HOLDING OUR BREATH........

ZIMBABWE HANGS ON A KNIFE EDGE................

.....and it is inexcusable that 60 hours after voting ended, so few results have been officially released. It is extremely worrying that so much time has passed, because it is almost impossible to imagine a scenario when a delay like this is not caused by some sort of vote rigging or other manoeuvering.

That election observers are already leaving the country before the results have been fully announced throws the whole thing under an even bigger shadow than the dark one that already looms over the integrity and fairness of this crucial election.

That the SADEC South African observers (with the exception of 2 DA members who refused to sign) have declared this election free and fair so prematurely is nothing short of immoral and criminal, given the level of suffering there and the number of lives who will be impacted by the outcome of this election. There is not a chance, given the number of reports filtering out of the country to the contrary, that this election has taken place in a free and fair way and the honesty and objectivity of many of the observers is as questionable as that of the ruling Government there.

All we can do is wait and hope that our family and friends will be safe, and that sanity will prevail, because it is going to be tense there, whichever party is finally announced as the winner. There was a miracle here, when the anticipated bloodbath did not come to pass in 1994. Let's hope the same thing happens there.............

In the meantime, we continue to hold our breath.

(The rather disturbing picture illustrating this post is a painting I did last year, and is called "Fat Bobcat". I just got up one morning and started painting and this was the result...it was obviously a result of the frustration and anger brewing inside me about what Bob Mugabe is doing at the expense of his people. When you talk to Zimbabweans and get a true picture of the suffering they are going through, and then you look at his new mansion on Google Earth.... and when the true tales of torture, brutality, intimidation and gross corruption are told, it is impossible to have any belief in the integrity or humanity of this man. The only word I can apply to him and his henchmen is EVIL, and I guess that is what poured out of me the day I did this painting, it even took me by surprise!!)