Source: Ghost Birds, Frogs and Men With Whips – Cathy Buckle
Dear Family and Friends,
These early mornings as summer draws to an end, the mist hangs in our gardens and somewhere in the branches of a tree the eerie drawn-out whistle of a ghost bird (Grey-headed Bushshrike) is a reminder that the seasons are changing. The summer birds have gone and at night and in the early mornings there is a chill in the air. Out of nowhere an unexpected late rain storm lashed my home area last night. Half a dozen sausage flies and a handful of crickets appeared and a little reed frog climbed up the kitchen wall, a beautiful little creature with a green back, cream stripes, red blotches and reddish pink toes. You couldn’t make up these colours I thought while another 25mm (one inch) of rain pounded down. With so much variety and beauty all around it’s hard to watch the other side of the story about events in Zimbabwe as we approach our 46th anniversary of Independence.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe just introduced new ZiG banknotes. They say these notes are more durable, convenient and secure than the ones they originally released only 2 years ago. The new ZiG bank notes have such miniscule exchange values to the US dollar, that frankly we are bemused at the expense of it all. Only 3 denominations of the new notes have been released, the $10 ZiG note which is worth less than 50 US cents; the $20 ZiG note worth less than one US dollar and the $50 ZiG note which is worth less than two US dollars. The highest bank note available today in Zimbabwe isn’t even worth two US dollars. As it has been for 25 years, Zimbabwe’s rapidly changing, short-lived bank notes are worth more as collectors’ items than as money in our pockets.
Zimbabwe’s new bank notes were just a momentary distraction from the latest events in the final 30 days of the public consultation period about the ruling party’s proposed amendments to the Constitution.
In the past 60 days we’ve seen opponents to the amendments being beaten, arrested, attacked and threatened. In the past week the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission was in the firing line. ZHRC Chairperson, lawyer Jessie Majome, released a statement about the Constitutional Amendments saying that the public hearings had been marred by the systematic suppression of dissenting voices. The ZHRC said that some venues for the hearings had been controlled by youths, with vetting at entry points restricting access. Ms Majome said that in Mashonaland West, “men holding whips were involved in vetting participants in Mhondoro-Ngezi.” The ZHRC said: “The Commission observed instances where participants with divergent views to the proposed amendments were threatened, silenced, denied opportunities to contribute and in some instances physically attacked.”
Three days after releasing the ZHRC report Ms Majome was fired from her post by President Mnangagawa and reassigned to the Public Services Commission. Lawyers immediately said that it was unconstitutional for the President to have removed Ms Majome from her position. Lawyer David Coltart said a Commissioner can only be removed for incapacity, gross incompetence, or gross misconduct and only the Judicial Services Commission is empowered to initiate those proceedings. David Coltart said “None of this has happened in Ms Majome’s case. She clearly isn’t incapacitated and clearly isn’t incompetent. There has been no allegation of misconduct. This was a brazen breach of the Constitution.”
Hearts are heavy in Zimbabwe the day before our 46th anniversary of Independence. In the past two months we have again become a nation that whispers and looks over its shoulder. It feels exactly like the build up to an election and the tactics to silence voices and instill fear are the same as always. Those awful words that we know so well have again become everyday vocabulary: abduction, beating, threatened, silenced, attacked, blindfolds, whips and batons.
Please don’t forget about Zimbabwe as we walk this treacherous path paved by people who want to stay in power.
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Until next time, thanks for reading this Letter From Zimbabwe now in its 26th year, and my books about life in Zimbabwe, a country in waiting.
Ndini shamwari yenyu (I am your friend)
Love Cathy 17th April 2026. Copyright © Cathy Buckle https://cathybuckle.co.zw/
Please visit my website to see all my Books, Photobooks and Calendars https://cathybuckle.co.zw/
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