[I got a call from SW Radio which broadcasts into Zimbabwe from England. Thanks to my good friend and school chum, The Bearded Man, I got my first into to SW Radio.

The Bearded Man had his first interview on SW Radio a short while back. Its really great seeing how the “old boy’s network” is kicking in strongly for those of us who come from Zim.

I got a call from another white ex-Zimbabwean who now lives in the American north west. He fled Zimbabwe a few years ago. He got seriously active after Mugabe blew up the Daily News in Harare in his efforts to shut down free speech. Eventually this white guy and his family had to flee from Zimbabwe. He told me that they were living in their suitcases as they were going from one hiding place to the other. They were really worried as they got on that last flight out of Zimbabwe. He breathed a huge sigh of relief as that plane took off, without Mugabe’s intelligence people discovering him. Now he lived in the USA and is one of the broadcasters on SW Radio which operates out of the UK and which broadcasts into Zimbabwe.

I was expecting an hour’s interview at least. But then he explained to me that this is not possible any more. What happens is that the Chinese are have people inside Zimbabwe and they block SW Radio broadcasts. There is currently a “radio war” being waged by SW Radio as they change channels constantly when the Chinese block them. One could say that SW Radio is “Radio Free Zimbabwe”. They are broadcasting the real news and the truth into Zimbabwe, and Mugabe does not like this. They are having such difficulties broadcasting into Zim that they have switched to AM because that is harder to jam.

So it appears as if they broadcast in little chunks at a time. God only knows how people manage to pick up the broadcasts. But this electronic war is raging quietly.

The old British schoolboy network as I say still kicks in. The guy who phoned me asked me what years I spent at Churchill High School. He then told me he had gone to Prince Edward High School, and that they had whipped us in rugby! Sadly I could not defend Churchill High’s rugby record – I had to concede that they did beat us. I had to bite my tongue though because I felt like saying that Churchill High was the better of the two anyway!! But its awesome meeting up others who have fled from Zimbabwe. We’re spread all over the world, and we’re still fighting that bastard Mugabe.

I told him of my activities and that I find it OUTRAGEOUS that Mugabe hasn’t been punished for what he has done in the last few years. He felt the same way.

As things stand, this will be my first exposure on radio outside of the USA – which is the only place I normally get any radio exposure. And to get a chance to even send a 5-8 minute sound bite back into Zimbabwe will be a delight.

As things stand, the plan is for my sound bite to be broadcast on SW Radio on the internet on tuesday, while the actual broadcast will go into Zimbabwe on wednesday.

As we were chatting he said to me: “I’m trying to find positive news about Zimbabwe because there just isn’t anything positive”. I said to him, in my view, the only positive news would be if someone would start a war to throw that bastard out. That would be the only positive news I want to hear.

But hearing about the Chinese jamming also got me thinking.

As I mentioned, my brother used to travel through Zimbabwe to other black countries with his trucking business. However he has stopped that now because it is becoming too dangerous. My brother mentioned that over the years, he had always taken an automatic shotgun with him on his trips. He hid it inside his truck. You’re not supposed to take weapons into Zimbabwe. But he had mentioned a time back that he stopped taking the shotgun when he started hearing rumours that the Chinese had installed some type of X-Ray equipment which they use to X-Ray the vehicles which pass into Zimbabwe.

I also heard from a black Zimbabwean woman who works here in Johannesburg, that the Chinese are flooding into Zimbabwe. She comes from Bulawayo, and the Chinese are taking over the businesses there. They seem to even be driving the blacks out of business.

Now in recent weeks I put out a news report that China is moving into Africa in a BIG WAY – all across Africa from Nigeria to Zimbabwe. I mentioned that the USA and France are both really worried about this.

Now the Chinese presence actually presents some new OPPORTUNITIES. I do not think the USA and the Western world will take this lightly. I think, if the Chinese come in to bolster up Mugabe in a big way, and if they try to stifle Zimbabweans then you might see the CIA and MI6 taking more serious action against them. The USA and the Europeans regard Africa as “their playground”. I don’t think they will take massive Chinese intervention lightly.

All of us who are against Mugabe, must just knuckle down and keep up the struggle. The game isn’t over yet, and I think Mugabe is raising the stakes by bringing in the Chinese.

Maybe there is yet hope of an armed struggle in Zimbabwe in the coming years. I said in the past that a number of us Rhodesians are still game for another scrap with Mugabe. Maybe, God willing, we’ll get a chance to help the blacks in Zim take Mugabe and his cronies out. I certainly hope so. Then there would be rest for our souls. Jan]