Below is a letter written recently by a coalition called the Save Zimbabwe Now Campaign. In the light of yesterdays move towards a so-called power-sharing government I wonder what it means to have a President and Prime Minister from two different political parties. Is it too stark to say one as the oppressor and one as the oppressed? Its not that simple but there are many more challenges ahead for the country of Zimbabwe as it collapses in relation to water, health, work and faith in the future.

Please read and share with your networks as appropriate.

6th February 2009, Parliament Cape Town, Honourable Members of Parliament:

We the people of South Africa and the Southern Africa region greet the Honourable members of the South African Parliament on this day of the official opening. We are a collaborative movement of activists, practitioners, academics and religious leaders, standing together in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe at this critical juncture in our regions history.

We are reminded that as we celebrate the advances of South Africa’s own democracy there are now officially over 68 000 confirmed cholera infections and over 3500 people spread across the SADC member states have died of this preventable and treatable disease. We need also to remember that in contrast to the relative freedoms enjoyed by our parliamentarians and those within their constituencies who are not forced by poverty into a prison of their own, the people of Zimbabwe are being violently repressed, even as their leaders sit and reach agreements.

The continued incarceration of opposition activists, the ongoing extra-judicial violence and terror carried out against rights defenders and pro-democracy activists and the systematic undermining of the legal system that has led to a de facto breakdown of the rule of law have demonstrated that the Zimbabwean state can no longer provide adequate protection to its people. A clamp down on the media and public expression masks the true extent of the countries plunge into military rule and economic profiteering.

A team of retired South African generals visited Zimbabwe in May 2008 to investigate the violence. The full report that was presented to then President Thabo Mbeki, who was leading the mediation process, has now been classified and its contents never shared with the rest of the SADC Heads of State.

We want to know why. Who in parliament will help us to find out?

On their return members of the delegation led by Lt-Gen Gilbert Lebeko Romano described the violence as shocking and horrific, with vivid descriptions of “scars, cuts, gashes, bruises, lacerations and broken limbs, and bodies of those killed." Frighteningly eye witnesses in Zimbabwe, and many who have fled in recent days, report that the violence is on the increase again, with the resurgence of familiar patterns of victimisation by state forces and militias and revenge attacks on suspected activists and their families. This in happening in spite of the signed agreement and we will be working to bring the facts surrounding these incidents to public attention.

An immediate end to this violence is at the heart of the call we are putting to the South African Parliament today. South Africa has a critical role to play in holding Zimbabwean political parties accountable to the letter and the spirit of the Global Political Agreement they helped to mediate. And it is you, the parliamentarians, who also have to hold our own government accountable if they fail to meet their constitutional obligations here at home, and their legal and humanitarian responsibilities as signatories to SADC, African Union and United Nations protocols. The very fact that the will of the majority of Zimbabweans has been ignored, manipulated and distorted has already been raised as a matter of concern by the Pan African Parliament. Now we are asking you too to stand up and speak out in a call for violence to end, for easy access to people who need help by those who can help them, and to speak truth to power in pointing out that however convenient the current agreement may be, it has not produced a legitimate outcome, and that it is only a free and fair election, under a peoples constitution that will ever achieve this. Those not committed to this should remove themselves from the process.Part of our people-to-people solidarity includes exposing the horrific conditions faced by Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa. The poverty of so many people in South Africa extends to vulnerable migrants and there are many who are hungry and cold at night, who have no shelter and no access to services, who are victims of sexual abuse and exploitation. The constant threat of harassment, extortion or deportation from corrupt South African Police Service Officers, and the inhumane treatment often received from Home Affairs officials, is compounded by an undercurrent of violence and fear that still exists following the outbreaks of xenophobic violence in May last year. Here is an area of enormous need that the South African Parliament could begin to address today! Over the next few weeks we will be intensifying our efforts to highlight the violent repression and catastrophic humanitarian consequences of political mismanagement. In a symbolic action aimed at demonstrating solidarity and drawing attention to the great hunger that has swept across Zimbabwe our supporters are embarking on days of fasting and prayer. Kumi Naidoo and Nomboniso Gasa will both fast for a total of 21 days. As an indication of the growing popular support for our demands and the anger and frustration people are feeling already more than 40 000 people have signed up to participate in a hunger strike or fasting action. We appeal to each and every one of you to join our solidarity campaign and to use every opportunity, on the benches of parliament, in your organisations and places of worship and in your homes and communities to keep attention focused on Zimbabwe and the needs of the Zimbabwean people. A piece of signed paper does not bring freedom, but the collective actions of all of us will make a difference. The time to act is now!

Sincerely The Save Zimbabwe Now Campaign