Still No Result....

Randall & Hopkirk came round as usual to have a quick drink and chat, see what we had been doing, try to sell us their stuff. One night Hopkirk started to tell us about the day he was picked up by the by the Central Intelligence Organisation (Mugabe's official thugs). He was filming outside a shopping mall and was questioned about what he was doing and who it was for. He answered truthfully as he was allowed to do what he was doing as an official member of the media. This wasn't good enough as he was obviously lying and was taken down to their headquarters to be questioned. Here it was a constant back and forth - 'your lying' - 'no I'm not', telling the same story repeatedly. His questioner phoned his office to get confirmation. As it was late only a young receptionist was still there. She had to confirm what Hopkirk had been doing personally by answering a question. Depending on her answer it would affect Hopkirks fate - she was told this too as part of the intimadation... All the time as the hours passed being threatened with physical violence on one hand, threatening Hopkirks family, and the same interogating officer calling Hopkirk his 'friend' on the other. Dragged up to see a senior officer who quickly dismissed the whole affair it didn't stopn and the man still abused Hopkirk who was getting a little desperate and resigned to that fact he would be going to prison. Finally he was let go - but very scared none the less.

Talking about how we would get out slowly took up even more of our time the longer we stayed trying to weigh the pro's and con's. Stuart asked the desk to to get in touch with Jim Secret Squirrel so we could ask his advice. Jim used to be in the SAS, left and started to work as a cameraman - specialising in dangerous places, but recently due to declining numbers has gone back to the squadron whilst still being able to freelance on the side. A strange situation. Stuart had worked with him before and just wanted to see what our best options were. These ranged from bribing a border crossing, flying out from a private airstrip, crossing the Zambezi or trekking through the jungle and turning up somewhere else. We always seemed to come back to crossing to Zambia via the Zambezi somewhere, going to Livingstone or Lusaka and flying home from there. It was Nick's and my favorite route, as we wanted to do some fishing...see some wildlife... its such a beautiful country why give up the chance. Whatever we decided it was the details that started to bother us - how do we get to the border through the road blocks - private car or on a tourist bus, how do we cross the river - what happens in new country getting entry visa's so we can leave without being deported back to Zimbabwe.... who do we trust in organising this..... all questions that took up a fair bit of our thoughts.



Before we actually got to talk to Jim his involvement got a little deeper as the company took our risk really quite seriously and engaged his 'other' professional services to help advise / extract Emma & Garwin from Bulawayo as well as ourselves from Harare.

This is also where our paranoia started to climb a bit higher - especially with phone calls. We know that governments have access to the phone companies records - especially if they are government owned. This means they can locate incoming and outgoing calls. Either this was totally over looked or we happened to be in an area where overseas phone calls were so common it didn't stand out. Having a Bgan bacame indispensable. And my love of the internet confirmed again providing another essential - Skype. This worked supremely well - not only for normal Skype calls, but for calling a regular phone. The call being clear and not mysteriously hanging up or possibly being listened too. The 'piece de resistance' buying a London phone number so anyone could call us too!! Amazing, worked a real treat and safe. It would be very unlikely they could monitor call through the Bgan and Skype encoded as well. Talking to Jim helped shape our plans and just calm us down a bit - which was sorely needed.

Through our discussion with Mike and other ex-farmers, all MDC people, they told us that they had proof that they had more votes than Mugabe and had won. This was great stuff and after checking they agreed to show us what they had and how they had done it. We would also get to interview one of the MDC senior leadership. All arranged James dropped Nick and I off at the meeting point - I was wearing the button camera again. He then went back to collect Stuart and the other kit. Meanwhile we met up with Mike and waited for Stuart to come back. Once in Mike's car, James stayed put and we headed across town to a secret location where the results were being collated.

On election day individual teams were sent each polling station to independently note the results down once they had been published. Counting was done there and then and then posted for all to see. This info was then texted in, the data collated on a pc. Basically real-time processing, very similar process to how political parties or the media does it. Photos were also taken of the posted results with disposable cameras to combat later possible fraud. With thousands of polling stations involved quite a feat but it worked. Margins of error were built so this gave the MDC a fairly accurate and complete picture of the results. What became apparent to us was that this was very well organised, hard to dispute, and showed that Mugabe had not won - not even close. This was big - no-one had yet been shown this detail. We now had to be very careful how to present it so as to reamain impartial. Stuart on that front - nailed it.

Because of Mugabe's hatred for the west, even though there are white Zimbabweans in the MDC they can not be seen publicly or Mugabe will say that the MDC is being run by the British Government...... a complete load of tosh - they just want their country back as it was. These guy were very capable on many fronts (like all Zimbabweans: white, grey and black) and were happy to provide the much needed transport and safety to help get us out when we needed.

That night we decided the piece would be best run on Monday - it would be wasted over the weekend. Once Mugabe and officials had seen our package they would definitely not be happy with us 'calling' the election and would quite probably have a concerted effort to find us. We would need to be safe early Monday morning so the package would go out. Various phone calls followed to put cogs in motion.

On Saturday morning I woke up to find Stuart in an especially chipper mood and despite our apparent conversation the night before saying he wanted to stay a bit longer to see what happened. A bit perturbing as nothing had changed. Later that morning, leaving Stuart at the house, Nick & I went shopping to get food and supplies for the next couple of days. First we met up with Mike to get a tape he had shot for us of some more MDC supporters in hospital that had been beaten up. Whilst waiting I had a glorious steak pie that was truely gorgeous. Despite whatever else is happening the quality of meat is fantastic. It was so good with my constant lip smacking Nick eventually had to have one as well. After that we went to a local supermarket to stock up. It was quite busy and had most staples as well as all important booze. The selection wasn't huge but there is still is stuff to buy, its just the cost so those who have access to foreign currency are the ones who can. They are protected from the obscene inflation rate at 165,000%. Its the rest of the population who are in big trouble. We collected what we needed for dinner that night plus a bottle of Gin, some beer and water ready for our trip to the border. This came to a grand total of Z$6.3 billion. Unsurprisingly most people were paying by cheque. Not having that luxury Nick got out his plastic bag and handed over wad after wad of notes. These were put through an electronic counter just to make sure all was correct. We left carrying two shopping bags each. By the time we got back to the house Stuart's mood was a little different - being left alone 'that time of day' had come around as paranoia had set in again. Agreed it was definitely time to leave.

That night the mood was a bit subdued as it was a crucial time. First thing in the morning Emma & Garwen would be trying their exit plan. Emma refusing to die her hair - even though we knew the police were looking for a white blond female and they were also planning to cross at a regular border point didn't make it any easier on us. Depending on what happened to them would shape what we did next. Going to sleep wasn't a problem, having a restful sleep was. For the first time I was up earliest and spent a while wondering round aimlessly. A call to Dan in Jo-burg allayed our fears - thankfully they made it through - not without a little drama of their own - Garwen may be an excellent cameraman - just doesn't do so well on forging visa's!!



The rest of Sunday was spent cutting our package. Getting ready to feed we had a power cut. The little portable generator didn't have much fuel in it and despite previous assurances that there was a full jerry can, there wasn't. Once down to 50% battery power and now dark we turned it on making sure both the laptop and Bgan were being powered. The generator was connected to a separate 'always on' circuit in the house - two sockets and 6 light bulbs - I guess to make sure it wasn't overloaded. Before we started the generator to save power we took out what light bulbs we didn't need and finished feeding. The battery life probably being enough but not wanting to take the chance.

All finished and done we were packed up very quickly and paced around liked caged animals waiting for the off. We would leave after dark - once the staff had gone to bed so as not to wake them. With no notice to anyone so they didn't know we were leaving, who with, where we had gone or when.

This is our final report which had special instructions for London (which were strangely disputed or contested) to only be broadcast after 6.00am UK time - NOT before. By then if everything went to plan we should have been out of immediate harms way and safe. (There is a short advert first)