Voices

Living out of my bag

2010-11-10T22:27:00.000-08:00

Seems that's what I been doing these past months/years. My tent is growing old and I broke my bed the other day... would definately take better care of my place if I stayed around long enough.

Ah, the life!

Could have sworn it was you

2010-05-24T02:43:00.000-07:00

I could have sworn it was you,
Saw the tears in the eyes and said to myself true

read the hurt on the face and the shake in the voice
felt the hate seething up and the rage fill inside

Thought of what once was, I felt so much delight
Bundle of joy and warmth all wrapped into one

Could have sworn it was you that I was holding in the rain
Then I woke up and started to caress the pain

JG

In Memory of those making life work outside Zimbabwe

2010-05-21T00:33:00.000-07:00

Today marks one of the bloodiest days in diasporan life, when Zimbabweans and other refugees and job seekers in South Africa were deliberately sought out, beaten, got their houses and property confiscated, and were made miserable.

The story is not unique to the region. It is indicative of communities adapting to changes in their environment, which they perceive, to a great extent, as threats that must be dealt with savagely.

I ask myself whether the treatment of Zimbabweans in South Africa has changed over the two year period in question. The stories reported in the media do not say anything rosy.

There used to be a time when segregation was loosely translated to something denoting definate colours (if we can call them that) white and black, yellow and in between... now I guess there is a different kind of movement, one that says there are different shades of black.

Traveller's Curse

2010-05-20T15:27:00.000-07:00

So the diaspora,like the great choo choo train sang of by Hugh Maselekela, comes and sucks away men and women from their loved ones, drags them down deep deep deep into the bowels of the earth.

Here where you see no sun, see no light;
The lucky ones come out alive, they bring bread and food to their wives;
The unlucky ones, well, they remain unlucky,
they return as if to hives, with nothing else to come to but lies;

There is a thing that comes with working outside.
You work outside because you are working for someone, for something.
It don't matter you living in a tent, you getting stung by freaking mosquitoes, you speak English everyday, you miss the local brew... you know you will come home to someone, to something, to somebody outthere...

The heartbeat of a lonely heart working out there in the lands beyond the horizon,

Beats in unizon with the heart of the one that is out there on the other side of the horizon,

As you breathe, so shall she,

As she yawns, so shall yea,

Discord makes life vile should another disturb the rhythm,

Chaos rules rampant when foreign breath cuts across your own...

But, such is life, and such is love.

Woe to the love struck traveler who sets his foot out on the tracks to travel,
He shall not look back lest he starts to grovel,
At the nice things he has left in his roundavel,
Even though he knows other miscreants will be having it by the shovel.

The Returnee

2010-05-20T08:42:00.000-07:00

It is,
The one who suffers pain
that cherishes healing

The one who,
looses a child at birth
that leaks milk from her breasts...

It is,
The one cast out
that understands family

The one who,
sings out of tune
that glorifies singing

It is,
the heart of one bleeding
that writes poetry

Hugging feeling;
kissing misery!

JG

Talking about a new constitution

2009-06-27T22:38:00.000-07:00

The plot continues to unfold as the Gvt. of National Unity goes the next step and starts consultations on establishing a new constitution for the country.

Many fear that Mugabe will use a September 2007 agreement as the basis of the new constitution. (read more about it in The Zimbabwe Standard)

The Zimbabwe Standard this week quoted Mugabe as saying there was no need for popular consultation in the constitution making process. Rather, the adoption or not of the constitution would be done by way of referendum..."...people must vote!" was his line.

Sends chills down one's spine to think of people going back to the polls in a country whose electoral systems have never been functioning. We might as well forget about getting a fair representation of people's views if we go it that way.

For what it's worth, parliament is making steps to ensure that there is popular consulation. These are the assurances coming from Paul Mangwana. Whether the consultations will take effect is another matter.

Madhuku, Chairperson of the National Constitutional Assembly, has commented that politicians cannot make a constitution, and it appears that civil society will shun the prospects of participating in the "consultative" process being engaged in by parliament...

It will be worth our while to revive the zeal with which we initiated the constitutional reform process some years back. Zimbabwe can function better if it has rules and laws that curtail greed for power and make it sensible for people to trust in the various arms of government, and there is concerted effort to respect the rule of law.

They won't be returning home

2009-06-27T05:55:00.000-07:00

Tsvangirai's appeal to Zimbabweans in the diaspora to come home last week was a bit of a damp squib. His appeals were met with disdain. The crowd geered and shouted "Chinja!" "Chinja" invoking the words of the Movement of Democratic Change's moto at its own leader, who appears to have been swallowed wholesale by the ruling regime's antics.

It must have brought an embarrassing after-taste to what has been a rather promising campaign for Tsvangirai. His recent bout of travel brought a fraction of the 200million that he intended to bring back home. Embarrassing, because people in the diaspora have seen through the placid talks of better economic and political conditions back home. Embarrassing, because Mugabe has vowed to get more than 200m from friends in China.

Begs the question, what was the purpose of Tsvangirai's visit?

The words he expressed to the diasporan community in UK would have sounded logical to the uninitiated. A return home will mean fellow comrades in the diaspora going to meet family members and re-establishing ties before their names are forgotten. Whole hoards of professionals can aspire to come back home to find fresh jobs that pay well.

The elderly can stop stressing over speaking bad english and put rest to the routine of practicing etiquette behind closed doors; they will return to homes where there is still dignity in being old and Zimbabwean... ( I think) I bet they will finally stop dreaming in English and fight off the pain of knowing that no one, not even the little ones, will care to listen to them...

Parents of children born and raised in the UK, among other places can afford to go back home and take pride in their children speaking foreign tongues to a hoard of locals; UK would have afforded them a one easy jump up the social ladder! :)

That's the ideal, specially packaged for the uninitiated!

Yet what is becoming abundantly clear for the Zimbo living anywhere else on the planet is that it is still early days yet!

Lest we forget, elders speak of "kusakurumidza kumedza kutsenga huchada..."Take it slow, be unsassuming yet wise, measure twice, cut once; a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step...lores that are internationally relevant.

Confidence on local politics an economic development is still at its embryonic stage. There are a myriad of pre-conditions for many. Security of employment and security of investment is just but one of them. What guarantee is there that the young nurse who has invested for 5 years in heavy toil in the UK can come home, invest in a grinding mill, and see profits grow while he goes about looking for a job?

What guarantee is there that persecuted teachers, fleeing the country for a better life can return back home, continue from where they left off, and still find regular employment?

60 year old Zimbabwean teachers now living in foreign lands must reminisce on a time when they held their heads up high in villages across rural Zimbabwe. Now their peers cannot even afford to replace the clothes covering their behinds!

No. Zimbos in the diaspora will not be returning home anytime soon. The land of their birth appears more foreign than the land of their work. Trudging along, missing home, starved of love, bereft of affection, hoarding commodities; they continue looking out the door to an ashen environment, proof that others have eaten at the fire already. What's left now are the ashes and traces of bone picked clean.

..We worship the toothless men and women who discarded few bits of bone and meat, after sucking them grey, and enriching their stomachs with the succulent juices and tastes...

Estranged

2009-06-24T01:53:00.000-07:00

….Strange hands

Taking care of that one bout of joy in far away lands

…Strange friends

Keeping company to the passions I hold dear

…Strange faces

Playing cousin to the comforts I once held near

…Strange lives

Being played out in this world of demise…

The Gvt is Like a locomotive

2009-06-23T22:59:00.000-07:00

Spoke to a close relative and friend yesterday. We were both excited, it had been a while. We spoke about projects at home, the weather, and of course, the political situation.

He ventured a metaphor about the current government.

"Its like a locomotive," he said, matter of factly, "How so?", I asked. He paused, and answered, "Well, from a distance, you can never tell whether its coming or going, can you?" made sense, come to think of it, "You can't tell whether its moving or not..."

I began to talk to him about the hopes that have been raised with all the travels abroad and the meetings with Obama and the talks with the British, in fact, the shaking hands with the British and promises of good times to come... "Eish, these people overseas have really got kind and caring hearts, they must be bringing in the money, we have been promised the money!" I say to him, excited at the prospects of more resources for the nation.

He says there is no money, he is as blunt as that...

The mirage is waning, and an all too dreary picture is forming in the distance... Soon we will see the locomotive for what it is... Stalled and stagnant... only had enough fuel to get up the mountain, roll down, and now it has stalled right there on the vlei... victory within sight...

There is still that sense of hope which is all too common among our people. Somehow things will in fact move on, its just a matter of time!

So sad.

I look into your eyes

2009-06-13T21:43:00.000-07:00

I look into your eyes and they tell me the joy that in them resides.
I look into them and I wonder why you sometimes cry?

Tell me there wont be any darker days between us any more...

Promise me there shall always be fun and laughter

When I look into your eyes

Tsvangirai Speaks

2009-06-13T09:27:00.000-07:00

It has been a heart warming feeling to see the good old Chematama speaking on Aljazeera and being captured live on CNN. He is a man on a mission, Tsvangson to the rescue, Zimbabwe is saved!

They asked him what the unity government has achieved to date. He talked about the change in economic circumstances. Inflation has dropped from 500bn% to a paltry 3%. Zimbabwe is well on its way to economic recovery. (or so it would seem)

Prices have been going down. When I was home last, I could purchase a decent number of things (groceries to fit in two plastic bags at Arundel) for USD 35... awesome, no? In december, I could not get anything for the same amount, had to go down to Botswana and fill up the baby spacio to the rim...

They asked him about whether human rights issues had been resolved. Here I have a strong feeling that Tsvangirai was true to the age old adage of son of a king on your turf, groveler and serf in another man's land. He said that "the situation has improved, right now there are no political prisoners detained in Zimbabwe's prisons"

An attempt to paint a good record? to say that things are ok and Bob is making the sun rise and set on a harpy mazimbabwe?

I am not sure, I would need to hear about the situation back home. We are still to get out of the woods I think. there is a tonne to be done.

We need closure on a lot of issues back home. The meager allowances that our teacher parents are getting; the extended stay of the Reserve bank Govenor, now holding the whole nation at ransom because he is the chief's favorite...; the travails of community leaders and activists that have been forced to shut up because of politics...; the farmers losing land and property to new invasions...

Unless there is confidence restored in our people again, the shops awash with commodities will mean very little; the hospitals open now might just be until december 2009, and the grumbling stomachs of communities in travail will continue to sound.

I applaud Tsvangirai's efforts... the walls of Jericho were struck down with song and pomp, Samson hit the enemy with a donkey jawbone...

Our efforts, meager as they are, shall count on something.

Trepidation

2009-06-07T08:51:00.000-07:00

Love fell into waiting
Hopping on a something that chance just brought in

Eyes loving and eager, longing and needing
Looking up into the moment , defining time and meaning

It promised love in an hour,
So for an hour must love wait wanting

longing and hoping, tears almost streaming.
Seconds not moving,

Tension,
Passion,
Hunger,
Devotion;

All come to cause a lot of commotion.

Five minutes to the hour and the heart starts pumping.
Seconds ring loud, the heart beat so alarming

If, only if, this time was passing
Then, only then Love and lust would feed.

Time passes fast and love sees ten minutes past.
Hope comes in and the next five minutes breeze fast

Devotion, then comfort nurse the next two minutes

Sweat breaks at exactly twenty - seven past.
Desire for greed gorges at the mind
churning hurt and guilt and spitting commotion.

No,
No love and fun to last an hour
It would have been heaven had desire been granted the power.

Torn down and sullen, love continues the day.
Two and a half hours have gone by in trepidation

We Will Fight On

2008-05-21T02:27:00.001-07:00

He arches his back to welcome the billows of balm
The fine spray landing on his tortured skin, dulling
The acrid smell of his own flesh burning.

They wanted him dead but see, he is living!!

See he is living,
Our motto is all about surviving
Harassed and tortured, we will continue giving
The best of ourselves, the best of our families, the best of our worth.

Thats why we continue leaving.

Hagard looks from the privileged
Angry cat calls about a people in turmoil
Calls for our blood from home and beyond,
Ours a continous strife that's never been told.

We will fight on,
Caring for friends and family left all alone.
Telling prophets of doom that ours is a battle won
Till that fine day when we will return to the land we call our own.

You dare to burn the pride that's ours?
Forgetting we made your struggle once even ours?
Now your leaders shut their eyes; prefer to talk for hours!
While Zimbabwe burns, and he continues to harm us!

See he is still living.
Many of us will continue leaving
Don't pretend you have no feeling
This is a travesty what you are doing.

J Gadzirai
For those who are burning.

They came to him in the dead of night

2008-05-19T21:51:00.000-07:00

He thought he heard a scream.

“What, what is going on?”

He tried to open his eyes to see, and would have loved to shout out. The operation was futile.

His eyes managed a flicker and the throat went terribly dry.

“I should stop drinking. By my ancestors I should definitely stop!” His inner man repeated the chant it had long since imprinted in his brain. How long had he told himself not to drink?

His mind ran to the foul words the mother of his children had hurled at him that day… ‘Disgrace’ was her new catchphrase.

“You drink till you do not know where your member lies! You pour urine in your trousers and it runs down your legs like an infant. Do you want me to take the goat skin and tie it round your loins like a baby, so that you stop embarrassing me, father of my children? You are a disgrace who will not accept that his blood cannot take alcohol!”

He still felt the sting of her words, especially now as the pain of last night’s drink continued to sing in his head.

The sound of drums and heavy screams became even more audible as his mind slowly made its way towards consciousness. Chipo was sitting bolt upright beside him, clutching at all the blankets and shivering.

In the semi darkness he could make out the gleam in her eyes as she gawked at the door. Those eyes, those eyes big and inviting that had made his member stand in the market when he first saw her where now flickering on artificial light, illuminated by a terror on the outside which made him sober at once.

“What is going on, Chipo?”

Thuraya to expand services in Nigerian market

2008-04-11T07:50:00.000-07:00

By: Jonah Iboma
-----------------------------------------------------------
Article summary:

New services will especially target firms operating in deep oceans as well as people living in rural areas.
-----------------------------------------------------------

Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications says it is ready to offer more services in Nigeria, especially in the light of government's desire to increase access to more users in the country.Mr. Peder Seldelman, the Chairman of Danisat Nigeria Limited Thuraya's Nigeria sole representative' said the firm has solutions today that can effectively address Nigeria's rural telephony and tracking challenges. According to him, Thuraya's satellite covers all of Nigeria effectively and this has made the firm to have the resources to offer a range of services.

He added that the firm has also introduced more customer friendly tariff that made the service more affordable for local use in the country.Seldelman added that Thuraya provided a good back up service especially in the light of challenges that often keep services of mobile operators at less-than optimal requirement.

This, he noted, would greatly benefit firms operating in the deep oceans and people in rural areas where mobile phone coverage does not exist.He also said a great advantage of the phone is the fact that it can be carried by users across borders without having to bother with the issues of roaming. He added that Thuraya had also introduced a Vehicle Tracking Service in the country, which offers a far wider coverage than what is offered by localized mobile phone firms.The Vehicle Tracking Service, he added, is very easy to monitor and comes with various options to users. On the rural telephony service, Thuraya country Senior Manager for Nigeria, Mr. Ahmed Ali, said the firm was ready to discuss with anyone who was interested in offering such a service, adding that various models that can be adapted to local needs were available.ENDS

/ends

He is Waiting - Out of it 2

2008-04-07T11:45:00.000-07:00

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More stuff from Former-Councillor Laban - 7 April 2008

A sometime bulletin of events and happenings pertaining to Ward 7
(Avondale, Alex Park, Strathaven, KG6 Barracks, etc.)

Should anyone else wish to receive this, please send a full email
address to mlaban@mango.zw
Should you wish to be removed from the list, please let me know.
For further information, use either this address or consult the telephone book
-
there is still only one Laban in Harare.
?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?

Hello

So, now what is happening? He is waiting.
I mentioned, perhaps not in this forum, that in four days the mood would be
lost. Four days have gone (maybe I got the time wrong) but he is waiting for
attention to leave Zimbabwe, then he will steal the election. Again. And the
opposition (led by the MDC, or not led as the case may be) will sit around and
do nothing. Lots of talks, going to the courts, and all that excuse for
inactivity, but they will do nothing.

But does he have a choice? On one level you feel sorry for him. Although in the
real world it is impossible to feel sorry. He cannot step down. He is riding the
tiger. And many are on that tiger with him (the military and the corrupt elite).
How can he step down? He cannot trust any local persons - any more than they
could trust him. He stands the very real risk of 'next stop, the Hague'. Him and
many others in power (on the tiger).
He cannot trust the neighbours. (Any more than they can trust him). Charles
Taylor going to 'exile' in Nigeria is a glaring factor in that equation. Off
goes Charlie for a nice little corruptly and bloodily earned rest in a place
where he is guaranteed safety, and suddenly, he is behind bars in Europe!

So what choice does he have? Stay in power (he and his gang), where the means
of violence are readily available (and they do have degrees in violence, the
University of Edinburgh cannot take those degrees from him), or shuffle off
defeated (even if a 'dignified' defeat), and wait for violence to be done to you
(not that the ICC will ever sentence anyone to death)? So what choice - use
power (in the rawest sense of the word) from a position of power, where you can
mete it out with a limited chance it will come back and bite you, or leave, to a
place where there is a good chance that it will come along and bite you? And
this is not a question he is asking alone.

So a run-off. Note the difference between the vote and the count.
There is every indication that the vote will go against him. It was an
apathetic turnout at the real elections. The run off will not be apathetic. And
there was a large number of pro-incumbent votes out from loyalty (a term used
loosely to indicate those riding the same tiger as the incumbent) at the real
election. This will not be a vote that can be relied on again. Makoni has
survived this long, it shows you can leave the party without being hammered into
the ground.

And then the count. There is massive experience amongst those with the degrees
in violence with this. The ground work is being laid. The War Vets are being
called out. The ZEC is being accused of irregularities (a cover story). A
recount of 16 constituencies is being called for (again, a smoke screen). And a
recount of the Presidential vote is being called for (how you can have a recount
before you 'know' what the count is???) All ground work for a 'better' result
being warranted.

However, as I also said, a change has happened.

My Masters paper was on Banda leaving Malawi. I noticed that Banda used party
secretary-generals as scapegoats. He would 'allow' them to do his bidding (i.e.
suppress all revolt, dissent, etc) and then 'discover' that they were 'mean evil
people', and, for his beloved people he would credit the Secretary-General with
all the blame and have them removed. Eventually (after years and Dick Mutenje)
people stopped wanting to be the party Secretary-General, and those who
unfortunately were just did not seem to be able to do his bidding. So Banda lost
a tool. A method. A mechanism to stay in power. But it had worked in the
meantime. Banda stayed in power until he was 94 (approximately) and had a brain
tumor.

I think he has done the same with Zanu PF. While he has retained power, he has
now lost, or is losing, the party. The military coup that we have been subjected
to (I use 'military' to define those who were the old ZANLA High Command) is
very near the surface now. Since 1997 (or even 1996), the minister in charge of
every uniformed and armed ministry (Army, Air Force, Police, Prison Services,
National Parks) was a 'retired' soldier. Since sometime in the 2000s (possibly
2004) every single Permanent Secretary in every single ministry was a 'retired'
soldier. And more recently (2006 or 7?) the Joint Operations Command (JOC) has
been meeting regularly with our president. Who tells who what to do in these
meetings? We are controlled (maybe not ruled) by a military junta.

So what is the solution?
I do not know. That is joy of being an 'activist. You can say what is wrong,
without having to say (or do) what will make it right. Having said that, at
least I have had my say. Getting the 'facts' out into the open, and discussing
them, will at least lead to an understanding of the problem. And only if we
understand the problem, can we come up with a 'correct' (or best) solution.

Zvakanaka
Michael

Our Lives are in Limbo

2008-04-07T11:18:00.000-07:00

So, you ask why I have not been writing from then till now?

Who has, tell me? What is there to write?

That we are sitting by our huts, following the movement of the sun like Lizards? That we are clutching to our radios, waiting to hear how the elections did in fact turn out?

Are you waiting to hear me say if we had not split our votes we could have made a big difference in the parliamentaries, that the MDC, by hook or by crook is the voice of change?

Are you waiting for me to tell you that we will be forced to eat the dispeakable because our mouths, forever hungry, have respected custom and failed to talk?

Will I write about the man from up the hill, who, hearing things aclutter, thought it best to mobilize hoards of people to terrorize communities.

We will not grow out of our bane by hoarding empty rhetoric. Mugabe spoke, Mugabe continues to speak.

All we can do is watch him kill our very dreams in our sleep... :-(

Makoni tips scales

2008-03-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

Having been away from home for a long time, attending Simba Makoni’s rally was something to look forward to. It was the best way to celebrate Good Friday.

My intention was to see for myself whether he had indeed tipped the scales, cut the sacred cow, and provided the community with the hope for a better morrow.

The atmosphere was exuberant at Kamunhu shopping center. Always the hive of agitated activity; the little space behind the gigantic Spar shops provided the community with yet another opportunity to ponder on whom they will vote for.

Makoni piped the tunes of a new beginning and the crowd hummed in time with him. A new beginning means distancing himself from Zanu PF.

“When a couple exchanges the vows of marriage, the congregation is called upon to be witness to the event” he began in the vernacular, “Today, I am calling on the people of Mabvuku to bear witness to my disengagement from ZANU PF. I declared myself independent of ZANU PF on 5 February 2008.” With this Makoni dispelled rumors that he was being fronted by Mugabe in the hopes of luring the young and disenchanted back into the fold.

‘ZANU PF has failed to meet the needs of its people. It is found wanting on solutions to end the current political and economic malaise’ said Makoni. He sighted the debacle with the diesel n’anga; who took entire Ministries for a ride with her ‘promise of diesel flowing from a flat rock-bed in Chinhoyi some months ago.

Makoni did not need to remind people about the travails in Zimbabwe. Earlier in the rally, school children sung dirges on the failing education system, the appalling health delivery, the current political malaise, and indeed, the need for power in the mold of Simba.

His insistence is that the problems will be solved together with the community. Every individual counts. Whether we are to read this as a call to participatory democracy is an issue for another day. Suffice to say that it is a call that is different from the “Morgan is More!” provided by Morgan Tsvangirai and the “Rule by the Fist” as propounded by Mugabe.

It must set Mugabe’s heart thudding to imagine how his own cabinet minister can turn on him the way Simba has. Simba is not the first, and neither will he be the last. The elections may very well be the death knell on ZANU PF as a regime.

Interesting that children should recite heart wrenching poetry at Makoni’s rally. Young girls and boys decried the lack of teachers, the economic hurdles; the pain of living in a country where the leader holds on to power with an iron fist. One little girl fought back tears as she narrated a poem on what life has become for her and kin…The rally captured hearts and minds.

The MDC Mutambara faction made a good show of support with Trudy Stevenson in attendance. Democratic processes can only have true meaning in Zimbabwe if they are to be united.

Winds of change are upon Zimbabwe, and people are getting ready.

One gets a sense that there will be a lot more tolerance this time. The television station is flighting adverts from all contesting parties, and attempts are being made to provide adequate space for discussion through the same.

A Decade of Suffering in Zimbabwe: Economic Collapse and Political Repression under Robert Mugabe

2008-03-27T22:39:00.000-07:00

[This is a message from the David Coltart Mailing List]
__

Executive Summary

On March 29, 2008, Zimbabwe will hold presidential and parliamentary
elections. Few people believe that they will be free and fair or that
Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union– Patriotic Front
party will fail to return to office.

That is a tragedy, because Mugabe and his cronies are chiefly
responsible for an economic meltdown that has turned one of Africa’s most
prosperous countries into a country with one of the lowest life expectancies
in the world. Since 1994, the average life expectancy in Zimbabwe has
fallen from 57 years to 34 years for women and from 54 years to 37 years
for men. Some 3,500 Zimbabweans die every week from the combined
effects of HIV/AIDS, poverty, and malnutrition. Half a million Zimbabweans
may have died already. There is no freedom of speech or assembly in
Zimbabwe, and the state has used violence to intimidate and murder its
opponents.

At the root of Zimbabwe’s problems is a corrupt political elite that
has, with considerable international support, behaved with utter impunity
for some two decades. This elite is determined to hang on to power no
matter what the consequences, lest it be held to account for the
genocide in Matabeleland in the early 1980s and the wholesale looting of
Zimbabwe that followed the mismanaged land reform in 2000.

When change comes to Zimbabwe, the nation will have to rediscover the
rule of law and the sanctity of persons and property. The public
discourse and the economy will have to be reopened. The new government will
have to embrace a more limited idea of government and rescind legislation
that makes the operation of the private sector next to impossible.
Moreover, the new government will have to find a way for the people of
Zimbabwe to heal the wounds caused by decades of political violence.


The full article, published by the Cato Institute, is available for
reading and downloading in pdf format from my website:
Link to post: http://davidcoltart.com/archive/2008/385
Link to .pdf:
http://davidcoltart.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/dpa5.pdf

Elections

2008-03-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

Everjoice Win

I've had it with elections. Zimbabwe has been in election mode since 1999. No fundamental change seems to come from any of it. So I am changing tactics. I have looked at everyone's manifesto for 2008 and it's all same old hot air. I am tired. But I am still going home to vote: this time for the man who will rev my engine. Yes, I am voting for a presidential candidate who I can bear to look at for five years. We have three presidential candidates, Bob, Morgan and Simba. This whole nonsense in Zimbabwe of calling the leader of a two-person party "the President" is what gets to their heads. Three years ago I parked my car outside Harvest House (MDC HQ), only to be shooed frantically away by a rather aggressive pimply youth: "Get away, that's the president's parking spot." I wondered why Bob needed yet another parking spot, but I discovered this is what they call Morgan. Similarly, Arthur Mutambara had barely led his MDC faction for five seconds when I heard a friend in his party say: "Let me talk to the president first." As another friend put it in utter frustration, when a country has three presidents and none of them can end this mess you know you are f*$%*d! But I digress, back to the line-up.

Bob

Bob is just too ancient. Despite guzzling Lucozade and obsessive exercising, he has become terribly unattractive to look at. Not that he ever was, with that little Hitlerite moustache. Saville Row suits - or is it now Shanghai flea-market row? - won't make him look better. As they often do on terribly old men who can't behave their age, the suits look oversized and ostentatious in the middle of such poverty. Around election time though, Bob dons those awful Mobutu-style shirts with his mug all over them. I will never forgive Bob for foisting this style of dress on women in his party. Somehow the tailors who make those clothes always manage to get his picture smack in the middle of a woman's ample bosom, or worse, on equally ample buttocks. Though it must be said there is something quite satisfying about squashing that face as one sits down after being forced to attend a long rally in the 37-degree heat of Muzarabani. Failed governance aside, Bob as a man is quite frightening. His tendency to bang tables like Nikita Krushchev doesn't say "come closer". Neither does his foul mouth. Seven university degrees just haven't bought him good manners. The most important reason I am not voting for Bob is the way he never acknowledges his wife in public. Notice how he often leaves Grace a few steps behind. Granted Bob was born in the days when men had to walk in front of their wives so they could protect them from lions, but now?

Morgan

Let's look at Morgan. A president should dress well, so Morgan please lose the ugly cowboy hat. Morgan just hasn't got the message that those hats are so … thuggish, so tacky. They don't do anything for us girls. They make short men look like ducks with a disability. By the time the man emerges from under that hat - after talking interminably on his cellphone - I, for one, will have lost any inclination to listen to his economic plan. Those hats breed cowboyish unilateralism; we saw it with George W, Jonathan Moyo and now Morgan. Coupled with the Papa Doc routine that Morgan and his security men have now adopted, my heart just sinks. He will arrive at a rally in a convoy of 4x4 vehicles - a statement of the party's values if ever there was one - with a dozen or so young men hanging out from open doors, wearing dark flea-market shades. Dreadfully unattractive.

These same tontons macoute will proceed to shoo the poor working masses out of the way. Even some of us who still regard him as our "Comrade Boycott", former chair of the NCA (National Constitutional Assembly), are too scared to come anywhere near the tontons. Morgan has an equally foul mouth, especially at his rallies, and in Shona. There is something quite crass about a president "shouting," as we say at home, like that. Thankfully some of Morgan's rough edges have been smoothed by a glammed-up wife. Susan looks ever so refined thanks to facial treatments from Theresa Makone, Morgan's mate's upwardly mobile wife. But, like Bob, Morgan always forgets that Susan is right beside him. Not a touch. Not a smile.

One who got away

I am so sorry Arthur dropped out of the presidential race. If nothing else the fellow knows his Pierre Cardin from his Yves St Laurent. I am sure he took the grooming and sartorial elegance module at university. Oh, and our prof can use power point! I don't think Bob can turn on a computer. Can he? Every time he goes to donate computers to schools he always stands a safe distance from the critters. Arthur so loves his laptop. Takes it everywhere. His presentations might lack substance, but they are so well accessorised his audience is always agog. Sadly there is not much electricity in Zim these days, so he has to resort to his student politics ways of shouting - too stridently. Perhaps it is a good thing Arthur has dropped out, he needs to grow up a bit. The last thing Zimbabwe needs is a Thabo Mbeki. Too much book is not good. Look at where Bob got us having "eaten so much book".

Simba

The man of the moment is Simba. I for one don't care how many gallons of Zanu PF milk he was reared on. I will ignore that his manifesto barely talks about women's rights. I just want his picture hanging in my office for the next five years. Who doesn't want to walk into a government office and be greeted by that smile? Those funky little glasses just do it for me. Arthur, please pass on to Simba the power-point skills, and I am sold. And he ate just the right amount of book. Simba speaks calmly. Diplomatically. As a president should. He acknowledges his wife, Chipo. Since that day he lovingly held her hand as he went into Parliament to present his first budget as minister of finance, I just knew this man was going to go far. At his campaign launch the message I got was, this is my partner and we share a life.

My big problem with Simba is his so-called backers, who love the Morgan-like big hats. Their looks and their politics just scare us girls off. Lose the men with the hats and big tummies, they are bad for your image and your future, Simba. On the plus side Simba has so far eschewed the convoys and the insignia with his visage and other undesirable paraphernalia on women's anatomy. Long may it stay this way. Ideologically, the men on that ballot paper are interchangeable. So technically, Bob has nothing to be afraid of. There is no regime change in the offing, just a photo change. I am voting for the man whose looks and habits I can live with for the next five years. At least when he messes up, I have set the political bar so low it won't matter. After 27 years of the ugly and ancient one, give me a younger and better-looking man, in a PINK shirt. Got ticket, will vot

POLICE BLOCK: CHRA”MEET THE CANDIDATE SERIES”

2008-03-19T04:36:00.000-07:00

POLICE BLOCK: CHRA”MEET THE CANDIDATE SERIES”

19 March 2008

The Combined Harare Residents wishes to advise residents in the southern part of Harare that the Officer commanding Southerton Police district has denied them clearances to hold the “meet the candidate public meetings”. The Association has thus been incapacitated and unlawfully prevented from affording residents a platform to meet their potential leaders and engage them on manifestos. The refusal to grant clearances is a direct assault to democracy and the association’s right to freedom of assembly, freedom of association and expression.

The Police allege that CHRA intends to use these platforms to motivate residents to be violent should the opposition loose the elections. They also allege that they do not have sufficient manpower for political rallies and civic programs. They urged the Association to motivate its members to attend party political platforms if they want to listen to manifestoes. CHRA maintains its non-partisan stance and would like to engage contesting candidates on their manifestos in neutral platforms.

The refusal by the police to grant clearance is thus an assault to our civic duty to enhance resident’s participations in matters of local governance. It is abuse of power by the police bent on creating chaos in the elections and subverting the will of the people. The new delimitations have created a lot of uncertainty and the Zimbabwe Election Commission has not done enough voter educations. The Association thus uses these platforms to educate residents on how to vote and address questions on ward boundaries.

The Association has been invited to the inter-party political dialogue to negotiate on the holding of rallies and political meetings. It is hoped that the Association will be allowed to continue with its series. We are aware of the political allegiance of the police and note their evident timid ness and fear in affording residents platforms to meet other candidates from various political parties. The Association however commends other officers of the police who have granted clearances for public meetings in other areas.

Public meetings have been held in Mount Pleasant , Mabvuku and other northern parts of Harare . Residents in these areas have welcomed these meetings and have found them educative especially on matters to do with ward boundaries. This years Municipal elections are different form the past. The Mayor is not chosen directly by the people but by the college of councilors instead. It is important for residents to vote councilors with integrity and a proven track record of community development as these are potential Mayoral candidates for the City.

We demand our Civic space

Remember your councilor is a potential Mayor

“CHRA for enhanced civic participation in local governance”

Farai Barnabas Mangodza

Chief Executive Officer

Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)

145 Robert Mugabe Way

Exploration House, Third Floor

Harare

ceo@chra.co.zw

www.chra.co.zw

Landline: 00263- 4- 705114

Contacts: Mobile : 0912638401, 011443578, 011862012 or email info@chra.co.zw, programs@chra.co.zw andadmin@chra.co.zw

Rule them for life - Gadaffi urges Museveni

2008-03-19T03:49:00.000-07:00

Riding in a taxi from Entebbe to Kampala, I was surprised to see us pulling to the side to allow three sets of motorcades to pass. It was not like seeing Mugabe's motorcade back home; people in the streets did not freeze, the taxi driver certainly did not stop talking, nor did the patrol car just in front of us blare out "get out of the road, voetsak!"

Gaddafi is in town, and the city is abuzz. He has shown his pechant for longevity and struggle by encouraging Museveni to rule for life if people still want him. He has also urged the West to leave Mugabe to run elections the way he wants.

There is a disease in Africa that sees old horses backing each other right to the finish line. The finish line is not the boiling pot where they will be churned into glue to bind the nations together; no. The finish line is a long trail of trials for brutal murders, hangings, rapes, thievery and corruption. Their finish line is a hoard of disgrace where, like the old donkey which dies by the road side, their shame will be strewn out in the road for people to decry.

If and when people in Uganda want a new leader, they should be able to choose one. Museveni should leave the office for another to take up. But will he, a fourth term is in sight. The prospects are too high.

Zimbabwe faces the same element. Mugabe looks at the end of march as a reivigoration of his ageing campaign. Strike fear and spread trauma in the hearts of the electorate, and you are guaranteed another term in office.

I shudder to think what will happen to Africa.

Legitimisation and Politics; Tsvangirai Speaks

2008-03-13T04:34:00.000-07:00

Violet Gonda held an interview with Presidential hopeful, Morgan Tsvangirai, and the main question was why MDC Tsvangirai was participating in a "flawed" election in the first place.

When we backtrack on this issue, we go to the time that the MDC split on whether to participate in Senatorial elections, or not. The view from him then was that the voting public did not want to legitimize the current regime by acceding to a political manipulation of the country's legislative procedures.

Zimdaily quotes Morgan as saying,

""Well we are past the debate against participation and I want to say that, in our view we are in a struggle. We are in a democratic struggle and any struggle has various fazes and various events and this election is just one of those events in the democratic struggle.""

Shall we read this as the proverbial Damascan experience for a faction that should realize that the best way to make any recognizable effort might just be through the electoral and parliamentary processes? I wonder if things could not have turned for the better if this realization was made early on, and the "struggle" for what it is worth, was carried out right there when people were baying for the regime's blood.

Perhaps a coalition of all the democratic forces currently vying for an end to the present regime would have sounded a stronger knell to the ZANU PF infrastructure than claims of growth coming in at the end of time.

I feel there is need for his party to say more about the other areas of the country's bleeding economy.

Sweeping statements on how to curb an inflation running havoc at 150000% will not cut it. In the interview, he claims that there are going to be a series of measures put in place to ensure that people benefit. He states that no subsidies will be provided, because they benefit the rich at the expense of the poor; that corruption will not be easy to follow up on, because statistically a former government's misdeeds are difficult to ascertin, and in this regard, we might as well 'forget" these misdeeds and start on a fresh page...

he says

Unfortunately it's not something that you can outline as a general policy to say those who have benefited from the system in a corrupt way should pay for it because you don't know how much and you don't know the amount, the extent to which the country has been compromised. I think that unless you have got the facts, you cannot make a general policy because you might find that this might just be rumours and at the end of the day when you make an analysis you are not be able to establish how far the country has been compromised.

Statements like these make me afraid. In fact, I am very afraid at the thought of how the marginalized will feel when put a "clean" slate on the table and begin to talk of change. No chance can come without a proper acknowledgement of the problems people are facing, at whose hands they have come, and what impact this has had on our community. Tell all this to the teacher attempting to make an honest living in Dottito!

There are other issues Morgan raises, but I have to leave you now and work. I can tell you now that no regime living will be legitimized by staying aloof, boycotting and crying foul. When Man eats dog, he goes for the most virulent!

Click here for the full ZimDaily story and comments

Revolution ,or Rebellion?

2008-03-12T00:07:00.000-07:00

The show of a clenched fist by ZANU PF is a strong signal of fight and strife. Potent during the days of he liberation struggle, the clenched fist showed rabid defance to a rogue regime which threatened the very social and moral fabric of the people in the country.

Upon gaining independence the clenched fist has remained very much a strong signal. Intolerant to divergent views, hard and crushing on public policy, determined as ever to define who the enemy is and what the people should never dare support.

It has been the same clenched fist that has bred a harsh state media that uses filthy imagery to denigrate any opposition memeber. In fact, a state media that goes to the extent of showing explicit images of a clergyman in order to defile not only his standing, but his ideals and his church's standing.

We have been in a rebellion, not a revolution, against the west and its efforts at establishing control on Zimbabwe since Independence. In all this time, government has not recognised the need to establish social freedom and to evolve the way we regard opposition, state vs. govt functions, and on and on.

We need to look at an electoral process that knowledges the power of the rebellion and the fruits it brought, while emphasizing the need for a revolution to change mindsets of the same.

People should be voting for a new outlook in Zimbabwean politics, an outlook that seeks to make harmony with the forces that surround the country, not one that assumes that citizens will never hace a say in all they do.

Confronting the real challenges in Zimbabwean Politics

2008-03-11T05:38:00.000-07:00

The weekend saw important campaigns being carried out in Bulawayo and Gweru. New Zimbabwe reports that Tsvangirai had "30000" supporters in Bulawayo, and has pictures to prove it.

Simba Makoni amassed at least 8000 supporters in Gweru, and according to eyewitness accounts, the visit was well worth the effort on his part.

Two parties coming out in full force for the people to choose. Two ideologies offering change to the Zimbabwean public.

People are brought once again to the selection platform, where they should decide whether they sink or swim. Morgan Tsvangirai came atop the raging horse of people's discontent in 2000. Apart from preying on the anger and despair of the multitudes, it appears little else has been solved.

Many will say they were better off in 2000 than they are now, as equally others would attest they were much more liberal before 1980. Do we need to be constantly reminded of our anger and despair so that we vote with our tummies, and not with reason?

One feels the greed inherent in MDC's campaign through the way it wants to keep on hogging the limelight. Tsvangirai is creating a breed of supporters who will not be tolerant to other forces that may be essential in the growth and development of the country. Tis this, this greed, this cry and hunger for control, that we need to check before all is lost.

Simba Makoni is and will continue to be touted as what the doctor ordered. His acknowledgement of the existence of other forces of good will is a realization that Zimbabwe will not go it alone.

Election campaigners need to wake up to the fact that the electorate is going to play a deciding role. Gone are the days when we were cowered into showing support. The time for growth, freedom, development, is now!

Zimbabwe Gears For Elections

2008-03-09T23:19:00.000-07:00

The dates are coming closer and closer as Zimbabwe prepares for its elections. Will we follow expected rules and regulations governing elections?

I don't know. Having observed elections in Highfield in 2004, ( should be, I forget now) ZANU PF has a way with intimidation that makes many people cower. Who would want to be seen at the queue when it is pretty obvious that you are not going to vote for ZANU PF and that the rest of the people in the queue are aware of the fact.

Below, MP T Stevenson reminds voters about provisions in the Electoral Act for a free and fair electoral Process.

...............................................................................

It is useful for the general public to know what is not allowed during an election campaign and election. If you become aware of any such conduct, please contact your candidate or lawyer or ZEC, or all three. It sounds like some candidates and campaign teams are already guilty - check it out!

Please pass this information on to others, far and wide. Thank you.

Trudy Stevenson MP

_____________________________________________________

PROHIBITED CONDUCT - ELECTORAL ACT

133B Intimidation

This involves force or threat – fine up to level 14 or 2 years imprisonment or both.

133C Preventing political party or candidate from campaigning

Fine up to level 10 or 5 years prison or both.

133D Theft or destruction of voter identification

Fine up to level 6 or 1 year imprisonment or both.

136 Bribery

Vote-buying: fine up to level 7 or 2 years imprisonment or both.

137 Personation

Voting twice, or in place of another person or when not entitled: Fine up to level 7 or 2 years prison or both.

138 Additional Penalties for corrupt practices

Any person convicted of corrupt practice is also declared incapable of voting or filling public office for 5 years.

.................................

Code of Conduct - Fourth Schedule

No political party, candidate, member or supporter may –

a) Harm or threaten to harm others participating in an election;

b) Use language or act in a way that may provoke violence or intimidation;

c) Publish false or defamatory allegations about a party, its candidates, representatives or members;

d) Discriminate on the grounds of race, ethnicity, sex, gender, class or religion in connection with an election or political party;

e) Damage or deface property, including the election posters, placards, banners and other election material of another party or candidate;

f) Bar or inhibit access to meetings or to voters for the purpose of election campaigning;

g) Carry or display weapons at political meetings or at matches, demonstrations, rallies or other public political events;

h) Bribe or threaten a voter to vote for a particular candidate;

i) Force a voter to reveal the identity of the candidate voted for;

j) Disrupt the work of election officials at a polling or counting centre;

k) Campaign or display campaign material within 300 m of a polling station or counting centre.

MDC Bennett Slams Makoni

2008-03-09T03:26:00.001-07:00

The question of Simba Makoni coming onto the playing field has raised a lot of debate. In this three part presentation, we look at two articles from the MDC factions over what his role in bringing change in Zimbabwe.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: The Cape Argus

Attention: The Editor Mr. C. Whitfield

MDC Bennett: Slam Makoni

Sirs,

Unfortunately when Peta Thornycroft allows her personal animosity towards my political party and its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai to completely distort objective comment, the valued integrity of the Independent Group of Newspapers is jeopardized.

On Sunday 10th February, this lack of objectivity was there for all to see. Pointedly in the Sunday Times a sober, unemotional assessment of the current crisis in Zimbabwe was presented in a brilliantly balanced article written by a brave group of Zimbabwean non-aligned activists.

Independent Paper Group by contrast, thrust forward the discredited notion that our party should throw in the towel in favour of Simba Makoni and abdicate our responsibility to our supporters.

By your own admission Makoni has been a loyal, long standing member of Zanu-PF's politburo. His record is there for all who care to see. He was silent at the time of Gukurahundi and his overall backers are all the key perpetrators of that massacre. He was complicit and silent at the time rampaging mobs ran through our High Court rendering the rule of law obsolete. He was silent when the Daily News was shut down and the owners and employees were hounded and humiliated. Makoni even sat in on political discussions and never once raised his voice when defenceless Zimbabweans were rendered homeless, in that shameless act of cruelty Operation Murambatsvina. He was silent when business leaders were assaulted and small businesses bankrupted through price controls.

The time for opportunism is not now. The MDC and their people have suffered the brunt of the same regime that through a defend power project of which Makoni was part of, have made the environment ripe for the pickings, as every man and his dog wants change. Makoni and his own are seeking a soft landing for ill gotten gains and human rights abuses, and are now attempting to believe in a need for change.

Our party have one message for Zimbabweans. They know very well which political party's leaders have suffered with the people in our quest to rid Zimbabwe of Zanu-PF. They have full knowledge of the marginalisation and victimisation and the need for a national integration where one day we can all say an Ndebele can be president. The MDC and its leaders have been murdered, tortured and imprisoned and yet would still win the support of the majority of Zimbabweans in a genuinely free vote. If that is not self evident, and Zanu-PF/ Makoni are confident of victory why do they refuse to implement the SADC, Mauritian declaration, of norms and standards?

Why do Zanu-PF/ Makoni refuse to allow me to return to Zimbabwe, when everyone knows that a prerequisite for the resolution of the South African political crisis was amnesty for a range of politicians such as the late Joe Slovo, Chris Hani etc? Rigged elections remain rigged elections. The Zimbabwe crisis will only be resolved when genuinely free and fair elections Rigged elections remain rigged elections. The Zimbabwe crisis will only be resolved when genuinely free and fair elections are held and are confirmed as such by a credible body of international observers.

Yours sincerely,

Roy Bennett

David Coltart On Simba Makoni

2008-03-09T03:18:00.000-07:00

[This is a message from the David Coltart Mailing List] __

The Editor

Cape Argus,

Attention: Mr Chris Whitfield

Dear Sir,

I have read the letter published in the Cape Argus on the 17th February 2008 written by my friend and colleague Roy Bennett in which he accused Zimbabwean Presidential candidate Simba Makoni of complicity in various crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Mugabe regime because of his association with Zanu PF.

Both Roy Bennett and I served in the BSAP, the Rhodesian Police force, in the 1970s during the civil war fought by ZANLA and ZIPRA against the Rhodesian Front government. Whilst there were undoubtedly atrocities committed by the guerrilla armies, the BSAP played a major role in maintaining white minority rule and during the course of the war torture was also systematically used by the BSAP against captured guerrillas and their supporters.

Despite the fact that we served in the BSAP, we were both elected to Parliament in 2000 by an overwhelmingly black electorate who were prepared to forgive us for the fact that we were members of an institution which had prolonged white minority rule and the oppression of black people. I have always been humbled by the deep reservoir of forgiveness and goodwill shown towards me by black Zimbabweans, who were prepared to look beyond my past and who were prepared to judge me on my more recent record.

Likewise the miracle that unfolded in South Africa in the early 1990s occurred because Nelson Mandela and the ANC were prepared to forgive the National Party and leaders like F.W. De Klerk for their role in apartheid. Much of that spirit of forgiveness stemmed from the fact that Mr de Klerk was prepared to humble himself by giving up the trappings of power and to turn away from the evil past of apartheid. The combination of the spirit of forgiveness, on the one hand, and the turning away from evil, on the other, contributed greatly to the healing that took place in South Africa in the 1990s.

Zimbabwe is in a similar place of distress as South Africa was in 1990. Our problems are so grave and seemingly intractable that we will not be able to save our land unless all responsible and patriotic Zimbabweans display a similar spirit of forgiveness and turning away from evil.

It is in that context that Roy Bennett's attack on Simba Makoni is so unfortunate. He accuses Makoni of being complicit in the Gukurahundi genocide, the Murambatsvina atrocity and other human rights violations, through his silence. He blames Makoni for the fact that he is unable to return from exile and for the fact that SADC norms and conditions have not been implemented in Zimbabwe.

What is undeniable is that Simba Makoni has been in Zanu PF since independence but that alone does not make him complicit. In my capacity as Director of the Bulawayo Legal Projects Centre in the 1980s and 1990s I played a leading role in the investigation and reporting of the Gukurahundi genocide which culminated in the publication in 1997 of the report "Breaking the Silence" by our parent organisation the Legal Resources Foundation. Simba Makoni was never implicated in the Gukurahundi. Indeed our investigations revealed that it was perpetrated by a relatively small cabal around Robert Mugabe. Many even in the military itself did not know exactly what was planned and what happened.

As regards Murambatsvina the facts are that Makoni resigned, in an unprecedented and brave act, from cabinet in 2002, well before Murambatsvina took place. We also know that the reason he resigned was because he disagreed with a host of Zanu PF policies. We also know that he has fought a lone battle within the Politburo trying to reform Zanu PF from within. In the past year he has spoken out publicly against Zanu PF's abuses including the shocking torture of Morgan Tsvangirai and other opposition leaders in March last year.

We may criticise him for staying within Zanu PF for so long but it is an unjustified cut to say that he has agreed with all that has happened in Zimbabwe since independence. Even if I am wrong in my assessment of Makoni's past, what we know for certain now is that he has broken from Zanu PF in an astonishingly brave move. His manifesto indicates that he stands for the right things, including national reconciliation and a new democratic constitution.

In my view this courageous move should be supported, not criticised. Now is the time for us all to display the same degree of forgiveness afforded Roy Bennett and me by black Zimbabweans. The quid pro quo is that Simba Makoni must show that this is a genuine turning away from Zanu PF's evil past - but I think he has already demonstrated that through his actions and words of the last few weeks.

Now is also the time for all patriotic Zimbabweans to work together to bring Robert Mugabe's ruinous and brutal dictatorship to an end.

Yours sincerely,

David Coltart MP

MDC

Bulawayo

Zimbabwe

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Why I did not write

2008-03-09T01:29:00.000-08:00

There are many winds that blow across the pale blue skies. Winds of hope, winds of change, winds of disillusion; winds of heightened expectation.

The latter wind ferretted my enclave and made me wait. I had to wait and see how things were happening in Zimbabwe. This to give Simba Makoni enough time to make sense to the Zimbabwean community, Mugabe to start insulting kith and kin, and Morgan to begin drumming the same tune as the aged leader.

In my quietness I have appreciated the move by AGO Mutambara and his faction, and I continue to rally behind the call for a truly democratic dispensation to this day. Expressions of solidarity in a trying environment, particularly challenging how things are, make for greater reading and concern.

Roy Bennett was in the news the other day, vying to put as much mud in Makoni's campaign. Glad for the response by David Coltart. We do not need to rewrite history in order to demonise people...

Oh I am writing again!

They will not vote

2008-02-13T10:54:00.000-08:00

The debacle involving the candidates for our elections continue to mount, and I am getting a sense of despair from friends and relatives back home.

Funny, the interest generated by Makoni does not seem to have lasted more than a week. Is it a good sign or shock, that the announcement of a candidate can draw a damp squib on what should be already a politically volatile nation?

The mind boggles. I am forced to predict a reinactment of the various phases of elections in Zimbabwe. As we get closer, ZANU PF will get pretty much violent, and the other people will begin to cower and count their opportunity costs before stepping out to go and vote.

The astute tones of unveiled violence and threats are coming out in the press statements made by good old Morgan in South Africa, and, instead of spreading his manifesto he has taken to making a swipe at the other candidates for the electoral race.

People will not vote in an environment where they feel distanced from the decision making process. We are not a part of the system, and therefore we are not going to make any change.

Thus pretty much of the population will see march 29 as a day in passing. No one will go to vote because it will change nothing.

MDC Mutambara to Court Makoni

2008-02-11T10:13:00.000-08:00

In a statement released yesterday, the Movement for Democratic Change (Mutambara) faction declared that it would consider engaging with Makoni ahead of the Presidential elections.
The statement reads, in part, The MDC National Council met today (10 February) to review and consider the candidate selection process going on throughout the country for the harmonized elections scheduled for the 29^th March 2008.

Council expressed satisfaction with the progress which has been made to date, and called for finalisation of the process at all levels.

Council also noted the recent announcement by Dr Simba Makoni that he will stand as a Presidential candidate in the forthcoming elections. Council mandated the Party’s Management Committee to remain engaged with all progressive Opposition formations desirous of creating a united front to confront the Mugabe regime in the forthcoming elections within a single candidate philosophy framework.

The move is in stark contrast to the declaration made by Morgan Tsvangirai's faction against a union of forces with Makoni. According to Zimdaily, Morgan's faction has categorically dismissed any coalition with Makoni, or Mutambara for that matter.

With the support that Makoni is receiving at present, coupled with sterling work carried out by the hoard of MP's under the Mutambara faction; the coalition may just prove to be the best move yet for either of the two. It remains to be seen whether Makoni will accede to the open call. Recent reports declare that he still has ties with the old ZANU PF and has in fact got the backing of disgruntled stalwarts who may not be so willing to tie with the MDC just yet.

We wait to see what the future holds.

Civic Society Backs Tsvangirai?

2008-02-10T01:33:00.000-08:00

State media remains adamant that Simba Makoni made the wrong move. Today's article spoke about how political heavy weights in ZANU PF who wanted to come out and support him felt cheated to the chase when Makoni made an "imature" announcement of his candidacy.

Madhuku has been quoted by the same paper as saying his coalition of members will not support Makoni, but would rather side with Tsvangirai as the viable conduit of change.

Amazing, isnt it? Just a few days ago sections of the Crisis in Zimbabwe coalition celebrated the coming of the new man onto the fighting table. Can be that we are looking at two sides of the civic sector coming in and attempting to hold sway.

I am a bit concerned about the open declarations of support by purportedly non governmental institutions at this stage of the fight. Anything can go, and go for either good or bad at that. There is need for the civic movement to desist from trying to influence public sway by commenting on an issue that ultimately will rest with the millions of voters back at home.

I trust that Madhuku and the others who follow him have a good picture about who will win. Not too long ago the man who is now advocating the support of Tsvangirai was saying elections were doomed, ZANU PF will win.

Then again, Madhuku has been in the struggle for some time now. He has brushed shoulders with the high and mighty. He should know.

Ah well.

Simba Makoni 101

2008-02-09T07:29:00.000-08:00

The villages are abuzz with the latest move by Simba Makoni to stand as an independent and contest the Zimbabwean Presidency. They speak in English, they speak in French, they speak in Zimbabwe, they speak in Britain.

Brian Kagoro's interview on newzimbabwe is an eye opener. (Click here) Kagoro sees Makoni's announcement as provident. It could be worth the MDCs' while to form a coalition with him and determine the one person who will represent the change that will face Mugabe.

Bloody witches!

2008-02-09T00:34:00.000-08:00

Corporate acquisitions sometimes can sound the dearth knell to rising companies and organizations.

Indeed, initial by ins appear glamorous for the young organization, but sadly they end up swallowing the idea and making bitter any merger.

This is due to the way the bigger organization strives, by all means necessary, to make the smaller organization attune itself to the struggles and hopes of the bigger and more corporate enterprise at the expense of the smaller company whose success, in many cases, has been as a direct result of its ability to hold its own vision and share it right along the production chain.

Staff in up and coming companies have greater belonging than those in corporate. It’s a simple matter of fact cultured upon the understanding that it is the individual in a small organization who makes it sink or swim.

Larger corporate organizations distance the worker. In their desire to make profit they commodity the worker and make him or her part of the assets, not part of the chain process making things work. When the corporate registers a success, it is not shared with the staff; rather, it is celebrated in board rooms.

Yes, even when the manager comes to shake the hand of the member of staff, not team member mind you, it’s a passing trifle; as if they have been forced.

It’s enough to make one cry when the initial idea goes falling to the ground and there appears to be no other way to provide succor.

The bigger organization, understanding, always that there is need to make money, and more money at that, work to make the smaller organization feel that its original idea should go hang.

If anything, the tussle becomes one of do it my way, or I will swallow your organization and make sure that it will not be heard again.

In Zimbabwe, small business is paying dearly for making it in difficult times. I would applaud attempts by business angels; you know, the ones with a penchant for buying big cars and naming them after personal vendettas, to provide support for the small organizations so that they stand on their feet and hang on a little more.

Small business is giving jobs to many talented people back home. Had the situation been different, it would be the same small organizations working to make the country great. Give them a chance!

Failed Reunification, by Stella Allberry

2008-02-08T05:21:00.000-08:00

Failed reunification, my account of what I experienced that tragic weekend

Stella Allberry, National Executive -Secretary for Health, MDC (Mutambara)
7 February 2008

When our National Council ( MDC Arthur Mutambara ) was requested to attend an extraordinary National Council Meeting for the reunification process, there were mixed emotions as we travelled to Harare.

Many of us had been deeply hurt in the last couple of years, and quite frankly were proud to be part of a sincere and principled group that were of one heart and vision, working tirelessly for the betterment of our country. We all knew that for the sake of all our beloved Zimbabweans we had to do all that was in our power to have a united front against Mugabe to free the people of Zimbabwe.

We were secure that we would make the right decision. Ten of our top leadership had been working again on some type of agreement (the last one a coalition agreement had been rejected by the Tsvangirai formation in April last year). This was a reunification agreement. On Saturday morning we were presented with a document that the top ten from both parties had agreed upon. They told of endless debates being held until the early hours of many mornings, saying they faced the hardest negotiations of their lives.

The document they showed us a fully comprehensive one and I attach it here so you may see for yourself what it is all about. The reunification process seemed fair and just in every way and culminating in a reunification congress shortly after elections dissolving both parties and making one reunited MDC. We debated vigorously but sensibly. Our concerns though were few and not too major. Our unity was incredibly evident, with our desire for freedom and an end to the suffering of our nation being our focus.

The new seats allocation between the two formations was a little disappointing for our side, effectively giving the Tsvangirai formation approximately 70% in 6 provinces, 50% in 1 province and 30% in the 3 Matabeleland provinces, but we recognised that all agreements require a considerable amount of compromise and tolerance. By 12 midday we had adopted the agreement and were ready to meet with the other team and sign it into being. I even had a romantic notion of the two leaders holding clasped hands up in the air to a roar of Chinja Maitiro ...... Instead we waited for four hours while the Tsvangirai formation debated.

Eventually our top ten were called back into negotiations. The Tsvangirai formation's National Council had been debating at the same time as us and could not accept what their top ten had negotiated for them. From 4pm until 8 30 pm we waited and were then told that the Tsvangirai formation were sticking over the point of wanting to have two more seats in Bulawayo. We had already compromised in other areas- for example we had agreed to only have 28% of seats in Harare, even though we were entitled in terms of our agreement to at least 33%.

Arthur had asked them to please make a decision one way or the other by the next morning, as we just could not debate further. The Tsvangirai formation's Bulawayo contingency were, it seemed, really fighting the process, and I couldn't help but cry in my heart: " Please, please remember the bigger picture for the people." Sunday morning our leadership called us in and we heard that the Tsvangirai Formation had brought an entirely new and different demand to the table. Funnily enough the Sunday Mail newspaper heard before us.

We were told that the Tsvangirai formation wanted 50 % of all the Matabeleland and Bulawayo seats, including those where our MPs were already sitting and further they would not guarantee not fielding in the other 50%! Taking 26 and then halving the voters in the other half! Where was the good will towards a uniting MDC? We were blown away! A few of us women cried and I even had an opportunity of saying with a broken heart "Do we give it to them to stop the suffering of the people?" But even as I said it, I thought what will we be doing for the people of Zimbabwe?

If we give them greedy MPs who think only of themselves anyway, are we not betraying them more? Arthur and Welshman ( our Secretary General ) both looked me directly in my face and asked if I had an idea of what to do and said they had tried their absolute hardest...... The press conference was given and we are going alone. I see that Eddie Cross has written of the gloom in our camp. Yes, that is true, but not because we cried for ourselves. There is no doubt that our gloom was shared by millions of patriotic Zimbabweans who hoped that people would put personal interests aside for National interest- something that the Tsvangirai formation has failed to do.

Eddie also has written that the decision not to form a united front was" received favourably across the nation.." Whilst I have no doubt it was received favourably in State House and by Zanu PF throughout the nation, I think the truth is that most reasonable Zimbabweans were deeply disappointed. Yes Eddie, we are very very sad, but not for ourselves. In fact, to stand with principled people is the greatest honour of my life.

I will never stop fighting this regime as long as I have breath in my body and I have no feeling of guilt or shame in the choices we have made because we gave it our best shot. We must now take on the brutal Zanu Pf regime divided - but we will do so with courage and determination

Image Source::http://www.inkundla.net/images

Image no t part of original statement by Stella. Mazheve's placement

Then there was light!

2008-02-05T09:16:00.000-08:00

Hopes have been rekindled with the announcement that Simba Makoni is in the running for the presidency today in Harare.

Zimdaily.com sent fevers to dizzying heights across the diaspora with the news. The paper quotes him as saying,

“Following very extensive and intensive consultations with party members and activists countrywide and also with others outside the party, I have accepted the call and hereby advise the people of Zimbabwe that I offer myself as candidate for the office of president,”

Its a decision many have been hoping he would make, considering how the maverick politician has managed to strike s pose of calm and sanity amid the chaos and decay that has been Zimbabwean Politics over the past decades.

A lot will attest to Makoni's calm demeanour and level headedness. He has, for long being the level and dashing young boy of Zimbabwean politics who has weathered the storms and not grown the precarious pouch of political greed and economic flatulance. His handling of economic policy, for what it was worth comes highly recommended.

He is adept to the cries of the people. “Let me confirm that I share the agony and anguish of all citizens over the extreme hardships that we all have endured for nearly 10 years now. I also share the widely held view that these hardships are a result of failure of national leadership and that change at that level is a pre-requisite for change at other levels of national endeavor.” he says through the same paper.

It would be mischieveous for Zimdaily and its sources to play tricks on us. this kind of joy cannot be too good to be true now!

I just pray THEY dont get him involved in a nasty accident. If he is still alive by the time we get to the polls, I will ask leave from them that give me money here; I will pack my bags right here, set them aside for safekeeping till I return, and then I will leave;

Don't claim elections were rigged

2008-02-04T21:56:00.000-08:00

It appears a united force among the ranks of the opposition will not be a reality after all in Zimbabwe. What a shame?

Opposition politics started to lose its plot when it began to pat itself on the back for a job well done. This was after the shakedown of 2000, when, in a record 8 months or less, a new and vibrant opposition party came and gave urban voters a sense of hope in new things to come.

The hope was kept steady again in 2004, and, while it began to teeter as the organisation reached its 6th year, people did not get to consider the real reasons behind the demise of the MDC.

A lot would be quick to blame ZANU PF for the breakdown in the party; above all, ZANU PF has infiltrators everywhere!

Right?

Wrong!

For when greed and avarice enters a "democratic" voice , echoes of dissention resonate so loud it becomes virtually impossible to make any form of order. The party derives its strength less on its capacity to hold its thing together, than in a display of outright power and inhouse squabbling.

A faction broke away from Tsvangirai after realizing his penchant for vetoing the constitution. The party can never speak of Unity again, because the same accusations arose once again late last year, and the party was rocked into running battles.

If only they knew how people are dying for change in the country. If only they knew that an opposition that is strong and united and in principle opposed to bad governance and disunity will win, then they would not wish to split votes the way they have done.

It will be ZANU PF , with its list of members right down to the last Cell. It will be ZANU PF, which reckons well the advice that you do not skin a skunk upwind or you will incur the wrath of your fellow villagers! It wil be ZANU PF, harbouring accusations of vote rigging, vote buying, call it what you will; that will win the elections in 2008.

Dont claim they would have rigged.

I died 2 days back

2008-02-01T22:24:00.000-08:00

When you get to a new country. You must take a pinch of its soil and put it into your mouth. Savour the taste of the earth, and she will accept you as her son and mate.

For when we are born in our motherland the umbilical cord is interred in mother earth. It is not the medical doctor alone who keeps your health in check; it is the spirits of those gone before, interred in the earth and living, ever living, close to the One who created all Human Kind.

A lot of us who flee the land forget this. Caught up in mire or admiration, customs that have been the mainstay of our livelihood are thrown out of the window. In the end, we suffer stomach pains, caughs, heat and cold pangs; we miss home.

I thought I was going to die. The wave of heat hit me square in the tummy and made me sweat and squirm. I could feel the veins in my head thumping, and I could not make out if what I was seeing were people or spirits.

I lay dead for some seconds. While i was dead, I thought of the many people who, throbbed by pain and suffering each day, just wish they would die, go to waste and be forgotten.

Sickness is a very bad thing.

I received an email from a friend before I died. It was meant to be a warning about the vices of being a he whore in a land not yours; AIDS kills.

Lying on a hospital bed was a sceletalwoman, naked and dead. At her feet were red flowers and a picture of her during her prime. The message in the chain email was; she did not listen to advice about restraint, now she is dead.

How callous can we be? In seeking restraint should we judge the sick and dying, and show no compassion for the ones in pain?

My dying seconds taught me the value of good health.

Send a prayer today to people who are sick in this world. Particularly those who take photos of naked women who have died of AIDS, and parade them as warning signs to the rest of the world.

Losing the plot

2008-01-28T11:17:00.001-08:00

A lot of African countries today have lost the plot through the focus of their leadership. It is not surprising that everywhere we are turning, nations are finding themselves in uproar and upheaval

Just look at Kenya, once the darling of the west in its show of democracy and governance, now a nation reeling from tribal conflict and disdain. Then there is beautiful Zimbabwe, crippled by intrigue and now on its knees as he economy crumbles to all time lows.

Issa G Shivji, in his Silence in NGO Discourse: The Role and Future of NGOs In Africa raises interesting points about what he terms the failure of African countries to adopt the plot of Pan Africanism in favour of territorial nationalism which was based on the old colonial context, already perilous.

It was the same kind of territorial nationalism which spurned African leaders to consider what they termed developmental nationalism over the democratization processes, already absent during colonial regimes. As Nyerere, justified, “We must run while others walk”. New African countries we beholden by the great desire to make developmental progress that power was retained in the executive and governments had to do all the work, including the thinking,, on behalf of the communities that they were meant to serve.

One could argue, as does Sihivji, that the concentration of power in the executive was nothing more than the government’s responses to the expectation that people had. However, it led to the assumption of control based primarily on ethnic dominance. The leading party would focus and champion the needs of its ethnicity at the expense of the others, and the initial cracks were made on the basis of what ethnicity ruled the other, and for how long.

Independence in many of our countries is just an old word signifiying nothing. We lost the plot the minute we assumed African leadership was anything different from what we had before.

We are many

2008-01-27T09:05:00.000-08:00

Who would have thought that a transit would lead to me knowing souls from back home?! Today was a good day, and I think there is a lot that can be said about fate and chance.

Passing through Woh to reach Agok; I was supposed to wait from nine till four in order to get my transport. I was not sure how I would pass the time. It looked certain that I would just need to type away on my machine till the battery ran out.

I heard them within earshot; two men. They were talking. “I come from Zimbabwe,” the other man was saying. “I work with a demining concern about 120 km from here. I have been here for more than 5 months now.”

I left my laptop running; not caring if the battery went flat and extended my hand to him,

“Makadini;
from which part of Zimbabwe do you hail?”

He is a DZ fellow, “location boy” born and bred in the populous part of Harare’s burgeoning residential areas, Dzivarasekwa.

He is happy to know me and tells me another Zimbabwean is with him. “We are many here,” he tells me with a smile, “There are three Zimbabwean police details working for UN here in Woh.

Whenever we have time, we meet and discuss home.”

At his demining camp there are at least a dozen Zimbabweans. They are all supervisors. The company is an offshoot from a Zimbabwean demining concern that was started by a veteran Zimbabwean army colonel.

We get to talk about the hard year that was 2007. It cost my friend a marriage.

“My wife could not get herself to accept that I lost a job as a caterer and could not bring money home like I used to. I stayed with her at my in laws. Right there in Dzivarasekwa… They treated me like scum.”

He tells how he began having problems at home with his mother in law. She felt her daughter needed someone with more money. She needed her daughter to have a “better future”

The woman began bringing other men home. His son, Innocent, began to know there were other men that could be called dad.

He decided enough was enough and went off to live with his cousins. They chased him away after two months; they could not support someone who did not have enough to look after them either.

This was when he secured a job in demining. Before long the job opportunity came in Sudan.

“I am going home to buy a housing stand. First I will pass through Juba and buy clothes for my mother and son. I have five new pairs of jeans. I am going to wear them all back home. I will buy three cell phones in Nairobi and will wear one on a neck chain when I go to see my son.”

His eyes are bright with determination as he relives what has been for him a sudden turn in fortunes.

He keeps patting his bags.

When he gets home tonight, Dzivarasekwa will rock to the sound of his voice.

Tech or Take, Challenge or Fate?

2008-01-26T00:37:00.000-08:00

Technological developments impacting societies define whether it sinks or swims. Any change, whether good or bad, is certain. It is said that nothing remains the same. Even what were once deep and sacred pools shall become sand bridges connecting different sides of the divide.

The intercourse between cultures results in a radical change in the way people do things. Changes in trade and commerce, community development and structure, as well as politics create an opportunity for society to move forward.

In Southern Sudan, ICT development is rising at an impressive rate, and presents the community’s capacity to make use of the same to define its own progression.

It has made inroads in the villages of Yei, Lanya, Tenj and Juba.

Thatch huts and squares don satellite dishes. Here, DSTV subscriptions go the full length because it is not just the subscriber and his family who watches programs. The whole community is tuned in, and spectacular shows are shared by communal groups.

You will also find satellite phones in the same huts. People are communicating with the outside world and sharing news with sons and daughters abroad.

I was speaking the other day to a man who tells me he grew up in Yei, “My family; they live here,” he told me with a smile,

“We left our homes some years ago in the height of the war, and I went with my family to Uganda. My two brothers went to America, and now they are permanent citizens there.”

He calls them ever so often. He tells them about his hoard of cattle not just by phone but also through email.

Organizations which have brought electricity to such towns are also bringing in Internet connectivity through high speed VSAT and radio links.

They are dotted all over the terrain, and they are bringing the world much closer to a community that would have otherwise been shrouded in mystery.

In the face of a constantly evolving world, opening up to outside development is not selling out, but it is facing the inevitable. The more the world assumes a similar face in development; the more we can get to know the full beauty of human ingenuity.

All African Leaders are the same

2008-01-24T05:23:00.000-08:00

I arrived in Uganda drunk. It was not something I intended, neither is this meant to be an apology.

My airplane seat was directly opposite a fellow imbiber's, and though we never spoke a word to each other, we seem to have agreed, in sync, that two cans of cold Heineken could and should be topped by at least four small J B's.

Our "Scotch on Rocks please!", soon became chorus and we did not feel the four odd hours between Joburg and the majestic environs of lake Victoria pass.

I will not talk about my fear when we were about to land. I thought the pilot was going to stop smack on the water before we reached the banks of Lake Victoria!. All I could see from my window was a stretch of dark water, reaching out as far as the eye could see...

My drinker friend sensed my apprehension, I think. When the wheels of the massive air bus touched earth, we gave the pilot a glorious applause.

Waiting for me was a wiry gentle soul who had my first name spelled wrong on a placard. We exchanged glances of relief. I think he had been waiting for more than an hour. "Welcome to Uganda" He smiled. "Please put your trolley there and wait for me. I am still waiting for another person to come."

We waited for 15 minutes before he decided we could go, "The other person did not come" .

I teetered after the man and the warm rains of Entebbe hit my face as we raced to the parking lot. We exchanged names and views on the way. We also exchanged politics, "So how are things in Zimbabwe?" He asked,

....I cringed.

There is a saying that you should not raise your armpits in public. The crude smell they emit will bring dishonour to your people back home.

I told him about the queues, the dashed hopes, the escapes to worlds beyond.

"It's corruption," he remarked, " Africa is suffering from corrupt leaders. We see it here in Uganda."

His remarks were to be echoed by another driver on the return leg the next morning. This one was older; indeed, much more composed...

"Its corruption and the unwillingness to relinquish power. Look at the Kenyan crisis, my president, our own Ugandan president is the only one who congratulated Kibaki: do you know what he is doing now?"

I professed ignorence ashe dodged a pothole on the road,

" He has sent soldiers to Uganda to help Kibaki, because he knows if Kibaki goes he will not be leader of the East African bloc, Kenyan opposition does not want Museveni. He wants to hold on to power, and its the local people who suffer..."

He pointed to the roads and said, "You see these roads? They are well kept here but you should go to the other parts of the country... there is no development at all. People are suffering!"

The return journey was too short.

He helped me carry my bags and bid me farewell... As I watched him leave one thought stayed in my mind.... All African leaders are the same...

All I had was 15 rands

2008-01-22T09:04:00.000-08:00

Travelling across Africa is always a pleasure, particularly when one has no money and they trust in the goodness of people. Believe you me, when it comes to sharing, we are big on it and we do it definately big.
I got out of Zimbabwe clutching some coins. Three in all; South African rands; saved by my mother from her last trip down South. Enough to buy me 500ml of coca cola . I could have made a withdrawal of 20m from my bank account in Zimbabwe, and changed it on the parallel market for us dollars or rands. The former would be about 5 dollars, the latter; 35 rands.
But to go through the hassles again! The 15 rands my mother gave me were enough to buy coca cola. I approached a coke vending machine at the Johanesburg airport with unease. They were displaying the precious liquid which has become rare back in my homeland.
With a click you select the flavour and voilà, out it comes. Money is in abundance here. I did not see any queues. The machine told me to slot in a rand for the drink. I did and waited. Nothing happened. The seconds ticking by as I stared at the machine brought a nauseating feeling of the wait I had the other day at Barclays for the ATM to dispense some cash. I had waited four hours... and Nothing came out.
"Put 7 rands!" I hear a sweeper bellow over my shoulder. Instinctively I dig into my reserves for the other 5 rand, and smile as he takes over the machine, pushes a few buttons, and cold fanta comes out of the machine in a taut package.
He looks at me and smiles at the miracle he has made happen. "Do you have any more rands to spare?" he asks. I look at him and reply in honesty, " I only have 5 rands left" He is determined though. "Do you want to use them?"
I want to take him to a seat close by and explain that there is no way I am going to part with the last coin that seperates me from coinlessness but I think, no; a little dignity would be necessary. I tell him, politely, "Yes. Sorry"

For the next couple of hours I roam the alleys of joburg airport, musing at what I could buy if I had money;lots of money. I come to a digicam shop and I am stunned at a 10,1 megapixel machine, silver reflex labelled Lumix. Its an upgrade of my own lumix which I left at home with my woman.
I am about to bolt as I see the price when a burly woman, the shop attendant flashes a smile and approaches. I am caught. She gives a sales pitch that would shame any executive, and says the camera would suit a journalist like me, " How could she tell?"
My brain goes into overdrive; its a machine to have this. Oh if I could just afford it?! I remember how I bought the first one...500euro it cost me, thanks to the untold benevolence of the Catholic Church...
I manage to slink away from her on the pretext that I need to check if I can get some money downstairs. She warns me there's another shop exactly like hers there, and "You will see the same camera, but please heh, dont buy it. Come up stars and buy from me because you are my customer"
I should have escaped her had my plane not been leaving at gate A23. Her shop is quite near gate 23.... Later I was to pass again near her shop. I cast a sheepish glance at her broad welcome, and managed a sorry "It did not work out, maybe another time". She smiled back then quickly sought out another customer.
Our departure was delayed because someone missed the flight. I wondered whether they had enough money to hire a cab to the airport.... Maybe they only had 15 rand...

On the road again

2008-01-21T13:31:00.000-08:00

The gnawing guilt ate at my insides the moment i boarded the plane back home. 18 months of trying to make it in a world that did not give me a second glance. Promises made with verve at the beginning, the same that lost meaning along the way, till they became nightmares haunting me every day.

The same would confront me that very same day. Seeing the country I love, gone so much into decay. Yet a part of me was rejoicing; indeed it jumped and sang hallelujah that very day, for finally, I was coming home to stay...

I craved for the sweet smell of dust on the Zimbabwean streets; the whiff of urine and excreta that came from service lanes right in the deep recesses of a city I called home. The site of bumptious young women with ample breasts covered in tops varying from lime to blue and sometimes gray...

I longed to be back in a country I called my own; To bump and jive to the sounds of Oliver Mtukudzi, as his voice resonated to the lyrics of Nhava.

As with many, I vowed to listen only to the sound of his voice once again and ignore the meaning of his words, as he rued the coming back of a son of the soil from the diaspora to an empty life with nothing to give his family and friends.

I could have done better. That is what I constantly swore. Could have made it big. That is the idea, is it not? "You board the plane, and you are rich" When you decide to eat dog, better get the male and take the balls and all, the elders used to say...

People will only smile at you when you are in the diaspora, far away from home, missing them, with a dollar or two to spare...

That is the life of the one who chooses to go to the world out there...

It took me a year to realise that Harare would not be a home for me again.

This is why, after a year of pain, I packed my things and left...