Many a tear falls as London or Johannesburg-bound flights are about to take off from Harare International Airport. Sorrowful scenes of families weeping as loved ones depart have become a regular sight as families are torn apart - some never to see each other again. These public scenes of harrowing personal grief are the practical outworking of disastrous government policies – including its ill-advised and shambolic land-reform programme – and total intolerance of any political opposition. The result has been almost total economic collapse and a reign of terror by political thugs and war veterans which has made life in Zimbabwe intolerable.
Only two airlines fly out of Harare directly to Europe – British Airways and Air Zimbabwe. All the other airlines have pulled out of Zimbabwe during the past 10 years for a variety of reasons, chief among them being security concerns, unreliable fuel supplies and low traffic volumes due to the collapse of the economy in general and the tourism sector in particular. Flights depart daily for Johannesburg – and thence to the rest of the world. Tearful scenes are witnessed before just about every one of these flights.
Other tears are also shed at the Harare International Airport by the family and friends of political deportees. These are more sinister departures, which take place through back entrances away from the glare of public attention. Mainly involving members of the clergy and journalists, a number of deportations have taken place lately in bare-faced defiance of court orders obtained to bar them. The most recent deportee, journalist Andrew Meldrum, even had a hood placed over his head to prevent public recognition en route to the airport and to stop him shouting to attract public attention once in the airport premises.
All this gives me an uncanny sense of deja-vu. I spent a lot of time on the balcony of the old Salisbury Airport terminal building back in the seventies – seeing off relatives and friends leaving an intolerable Rhodesia. The white ones were mostly being deported for opposing Ian Smith’s rebel government and the black ones were fleeing the increasingly repressive racist legislation and harassment. In addition, education and professional employment opportunities for blacks were few and far between and white parents were becomingly increasingly resistant to sacrificing their sons in the escalating war of Independence.
Most of the deportees were members of the clergy and journalists. As I said –uncanny!
I remember how we used to sing “Ishe komborera” on the balcony – in a vain, desperate final act of defiance. This stirring pan-African hymn was regarded as a call to arms for Africans and all Afrocentrics all over the world.
In those days there were no direct flights to Europe at all – the illegal Rhodesian regime was under international sanctions. South African Airways and Air Rhodesia flew to Johannesburg and Air Malawi (then under the maverick Malawian dictator Kamuzu Banda) flew to London via Blantyre.
The parallels between Rhodesia in the seventies and Zimbabwe a quarter of a century later are remarkable, and can perhaps be summarised by the same two words – greed and intolerance.
Today’s parents will beggar themselves to pay whatever it costs to get their sons (and now their daughters too) out of the bloody clutches of a dictator. There have been ominous public pronouncements about government’s intentions to make national service compulsory before young Zimbabweans proceed to tertiary education. Border Gezi co-ed youth training camps have already been established in every province – with a curriculum focussing on unarmed combat, military tactics and an overdose of Zanu (PF) propaganda. The level of propaganda drummed into the current intakes, mainly comprising unemployed youths from the rural areas, is so blatant it takes one’s breath away. A popular current slogan goes like this: “The only Blair that I know is a toilet.”
The Border Gezi youths, who are accommodated in rough barrack-room style and fed and clothed but not paid, have been dubbed the “Green Bombers” on account of their green military-style fatigues. They are regularly let loose on peaceful demonstrators or praying women in the city streets or in high density residential areas in the early hours of the morning. At every opportunity they practise their unarmed combat on innocent civilians with vicious and unskilled enthusiasm. It is understood that drug abuse and rape in the camps is widespread.
The parallels spread to the economy too. As in those far away seventies there is no foreign currency, no fuel, shortages of all sorts of things. One difference is that the shops now are full of imported goods – but no ordinary Zimbabwean can afford them.
At independence in 1980, the airport was a hive of activity. The international airlines returned en masse. Some of them, including Qantas, relocated their offices from Johannesburg to Harare because of increasing abhorrence for apartheid. Parking space on the apron became a problem as Jumbos jostled Airbuses, Tristars and DC 10s for parking space. Even hitherto unseen Tupolevs and Antonovs, from the eastern bloc countries, became a familiar sight as Harare rivalled Johannesburg as the regional hub with regular connections to Angola, Uganda, Tanzania, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi. Mozambique, Kenya, Swaziland, Lesotho and Mauritius.
The airport then was the setting for scenes of jubilation for months. Families separated by war, exile and oppression were re-united as Zimbabweans came home in droves to their newly independent, democratic, peaceful country. Zimbabwe took her place on the international stage with her head held high. Human rights were respected, the judiciary was highly regarded and the police were friendly.
The price of air travel was reasonable –competing airlines vied with each other to fill their seats. Nowadays, British Airways and Air Zimbabwe have a monopoly over the direct route and as a consequence they charge exorbitant fares, simply because they can. We have a ridiculous situation whereby it is half the price to fly to Europe via Johannesburg – although this adds several hours and 2000km to the journey. For some time now tickets for international and regional travel have only been available in foreign currency. The pricing structure at Air Zimbabwe is as erratic as its flight schedule. Some months ago the price fluctuated from Z$400.000 for a return ticket to London to over Z$1 million and back down to Z$500.000 when the planes were mostly empty. Every now and then the airline decides that it will only accept foreign currency for ticket purchases. Similarly, the flight schedule is subject to extremely erratic behaviour. Flights are cancelled peremptorily. Not enough money for fuel, or landing fees are overdue, or the plane is simply unavailable because President Mugabe and his entourage have commandeered it to travel to some far-flung destination.
Apart from the prices of tickets and the skin colour of the tyrannical government of the day, the only real difference between the harrowing departure scenes of the 1970s and those of the present is that of surroundings. In the past the goodbyes took place on the open air balcony of the old terminal building with a clear view of the planes on the tarmac. This gave families the chance of one last glimpse of their loved ones as they boarded the plane. If the plane was parked close enough you could even see them enter the plane and blow kisses right up until the moment the plane took off.
Nowadays, the surroundings are much more opulent. Goodbyes are said in the vast, cold, ill-lit departure hall of the monstrous new Harare International Airport with its floors of Italian marble – completely closed to the glorious blue sky.
It was built by the dubious-sounding Hazy Investments, owned by Leo Mugabe (nephew to the President) who won the tender for the multi-million dollar construction project in extremely controversial circumstances.
Leo Mugabe had no money with which to undertake the project for which he bid. The conditions for winning the bid were the system known as “Build, operate and transfer” – a system whereby the bidder had to finance the project himself and run the facility for a period of 30 years (thereby recouping his investment) before handing it over to the government.
When government tried to force Parliament to agree to a loan facility for Leo so that the project could go ahead, Zanu(PF) members of Parliament rebelled for the first time in nearly 20 years. They boycotted Parliament and threatened not to vote. Despite this heartening display of independence, they were soon whipped into line and the loan went through.
The airport building has few, if any, redeeming features. It is topped by a most unattractive tower purporting to symbolise the sacred stone tower at the Great Zimbabwe Ruins. The baggage handling facilities are appalling, the acres of marble floors are slippery, the shops are dreary and ill-stocked. It is, however, easy to clean and requires little maintenance.
But the weeping families don’t notice these little details. They have eyes for nothing but the faces of those they won’t see again – for a long time.
All columns by Wilf Mbanga
| Wilf Mbanga, one of the founders of the independent Zimbabwean daily newspaper "The Daily News", is currently living in Tilburg, the Netherlands. He writes about the differences between Tilburg and Harare. His column is printed weekly in "Het Brabants Dagblad". |
