe this year. Tshumele feels betrayed by the power- sharing deal, and says what he went through was not worth it.
"The only sensible thing that should have happened, and that still needs to happen is for Mugabe to go," he tells us, "because he lost the March 29 election."
In that election, Tsvangirai gained more votes than Mugabe, but election officials said neither candidate gained enough for outright victory. Tsvangirai pulled out of the run-off vote in June, accusing Mugabe's government of election-related violence, claims Mugabe denied.
It was during the run-up to the runoff that Tshumele was attacked. He says he knows the people who did this to him.
TSHUMELE: I know them.
MABUSE (on camera): You know them?
TSHUMELE: Yes.
MABUSE: Who are they?
TSHUMELE: They're all veterans, those people.
MABUSE: But those behind this, and numerous other alleged politically- related beatings, torture and killings have, according to the MDC, not been apprehended.
The government, on the other hand, claims that scores of people are currently being prosecuted. Meanwhile, Mugabe has blamed much of the violence on the opposition.
The deal signed by Tsvangirai and Mugabe last month refers in general terms to national healing for victims of election violence, but says nothing of justice.
"We should be compensated since we were petrol-bombed at an MDC office," he says.
There are many like Tshumele, who believe that with the stroke of a pen and a handshake, their suffering was reduced to nothing.
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MABUSE: There's been so much suffering for so long in Zimbabwe, but some young Zimbabwean musicians are striking a positive note in the United States. Coming up, Bongo Love put on a show while promoting education.
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MABUSE: Welcome back to this special edition of INSIDE AFRICA focusing on Zimbabwe. Four young Zimbabwean musicians are reminding American audiences that there is more to their country than suffering and sorrow. Bongo Love, as they're known, are bringing their special brand of upbeat music to venues all over the United States. INSIDE AFRICA caught up with them at a recent show in Athens, Georgia. We leave you now with the sights, sounds, and philosophy of Bongo Love. I'm Nkepile Mabuse. Thanks for watching.
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JOHN MAMBIRA, BONGO LOVE: This song reminds of our families back home in Zimbabwe. We are them in spirit and in heart. This song is called "Kohaya (ph)." It means home, OK? You guys, are you into helping us play this song? All right.
The lyrics, the rhythms that we use in our music, it's traditional, it's Zimbabwean. Even if it's a sad song or a happy song, you wouldn't tell. Spreading that word of Zimbabwe, how it is, you know. Not in a bad way, but just like letting them know the current situation.
As musicians, wherever we're traveling, this is our opportunity to spread the good faith, the culture. We just want them to know there is a small country in Africa called Zimbabwe with this beautiful kind of music that they have never had before.
THEMBA MAWOKO, BONGO LOVE: It means a lot, honestly, to be the ambassadors of our country, to spread the word. If it's music or singing. We used to be the (inaudible) people, and we still are, despite all the, you know, differences going on in our country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Zimbabwe is a beautiful country. Everything, culture, music, you know, we've got the love.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're really looking forward to going back home.
MAWOKO: As things are with our economy and all, but if you walk around Zimbabwe, you just like see people still are smiling. Love, peace and harmony. It's all about love, peace and harmony. We have to spread that word, that message, and keep on smiling. Everything is going to be all right. It's just a passing phase.
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