I’ve just returned from a very brief visit to Zimbabwe to cover the ZANU-PF party conference. This year the conference was in Bulawayo, a lovely town in the south of the country. Unfortunately though we still had to travel via Harare in order to pick up our accreditation from the Media Commission. It’s quite difficult to get clearance to work as a Journalist in Zimbabwe and even with invitation letters and shiny new Zim Press cards we had a struggle to be allowed access.
me filming at the ZANU PF conference
Once at the venue security was tight. Mugabe’s yellow berets were out in force and as we arrived we were thoroughly searched. In a curious first for me, I was asked to remove my contact lenses as there was some concern about the tiny container of solution that I had in my pocket. The guards were all watching me intently as I took the lens out and showed it to them before I could proceed.
Like all political conferences the speeches were long, dull and dry. To make matters worse the location was dark and due to Bob’s old age we were forbidden to put lights directly onto the stage meaning his speech was very poorly lit.
If you want to watch the film we made for that nights BBC Ten o’clock news then please follow this link
On the whole I must say that Zimbabwe would be a nice place to work if it wasn’t for the incredible bureaucracy, the constant accusatory questions about who you are and what you are doing and the difficult and expensive process of bringing TV equipment into the country.
Zanu PF Conference, President Mugabe is in the middle in a red jacket
The first time I was in Zim was in 2008 as part of the first BBC team to be legally allowed back into the country in eight years. below is the film we made then
