'We Are Crying for Change'

No, this isn't another story repeating the tedious mantra of the Democrats.

It's all about people who really do need change, in the worst possible way.

Let's us hope God is smiling down on them this Saturday.

ZIMBABWE'S opposition is trying to thwart plans by the regime of President Robert Mugabe to rig Saturday¿s elections by offering cash rewards to anyone who comes forward with evidence.

A website and postal address have been set up in the Hague promising $5,000 (£2,500) for the first 40 whistleblowers, a fortune in a country where inflation of 150,000 per cent has reduced average salaries to the equivalent of £3 a month. Posters will go up this week advertising the rewards from an organisation called Zimbabwe Democracy Now. They warn: “It is illegal in Zimbabwe and anywhere else in the world for anyone to destroy, tamper with or try to hide election results.”

Among the offences listed are stuffing ballot boxes, voting in more than one station, bribing people with food, voting under orders from a superior and registering “ghost” or dead voters.

“We will see who is rigging the vote this time,” the posters declare. “We will not let our dreams be stolen.”

I'm sure Jimmy Carter will make sure of that, right?

Travelling across Zimbabwe from the townships of Bulawayo to rural areas in Mugabe’s home province of Mashonaland West and businessmen’s haunts in Harare, I found that every person I spoke to was demanding change. Not one wanted the 84-year-old Mugabe to stay on after 27 years in power.

“Look at what has become of us,” said Promise, one of a huddle of four scrawny men selling firewood along the highway from Chegutu to Harare.

“We used to work on a farm but we were kicked off when they threw out the white men and now we hide like animals in the bush, running away from police and hunting for mice.” He broke off to sell a bundle of sticks to a rare passing car for Z$5m (about 5p). “Zimbabwean electricity,” joked the driver. The country often goes for days on end with no power.

“We are crying for change,” said Elijah, whose salary of Z$300m a month as a waiter sounds impressive until he explains that his daily bus fares are Z$50m and school fees are Z$1 billion a term for his four children. “But these people know how to crook elections.”

Mugabe may have produced an entire nation of millionaires but, with Z$1m now worth just a penny, he looks set for a crushing defeat. Not only is he facing a third challenge from Morgan Tsvangirai, the popular leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), but last month his former ally Simba Makoni joined the race, splitting the ruling Zanu-PF.

“The mood is such, there’s no way Mugabe can win legitimately,” said Tsvangirai. “How can he with 90% unemployment, his record of beating people and demolishing their houses, and when he’s an 84-year-old who wants to govern till he’s 90?”

Belligerent to the end, Mugabe still blames the West for the mess Zimbabwe has become under him.

Prediction: Mugabe will steal the election, the worldwide left will remain silent (he is a Communist, after all), and all hell will break loose.

Some agree.

“LET’S not kid ourselves, dude. The old man is going to win — hands down.”