WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-07-17 Time: 08:00:06 Posted By: Jan
By Kate Douglas
Martin Mudze* fled Zimbabwe in 2001 after Zanu-PF members chased him from his house in Chipinge in the eastern highlands, close to the Mozambican border.
Mudze says that as a supporter of the opposition MDC he had been beaten by Zanu-PF members.
“There was also no food for my family and I decided I had to find work in South Africa,” he told the Cape Argus in an interview on Tuesday.
| ‘I can’t explain how angry I was’ |
Mudze entered SA by illegally swimming across the Limpopo River and filed for asylum with the Department of Home Affairs in Cape Town.
In 2004 he was granted asylum for a period of two months provided that he did not leave the country during this time.
Since then he has had to reapply every two months, often having to appeal decisions that rejected his application. In June, for the first time, he was granted asylum for a period of six months.
“I think the South African government is starting to realise how bad it is in Zimbabwe after these last elections,” said Mudze.
However, once a year Mudze returns to Zimbabwe, in violation of his asylum grant.
| ‘If you didn’t go to their base they would come and burn your house down’ |
“My family is hungry and there is no food in the shops for them,” he said.
On June 4, Mudze returned to Zimbabwe for three weeks and with the money he had saved from working as a gardener in Cape Town, he hired a truck and drove to Mozambique to buy food for his family. He bought a large quantity of maize to take home.
However, while returning home he was stopped by Zanu-PF members at a roadblock in Zimbabwe and had all his maize confiscated.
“They told me that I must give them the maize because there was no-one hungry in Zimbabwe,” said Mudze.
Mudze said he was not the only person to have food taken because he saw that they already had a truck full of confiscated food.
“I can’t explain how angry I was,” he said shaking his head.
The following night Mudze was visited by the Zanu-PF Youth League who forced him to come to their base every night where he was made to sing songs supporting Zanu-PF.
“If you didn’t go to their base they would come and burn your house down.” he explained.
Mudze believes that he and his family are particularly vulnerable to Zanu-PF harassment because Lovemore Madhuku, the chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly and a known Mugabe critic, lives in the area. Madhuku’s house was recently burned down.
“I miss Zimbabwe and my family,” said Mudze, “but I cannot live there now.”
Since 2000 a total of 66 587 Zimbabweans have applied for asylum and only 710 have been granted full refugee status by the South African government.
* Not his real name