'Mugabe needs to go no matter what... he is evil'

Jul 19 2008 by Hannah Davies, The Journal

Hannah Davies speaks to Rev David Bedford whose recent visit to a church in Zimbabwe has left him convinced Mugabe must go.

“IN my opinion Mugabe is an evil dictator. I’d put him in the same category as Hitler in terms of how he’s operating.”

Strong words – but the experiences of Rev David Bedford, who last month returned from a trip to Zimbabwe, have left him in no doubt as to what needs to happen in the devastated country.

“Mugabe needs to go no matter what. Hopefully it will be peacefully but he is an evil man and I don’t think force could be ruled out.”

David, 57, is a vicar at the Trinity Church on Gosforth High Street, Newcastle. He first went to Nkulumane, Zimbabwe in 1992 to see the efforts of the local people to build a church.

Following the £3.25m redevelopment of Trinity Church it was decided the church should spread their good fortune with others.

“We wanted in the light of our good fortune to help another church in its development.

“As I had been out to Nkulumane and experienced their efforts to establish a church, we decided it would be ideal to help them in creating their building.

“When you say a ‘church’ in Zimbabwe you mean a gathering of people, not necessarily a building and we wanted to help them get that building.” So far over £5,000 has been raised for the Nkulumane church which is being put into a new building.

The close links between Trinity and the Nkulumane church led to David and church council member David Lowry flying out to Zimbabwe in June to visit the church, but also to show their support to the community in difficult times.

David is married to Lorna, who also works at Trinity Church, Gosforth, they have two children aged 23 and 21.

He says: “In 1992, it was a positive experience going to visit. The country was starting to suffer under Mugabe but they didn’t have the horrific inflation and the roads were still OK. It was still a reasonable and an exciting place to be. I was taken to Nkulumane, a township of about 500,000 people. It is a poor area, people there don’t have many of the things we take for granted.

“But given that last visit was 16 years ago, it was important we establish the link with the church in person and stand with them in a very difficult time. And we wanted to see how the money we gave was being used.”

The Foreign Office has advised against all but essential travel, and the pair admit they were a little scared of what might happen during their trip.

David adds: “We were aware of the risk we were taking, the Foreign Office advised essential travel only we were advised by the United Reformed Church that officially we shouldn’t go but unofficially we were given the choice and encouraged to go.

“We had also had a lot of emails from the place we were visiting saying the difficulties were mainly in rural areas not the urban areas. We did get stopped by the police on a number of occasions. Perhaps if we had gone on our own it would have been a different story but as it was we were accompanied by Zimbabwean countrymen and we had no problems.”

On arrival David was unprepared for quite how dramatically Zimbabwe had changed.

“From the start the difference was obvious, we arrived by a small charter plane instead of the Boeing I’d arrived in previously. Into a temporary terminal which looked like it was going to be permanent.”

The two Trinity Church members’ journey to Nkulumane was in a decrepit car along devastated roads.

“We had to stop twice to give the car a rest before we continued on our way. It was in a sad state of repair.”

They also stopped to buy petrol on their way, a vivid illustration of the dire effects of hyper inflation on the country.

David Lowry, 52, a retired Northern Rock worker, explains: “At the time we were there, petrol was $1.1bn a litre, it’s since gone up to $20bn.

“When we were there it took us 20 minutes to count out the money to buy the petrol and the person who was selling it to us another half an hour to check it was all there.”

The hyper inflation has also affected the donation of money towards building the church in Nkulumane.

Trinity Church in Gosforth send out the money to Zimbabwe via Western Union and as soon as it is received, it needs to be spent on materials and labour to beat the inflation.

Despite the difficulties the church community in Nkulumane are facing, they are managing to build the church thanks to the enthusiasm of the community and the financial support of Trinity.

David says: “We attended services which were amazingly passionate. They went on for hours and were full of the love of god.

“The community hopeful about their situation and that of Zimbabwe.”

He says: “One thing which is not fading is the hope the people have that Mugabe will be taken out of power.

“Everybody wants him gone, not one single person I spoke to was in support of him.

“Compared to my last visit in 1992 Zimbabwe is a country in meltdown. That’s as a direct consequence of Mugabe’s 28-year rule, there’s no doubt at all about that in my mind.”

David comments: “We heard many stories about what was happening in rural areas where there are less observers to the situation.”

During the first round of the recent elections, which have been discounted by international observers, David explains there are many accounts of people being “persuaded” to vote for Mugabe using heavy-handed tactics.

He adds: “We heard plenty of stories about people being marched into polling stations and ordered to vote for Mugabe, of thousands of votes from people in the army being counted who didn’t exist.

“Whole villages ordered to vote for Mugabe yet spoiling their ballot papers or just refusing to vote for him.”

It’s a pretty harrowing account, and one which understandably outrages David.

Supermarkets, the equivalent of Sainsbury’s or Tesco, are left with barely a handful of items to stock on the shelves.

Their hosts decided to take them on a trip to the world-famous Victoria Falls, a place David had visited on his previous trip in 1992.

“There was only a handful of tourists there, and this is one of the great sights of the world,” he remembers.

“We also went to the Huwangi National Park where we saw no one else, and at the Chipangalli Wildlife we were the only visitors and saw animals in a terrible state.”

Despite the troubles of the Zimbabwean people, both Davids say the hope for the county lies with the people who live there.

Rev Bedford said: “To say the people were welcoming would be an understatement.

“They embraced us as friends, sang songs to and for us, showered us with rich hospitality and gave us gifts personally and for Trinity Church.

“They were delighted we’d come over and stood side-by-side with them in a difficult and testing time as brothers and sisters in Christ in solidarity and given them hope at a time when hope was a scarce commodity.

“To be with them was a privilege hard to explain.

“There is a huge faith there that god will out and things will change. In beginning of June there were great hopes for the re run of the election, of course they didn’t get that ultimately but the faith remains strong.”

If you would like to make a contribution to the Zimbabwe church, contact David Bedford on pastor@trinitygosforth.org.uk, or call (0191) 285-5130.