In a recent two-week visual arts workshop, kindly financed by the sculptor, Dominic Benhura and held at his premises at Christon Bank in Zimbabwe, Sculptors, painters, installation artists all worked together. Artists experimenting with found objects, tying and sewing canvas, paints splashed on canvases, against the background of the sculptors hammering on stones. Watching the artists what was apparent was not the 'finished object' but the process. The process of artists working side by side, experimenting, reflecting and enjoying a scenic environment to produce work. A network of painted A4 painted images lay on the floor to be added to by each artist as the workshop continued, so that a large collective piece could be formed.

Where sometimes words fail us, images have always been captivating. They are a
reflection of our lives and are part of the political landscape. They exert an influence over societies, attitudes and opinions and bear witness to the injustices of our times
while they inform, educate, decorate and warn us against complacency. Ultimately
they add to our life experience. During the countdown to the Zimbabwe 2000 elections many of you will remember I produced around 50 'graphic commentaries' in an attempt to chronicle and highlight the many issues that shaped the reality and atmosphere of our predicament, with one aim in mind, -to raise the consciousness of our situation and similar ones in the world at large. These were distributed daily by email on the internet. The Zimbabwe presidential elections are to be held on 9th & 10 March, once again under a cloud of violence and intimidation, that has surpassed our worst nightmares. Now Robert
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party cynically cloak their human rights abuses in legislation using laws to dismember and disenfranchise our citizenry. The country is practically destroyed, and on its knees facing hunger and starvation because of the power hungry. Once again these images are intended for all and anybody's eyes and can be disseminated and used in any way and every way to spread the truth about our deteriorating situation. The madness has to be stopped and if these images can make the slightest difference, then they need to be out there.

Concern is mounting that violence will follow this weekend's presidential election no matter who wins.

Zimbabwe has been polarised by a long campaign for the 9-10 March election. President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai have been demonised by their rival camps, and a close poll is likely to see violent acts of resistance and a settling of scores, commentators warn.

Mutual fears exist on both sides of the party divide, political analyst Brian Kagora told IRIN. If Tsvangirai wins, his greatest political threat is expected to come from the senior ranks of the army, war veterans, and the ruling party's militia who have repeatedly warned they would not accept his presidency.

A Mugabe victory is expected to trigger an "explosion" in the urban areas, the political base of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Kagora said. Mass protest in support of former trade union leader Tsvangirai, would aim at making Zimbabwe's cities ungovernable.

"The biggest determining factor is the stance taken by the candidates themselves. If they extend an olive branch to each other for some kind of managed transition we won't have the kind of explosion that everyone fears," said Kagora.

But there is little evidence as yet of attempts to reduce the political tensions that have surrounded this winner-takes-all election. Instead, "this is a virility contest" between the two candidates, suggested Nancy Kachingwe of the regional NGO network, Mwengo.

THE MUGABE WINS SCENARIO

"I truly believe that either way we are going to have some kind of violence. Our current government is extremely desperate and cannot afford to let anybody else in because of its record," commented political analyst Janah Ncube.

"If MDC loses we all know it will be because of rigging. People have invested a lot of hope for change in this election." She added that the MDC may not be able to control the ensuing street protests.

Given the scenario of urban resistance to a Mugabe victory, draconian legislation recently introduced is increasingly seen as aimed at political control in the post-election period. "A lot of people [perceived as government opponents] are going to be in trouble," said Ncube.

The Public Order and Security Act restricts people's rights to freely gather. It also makes it a crime - punishable by up to 20 years in prison - to ridicule, denigrate or excite disaffection with the president or institutions of government.

"That means it is impossible to criticise the government," explained human rights lawyer Taiwanda Hondora. The act also makes it an offence "to create an organisation that seeks to coerce the government - meaning all lobby groups".

The government's notorious information law seeks to regulate the independent media. A delayed labour relations bill subverts the right to strike. All these new pieces of legislation could be interpreted as prepared in readiness for the rigging of the poll, said Kagora.

Of equal concern is an old law, the Electoral Act. Section 158 allows the president to override any other legislation that relates to the election and validates anything he does, said Hondora.

"If ballot boxes are stuffed, Mugabe can pass a statutory instrument that can legalise that," he added. Under the security law, it would be illegal to even suggest that the president was doing anything untoward.

However, a crackdown would deepen the international isolation of the government and rule out any economic recovery. It would eventually precipitate a new crisis of legitimacy, noted Kagora. "The government would have to be even more militaristic in the containment of discontent," he added.

Reginald Machaba-Hove of the Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network believes that the margin of the electoral victory by either side would determine local and international acceptance of the result. The closer the result the bigger the trouble, he told IRIN.

A win by Mugabe would allow countries in the region to "rally behind the result in a wish to see this problem over". An emphatic victory with little evidence of overt rigging would see mass protest action ebb within "two to three weeks".

THE TSVANGIRAI WINS SCENARIO

A Tsvangirai victory by a small margin could lead to the ruling party unleashing "unaccredited violence". Acts of sabotage and banditry "could create an environment where the army is welcomed to restore law and order", Machaba-Hove said.

The irony would be that Tsvangirai would inherit Mugabe's security laws, enabling him "to crush the opposition", Kagora noted.

Mugabe's election campaign has tried to make a direct connection to the independence era, and link Tsvangirai and the MDC to white "Rhodesian" interests and British imperialism. Mugabe has tried to evoke the spirit of the "chimurenga" (liberation war) in an appeal to nationalism and resistance to perceived "anglo-saxon" interests.

War veterans and ruling ZANU-PF party militia have reportedly been warning the rural population - as a form of electoral intimidation - that they would return to the bush if Tsvangirai were elected. The countryside bore the brunt of Zimbabwe's bitter independence struggle.

But Kagora sees the main threat to a Tsvangirai presidency coming from the senior politicised ranks of the military, rather than rank and file troops and militia. An insurrection would suffer from a "lack of consensus and would be easy to deal with", he predicted.

However, Ncube is concerned that the MDC, if confronted by insecurity, would be just as ready to clamp down as its predecessor. "The only politics they know is ZANU-PF politics. 'Change' is a process, a culture, a mindset, not just a word," he said.

According to Kachingwe: "I don't think the MDC are any more protected from the traps of being in power than anyone else." She added that the MDC was still a broad based movement that had not yet had a chance to become a party and address some of its internal contradictions.

But for Kagora the biggest challenge to a Tsvangirai presidency would be the crisis of expectations generated by the economy's decade of decline, and the popular demand for a new order. "People are expecting magic," Kagora says.

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The governments of Zimbabwe and Mozambique have come in for sharp criticism for their repressive approach to the media in the latest edition of the Commonwealth Press Union's broadsheet "CPU News".

The World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors’ Forum (WEF) have protested against the recent arrest of two journalists, Edwina Spicer and Jackie Cahi in Zimbabwe, calling it “the latest part of an ongoing government campaign to intimidate journalists”.

An "explosion with devastating consequences" could engulf Southern Africa if President Robert Mugabe tampers with the results of March 9-10 presidential elections in Zimbabwe, the heads of four major international rights groups have warned this week.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe suffered two potentially serious setbacks in the courts when both the Supreme and High courts gave judgments against his government that are likely to boost the opposition vote at next month's presidential election.

Top Zimbabwean generals, government Ministers and close relatives of President Robert Mugabe have made millions of dollars from the illegal smuggling of 'blood diamonds', a US diamond executive has claimed.

Zimbabwe has banned the BBC but John Sweeney spent two weeks there, secretly filming witnesses to torture and mass murder.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo says a deal has been reached at the Commonwealth summit in Australia on the question of Zimbabwe. He said Zimbabwe would not be suspended from the Commonwealth before next weekend's presidential election. But, after the election, the new committee will consider the report of the Commonwealth's election observers and take action against Zimbabwe if they think it is necessary.

The Southern African region does not have a rosy history of electoral transition. From its anti-colonial struggles where millions of lives were lost and whose legacy still lives in liberation movements turned into ruling parties, the politics of various countries in the sub-region are still a long way from delivering democracy. The region has had various ways of dealing with political crises as they occur but the Zimbabwean situation is a unique one.

Statements from ZANU(PF) members inciting violence.

The President of the Zimbabwe Civil Service Employees Association, Ephraim Tapa, and his wife Faith Mukwakwa, have been missing since the 16th of February when the vehicle they were traveling was intercepted by war veterans at Corner Store between Mutoko and Murewha.

Zimbabwe's dreaded spy agency is directing President Robert Mugabe's election campaign and is the brains behind the so-called plot implicating opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in Mugabe's alleged assassination, it was established this week.

Zimbabweans are facing yet another drought and dwindling maize stocks. They throng the depots hoping that they can buy just a bag or two of maize or maize-meal. Although it was clear by early last year that the country would face a severe shortage of the staple maize, the government waited until stocks ran out before making frantic efforts to import maize.

An unspecified number of Zimbabweans are reportedly fleeing to South Africa through illegal exit points as violence mounts in Matabeleland's rural areas ahead of the presidential election.

March is Zimbabwe's month of destiny. A generation ago, in March 1980, we held our breath to see who would take the prize - the right to lead Zimbabweans into the future, and build a new independent nation. We knew that the war was over, Independence was around the corner and one or other of the nationalist parties would certainly be in power in April.

Now we face another March election which will determine our future for another generation. But there is no certainty, there is palpable fear. This election takes place when ZANU PF and Mugabe have ruled for 22 years. During the last two years they have watched their popularity wane as a result of failed economic polices and massive corruption. They have jumped around like a hare in the headlights trying desperately to save themselves, and the results have been catastrophic - the halving of commerical agricultural production, the crippling of much of our manufacturing sector, collapse of public education and health services and the exodus of both the professional and non-professional labour force in search of incomes that sustain their families. All of this is accompanied by state-sponsored violence which seeks to force on the population a result which they do not want - another six years of ZANU PF.

The effects are clear - inflation of 117%, unemployment approaching 70%, replacement of highly productive commercial agriculture with small scale and subsistence farming, deep poverty, deep frustration by a relatively highly educated population. And then nature - or God, or the ancestors, depending on your belief system - intervenes to provide a devastating drought which is already causing acute hunger, leading to open starvation.

In the midst of this chaos and suffering the Presidential election offers us a chance to start again, to abandon the path of destruction down which we have strayed. Can anyone imagine that a people as sophisticated as Zimbabweans are could vote for the same people who brought them into this terrible situation? No one believes that the majority of Zimbabweans will vote for President Mugabe. Opinion polls confirm what we all see with our eyes, hear with our ears and feel with our hearts. Recent violence has alienated what little support ZANU PF retained; they are left with their patronage clients who can desert them only at their own personal peril. Zimbabweans will not vote in large numbers for Mugabe.

If Mugabe can accept that fact, admit defeat and hand over power, then we have a chance - a chance to rebuild our country, to redistribute our land resources rationally, recreate our industry and perhaps the prerequisite for all of these, develop a democratic political environment. We can be the strength of the region, drawing investment, drawing tourists, drawing back our own population who have fled from economic insecurity. It will not be smooth sailing; it will be a struggle, but we will have another chance, and will have support from the international community to help us get started. The whole region will benefit from the rejuvenated economy.

Sadly, this scenario appears less and less realistic. In February two years ago, in the face of a defeat at the referendum on the constitution, Mugabe made a brave speech accepting the will of the people. But within days he launched his violent land reform and instituted measures which had been directly rejected by the voters.

What if Mugabe refuses to give up this time? He could do it by announcing a win for ZANU PF. Or he might accept that MDC had won the election, and then concoct a situation which would give him some kind of excuse not to hand over power. He has already told SADC he will accept any result except recolonisation, which is his euphemism for an MDC victory. Many Zimbabweans are not aware of the constitutional provision that although the election results will be announced on March 11, the new President only takes power on April 1. Three weeks to play deadly games.

Zimabweans will not believe any announcement that Mugabe has won. But will they react? This can not be known. And how would they react to an announcement of an MDC victory followed by a manipulation through the arrest or even assassination of Tsvangirai, the declaration of an emergency, an army intervention or any of the other possible tricks which regimes with their backs to the wall can dream up? Again, we simply don't know. But we can be sure that either of these situations will bring disaster to Zimbabwe,
and depression, perhaps worse to the region.

If Mugabe "steals the election" in whatever way, we can be sure that the international community beyond Africa will deepen their boycott. We will be more isolated. Even if Mugabe abandons some of his extremist policies in the hope of placating the west and luring back aid, it is unlikely that he will get the desired response. It is more likely that he will complete his land reform, as he puts it, we will be isolated, opposition will be brutally suppressed (he has already said he will ban the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions), thousands will flow out of the country. Our agriculture will remain largely at the subsistence level, manufacturing will not recover, and of immediate concern, where will we get food to eat in the middle of a drought?

Mugabe may then rely on the friendship of Libya to keep fuel flowing and even to bolster his security, but at a price - land and other economic assets in Zimbabwe, some of which have already been handed over. There is little evidence that Libya is a better coloniser than Britain or any other European power, and much evidence of serious mischief in other African countries in trouble.

If there is resistance, whether on a mass scale as in Madagascar, or sporadic, which is more likely, much blood will be spilled, and suffering ensue. In any case there is likely to be mass movement of people across the borders, either fleeing violence, or seeking food.

Much emphasis has been placed on the role of international observers, and especially those of SADC and South Africa. If it is clear that Mugabe has stolen the election, will South Africa go along with the pretense, gambling as they have done so far, that somehow things will go back to "normal" and they won't have to deal with it? A recent statement by Thabo that 1,000 dead in South Africa in 1994 did not mean that their election was not free and fair is not very promising. Or will they refuse to accept the result? And what then? A military intervention? Close the borders? Or simply denounce verbally and do nothing? The tunnel is dark and the light is not seen.

We do not want Mugabe removed by foreign troops, or by our own troops. We want him removed by the ballot. That is the only way that Zimbabwe can have a decent future. But two weeks before the poll date, the signals are that Mugabe will not allow that to happen. In that case, we do not hope for rescue from our fate by anyone, in or outside of Africa. At best we see a period of oppression, further economic decay, poverty and starvation. At worst we see bloody conflict, acute suffering, and death. Another failed state in Africa - brought about by the stubborn greed and ambition of one man and those parasites who surround him. And if we wish to take lessons from the experience of the past decade - failed states lead to failed regions, full of conflict, hate, fear and endless suffering.

We hope that Southern Africa can be spared from this fate. Perhaps a March miracle will occur. Perhaps we are near the end of the tunnel after all.

World Food Programme has started distributing food for famine stricken Zimbabweans. The UN agency distributed a one-month ration of maize meal to 40 000 people.

In a grainy videotape recorded from a security camera, Morgan Tsvangirai is allegedly shown plotting to have President Robert Mugabe assassinated.