BY RASHWEAT MUKUNDU,
To soccer lovers the saying "you will never walk alone" is familiar as it relates to one leading soccer team in the United Kingdom, Liverpool. In Zimbabwe and in other parts of the world, this saying is infamous and carries a completely different meaning in relation to the freedoms or lack thereof, of women to walk, travel and do things on their own in the absence of male company or guardianship.
On a day-by-day basis, Zimbabwe's police on bicycles traverse the streets of Harare, targeting the Avenues area. This section of the city is famous for its nightclubs, restaurants and is known as the hub of commercial sex work.
The police target women who walk alone, or those who do not have a "convincing" explanation for their presence on the streets. This act is clear harassment of women, many of whom are discriminated because of their dressing.
A pair of tight pants or a mini skirt is a one-way ticket to the nearest police station. Otherwise, one can escape the police station by offering the police officer free sex or a USD$5 or 10 bribe.
In July 2012, the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officially launched an Operation known as Chipo Chiroorwa loosely translated "Chipo, get married." The Operation aimed at ridding the streets of Harare of sex workers.
The Operation exposed how language is carelessly used without much thought. The name of the operation in Shona is an order to a young woman to get married. The Operation calls on women to get married and not engage in sex work.
The assumption that all women should get married is a warped expectation on women by society. Marriage is a choice.
On the other hand, one cannot fully blame the police for being custodians of the "law." The police are simply drawing from existing social repertoire that says that young women, who roam the streets for commercial sex work, are a "problem" to the broader society and women must be married.
The Zimbabwe police are masking a "problem" that society has established yet perpetuating one of the oldest violations on women's rights. Women have the right to occupy spaces of their choice and to do certain things or engage in activities on their own.
While acknowledging the attendant problems that result from sex work, including violence perpetrated against such women by their clients and the spread of HIV and AIDS, there seem to be a wrong diagnosis of the challenges the Zimbabwe society faces that results in the launch of Operation Chipo Chiroorwa.
Speaking to the media about Operation Chipo Chiroorwa, former Police Spokesperson James Sabau said that women bring the arrests upon themselves by "loitering" the streets for purposes of sex work. Sabau added that the police can easily identify their targets by their dressing.
The situation is worse if the woman is caught with condoms, whether male or female condoms. Condoms are enough evidence for the police that the woman is a sex worker.
This modus operandi by the police is of concern as it is against the efforts that are in place for combating the spread of HIV. Women must be encouraged to carry condoms so that they can negotiate safe sex and protect themselves from infections and unwanted pregnancies.
Gender activists in Zimbabwe marched to Parliament to express their displeasure about police behaviour. However, police are still arresting women on allegations of sex work.
There is need to reorient the police force on women's rights beyond written statements in police charters and the constitution. Government must raise awareness among the police force about gender equality beyond what the law says, but how cultures and traditions, prejudices and stereotypes create gender inequalities.
It is not enough to train the police on the law. The police must also be agents responsible for changing attitudes among citizens. For instance, when the media asked Inspector Sabau why they are arresting women, he said, "Loitering for purposes of prostitution brings the reputation and dignity of women into disrepute. As a police force it is our duty to enforce the laws of the country."
Herein lies two issues that society should think about, male attitudes and accepted views of what women should do to maintain so-called "dignity." Secondly, laws set by predominantly male political elite to reinforce male perceptions on women need review.
Gender activists should seize the reviewing of the constitution so that archaic laws that impinge on women's rights are repealed. One day, Zimbabwean women must be able to walk alone and society must find it OK!
Rashweat Mukundu is a media activist and freelance journalist. This article is part of the GL Opinion and Commentary Service series for the Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender Violence.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Show Me One Brave Zimbabwean Woman!
By Rejoice Ngwenya -Harare based political economist
Before feminist fundamentalists hurl proverbial shrapnel at me, I
implore them to read beyond my provocative heading. Blind fury,
senseless ire is the opium of the unenlightened. If you are of weak
gender predisposition, allergic to straight ‘flash lithography’ talk,
you might as well terminate your literary frolic here. I acknowledge
the proliferation of ordinary Zimbabwean women daily confronting
hunger, poverty, pain, abuse and suffering caused by but not
necessarily limited to the inept militarised governance of ZANU-PF.
Women lay down their lives to challenge authoritarian hegemony,
partisan food aid and de-humanising violence since Gukurahundi up to
the life-sapping June 2008 elections.
My problem is with their political emissaries who wield superficial
influence. It is no longer fashionable to proffer patriarchy as an
excuse for exclusion. My point is simple. In order to end gender-based
violence and oppression, women must have the capacity to infiltrate
and control the manner in which government operates. In fact, they
must be government. They ought to wield the very power to determine
the destiny and the fate of the citizens they want to immunise against
the venom of abuse. Voting for the ‘right’ man is not good enough.
Being Vice President, deputy Prime Minister, Secretary General or even
Minister is not sufficient. The Zimbabwean woman must be Prime
Minister, National or party President. Be the change that you want.
Show me that woman, that single brave woman who can say – at the next
elective party congress – I want to challenge for presidential
candidature. Show me a Zimbabwean Helen Zille; an Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf; a Joyce Banda. Give me the privilege of hearing Joyce Mujuru
proclaiming in Gweru: “Hey, you know what, this should now end. My
name must be on the next ZANU-PF presidential ballot paper.” I want
to be in a room where Thokozani Khupe raises her hand to say: “People,
I don’t care what you think; it’s my turn now to head MDC-T.” Would it
not be refreshing to look Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga straight in
the eye as she concludes “thank you colleagues for allowing me to run
as MDC party president”? Get me in the same zone with Emilia
Mukaratirwa beaming: “This is a great moment in history – ZAPU is now
led by me, the woman of first choice.” Zimbabwe, show me that woman.
Not in sixteen years, sixteen months, sixteen days, not in one day,
but now. That to me is ultimate woman activism – the activism of
control – transformative, earth shattering, gravity defying political
control.
Without power – real political power - Zimbabwean women will forever
languish in the fumes spewed by the masculine prejudices of Morgan
Tsvangirayi, Welshman Ncube, Dumiso Dabengwa and Robert Mugabe. They
will expend energy to gather crumbs – stale for that matter – from the
foot of the patriachial political table. Neither education, nor
profession; neither enthusiasm nor loud singing; neither high decibel
advocacy nor a seat in the United Nations Security Council – can save
Zimbabwean women from oppression until they control government.
Without being ‘head of state and government, commander in chief’ –
Zimbabwean women political ‘leaders’ are nothing but another perfect
gift from God to men.
Power, unlike beauty, in not in the eye of the beholder, it is in the
hands of the wielder. Zimbabwean women hear me: you will only move
mountains if you leverage the power in your hands. If a Zimbabwean
woman is not a president or a prime minister, sixteen days will blur
into sixteen weeks, sixteen months, sixteen years, and sixteen
centuries – before they determine their own destiny.
Before feminist fundamentalists hurl proverbial shrapnel at me, I
implore them to read beyond my provocative heading. Blind fury,
senseless ire is the opium of the unenlightened. If you are of weak
gender predisposition, allergic to straight ‘flash lithography’ talk,
you might as well terminate your literary frolic here. I acknowledge
the proliferation of ordinary Zimbabwean women daily confronting
hunger, poverty, pain, abuse and suffering caused by but not
necessarily limited to the inept militarised governance of ZANU-PF.
Women lay down their lives to challenge authoritarian hegemony,
partisan food aid and de-humanising violence since Gukurahundi up to
the life-sapping June 2008 elections.
My problem is with their political emissaries who wield superficial
influence. It is no longer fashionable to proffer patriarchy as an
excuse for exclusion. My point is simple. In order to end gender-based
violence and oppression, women must have the capacity to infiltrate
and control the manner in which government operates. In fact, they
must be government. They ought to wield the very power to determine
the destiny and the fate of the citizens they want to immunise against
the venom of abuse. Voting for the ‘right’ man is not good enough.
Being Vice President, deputy Prime Minister, Secretary General or even
Minister is not sufficient. The Zimbabwean woman must be Prime
Minister, National or party President. Be the change that you want.
Show me that woman, that single brave woman who can say – at the next
elective party congress – I want to challenge for presidential
candidature. Show me a Zimbabwean Helen Zille; an Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf; a Joyce Banda. Give me the privilege of hearing Joyce Mujuru
proclaiming in Gweru: “Hey, you know what, this should now end. My
name must be on the next ZANU-PF presidential ballot paper.” I want
to be in a room where Thokozani Khupe raises her hand to say: “People,
I don’t care what you think; it’s my turn now to head MDC-T.” Would it
not be refreshing to look Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga straight in
the eye as she concludes “thank you colleagues for allowing me to run
as MDC party president”? Get me in the same zone with Emilia
Mukaratirwa beaming: “This is a great moment in history – ZAPU is now
led by me, the woman of first choice.” Zimbabwe, show me that woman.
Not in sixteen years, sixteen months, sixteen days, not in one day,
but now. That to me is ultimate woman activism – the activism of
control – transformative, earth shattering, gravity defying political
control.
Without power – real political power - Zimbabwean women will forever
languish in the fumes spewed by the masculine prejudices of Morgan
Tsvangirayi, Welshman Ncube, Dumiso Dabengwa and Robert Mugabe. They
will expend energy to gather crumbs – stale for that matter – from the
foot of the patriachial political table. Neither education, nor
profession; neither enthusiasm nor loud singing; neither high decibel
advocacy nor a seat in the United Nations Security Council – can save
Zimbabwean women from oppression until they control government.
Without being ‘head of state and government, commander in chief’ –
Zimbabwean women political ‘leaders’ are nothing but another perfect
gift from God to men.
Power, unlike beauty, in not in the eye of the beholder, it is in the
hands of the wielder. Zimbabwean women hear me: you will only move
mountains if you leverage the power in your hands. If a Zimbabwean
woman is not a president or a prime minister, sixteen days will blur
into sixteen weeks, sixteen months, sixteen years, and sixteen
centuries – before they determine their own destiny.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Zimbabwean rights groups fear rise in intimidation
BY TREVOR NEETHLING - BusinessDay
ZIMBABWEAN rights groups fear a dramatic increase in violence and torture aimed at human rights activists in the run-up to the country’s presidential elections early next year.
In a research report released on Monday, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation against Torture, warn that Zimbabwean security police have been acting with impunity against activists.
President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu (PF) party is known for its intimidation of opposition party members and activists.
In its report, the observatory says it found dozens of examples of the torture of human rights activists.
FIDH vice-president Arnold Tsunga said the mission’s aim was to assess the environment in Zimbabwe in which human rights "defenders" carried out their activities four years after the 2008 elections.
He said that due to a failure to implement conditions of the Global Political Agreement — which was instituted after the 2008 elections and which led to the formation of the government of national unity — human rights violations against activists continued unabated.
"The Zimbabwean authorities have continued to resort to pieces of legislation to selectively and systematically restrict the space for the enjoyment of freedoms of expression, association and assembly of human rights defenders," according to the report.
"So far, most perpetrators of human rights violations against human rights defenders have not been charged and remain free."
Among its recommendations, the report calls for the Zimbabwean authorities to put an end to harassment and to uphold the country’s constitution.
It also calls for the assistance of the African Union, the Southern African Development Community and the United Nations to implement the Global Political Agreement fully and to ensure the presence of local and international observers for the elections next year.
Jacob van Garderen, national director of Lawyers for Human Rights in South Africa, said it was important for international organisations to maintain pressure on Zimbabwean authorities, as developments there would affect the entire region.
This story is taken from:
http://www.bdlive.co.za/world/africa/2012/11/26/zimbabwean-rights-groups-fear-rise-in-intimidation
ZIMBABWEAN rights groups fear a dramatic increase in violence and torture aimed at human rights activists in the run-up to the country’s presidential elections early next year.
In a research report released on Monday, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation against Torture, warn that Zimbabwean security police have been acting with impunity against activists.
President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu (PF) party is known for its intimidation of opposition party members and activists.
In its report, the observatory says it found dozens of examples of the torture of human rights activists.
FIDH vice-president Arnold Tsunga said the mission’s aim was to assess the environment in Zimbabwe in which human rights "defenders" carried out their activities four years after the 2008 elections.
He said that due to a failure to implement conditions of the Global Political Agreement — which was instituted after the 2008 elections and which led to the formation of the government of national unity — human rights violations against activists continued unabated.
"The Zimbabwean authorities have continued to resort to pieces of legislation to selectively and systematically restrict the space for the enjoyment of freedoms of expression, association and assembly of human rights defenders," according to the report.
"So far, most perpetrators of human rights violations against human rights defenders have not been charged and remain free."
Among its recommendations, the report calls for the Zimbabwean authorities to put an end to harassment and to uphold the country’s constitution.
It also calls for the assistance of the African Union, the Southern African Development Community and the United Nations to implement the Global Political Agreement fully and to ensure the presence of local and international observers for the elections next year.
Jacob van Garderen, national director of Lawyers for Human Rights in South Africa, said it was important for international organisations to maintain pressure on Zimbabwean authorities, as developments there would affect the entire region.
This story is taken from:
http://www.bdlive.co.za/world/africa/2012/11/26/zimbabwean-rights-groups-fear-rise-in-intimidation
Monday, November 26, 2012
Urban Boreholes Sink MDC-T Political Fortunes
Written by Rejoice Ngwenya
My wife is among vote-eligible millions habitually contemptuous of Zimbabwe’s poisoned electoral system. Her skepticism of political promises has of late, been reinforced by the dismal failure of Ruwa Local Board [RLB] to offer reliable water service to her urbane home. In 2008, enthusiastic Movement for Democratic Change Tsvangirayi [MDC-T] campaigners heightened expectations of Ruwa Urban Residents [RURs] with promises of unlimited safe piped water. After five years of dry taps, a mere nine months before Election 2013, she, like many RURs, has had to invest in an expensive borehole system. “All politicians are the same,” she moans. “They lie for a living!” She has vowed never to vote MDC-T.
Water problems afflict most Morgan Tsvangirayi-controlled Local Authorities [LAs]. MDC-T finds itself completely exposed to criticism. Council governance is a test of political efficacy. If you want to taste the ire of urban women, deprive them of drinkable tap water! Unlike my wife, I am lenient with political manifestos. I simply punish campaign crooks by voting against them. What a feeling of satisfaction after expressing ballot box vengeance! She would rather abstain than legitimise electoral hypocrisy.
Academic Sharon Murinda argues how Urban Councils Law ‘specifies the responsibilities of the council concerning the provision and maintenance of supply of water within or outside the council area … [but] it does not give sufficient guidance for the management of urban water supply services.’ This implies the RLB can offer a myriad of excuses for not supplying water - without ‘breaking any law’! Water engineer T.J. Broderick attempts to save MDC-T from the electoral guillotine: “The foundation investigations for Kunzvi Dam on the Nyagui River were completed in 1996 and plans were in place for that supply to augment the ever-growing Harare by 2004. Those plans were stalled, and the [Harare] population still waits and expands. Then the disastrous move to take water supply responsibility from the Municipal authority and give it to ZINWA, coupled with power woes, consequent pumping problems, an unchecked pollution of Chivero and Manyame waters, and our economic crash through into the new millennium put renewed demand on an overtaxed and basically unmanaged groundwater system “.
RURs spend many hours rattling neighbours’ gates begging for ground water. Turnover of ‘housemaids’ is consequently high in Ruwa, with most ‘sisters’ fleeing the torture of wheelbarrows and neck-breaking water gallons. My wife and I are regular attendees of council public meetings where residents are routinely threatened for defaulting on rates. In our locality alone, RLB is owed over a million US dollars as citizens protest the non availability of water. My activist efforts of distributing ‘water update’ newsletters were rewarded with police threats for ‘circulating unlawful written materials’. So much for independence!
Borehole water, for my wife, is now the ultimate solution. “Groundwater is the best resource to tap to provide clean water to the majority of areas in Africa … [it] has the benefit of being naturally protected from bacterial contamination and is a reliable source during droughts. (Awuah, Nyarko, Owusu & Osei-Bonsu, 2009). Unfortunately, according to WHO, “only 61 percent of Sub-Saharan Africans have access to clean water supply sources …” Yet MDC-T cannot afford to place all the blame on both ZANU-PF and ‘global trends’. Allegations of corruption, poor prioritizing and immaturity pervade their LAs. Tsvangirayi ‘expelled’ corrupt councillors though most still remain active members of his party. But for Election 2013 with vote-allergic citizens like my wife, my bet is that MDC-T electoral fortunes are for now sunk in deep boreholes.
-Rejoice Ngwenya is a Harare based political economist
My wife is among vote-eligible millions habitually contemptuous of Zimbabwe’s poisoned electoral system. Her skepticism of political promises has of late, been reinforced by the dismal failure of Ruwa Local Board [RLB] to offer reliable water service to her urbane home. In 2008, enthusiastic Movement for Democratic Change Tsvangirayi [MDC-T] campaigners heightened expectations of Ruwa Urban Residents [RURs] with promises of unlimited safe piped water. After five years of dry taps, a mere nine months before Election 2013, she, like many RURs, has had to invest in an expensive borehole system. “All politicians are the same,” she moans. “They lie for a living!” She has vowed never to vote MDC-T.
Water problems afflict most Morgan Tsvangirayi-controlled Local Authorities [LAs]. MDC-T finds itself completely exposed to criticism. Council governance is a test of political efficacy. If you want to taste the ire of urban women, deprive them of drinkable tap water! Unlike my wife, I am lenient with political manifestos. I simply punish campaign crooks by voting against them. What a feeling of satisfaction after expressing ballot box vengeance! She would rather abstain than legitimise electoral hypocrisy.
Academic Sharon Murinda argues how Urban Councils Law ‘specifies the responsibilities of the council concerning the provision and maintenance of supply of water within or outside the council area … [but] it does not give sufficient guidance for the management of urban water supply services.’ This implies the RLB can offer a myriad of excuses for not supplying water - without ‘breaking any law’! Water engineer T.J. Broderick attempts to save MDC-T from the electoral guillotine: “The foundation investigations for Kunzvi Dam on the Nyagui River were completed in 1996 and plans were in place for that supply to augment the ever-growing Harare by 2004. Those plans were stalled, and the [Harare] population still waits and expands. Then the disastrous move to take water supply responsibility from the Municipal authority and give it to ZINWA, coupled with power woes, consequent pumping problems, an unchecked pollution of Chivero and Manyame waters, and our economic crash through into the new millennium put renewed demand on an overtaxed and basically unmanaged groundwater system “.
RURs spend many hours rattling neighbours’ gates begging for ground water. Turnover of ‘housemaids’ is consequently high in Ruwa, with most ‘sisters’ fleeing the torture of wheelbarrows and neck-breaking water gallons. My wife and I are regular attendees of council public meetings where residents are routinely threatened for defaulting on rates. In our locality alone, RLB is owed over a million US dollars as citizens protest the non availability of water. My activist efforts of distributing ‘water update’ newsletters were rewarded with police threats for ‘circulating unlawful written materials’. So much for independence!
Borehole water, for my wife, is now the ultimate solution. “Groundwater is the best resource to tap to provide clean water to the majority of areas in Africa … [it] has the benefit of being naturally protected from bacterial contamination and is a reliable source during droughts. (Awuah, Nyarko, Owusu & Osei-Bonsu, 2009). Unfortunately, according to WHO, “only 61 percent of Sub-Saharan Africans have access to clean water supply sources …” Yet MDC-T cannot afford to place all the blame on both ZANU-PF and ‘global trends’. Allegations of corruption, poor prioritizing and immaturity pervade their LAs. Tsvangirayi ‘expelled’ corrupt councillors though most still remain active members of his party. But for Election 2013 with vote-allergic citizens like my wife, my bet is that MDC-T electoral fortunes are for now sunk in deep boreholes.
-Rejoice Ngwenya is a Harare based political economist
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Zimbabwe's forgotten youth: a disaster in the making
By Vince Musewe
Vince Musewe says youth unemployment levels are a powder keg waiting to explode
We have been conspirators in creating a most heinous crime against humanity: the obliteration of hope and the suppression of the aspirations of our youth.
I was at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) the other day, and it reminded me of our days there in the 80's. Oblivious to what was to come, one thing we did not worry about was the basics of food, shelter, transport, books and even jobs after graduating. I remembered when we used to queue up to get our "pay out" which was our pocket money paid to us in the form of government cheques. We even managed to buy a little car and could be seen ferrying all sorts of girls up and down into town. It was the best of times.
It is disheartening to see such enthusiasm in students at the campus, as they hurry off to their lectures, because it is most probable, that their expectations after graduating will not be met. As long as we continue on the route we are on and with this political leadership that we have, I am almost certain that a good number of them will leave this country.
The youth unemployment levels in Zimbabwe are a powder keg waiting to explode. My estimates are that 1 in 10 youths are formally employed and youths make up about 60% of our population. This means that several millions of young Zimbabweans have no hope for the future and nothing specific to do today and tomorrow when they wake up..
I don't know what the census results will reflect when and if they come out in a couple of years' time. Yes that's not a typo, a couple of years' is the estimate that I got from informed sources. The numbers will of course be useless when we finally get them. This, after spending a cool USD45 million on the whole exercise. I understand that the enumerators have only been paid measly USD150 for their misery. This is because, everything is being done manually, despite us having two rather exuberant ministers of science and technology and information communications technology. Where are they hiding? But I digress.
Now this is our problem, in the last ten years, our leadership has been otherwise occupied with politics and in the mean time, despite us having a stable currency; life conditions for most youths have become dreadful. Ten years is certainly a long time to wait hoping that something will come up, especially if you are a graduate,
The result is that, our youths have become peddlers and opportunists of all sorts hoping to make a fast buck and I don't blame them. The unscrupulous amongst us continue exploit them without shame. This has also increased the probability of violence where, youths are paid as little as USD10 to beat up political opponents. Others are organized into groups such as Chipangano, a notorious vigilante group of degenerates, who are most probably neither employed nor very well educated.
In the case of young women, those of lesser morals have happily become what Zimbabweans call "small houses" (adulterers or pfambi in Shona) in order to survive and be looked after by married men. It has devastated their self esteem and the moral fabric of our young girls but survive they must.
If you dine out in Johannesburg, there is a 99% chance that a Zimbabwean will serve you and an 80% chance that they will have good "O" levels and mosr probably come from Bulawayo. This reminds me a colleague from Johannesburg of mine whose daughter was getting extra tutorials on calculus from his Zimbabwean gardener.
A youth empowerment program is not only urgent, but critical because if by any chance, our youth do not get meaningful opportunities and experience now, imagine what the profile of our population will become in a couple of years time. Of course this will have serious negative consequences on our productivity, competitiveness and economic growth going forward.
I do not have the statistics with me yet, regarding the youth empowerment funds that have been launched by our honorable minister of youth empowerment and indigenization, but what I hear is rather bizarre. Youths are being given loans to pay lobola, girlfriends to set up hair salons. Others are being used as fronts by unscrupulous opportunists, to apply for the youth loans and get paid USD500 for their efforts. That is scandalous.
I doubt that there is any method in the madness of this youth empowerment project but I hope that I am wrong. We need to anticipate the future, and focus on investing in agriculture, manufacturing, information communications technology, mining, tourism, infrastructure development and renewable energy and get our youths into these sectors now. Youth empowerment funds, managed correctly, can lead to meaningful domestic investment and increase youth employment levels. However, if they are run by ZANU (PF), we all know what criteria will be used to loan the funds and their probability of success.
I have met some youths in Highfileds, who are saying they are anxiously waiting for the election campaigns to start, so that they can make some good money. They explained to me that MP's hire them to intimidate opponents, and the more MP's there are contesting for a position within one party, the more money they will make because they can get paid by all of them. All they want is their money and they could not care less who wins. They have become the true mujibas ( a South African term for young unemployed youths who live by their wits).This is a true story.
In my opinion, by sitting by the sidelines and doing nothing about this, we have been conspirators in committing a most heinous crime against humanity: the obliteration of hope and the suppression of the aspirations of our youths and future generations. That is not only dangerous, but inhuman and unforgivable.
It is ironic, that these are the very social conditions of unmet black aspirations in the then Southern Rhodesia, which inspired James Chikerema, George Nyandoro and Joshua Nkomo to be part of the African National Congress in September 1957.
My gosh, history truly does have a tendency to repeat itself.
Oh Morgan, where art thou?
Vince Musewe is an independent economist in Harare. You can contact him on vtmusewe@gmail.com. This article first published www.politicsweb.co.za
Vince Musewe says youth unemployment levels are a powder keg waiting to explode
We have been conspirators in creating a most heinous crime against humanity: the obliteration of hope and the suppression of the aspirations of our youth.
I was at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) the other day, and it reminded me of our days there in the 80's. Oblivious to what was to come, one thing we did not worry about was the basics of food, shelter, transport, books and even jobs after graduating. I remembered when we used to queue up to get our "pay out" which was our pocket money paid to us in the form of government cheques. We even managed to buy a little car and could be seen ferrying all sorts of girls up and down into town. It was the best of times.
It is disheartening to see such enthusiasm in students at the campus, as they hurry off to their lectures, because it is most probable, that their expectations after graduating will not be met. As long as we continue on the route we are on and with this political leadership that we have, I am almost certain that a good number of them will leave this country.
The youth unemployment levels in Zimbabwe are a powder keg waiting to explode. My estimates are that 1 in 10 youths are formally employed and youths make up about 60% of our population. This means that several millions of young Zimbabweans have no hope for the future and nothing specific to do today and tomorrow when they wake up..
I don't know what the census results will reflect when and if they come out in a couple of years' time. Yes that's not a typo, a couple of years' is the estimate that I got from informed sources. The numbers will of course be useless when we finally get them. This, after spending a cool USD45 million on the whole exercise. I understand that the enumerators have only been paid measly USD150 for their misery. This is because, everything is being done manually, despite us having two rather exuberant ministers of science and technology and information communications technology. Where are they hiding? But I digress.
Now this is our problem, in the last ten years, our leadership has been otherwise occupied with politics and in the mean time, despite us having a stable currency; life conditions for most youths have become dreadful. Ten years is certainly a long time to wait hoping that something will come up, especially if you are a graduate,
The result is that, our youths have become peddlers and opportunists of all sorts hoping to make a fast buck and I don't blame them. The unscrupulous amongst us continue exploit them without shame. This has also increased the probability of violence where, youths are paid as little as USD10 to beat up political opponents. Others are organized into groups such as Chipangano, a notorious vigilante group of degenerates, who are most probably neither employed nor very well educated.
In the case of young women, those of lesser morals have happily become what Zimbabweans call "small houses" (adulterers or pfambi in Shona) in order to survive and be looked after by married men. It has devastated their self esteem and the moral fabric of our young girls but survive they must.
If you dine out in Johannesburg, there is a 99% chance that a Zimbabwean will serve you and an 80% chance that they will have good "O" levels and mosr probably come from Bulawayo. This reminds me a colleague from Johannesburg of mine whose daughter was getting extra tutorials on calculus from his Zimbabwean gardener.
A youth empowerment program is not only urgent, but critical because if by any chance, our youth do not get meaningful opportunities and experience now, imagine what the profile of our population will become in a couple of years time. Of course this will have serious negative consequences on our productivity, competitiveness and economic growth going forward.
I do not have the statistics with me yet, regarding the youth empowerment funds that have been launched by our honorable minister of youth empowerment and indigenization, but what I hear is rather bizarre. Youths are being given loans to pay lobola, girlfriends to set up hair salons. Others are being used as fronts by unscrupulous opportunists, to apply for the youth loans and get paid USD500 for their efforts. That is scandalous.
I doubt that there is any method in the madness of this youth empowerment project but I hope that I am wrong. We need to anticipate the future, and focus on investing in agriculture, manufacturing, information communications technology, mining, tourism, infrastructure development and renewable energy and get our youths into these sectors now. Youth empowerment funds, managed correctly, can lead to meaningful domestic investment and increase youth employment levels. However, if they are run by ZANU (PF), we all know what criteria will be used to loan the funds and their probability of success.
I have met some youths in Highfileds, who are saying they are anxiously waiting for the election campaigns to start, so that they can make some good money. They explained to me that MP's hire them to intimidate opponents, and the more MP's there are contesting for a position within one party, the more money they will make because they can get paid by all of them. All they want is their money and they could not care less who wins. They have become the true mujibas ( a South African term for young unemployed youths who live by their wits).This is a true story.
In my opinion, by sitting by the sidelines and doing nothing about this, we have been conspirators in committing a most heinous crime against humanity: the obliteration of hope and the suppression of the aspirations of our youths and future generations. That is not only dangerous, but inhuman and unforgivable.
It is ironic, that these are the very social conditions of unmet black aspirations in the then Southern Rhodesia, which inspired James Chikerema, George Nyandoro and Joshua Nkomo to be part of the African National Congress in September 1957.
My gosh, history truly does have a tendency to repeat itself.
Oh Morgan, where art thou?
Vince Musewe is an independent economist in Harare. You can contact him on vtmusewe@gmail.com. This article first published www.politicsweb.co.za
Monday, November 19, 2012
The ZANU-PF ‘Electoral Cliff’
-By Rejoice Ngwenya
I emerged bruised but unfazed from an encounter with ZANU-PF hardliners while documenting the COPAC second stakeholders’ conference. I am more than ever convinced that these people are aliens from outer space. Their dogmatic bigotry, spiteful entitlement and senseless arrogance can only be of one provenance – the Galaxy of Satan. But let me confess, the prospect of outright victory against the creaky ZANU-PF edifice of tyranny sustains my excitement. The just ended American elections are for me – a lesson in time.
Barack Obama has been re-elected president of the United States of America [USA] for the second time. Unlike our very own ‘life president’ Robert Mugabe, Mr. Obama accepts his constitutionally provided for terms. Even if ‘my people still want me’ – Obama cannot alter conditions to enable a third bite of the presidential cherry. The good news is that bitter political rivalry between Democrats and Republicans did not result in a single death, kidnapping or displacement during campaigns. That is how a perfect democracy functions. On my side of the Atlantic Ocean, Mugabe wants elections in March 2013 when no one else is prepared except his diamond-funded militias. SADC has been at pains to persuade him that political reform is more important than perpetuating a 32 year-old oppressive regime. Mugabe insists he is ‘tired of sharing power’ and wants another opportunity to ‘rout Western puppets once and for all’. Even if it means a violent, single-competitor plebiscite!
Obama’s final presidential term is not going to be easy either. Of immediate concern is USA’s ‘fiscal cliff’, which, according to Wikipedia, “is the popular shorthand term used to describe the conundrum that the U.S. government will face at the end of 2012, when the terms of the Budget Control Act of 2011 are scheduled to go into effect”. In theory, these are payroll tax and deep spending cuts agreed upon as part of the debt ceiling deal of 2011 which will affect over 1,000 government programs. Republicans want to cut spending and avoid raising taxes, while Democrats are looking for a combination of spending cuts and tax increases. The ‘cliff’ aspect is that these ‘George Bush-era’ actions will plunge the USA into an irretrievable recession. Obama has to convince sceptical Republicans that taxing the rich is a logical means of raising revenue.
Mugabe is equally determined to go in a proverbial blaze of glory. He knows that free and fair elections will not only expose his diamond cronies but also subject ZANU-PF’s primeval dictatorship to retributive justice. Bring in the element of debilitating factional ‘Young Turk’ wars in his fractious party; Mugabe’s political empire is tottering on the brink of a deep political ravine. With no Thabo Mbeki to cushion his fall; add a generally ‘hostile’ SADC - he might as well start ordering wood pallets for his furniture! ZANU-PF may deny it, but it is true that ‘future presidential aspirants’ Joyce Mujuru, Emerson Mnangagwa and ZAPU unity relic Simon Khaya Moyo would love a more permissible political environment to displace an obstinate Mugabe. Ironically, it is only the MDCs that can create such ideal ‘exit conditions’ – but not in March, not even in June 2013 – worse still without full electoral and political reforms. The crisis confronting Mugabe is that while reforms will give ZANU-PF ‘moderate’ presidential aspirants hope, such conditions will also make it easier for either Morgan Tsvangirayi or Welshman Ncube to hit the exclusive presidential jackpot. ZANU-PF has therefore only one choice – leap over the free and fair electoral cliff for a quick and painless death.
I emerged bruised but unfazed from an encounter with ZANU-PF hardliners while documenting the COPAC second stakeholders’ conference. I am more than ever convinced that these people are aliens from outer space. Their dogmatic bigotry, spiteful entitlement and senseless arrogance can only be of one provenance – the Galaxy of Satan. But let me confess, the prospect of outright victory against the creaky ZANU-PF edifice of tyranny sustains my excitement. The just ended American elections are for me – a lesson in time.
Barack Obama has been re-elected president of the United States of America [USA] for the second time. Unlike our very own ‘life president’ Robert Mugabe, Mr. Obama accepts his constitutionally provided for terms. Even if ‘my people still want me’ – Obama cannot alter conditions to enable a third bite of the presidential cherry. The good news is that bitter political rivalry between Democrats and Republicans did not result in a single death, kidnapping or displacement during campaigns. That is how a perfect democracy functions. On my side of the Atlantic Ocean, Mugabe wants elections in March 2013 when no one else is prepared except his diamond-funded militias. SADC has been at pains to persuade him that political reform is more important than perpetuating a 32 year-old oppressive regime. Mugabe insists he is ‘tired of sharing power’ and wants another opportunity to ‘rout Western puppets once and for all’. Even if it means a violent, single-competitor plebiscite!
Obama’s final presidential term is not going to be easy either. Of immediate concern is USA’s ‘fiscal cliff’, which, according to Wikipedia, “is the popular shorthand term used to describe the conundrum that the U.S. government will face at the end of 2012, when the terms of the Budget Control Act of 2011 are scheduled to go into effect”. In theory, these are payroll tax and deep spending cuts agreed upon as part of the debt ceiling deal of 2011 which will affect over 1,000 government programs. Republicans want to cut spending and avoid raising taxes, while Democrats are looking for a combination of spending cuts and tax increases. The ‘cliff’ aspect is that these ‘George Bush-era’ actions will plunge the USA into an irretrievable recession. Obama has to convince sceptical Republicans that taxing the rich is a logical means of raising revenue.
Mugabe is equally determined to go in a proverbial blaze of glory. He knows that free and fair elections will not only expose his diamond cronies but also subject ZANU-PF’s primeval dictatorship to retributive justice. Bring in the element of debilitating factional ‘Young Turk’ wars in his fractious party; Mugabe’s political empire is tottering on the brink of a deep political ravine. With no Thabo Mbeki to cushion his fall; add a generally ‘hostile’ SADC - he might as well start ordering wood pallets for his furniture! ZANU-PF may deny it, but it is true that ‘future presidential aspirants’ Joyce Mujuru, Emerson Mnangagwa and ZAPU unity relic Simon Khaya Moyo would love a more permissible political environment to displace an obstinate Mugabe. Ironically, it is only the MDCs that can create such ideal ‘exit conditions’ – but not in March, not even in June 2013 – worse still without full electoral and political reforms. The crisis confronting Mugabe is that while reforms will give ZANU-PF ‘moderate’ presidential aspirants hope, such conditions will also make it easier for either Morgan Tsvangirayi or Welshman Ncube to hit the exclusive presidential jackpot. ZANU-PF has therefore only one choice – leap over the free and fair electoral cliff for a quick and painless death.
Monday, November 12, 2012
F2WF – Fight Fire With Fire
The barbaric detention of Zimbabwe National Students Union and Counselling Services Unit activists proves that ZANU-PF’s blood-starved political vampires still lurk in our alleys. News Day reminds me not only of the fatal June 2008 petrol bomb attack on rural MDC-T offices but also quotes National Healing, Integration and Reconciliation co-minister Moses Mzila Ndlovu fingering ZANU-PF for suffocating debate on the 1980s Gukurahundi massacres. 20 000 innocent Zimbabweans were butchered in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces by members of President Robert Mugabe’s venomous 5th Brigade. Now, ZANU-PF hounds us for merely expressing our thoughts!
For me, the only ‘weapon of mass instruction’ is my keyboard. In order to adequately pitch my literary emotions, let me activate my ‘Rage Meter’ with snippets of the Rwanda and Gukurahundi genocides. In 1994, almost one million Tutsis were massacred after the assassination of Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana. Like Zimbabwe’s 1980s mass murders, the Rwanda genocide had ethnic overtones. Hutu ‘Akazu’ militias collaborated with security to ‘exterminate’ Tutsis and so-called ‘collaborators’. While Gukurahundi perpetrators imported bayonets from North Korea, Hutus sourced half a million machetes from China.
We Zimbabweans mourn about ‘militarisation of state institutions’ for good reason. Rwanda genocide organisers were mainly retired army officers and members of the police. State-controlled Radio Rwanda, Television Libre des Mille Collines and Kangura newspapers fanned hatred by calling Tutsis inyenzi, cockroaches. AmaNdebele were labelled ‘dissidents’. Today, ZANU-PF media refers to MDC cadres as sellouts, puppets and agents of the West. Gukurahundi and June 2008 saw innocent women abducted and murdered. In Rwanda, close to 500,000 females conveniently labelled ‘gypsies’ - were raped. Father Athanase Seromba oversaw the massacre of 2000 Tutsis in his church. The Catholic Church in Zimbabwe confronted Mugabe on Gukurahundi. ‘Pentecostals’ - and my own dear Seventh Day Adventists leaders – ‘saw and heard no evil’. Pathological cowards! Were it not for the Bishops Conference and Legal Resources Foundation, Gukurahundi massacres would have evaded accurate documentation.
Colonial Britain was a spectator as 5th Brigade drew innocent blood while USA, France, Belgium and the UN stood akimbo as Rwandese perished. Nonetheless, the Paul Kagame government – save for spasmodic lapses into autocracy – has mastered national reconciliation. ZANU-PF is marinated in sarcastic denial, drunken with contempt. In Rwanda, places like the Murambu Technical School are now genocide museums. Our very own Bhalagwe pales in the distant past.
Rwanda activated the Gacaca traditional court system and the International Criminal Tribunal for national reconciliation. ZANU-PF refuses to constitutionalise truth and reconciliation. Consequently, Mzila Ndlovu’s ‘peace battalion’ will continue firing blanks. Gukurahundi perpetrators are still at large, some even playing ‘patriarchs and prophets’ in Zimbabwe’s Government of National Unity. Not even a single film or documentary on the 1980s genocide has been aired on ZANU-TV. RW Johnson clearly lays it out: “…far, far more have died through more indirect consequences - from starvation, from exposure, from an acceleration of death from Aids due to deprivation of drugs, food and care, from death during migration … and simply from the collapse of almost everything else.” As we approach Election 2013, I dare say if ZANU-PF expects us to roll over like grateful kittens for our political bellies to be stroked, they had better think again. We shall treat their diamond money with contempt. Throw back every political granule at them. Rally for rally; SMS for SMS; ward for ward; constituency for constituency; ballot for ballot; broadcast for broadcast; editorial for editorial; poster for poster; manifesto for manifesto; vote for vote. In 2013, the struggle has new number plates: F2WF.
Written by Rejoice Ngwenya - Harare based political economist
For me, the only ‘weapon of mass instruction’ is my keyboard. In order to adequately pitch my literary emotions, let me activate my ‘Rage Meter’ with snippets of the Rwanda and Gukurahundi genocides. In 1994, almost one million Tutsis were massacred after the assassination of Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana. Like Zimbabwe’s 1980s mass murders, the Rwanda genocide had ethnic overtones. Hutu ‘Akazu’ militias collaborated with security to ‘exterminate’ Tutsis and so-called ‘collaborators’. While Gukurahundi perpetrators imported bayonets from North Korea, Hutus sourced half a million machetes from China.
We Zimbabweans mourn about ‘militarisation of state institutions’ for good reason. Rwanda genocide organisers were mainly retired army officers and members of the police. State-controlled Radio Rwanda, Television Libre des Mille Collines and Kangura newspapers fanned hatred by calling Tutsis inyenzi, cockroaches. AmaNdebele were labelled ‘dissidents’. Today, ZANU-PF media refers to MDC cadres as sellouts, puppets and agents of the West. Gukurahundi and June 2008 saw innocent women abducted and murdered. In Rwanda, close to 500,000 females conveniently labelled ‘gypsies’ - were raped. Father Athanase Seromba oversaw the massacre of 2000 Tutsis in his church. The Catholic Church in Zimbabwe confronted Mugabe on Gukurahundi. ‘Pentecostals’ - and my own dear Seventh Day Adventists leaders – ‘saw and heard no evil’. Pathological cowards! Were it not for the Bishops Conference and Legal Resources Foundation, Gukurahundi massacres would have evaded accurate documentation.
Colonial Britain was a spectator as 5th Brigade drew innocent blood while USA, France, Belgium and the UN stood akimbo as Rwandese perished. Nonetheless, the Paul Kagame government – save for spasmodic lapses into autocracy – has mastered national reconciliation. ZANU-PF is marinated in sarcastic denial, drunken with contempt. In Rwanda, places like the Murambu Technical School are now genocide museums. Our very own Bhalagwe pales in the distant past.
Rwanda activated the Gacaca traditional court system and the International Criminal Tribunal for national reconciliation. ZANU-PF refuses to constitutionalise truth and reconciliation. Consequently, Mzila Ndlovu’s ‘peace battalion’ will continue firing blanks. Gukurahundi perpetrators are still at large, some even playing ‘patriarchs and prophets’ in Zimbabwe’s Government of National Unity. Not even a single film or documentary on the 1980s genocide has been aired on ZANU-TV. RW Johnson clearly lays it out: “…far, far more have died through more indirect consequences - from starvation, from exposure, from an acceleration of death from Aids due to deprivation of drugs, food and care, from death during migration … and simply from the collapse of almost everything else.” As we approach Election 2013, I dare say if ZANU-PF expects us to roll over like grateful kittens for our political bellies to be stroked, they had better think again. We shall treat their diamond money with contempt. Throw back every political granule at them. Rally for rally; SMS for SMS; ward for ward; constituency for constituency; ballot for ballot; broadcast for broadcast; editorial for editorial; poster for poster; manifesto for manifesto; vote for vote. In 2013, the struggle has new number plates: F2WF.
Written by Rejoice Ngwenya - Harare based political economist
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Beware: the Ides of Year Twenty Thirteen!
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe insists on Parliamentary and Presidential Elections with or without critical political reforms in March Two Thousand and Thirteen. This only a mere four months after his automated candidature at the ‘Thirteenth People’s Conference’ in the Midlands town of Gweru. I am no convert of Paraskevidekatriaphobia — an affliction with a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the Thirteenth. Besides, we Africans do not lend much credence to Western superstitions. But my guess is that horror film writer Alfred Hitchcock - the ‘king’ of anxiety and fear - would salivate in his grave at the prospect of an election done in a year ending with a thirteen! The mysticism around this number dates back from ancient times, ‘portending more misfortune than some credulous minds can bear’.
For ZANU-PF, it better be more than a premonition of electoral annihilation. Unless if you respect the opinion of kindergarten strategic planners, you do not want to start a bruising campaign when your presidential candidate has just turned 89! For Pete’s sakes, our State House is not a cradle of geriatrics!
SADC [Southern Africa Development Community] mediators have warned Mr. Mugabe risks ‘political excommunication’ if he insists on violating conditions for electoral fair competition. Serious Movement for Democratic Change [MDC] presidential contenders Morgan Tsvangirayi and Welshman Ncube have enough political traction to give Mugabe a rude awakening. The two have more wind in their political sails than in June 2008 when they succumbed to ZANU-PF’s military scotched earth strategy.
There are those who argue that ZANU-PF has enough ‘dirty diamonds’ to soak the airwaves with frivolous political promises. Mr. Mugabe is said to have also drafted thousands of military cronies to force-feed villagers with his creaky party policies. Moreover, South African President Jacob Zuma – they add- will be distracted from ‘monitoring’ Zimbabwe’s by his own internal ANC [African National Congress] battles. This may be true, but there is more to 2013 politics than meets the eye.
If Tsvangirayi and Ncube stand their ground that March 2013 is too close for fair competition; and Mugabe persists with dissolving Parliament prior to wholesale, SADC-approved reforms, then Zimbabweans must revolt. Mugabe will then send his compliant army into the streets and before you can count to number 13, SADC will have a ‘Marikana’ on their hands. Tsvangirayi and Ncube are GPA [Global Political Agreement] signatories who ought to be consulted before Mugabe blows the electoral trumpet. He is facing a ‘succession’ headache in his party, thus must not be allowed to use March 2013 as painkiller. But whatever permutation lands on Zimbabwe’s electoral table, year Twenty Thirteen is an opportune era for us to prove that diamond money and Chinese guns are nothing compared to the desire for true freedom. Call me a griot of doom, agent provocateur or agitator-in-chief – that will not stop the tidal wave of dissent against ZANU-PF in 2013. Come to think of it, they may not be Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus to fulfill the Ides of March prophesy, but Robert ‘Julius Caesar’ Mugabe may be finally staring defeat in the eye. For the millions of Zimbabweans who have been deprived of true freedom for thirty-two years, the Election 2013 script must end with a ‘Mark Antonic’ pronouncement: “Friends, Harareans, Zimbabweans, lend me your ears; we have come to bury ZANU-PF, not to praise them. The evil that they did will live after them; The good [if any] must be interred with their bones…”
Written by Rejoice Ngwenya, Harare based political economist
For ZANU-PF, it better be more than a premonition of electoral annihilation. Unless if you respect the opinion of kindergarten strategic planners, you do not want to start a bruising campaign when your presidential candidate has just turned 89! For Pete’s sakes, our State House is not a cradle of geriatrics!
SADC [Southern Africa Development Community] mediators have warned Mr. Mugabe risks ‘political excommunication’ if he insists on violating conditions for electoral fair competition. Serious Movement for Democratic Change [MDC] presidential contenders Morgan Tsvangirayi and Welshman Ncube have enough political traction to give Mugabe a rude awakening. The two have more wind in their political sails than in June 2008 when they succumbed to ZANU-PF’s military scotched earth strategy.
There are those who argue that ZANU-PF has enough ‘dirty diamonds’ to soak the airwaves with frivolous political promises. Mr. Mugabe is said to have also drafted thousands of military cronies to force-feed villagers with his creaky party policies. Moreover, South African President Jacob Zuma – they add- will be distracted from ‘monitoring’ Zimbabwe’s by his own internal ANC [African National Congress] battles. This may be true, but there is more to 2013 politics than meets the eye.
If Tsvangirayi and Ncube stand their ground that March 2013 is too close for fair competition; and Mugabe persists with dissolving Parliament prior to wholesale, SADC-approved reforms, then Zimbabweans must revolt. Mugabe will then send his compliant army into the streets and before you can count to number 13, SADC will have a ‘Marikana’ on their hands. Tsvangirayi and Ncube are GPA [Global Political Agreement] signatories who ought to be consulted before Mugabe blows the electoral trumpet. He is facing a ‘succession’ headache in his party, thus must not be allowed to use March 2013 as painkiller. But whatever permutation lands on Zimbabwe’s electoral table, year Twenty Thirteen is an opportune era for us to prove that diamond money and Chinese guns are nothing compared to the desire for true freedom. Call me a griot of doom, agent provocateur or agitator-in-chief – that will not stop the tidal wave of dissent against ZANU-PF in 2013. Come to think of it, they may not be Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus to fulfill the Ides of March prophesy, but Robert ‘Julius Caesar’ Mugabe may be finally staring defeat in the eye. For the millions of Zimbabweans who have been deprived of true freedom for thirty-two years, the Election 2013 script must end with a ‘Mark Antonic’ pronouncement: “Friends, Harareans, Zimbabweans, lend me your ears; we have come to bury ZANU-PF, not to praise them. The evil that they did will live after them; The good [if any] must be interred with their bones…”
Written by Rejoice Ngwenya, Harare based political economist
Friday, November 2, 2012
Of Zimbabweans in South Africa and Drugs
South Africa is arguably the continent’s land of opportunities just as the United States of America is to the western world. The “American Dream” is the constant lure for millions who trek across the great Atlantic; South Africa has since the days of the gold rush otherwise known as “wenela” been the answered dream for many a Zimbabwean.
Not many people really wanted to go to South Africa but the sight of that boy who flunked his O’Levels and went eGoli / kuJoni coming back after a year driving a white BMW with tinted windows playing traditional Zulu music or Di gong (now known as Kwaito music), produced a compelling itch among local boys and it drove them to cross over into South Africa.
On getting to Joburg some were fortunate enough to get jobs while others were not so fortunate but what they both have in common is the knowledge that life here is not a bed of roses.
It dawned and is now obvious to many here that that boy who had flunked his O’ Levels but came driving a top of the range car was a criminal whose life is weaved by guns and ammunition, illicit deals, drug peddling and extortion. He is the same fellow who is selling them drugs and behind him is a thicket of Nigerians who are the source of these drugs
In their pursuit for a better life they both began indulging in drugs with those who are without a constant source of income using drugs as a form of escapism while those with jobs turned to drugs firstly on experimental basis before using them to jump start their over worked bodies.
Because jobs do not pay much, people are either on two jobs or they work double or long shifts so as to maximize earnings. To keep the body alert and functioning one naturally takes performance enhancing soft drinks like Red Bull and Energade but for many the body got used to these orthodox ways of boosting alertness and they now needed substances of a higher grade; and that’s how the story of their drug addiction begins.
Like all vices, drugs are an expensive addiction that gobbles one’s savings, wipes clean even your next salary before you even receive it; gets you into serious debts and in the process your friends become few because no one still wants to borrow you money as you do not pay them back.
The pathetic sorry sight of a drug addict shows how ruthless drug peddlers are and how vulnerable desperate Zimbabweans are. For me the drug issue comes as a personal testimony as a child hood friend is now living like a vagabond right here in Joburg.
My friend, Mugowe Hamadziripi (not his real name) came to South Africa in 2006 and the Heavens smiled on him as he quickly got a job at a restaurant in Rosebank Mall - an affluent and up market mall that has one of Joburg’s most expensive pubs and night clubs.
Because Zimbabweans are witty and hard working, Mugowe, who had no professional qualification when he left home, quickly rose through the ranks to become a manager with just eight months of employment. It goes without saying that his salary was hefty.
Below is a copy the email he sent me one day on his way to work. Please note that at this time in Zimbabwe we were not yet able to surf the internet on our mobile phones, so I saw his email later in the week when I had gone to the internet cafe.
“I got a baby daughter Anesu...i got the $ thebe talk
2Thoks & givim ma numbers ilsend the $ on 1 condition
jus kip it 2yoself pple there r al xpectin $ from me? U
can cum 2me eJozi wena lo Nduna.Im mailin u on ma way 2work using
ma-4ne.”
But from the day he got hooked to drugs, his world crumbled like a deck of cards. He had built a little heaven for himself, his girlfriend and their daughter but His girlfriend moved out with their daughter and went to stay with her mother. She could not stomach his base actions anymore: he was no longer paying rent and bills; the table no longer had adequate food; he was no longer sleeping at home; he was no violent; he was no longer sending money and groceries back home in Bulawayo.
He hit a new nadir when he was fired from his job because his cocaine addiction was now affecting his performances at work.
Drugs have become a serious cause of concern here with the Devil clearly being out witted by men. There are many forms of drugs now with the latest craze being a drug called Whoonga, a backyard drug popular in the slums.
The main ingredient of Whoonga is ARVs or AIDS medication. Other substances in the drug concoction include rat poison and soap powder. The drug is distributed as a fine white powder which is added to marijuana or tobacco. This mixture is smoked and the result is said to be one of the most lethal drugs in the world.
The drug is now being referred to as the cruellest drug of south Africa slums; it’s highly addictive, even after only one hit, and leads to violent side-effects such as anxiety, aggression, stomach cramps, slowing down of the heart rate and lungs. If taken in overdose, heart and lung function reduction becomes fatal.
Not many people really wanted to go to South Africa but the sight of that boy who flunked his O’Levels and went eGoli / kuJoni coming back after a year driving a white BMW with tinted windows playing traditional Zulu music or Di gong (now known as Kwaito music), produced a compelling itch among local boys and it drove them to cross over into South Africa.
On getting to Joburg some were fortunate enough to get jobs while others were not so fortunate but what they both have in common is the knowledge that life here is not a bed of roses.
It dawned and is now obvious to many here that that boy who had flunked his O’ Levels but came driving a top of the range car was a criminal whose life is weaved by guns and ammunition, illicit deals, drug peddling and extortion. He is the same fellow who is selling them drugs and behind him is a thicket of Nigerians who are the source of these drugs
In their pursuit for a better life they both began indulging in drugs with those who are without a constant source of income using drugs as a form of escapism while those with jobs turned to drugs firstly on experimental basis before using them to jump start their over worked bodies.
Because jobs do not pay much, people are either on two jobs or they work double or long shifts so as to maximize earnings. To keep the body alert and functioning one naturally takes performance enhancing soft drinks like Red Bull and Energade but for many the body got used to these orthodox ways of boosting alertness and they now needed substances of a higher grade; and that’s how the story of their drug addiction begins.
Like all vices, drugs are an expensive addiction that gobbles one’s savings, wipes clean even your next salary before you even receive it; gets you into serious debts and in the process your friends become few because no one still wants to borrow you money as you do not pay them back.
The pathetic sorry sight of a drug addict shows how ruthless drug peddlers are and how vulnerable desperate Zimbabweans are. For me the drug issue comes as a personal testimony as a child hood friend is now living like a vagabond right here in Joburg.
My friend, Mugowe Hamadziripi (not his real name) came to South Africa in 2006 and the Heavens smiled on him as he quickly got a job at a restaurant in Rosebank Mall - an affluent and up market mall that has one of Joburg’s most expensive pubs and night clubs.
Because Zimbabweans are witty and hard working, Mugowe, who had no professional qualification when he left home, quickly rose through the ranks to become a manager with just eight months of employment. It goes without saying that his salary was hefty.
Below is a copy the email he sent me one day on his way to work. Please note that at this time in Zimbabwe we were not yet able to surf the internet on our mobile phones, so I saw his email later in the week when I had gone to the internet cafe.
“I got a baby daughter Anesu...i got the $ thebe talk
2Thoks & givim ma numbers ilsend the $ on 1 condition
jus kip it 2yoself pple there r al xpectin $ from me? U
can cum 2me eJozi wena lo Nduna.Im mailin u on ma way 2work using
ma-4ne.”
But from the day he got hooked to drugs, his world crumbled like a deck of cards. He had built a little heaven for himself, his girlfriend and their daughter but His girlfriend moved out with their daughter and went to stay with her mother. She could not stomach his base actions anymore: he was no longer paying rent and bills; the table no longer had adequate food; he was no longer sleeping at home; he was no violent; he was no longer sending money and groceries back home in Bulawayo.
He hit a new nadir when he was fired from his job because his cocaine addiction was now affecting his performances at work.
Drugs have become a serious cause of concern here with the Devil clearly being out witted by men. There are many forms of drugs now with the latest craze being a drug called Whoonga, a backyard drug popular in the slums.
The main ingredient of Whoonga is ARVs or AIDS medication. Other substances in the drug concoction include rat poison and soap powder. The drug is distributed as a fine white powder which is added to marijuana or tobacco. This mixture is smoked and the result is said to be one of the most lethal drugs in the world.
The drug is now being referred to as the cruellest drug of south Africa slums; it’s highly addictive, even after only one hit, and leads to violent side-effects such as anxiety, aggression, stomach cramps, slowing down of the heart rate and lungs. If taken in overdose, heart and lung function reduction becomes fatal.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
[Some of us are] Proud Ex-Rhodesians
The ‘all ex-Rhodesians are evil’ syndrome is a ZANU-PF tactic of discrediting non-compliant white Zimbabwean citizens. I have no doubt that - second only to Apartheid South Africa - Rhodesia practised one of the harshest forms of colonial repression. The Southern African country produced its own genre of narcissist scoundrels – Ian Smith, General Peter Walls, Colonel Reid-Daly and P.K. van de Byl. Apart from racial segregation, Smith’s Rhodesia Front committed large-scale genocidal acts using Polish built T-55LD tanks, Canberra light bombers and Hawker fighter jets on refugees in Zambia and Mozambique. Wikipedia says there were 459 confirmed cases of anthrax poisoning in Rhodesia over the period 1959 to 1978 with over 10,000 people contracting anthrax between 1978 and 1980.
Surprisingly, ZANU-PF chooses to conveniently ignore the record of ‘good’ white ex-Rhodesians. Liberal Prime Minister Garfield Todd excelled in promoting ‘development’ of the Black community. He pushed a Bill allowing for multiracial trade unions, thereby undercutting the growing white nationalist influence in the workers movement. Lastly, in a bid to increase the number of Blacks eligible to vote from 2% to 16% of the electorate, he lowered property and education qualifications, although this was rejected by rightwing element. It is common knowledge how his daughter, Judith Todd, was forced into exile for her pro-black activism.
The list of ‘good ex-Rhodesians’ is endless: Alec Douglas-Home famous for his ‘six liberal principles’; Arthur Guy Clutton-Brock of Cold Comfort Farm; Trevor Huddleston; Fenner Brockway; Michael Scott and Mary Benson. Shona language expert George Fortune, social activist Eileen Sawyer and hundreds of high school heads at places like Goromonzi, Umzingwane, Fletcher, Tekwani and Kutama missions; heads of faculties at the University of Rhodesia and also principals at agricultural and teacher training colleges.
Thus I get overwhelmed by a sense of ire when ZANU-PF ‘intellectual counterfeits’ want to make us believe that only ‘white commercial farmers are ex-Rhodesians’. Award-winning idiocy! Ironically, Zimbabwe has produced its own sizeable stock of post-Rhodesia lunatics – none of which are white, by the way. It is under the ‘black watch’ of President Robert Mugabe that 20 000 innocent Zimbabweans were murdered by his Fifth Brigade, not to mention massive de-industrialisation, unemployment, large-scale starvation, hyper-inflation, homelessness and epidemics. The recalcitrant Ian Smith - in declaring UDI and committing the country’s resources to a huge military adventure – is no different from ZANU-PF cronies obsessed with militarisation of state institutions. While Smith was paranoid about liberation ‘communists’, Mugabe’s ‘high command’ is haunted by the phantom of ill gotten wealth!
Says Vince Musewe: “This is a clear indication that ZANU-PF remains frozen in the past and refuses to acknowledge that the world has indeed moved on and that they must either move with it or be left behind.” I do not argue that the Rhodesian identity bestowed on me was acceptable, neither was I consulted to be labelled Zimbabwean. My point is that Zimbabwe has assumed pariah status but not all Zimbabweans – let alone ZANU-PF members - are ‘evil’. Collective condemnation is unjustified. We may resent what some of the white ‘ex-Rhodesians’ did to us, but they were not all merchants of death. The trajectory of economic and academic supremacy black Zimbabwe inherited from white Rhodesia deserves accolades.
-written by Harare based Political Economist Rejoice Ngwenya
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Blacks are racist too!
American stand up comedian, Chris Rock says blacks are the worst racists because they hate each other too. It was a joke worth laughing at but in retrospect one comes to realise that the word racism is not an exclusive description of some white people but it can also be used on some of our black brothers and sisters.
Saying a black person is racist is surely opening a can of worms, putting yourself in the line of fire but this is a fact that has been deliberately overlooked because apartheid and all injustices in the third world that happened since the slave trade have the index finger directed at the whites as the ones who are racists.
Matter of fact! Apartheid and the slave trade were wrong and there’s no justifying them, we cannot find any cause to condone such diabolic thoughts, systems and machinery.
When Marcus Garvey, Malcom X, Martin Luther King Jr and other such revolutionaries stood up against the racist system of America, they dreamt of a society where blacks and whites could live in harmony. They did not dream of black supremacy.
The founding heroes of the Rainbow Nation: Chris Hani, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu had a dream; they longed for an equal opportunity society, a free country where love and brotherhood knows no colour and language. The Bishop Desmond Tutu led truth and Reconciliation Commission of the early 90s served to realign South Africa towards this ideology.
Matter of fact! The axe always forgets the trees it chops but the tree stumps never forget about the axe.
The scars of apartheid are still there and to say one should ignore them is rather insensitive and almost unimaginable. Scars are wounds that have healed and they remind us of the past and the past helps shape the future hence the need to know where we are and where we are coming from.
The recent hate speech trial of ANC Youth Leader, Julius Malema, explicitly showed that some blacks are as equally guilty of racism as other white South Africans. The issue here is not the legality of the “dubula ibhunu” song but the remarks and messages said and displayed by those without the courtyard in solidarity of Malema.
Dubula ibhunu is a revolutionary song and as AfriForum also concedes, there is deleting it in South Africa’s history but the timing of its singing is currently inappropriate considering the rate of deaths of white farmers. But this is not argument that many would expect to be written in support for a black man because today’s Rainbow nation looks at issues on racial tones.
Did we fight apartheid so that we could be racist ourselves? Did we fight hurt and discrimination so that we could do the same? There are still economic and opportunity career imbalances; that’s a fact but was “The long walk to freedom” premised on the idea of an eye for an eye and revenge.
Mzwakhe Mbuli once said an eye for an eye makes the world blind which is true in current South Africa. A case in point that highlights this is the recent nationwide municipal plebiscite.
During a phone in discussion after Election Day in one radio station a young black man said he was happy that he had been able to exercise his democratic right of voting and was also glad his voted had counted as the Democratic Alliance (DA) had won the seat in his constituency. What followed after his comment were callers saying he wasn’t black enough, how could he vote or a white man’s party with some accusing him of being the spoilt brats who do know anything about the struggle. Election statistics later showed that about 13% of the black electorate had voted for the DA.
Politics is not only about history but also about future and progress. It would be folly not to consider history in making decisions in as much as it would folly to only base your decision on history as the present and future also need to be considered. If DA’s policies are better than that of ANC why not vote for what will improve the community, the same goes for ANC policies if they are better than that of DA.
A friend said I don’t love my family and there was something wrong with me after telling her that if I was eligible to vote I would have voted DA. She said she will never vote for a white man and she will not waste her time reading a white man’s manifesto. She says there’s nothing a white man can do for a black man and that Helen Zille is as guilty a racist as some racist members of her party.
But everyone knows that Zille fought apartheid during her days as a journalist and going into politics was a means of better fighting it. Not all whites are racists; one cannot vouch for Zille and her comrades but facts are that within her camp are clicks of whites who are racist and see the DA as a white party. Within the ANC there are influential figures that are racist: ask Trevor Emmanuel about Jimmy Manyi, the government spokesperson and fellow who wants Cape coloureds evenly distributed across the country as was done to blacks during the apartheid era.
A colleague at Voice of America’s Studio 7 concedes that blacks are also racists but he brings an interesting dimension to the discourse saying racism by blacks is reactionary unlike that of whites that is driven by the wanton disdain of blacks.
The emotional hurt, in fact, the trauma due to emotional and social discrimination in work places by racist white employers and colleagues has driven many a black working middle class woman and man to quit their jobs. A friend recently changed jobs because the superiors and her former job were so bluntly racists that she could not take it anymore. It is this emotional abuse that drives us to also hate but the only difference between black racism is that blacks do not have the means at a large scale to dominate the white person. Whites own large conglomerates and there’s no other better racism machinery than the economic muscle.
Surely you cannot expect a black brother who has been racially abused to just turn a blind eye, walk away and hope that it does not happen again. But then the holy book teaches to forgive at least seventy times seven times in a day.
But when all is said and done, racism in whatever form that it presents itself in is wrong and cannot be condoned. Racism by a black man despite its reasons is as diabolic as the racism perpetrated by the likes of Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd and his cronies.
-Article first published in www.ziyawamag.com
http://www.ziyawamag.com/blacks-are-racist-too/comment-page-1/
Saying a black person is racist is surely opening a can of worms, putting yourself in the line of fire but this is a fact that has been deliberately overlooked because apartheid and all injustices in the third world that happened since the slave trade have the index finger directed at the whites as the ones who are racists.
Matter of fact! Apartheid and the slave trade were wrong and there’s no justifying them, we cannot find any cause to condone such diabolic thoughts, systems and machinery.
When Marcus Garvey, Malcom X, Martin Luther King Jr and other such revolutionaries stood up against the racist system of America, they dreamt of a society where blacks and whites could live in harmony. They did not dream of black supremacy.
The founding heroes of the Rainbow Nation: Chris Hani, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu had a dream; they longed for an equal opportunity society, a free country where love and brotherhood knows no colour and language. The Bishop Desmond Tutu led truth and Reconciliation Commission of the early 90s served to realign South Africa towards this ideology.
Matter of fact! The axe always forgets the trees it chops but the tree stumps never forget about the axe.
The scars of apartheid are still there and to say one should ignore them is rather insensitive and almost unimaginable. Scars are wounds that have healed and they remind us of the past and the past helps shape the future hence the need to know where we are and where we are coming from.
The recent hate speech trial of ANC Youth Leader, Julius Malema, explicitly showed that some blacks are as equally guilty of racism as other white South Africans. The issue here is not the legality of the “dubula ibhunu” song but the remarks and messages said and displayed by those without the courtyard in solidarity of Malema.
Dubula ibhunu is a revolutionary song and as AfriForum also concedes, there is deleting it in South Africa’s history but the timing of its singing is currently inappropriate considering the rate of deaths of white farmers. But this is not argument that many would expect to be written in support for a black man because today’s Rainbow nation looks at issues on racial tones.
Did we fight apartheid so that we could be racist ourselves? Did we fight hurt and discrimination so that we could do the same? There are still economic and opportunity career imbalances; that’s a fact but was “The long walk to freedom” premised on the idea of an eye for an eye and revenge.
Mzwakhe Mbuli once said an eye for an eye makes the world blind which is true in current South Africa. A case in point that highlights this is the recent nationwide municipal plebiscite.
During a phone in discussion after Election Day in one radio station a young black man said he was happy that he had been able to exercise his democratic right of voting and was also glad his voted had counted as the Democratic Alliance (DA) had won the seat in his constituency. What followed after his comment were callers saying he wasn’t black enough, how could he vote or a white man’s party with some accusing him of being the spoilt brats who do know anything about the struggle. Election statistics later showed that about 13% of the black electorate had voted for the DA.
Politics is not only about history but also about future and progress. It would be folly not to consider history in making decisions in as much as it would folly to only base your decision on history as the present and future also need to be considered. If DA’s policies are better than that of ANC why not vote for what will improve the community, the same goes for ANC policies if they are better than that of DA.
A friend said I don’t love my family and there was something wrong with me after telling her that if I was eligible to vote I would have voted DA. She said she will never vote for a white man and she will not waste her time reading a white man’s manifesto. She says there’s nothing a white man can do for a black man and that Helen Zille is as guilty a racist as some racist members of her party.
But everyone knows that Zille fought apartheid during her days as a journalist and going into politics was a means of better fighting it. Not all whites are racists; one cannot vouch for Zille and her comrades but facts are that within her camp are clicks of whites who are racist and see the DA as a white party. Within the ANC there are influential figures that are racist: ask Trevor Emmanuel about Jimmy Manyi, the government spokesperson and fellow who wants Cape coloureds evenly distributed across the country as was done to blacks during the apartheid era.
A colleague at Voice of America’s Studio 7 concedes that blacks are also racists but he brings an interesting dimension to the discourse saying racism by blacks is reactionary unlike that of whites that is driven by the wanton disdain of blacks.
The emotional hurt, in fact, the trauma due to emotional and social discrimination in work places by racist white employers and colleagues has driven many a black working middle class woman and man to quit their jobs. A friend recently changed jobs because the superiors and her former job were so bluntly racists that she could not take it anymore. It is this emotional abuse that drives us to also hate but the only difference between black racism is that blacks do not have the means at a large scale to dominate the white person. Whites own large conglomerates and there’s no other better racism machinery than the economic muscle.
Surely you cannot expect a black brother who has been racially abused to just turn a blind eye, walk away and hope that it does not happen again. But then the holy book teaches to forgive at least seventy times seven times in a day.
But when all is said and done, racism in whatever form that it presents itself in is wrong and cannot be condoned. Racism by a black man despite its reasons is as diabolic as the racism perpetrated by the likes of Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd and his cronies.
-Article first published in www.ziyawamag.com
http://www.ziyawamag.com/blacks-are-racist-too/comment-page-1/
Monday, October 29, 2012
Hustling in the concrete jungle of Joburg
Like most Zimbabweans, Agnes Masangomatema never imagined herself leaving the motherland because everything was in shape and although she had failed her O’ Levels her future was still “bright” as her plans included supplementing her school qualifications then enrolling for a nurse training programme at a major hospital either in Bulawayo or Harare.
Today she is in the concrete jungle of Johannesburg South Africa not employed as a nurse at a major clinic, old people’s home or an orphanage at least but she braids hair on the pavement of Bree Street, one of central Johannesburg’s busiest streets. Meanwhile, back home in Bulawayo, her O’ Levels are still three subjects: Fashion and Fabrics, Ndebele and Commerce.
She blends well with locals because she is light skinned and can fluently speak Zulu and abit of Xhosa thanks to her being a Ndebele speaking Zimbabwean. This has worked for her over years when illegal immigrants were hunted by authorities. Business wise, it has helped those like her as there are some locals who prefer their own.
Competition is tough here on the streets and as a consequence prices for services go down. One’s hair gets braided from as little as R30 (about US$5) but there’s no telling that she had her hair done on the street because of the exceptional work done by the likes of Masangomatema.
To earn a substantial amount one needs a pair of quick but neat hands otherwise they will earn R30 in two days. Some women have formed braiding teams so as to garner many clients while also beating the clock. But the downside of this team work is that should business be poor on a particular day the group gets to share the only money made and what does one do with R10 when they get home at night.
Business is not always brisk, there are days when Masangomatema and others who hustle on the streets hit blanks. Rent needs to be paid and one cannot go for long ignoring the stomach’s calls for food.
This is what has pushed many Zimbabwean women to double up as prostitutes. As the sun sets and darkness creeps and covers Bree Street and all over Joburg, the oldest paying profession reigns supreme.
Most of the ladies did not in their puberty envisage themselves trading their bodies for money, but circumstances have driven even the preacherman’s daughter to be a Jezebel. These women are bread winners and there is a chain of children in Zimbabwe who survive from the money sent home by these mothers, sisters and aunts.
Prostitution is big business here. From the conventional loitering by the street corner to featuring in pornographic movies filmed by the Nigerian brothers in Joburg’s notorious Hillbrow, to lap dancing for more affluent clientele at exclusive adult shops.
This avenue has been taken by many because making a decent and honest living through braiding hair or being a waitress at Spurs, Fish and Chips and other fast food outlets relegates one to a hardship dominated lifestyle. Because earnings are less and cannot sustain you through the month, people seek compromised accommodation and this is usually in the form of a bedroom that is shared by four or five people and beds are separated by hospital like curtains hanging from the ceiling.
In such set ups there is virtually no privacy, one’s belongings are guarded with the meanest detail: cellphones, passports and other essentials are kept under the pillow or always in the pocket. And respect for intimate privacy has withered and vanished: housemates bring their lovers or “business clients” for the night and sex happens as if this is a conducive environment-that there are only two people in the room.
And because there is no proper accommodation, people virtually do not buy groceries instead they buy what is sufficient for a particular day. It’s the life of a pilgrim.
Prostitution has become the easiest way out of such a life as one earns a fortune from trading their body meaning they can afford to rent reasonable accommodation and lead a “decent life.”
It’s not only women who have taken into prostitution. Zimbabwean men have also joined the gigolo trade. There are many women who have been left by their men as the young men found themselves rich old local single women. There’s virtually nothing that the young man does for the lady except quenching her insatiable sexual desires. In turn she provides everything, literally everything for the young man: she buys him underwear, airtime, toothbrush, car and everything that comes in-between.
Back home President Robert Mugabe abhors gays and lesbians describing them as being worse than dogs but here these are people recognised by government laws and anyone is free to choose and even become one. Like in most countries gays and lesbians lead a well to do lifestyle, they have lots of money and only Heaven knows where that comes from. It would be a strange thing to find a poor gay or a lesbian struggling in life.
It has often been said that desperate times need desperate measures and converting from Uncle Bob’s life’s lectures on homosexuality has been another option for desperate Zimbabweans. Just as women do, men now bleach their bodies so as to lighten their complexion and look attractive.
Considering all that is happening and that which has sucked most young Zimbabwean men and women, Joburg is now a little Las Vegas, the “sin city” where pleasure shapes people’s line of thought. And Reverend Jessie Jackson said where there is pleasure there is always danger.
HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are in abundance in these areas where pleasure dictates the mood of the day. Despite the knowledge of the consequence of leading such a life, many have chosen to “enjoy the moment” and earn a living, send money back home and support their families.
The body bag always hangs next to the First Aid kit. Sins of the flesh have seen people drop like flies. HIV/AIDS is taking its toll while gays and lesbians are beaten to death as the conservative elements of society take the streetwise route of weeding them out.
And when all is said and done and one cannot breathe anymore it all goes back to the widowed old lady in rural Lupane or the stuffy two roomed house in Mbare who has to find scraps to fend for the litter of offspring left behind by those that went to Joni/Joza.
Today she is in the concrete jungle of Johannesburg South Africa not employed as a nurse at a major clinic, old people’s home or an orphanage at least but she braids hair on the pavement of Bree Street, one of central Johannesburg’s busiest streets. Meanwhile, back home in Bulawayo, her O’ Levels are still three subjects: Fashion and Fabrics, Ndebele and Commerce.
She blends well with locals because she is light skinned and can fluently speak Zulu and abit of Xhosa thanks to her being a Ndebele speaking Zimbabwean. This has worked for her over years when illegal immigrants were hunted by authorities. Business wise, it has helped those like her as there are some locals who prefer their own.
Competition is tough here on the streets and as a consequence prices for services go down. One’s hair gets braided from as little as R30 (about US$5) but there’s no telling that she had her hair done on the street because of the exceptional work done by the likes of Masangomatema.
To earn a substantial amount one needs a pair of quick but neat hands otherwise they will earn R30 in two days. Some women have formed braiding teams so as to garner many clients while also beating the clock. But the downside of this team work is that should business be poor on a particular day the group gets to share the only money made and what does one do with R10 when they get home at night.
Business is not always brisk, there are days when Masangomatema and others who hustle on the streets hit blanks. Rent needs to be paid and one cannot go for long ignoring the stomach’s calls for food.
This is what has pushed many Zimbabwean women to double up as prostitutes. As the sun sets and darkness creeps and covers Bree Street and all over Joburg, the oldest paying profession reigns supreme.
Most of the ladies did not in their puberty envisage themselves trading their bodies for money, but circumstances have driven even the preacherman’s daughter to be a Jezebel. These women are bread winners and there is a chain of children in Zimbabwe who survive from the money sent home by these mothers, sisters and aunts.
Prostitution is big business here. From the conventional loitering by the street corner to featuring in pornographic movies filmed by the Nigerian brothers in Joburg’s notorious Hillbrow, to lap dancing for more affluent clientele at exclusive adult shops.
This avenue has been taken by many because making a decent and honest living through braiding hair or being a waitress at Spurs, Fish and Chips and other fast food outlets relegates one to a hardship dominated lifestyle. Because earnings are less and cannot sustain you through the month, people seek compromised accommodation and this is usually in the form of a bedroom that is shared by four or five people and beds are separated by hospital like curtains hanging from the ceiling.
In such set ups there is virtually no privacy, one’s belongings are guarded with the meanest detail: cellphones, passports and other essentials are kept under the pillow or always in the pocket. And respect for intimate privacy has withered and vanished: housemates bring their lovers or “business clients” for the night and sex happens as if this is a conducive environment-that there are only two people in the room.
And because there is no proper accommodation, people virtually do not buy groceries instead they buy what is sufficient for a particular day. It’s the life of a pilgrim.
Prostitution has become the easiest way out of such a life as one earns a fortune from trading their body meaning they can afford to rent reasonable accommodation and lead a “decent life.”
It’s not only women who have taken into prostitution. Zimbabwean men have also joined the gigolo trade. There are many women who have been left by their men as the young men found themselves rich old local single women. There’s virtually nothing that the young man does for the lady except quenching her insatiable sexual desires. In turn she provides everything, literally everything for the young man: she buys him underwear, airtime, toothbrush, car and everything that comes in-between.
Back home President Robert Mugabe abhors gays and lesbians describing them as being worse than dogs but here these are people recognised by government laws and anyone is free to choose and even become one. Like in most countries gays and lesbians lead a well to do lifestyle, they have lots of money and only Heaven knows where that comes from. It would be a strange thing to find a poor gay or a lesbian struggling in life.
It has often been said that desperate times need desperate measures and converting from Uncle Bob’s life’s lectures on homosexuality has been another option for desperate Zimbabweans. Just as women do, men now bleach their bodies so as to lighten their complexion and look attractive.
Considering all that is happening and that which has sucked most young Zimbabwean men and women, Joburg is now a little Las Vegas, the “sin city” where pleasure shapes people’s line of thought. And Reverend Jessie Jackson said where there is pleasure there is always danger.
HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are in abundance in these areas where pleasure dictates the mood of the day. Despite the knowledge of the consequence of leading such a life, many have chosen to “enjoy the moment” and earn a living, send money back home and support their families.
The body bag always hangs next to the First Aid kit. Sins of the flesh have seen people drop like flies. HIV/AIDS is taking its toll while gays and lesbians are beaten to death as the conservative elements of society take the streetwise route of weeding them out.
And when all is said and done and one cannot breathe anymore it all goes back to the widowed old lady in rural Lupane or the stuffy two roomed house in Mbare who has to find scraps to fend for the litter of offspring left behind by those that went to Joni/Joza.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Zimbabwe - a Hand-to-Mouth Nation
Prudent management of finances for individuals, companies and even nations demands that reserves be held to provide a cushion against unexpected changes in circumstances.
For individuals, one would still need money for things like rent and food, in the event of losing a job. Companies would still need to pay salaries and other costs even if sales temporarily dry up.
For countries, foreign-exchange reserves are held to protect against external crises and assure lenders that the country is able to meet its debt obligations.
Although there is no standard cast in stone on how much reserves a country should hold, a common rule of thumb is that reserves that can cover three months' worth of imports are generally adequate.
Countries with export-based economies such as China, Japan and Saudi Arabia are able to maintain large reserves which would be able to cover more than two years' worth of imports. These large stashes of foreign currency usually allow these countries to influence exchange rates to keep their exports attractive.
Other countries typically target to maintain a few months' cover. America, the issuer of the world's reserve currency, the United States Dollar, does not need as big a buffer as other countries do. Its holdings can go as low as a month's cover without causing concern.
In its Article IV consultation report on Zimbabwe released in September, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revealed that Zimbabwe was holding international reserves covering only 10 days of imports.
Effectively, the country had no cushion against external shocks. Not only was the cover maintained inadequate, but there was no foreseeable solution to the situation. As it currently stands, government does not seem to have any feasible strategy to increase reserves over time.
To build up reserves would require either sustained current account surpluses or substantial capital inflows.
So how dire is this situation and to what does it translate?
Firstly, for a country which is highly dependent on imports for critical supplies such as food, medicines and fuel, it means that in the event of any interruption in foreign currency inflows, we are only covered for 10 days! That is a very vulnerable position to be in.
As a nation we are surviving from hand to mouth.
Another reason why it is not desirable to maintain such low reserves is that this affects the creditworthiness of the country. In the eyes of potential lenders, a country with low reserves is highly likely to default on debt repayments.
Zimbabwe is already US$10,7 billion in default on its debts and the country's creditworthiness has been compromised. Increasing our reserves and perhaps making token repayments would signal to financiers that the country is on a path to recovery.
It is unrealistic to expect Zimbabwe to achieve a reasonable balance of payments surplus in the short term as there are many structural adjustments that need to be made for this to be possible.
One of these is to improve the balance of trade by boosting exports and minimising imports. Exports can be boosted by increasing productivity and, therefore, output. This is especially so with exporting sectors such as mining.
To achieve this, a significant amount of capital inflows is required, either as debt or foreign direct investment. This brings us back to the issue of having policies which attract investors. To date, most major mining houses have not reached their full operating capacity and lack of capital is their number one impediment. Mining products already constitute 66% of exports and have potential to contribute more if production is increased.
Another way to deal with low reserves is to decrease imports. In doing so, it should be borne in mind that the country is heavily reliant on imports of food, clothing, fuel and other basic necessities which cannot be done away with.
Decreasing imports would therefore have to be done in a methodical way which targets those imports which are not essentials and which could be substituted with locally-produced goods. Increasing import duty on such goods is one way of discouraging their importation. Grey import motor vehicles are perhaps the most often cited example of undesirable imports. Curtailing their importation would need to be accompanied by the establishment of a reliable and safe public transport system.
In the long term, even food imports could be substantially reduced through increased agricultural production. In fact, increasing agricultural production would then feed into the manufacturing sector, reducing input costs and making them more competitive relative to imported processed foods.
Zimbabwe has been self-sufficient before in food production and adopting the right policies can get us back there. Agricultural technology has improved greatly and there is potential to surpass even the previous production highs and have enough surpluses to export.
Although not an immediate concern since the country is in default anyway, negotiating for debt amnesty is another way of avoiding future obligations.
Applying for relief as a 'Highly Indebted Poor Country' under the IMF-World Bank joint programme would be one way to do it but so far government is reluctant to take this route.
- COLLINS RUDZUNA
For individuals, one would still need money for things like rent and food, in the event of losing a job. Companies would still need to pay salaries and other costs even if sales temporarily dry up.
For countries, foreign-exchange reserves are held to protect against external crises and assure lenders that the country is able to meet its debt obligations.
Although there is no standard cast in stone on how much reserves a country should hold, a common rule of thumb is that reserves that can cover three months' worth of imports are generally adequate.
Countries with export-based economies such as China, Japan and Saudi Arabia are able to maintain large reserves which would be able to cover more than two years' worth of imports. These large stashes of foreign currency usually allow these countries to influence exchange rates to keep their exports attractive.
Other countries typically target to maintain a few months' cover. America, the issuer of the world's reserve currency, the United States Dollar, does not need as big a buffer as other countries do. Its holdings can go as low as a month's cover without causing concern.
In its Article IV consultation report on Zimbabwe released in September, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revealed that Zimbabwe was holding international reserves covering only 10 days of imports.
Effectively, the country had no cushion against external shocks. Not only was the cover maintained inadequate, but there was no foreseeable solution to the situation. As it currently stands, government does not seem to have any feasible strategy to increase reserves over time.
To build up reserves would require either sustained current account surpluses or substantial capital inflows.
So how dire is this situation and to what does it translate?
Firstly, for a country which is highly dependent on imports for critical supplies such as food, medicines and fuel, it means that in the event of any interruption in foreign currency inflows, we are only covered for 10 days! That is a very vulnerable position to be in.
As a nation we are surviving from hand to mouth.
Another reason why it is not desirable to maintain such low reserves is that this affects the creditworthiness of the country. In the eyes of potential lenders, a country with low reserves is highly likely to default on debt repayments.
Zimbabwe is already US$10,7 billion in default on its debts and the country's creditworthiness has been compromised. Increasing our reserves and perhaps making token repayments would signal to financiers that the country is on a path to recovery.
It is unrealistic to expect Zimbabwe to achieve a reasonable balance of payments surplus in the short term as there are many structural adjustments that need to be made for this to be possible.
One of these is to improve the balance of trade by boosting exports and minimising imports. Exports can be boosted by increasing productivity and, therefore, output. This is especially so with exporting sectors such as mining.
To achieve this, a significant amount of capital inflows is required, either as debt or foreign direct investment. This brings us back to the issue of having policies which attract investors. To date, most major mining houses have not reached their full operating capacity and lack of capital is their number one impediment. Mining products already constitute 66% of exports and have potential to contribute more if production is increased.
Another way to deal with low reserves is to decrease imports. In doing so, it should be borne in mind that the country is heavily reliant on imports of food, clothing, fuel and other basic necessities which cannot be done away with.
Decreasing imports would therefore have to be done in a methodical way which targets those imports which are not essentials and which could be substituted with locally-produced goods. Increasing import duty on such goods is one way of discouraging their importation. Grey import motor vehicles are perhaps the most often cited example of undesirable imports. Curtailing their importation would need to be accompanied by the establishment of a reliable and safe public transport system.
In the long term, even food imports could be substantially reduced through increased agricultural production. In fact, increasing agricultural production would then feed into the manufacturing sector, reducing input costs and making them more competitive relative to imported processed foods.
Zimbabwe has been self-sufficient before in food production and adopting the right policies can get us back there. Agricultural technology has improved greatly and there is potential to surpass even the previous production highs and have enough surpluses to export.
Although not an immediate concern since the country is in default anyway, negotiating for debt amnesty is another way of avoiding future obligations.
Applying for relief as a 'Highly Indebted Poor Country' under the IMF-World Bank joint programme would be one way to do it but so far government is reluctant to take this route.
- COLLINS RUDZUNA
Friday, October 26, 2012
Zimbabwean women police officers make inroads as members of the ‘blue berets’
For Assistant Police Commissioner Charity Charamba, who served as a peacekeeper for three years in Liberia, being the third-highest ranking official in the mission had its gender challenges.
“I had to assert myself, because at first the male colleagues, both at the senior and lower ranks, treated me as if I did not know my duties and at times, did not acknowledge my presence,” she remembers.
Zimbabwe is one of the few countries in the world where the number of female peacekeepers from the police force nearly meets the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations recommendation of at least 20 per cent female representation.
Zimbabwean peacekeepers discuss challenges. From left to right: Superintendent Sithulisiwe Mthimkhulu, Superintendent Rosina Mamutse, Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba, Superintendent Jessie Banda, Superintendent Kani Moyo, and Assistant Inspector Muchaneta Isabell Ngwenya. Photo Credit: UNDP/Sirak Gebrehiwot
Of the 1,063 officers of Zimbabwe’s police who have taken part in eight peacekeeping missions worldwide, a total of 189 of them (18 per cent) have been women. The first woman served in East Timor in 2000, seven years after the police began participating in peacekeeping missions.
From providing security to women and girls as they go searching for wood for cooking, to providing support during elections, to ensuring food supplies can reach refugee camps safely—the work of peacekeepers starts at dawn and ends after most other people have gone to sleep. Far away from their own friends and families, UN peacekeepers serve a critical role in maintaining peace in post-conflict countries. Assuming senior-level positions while on mission comes naturally to Zimbabwean police women who already hold senior posts at home, explains Assistant Commissioner Charamba.
“We are provided with equal opportunities within the police and given the chance to rise and to participate at all levels. Women are heads of several of the country’s provinces and the head of the training depot is female,” she says, adding that Zimbabwe’s Police Commissioner General promotes women’s advancement within the force. She says working internationally gives women blue berets the chance to see different types of police practice and to share experiences.
“I have been on the Zimbabwean Police Force for 31 years and I work in the Victim Friendly Unit as a gender trainer. I’ve always wanted to be one of the blue berets and my dream came true,” says Superintendent Kani Moyo, who served for 15 months as a Gender Police Advisor and Officer in Charge of Training in Nyala with the African Union/United Nations Hybrid peacekeeping operation known as UNAMID, in Darfur, Sudan.
Superintendent Sithulisiwe Mthimkhulu, who has been on peacekeeping missions in Sudan and Liberia, recalls facing barriers because of her gender, but also because of cultural differences. “In Darfur, Sudan, before independence, the local people looked at you as if you were different, because you are a woman in uniform. Also, being a Muslim country, the local male police officers did not take it lightly receiving orders from a woman,” she recalls. During her missions, Mthimkhulu has worked to motivate women through sports, literacy classes and other activities to become interested in all aspects of police work and she assisted them in establishing a police women’s network.
Studies show that in many countries, women peacekeepers often become role models for the local women and girls, as the custodians of peace and security and the authority they can turn to. “I learned a lot from the police officers I worked with on missions and there has been a lot of cross-cultural learning about policies and other issues,” says Superintendent Jessie Banda, who served as a Communications Officer for a year in Kosovo, and as a Community Policing Officer for 15 months in Darfur. “I look at the United Nations as an organization that unites people,” she says.
The four women peacekeepers interviewed by UN Women Zimbabwe say that their pre-deployment training prepared them well for their missions as it included training and mentoring of local police officers, community and gender policy, as well as how to investigate and provide counseling to rape survivors. However, they say learning more about the laws, especially gender-based violence laws, and about cultures of the countries where they are deployed would enhance their preparedness in the field. - United Nations - UNWomen
“I had to assert myself, because at first the male colleagues, both at the senior and lower ranks, treated me as if I did not know my duties and at times, did not acknowledge my presence,” she remembers.
Zimbabwe is one of the few countries in the world where the number of female peacekeepers from the police force nearly meets the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations recommendation of at least 20 per cent female representation.
Of the 1,063 officers of Zimbabwe’s police who have taken part in eight peacekeeping missions worldwide, a total of 189 of them (18 per cent) have been women. The first woman served in East Timor in 2000, seven years after the police began participating in peacekeeping missions.
From providing security to women and girls as they go searching for wood for cooking, to providing support during elections, to ensuring food supplies can reach refugee camps safely—the work of peacekeepers starts at dawn and ends after most other people have gone to sleep. Far away from their own friends and families, UN peacekeepers serve a critical role in maintaining peace in post-conflict countries. Assuming senior-level positions while on mission comes naturally to Zimbabwean police women who already hold senior posts at home, explains Assistant Commissioner Charamba.
“We are provided with equal opportunities within the police and given the chance to rise and to participate at all levels. Women are heads of several of the country’s provinces and the head of the training depot is female,” she says, adding that Zimbabwe’s Police Commissioner General promotes women’s advancement within the force. She says working internationally gives women blue berets the chance to see different types of police practice and to share experiences.
“I have been on the Zimbabwean Police Force for 31 years and I work in the Victim Friendly Unit as a gender trainer. I’ve always wanted to be one of the blue berets and my dream came true,” says Superintendent Kani Moyo, who served for 15 months as a Gender Police Advisor and Officer in Charge of Training in Nyala with the African Union/United Nations Hybrid peacekeeping operation known as UNAMID, in Darfur, Sudan.
Superintendent Sithulisiwe Mthimkhulu, who has been on peacekeeping missions in Sudan and Liberia, recalls facing barriers because of her gender, but also because of cultural differences. “In Darfur, Sudan, before independence, the local people looked at you as if you were different, because you are a woman in uniform. Also, being a Muslim country, the local male police officers did not take it lightly receiving orders from a woman,” she recalls. During her missions, Mthimkhulu has worked to motivate women through sports, literacy classes and other activities to become interested in all aspects of police work and she assisted them in establishing a police women’s network.
Studies show that in many countries, women peacekeepers often become role models for the local women and girls, as the custodians of peace and security and the authority they can turn to. “I learned a lot from the police officers I worked with on missions and there has been a lot of cross-cultural learning about policies and other issues,” says Superintendent Jessie Banda, who served as a Communications Officer for a year in Kosovo, and as a Community Policing Officer for 15 months in Darfur. “I look at the United Nations as an organization that unites people,” she says.
The four women peacekeepers interviewed by UN Women Zimbabwe say that their pre-deployment training prepared them well for their missions as it included training and mentoring of local police officers, community and gender policy, as well as how to investigate and provide counseling to rape survivors. However, they say learning more about the laws, especially gender-based violence laws, and about cultures of the countries where they are deployed would enhance their preparedness in the field. - United Nations - UNWomen
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Cowards of Stone House
At every stage of human life, mankind has had to either defend themselves or cower behind high walls, usually in a state of beleaguered surrender. But for all their courage, our Shona and Zulu forefathers eventually succumbed to the might of the imperial gun powder. Not even walls, short stabbing spears, assegais and spirit mediums could save them. Yet they displayed valour.
Watching democratic Barack Obama and republican Mitt Romney presidential candidates slugging it out on global television reminds me of one thing: Zimbabwe’s inherent political cowardice. It is a fact that Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo vanquished colonial power and ushered in a semblance of democratic independence. Yet the fear of popular enlightenment has again sent ZANU-PF cowering behind imaginary walls of denial. The party insists that local presidential debates are unnecessary.
The answer can only be that Mugabe’s ZANU-PF controlled ZBC is so petrified of political competition that the closest that democratic parties are ‘hosted’ on local TV is when they are derided and ridiculed at ‘news time’. The thought of Mugabe debating on ZTV primetime - say against MDC presidential candidate Professor Welshman Ncube – sends shivers down the spines of ZANU-PF cronies. Their premonition is accurate - the old man’s archaic political ideology would be demolished!
The tragedy is how this fear also permeates deep into the veins of Mugabe’s administrative structure. Minister Patrick Chinamasa during a BBC interview aired worldwide last week made it absolutely clear that no MDC presidential candidate would be ‘allowed’ to win an election. The implications of this statement are that neither Tsvangirayi nor Ncube will be permitted to air their view points on local Zimbabwe television, let alone debate face-to-face ‘American style’ with Mugabe. “Zimbabwe’s national broadcaster is an example of a public media institution that has been hijacked by the state for narrow partisan political purposes”, adds Media Alliance Zimbabwe. In an act of superficial benevolence, Tafataona Mahoso, the ZANU-PF exterminator of media freedom, issued two new radio licenses to loyal ZANU-PF interests and companies to create a false impression of media multiplicity. Radio and television make a more lasting impression. That is why ZANU-PF is marooned in an impenetrable cocoon of cowardice. I can imagine how much time Mugabe’s media cronies George Charamba and Jonathan Moyo spend ‘glued’ to CNN television programs ‘analysing’ US presidential elections. What act of valiant hypocrisy! Why do they not invite our own ‘democratic presidential candidates’ to debate with Robert Mugabe? Simple. Fear. They purport to promote ‘heroic liberation values’ yet are afraid of pitting – or is it exposing – Mugabe’s retrogressive political ideology against modern day reality. The fact is their presidential candidate has nothing much to offer other than post-revolutionary rhetoric and false promises of empowerment. His is an ideology of illusion, deceit and threats. If not, I urge Mr. Mugabe to confront MDC candidates head-on on local television – moderated by an independent professional. The Zimbabwean incumbent president must not continue to hide behind the proverbial formidable ‘conical tower’ of authoritarian dictatorship. Written by Rejoice Ngwenya, a Harare based liberal and political economist.
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