Recently I heard a polished and thoughtful presentation about concurrent heterosexual sexual partnerships given by a PSI research officer. From what I understood, PSI completed a series of interviews and focus group discussions to delve into findings from a 2006 survey indicating that in Zimbabwe 33% of men and 29% of women have more than one regular sexual partner . A few things during the presentation commanded my attention.

First, the title was precise. Particularly inclusion of heterosexual in the title seemed precision that’s rare in Zimbabwe, yet important. I’m used to this specificity; I expect researchers to state what type of relationships they are referencing – same sex or opposite sex. I expect this more in terms of clarity and less in terms of an advocacy statement. But in Zimbabwe, it’s a bit more of a statement. Inclusion of heterosexual in a title is an important (tacit) acknowledgement that same sex sexual relationships exist in Zimbabwe.

Second, the attention to detail. And on the topic of sex, no less! One problem with the phrase Concurrent Sexual Partnerships (CSPs) is that it’s evasive, allows dancing around the heart of the matter. There exists vagueness, as if additional sexual partners are out there in the ether. Cast as misbehaving others, temptresses and tempters seen as not real. Truth be told, there’s no ether. Men and women have sex outside marriage with real people (33% of the men do it and 29% of the women). PSI’s research explores this ether. Who exactly do husbands and wives have sex with? What do husbands and wives say about these relationships? Such an exploration is not just about withholding moral judgment. It’s about looking at the detail and PSI’s research cleverly does this. The research examines Male-Led CSPs, such as: 1) wife + commercial sex worker; 2) wife + small house; 3) wife + widowed/divorced; and 4) wife + young girl. As well as Female-Led CSPs, such as: 1) husband + garden boy; 2) husband + boyfriend; and 3) husband + sugar daddy.

As the presenter elaborated on Male-Led CSPs, the (female) panelists listened. As did the audience (nearly all women). When the (male) presenter spoke about Female-Led CSPs things changed. There was scepticism and ruffled feathers in the air. As if there was a giant roar from the largely female crowd: No! You must know that it’s only men who have sex outside marriage. But no worries. Mr. Wellington Mushayi was a cool cucumber. Let his data speak. These are the people men have sex with outside marriage (33% of all men do it). These are the people women have sex with outside marriage (29% of all women do it). No moral judgment, only facts and details because this data importantly looks equally at why men and women make the choices they do. Understanding these choices is a crucial element in, among other things, working to reduce sexually-transmitted infections and improving sexual health.

Finally, a comment from a man in the audience caught my attention. Because it was one of the most ridiculous comments I’ve heard. He said: Men’s behavior is never abnormal except in the presence of women. What the H-E-double toothpicks is that about!? As if it’s the fault of women, who/what men choose to pursue and do. Ok maybe I could go with his point in the sense that men face pressure to spread their semen and sex has transactional aspects. But I don’t think a meaningful path to lessen these dynamics is about blame, particularly blame which polarizes. Seems to me it’s a self-reflective path. A path to instill confidence to understand and think responsibly about one sexual relationship. And/or multiple sexual relationships. Nothing wrong with having them, just make sure it’s mutual, that the playing field is level, and it’s what you want.

It was an excellent presentation. The research methodology aptly treats men and women equally. And the resulting data will be an important part of developing honest understandings concerning sexual relationships in Zimbabwe. What dynamics surround sex. What people feel and experience. And what this all means.

Five weeks ago, Zanu PF and both MDC’s signed an agreement “on resolving the challenges facing Zimbabwe” They signed that they were “committing ourselves to putting our people and our country first by arresting the fall in living standards and reversing the decline of our economy.” But where is this commitment in action? As the politicians argue about passports and summit venues, hunger is increasing in Zimbabwe, and those men and women brave enough to protest this are being denied their rights.

One week after leading a peaceful demonstration in Bulawayo, Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu remain in custody. These two, and seven other members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), were arrested as part of a protest of hundred of men and women on Thursday 16 October, demanding food aid for millions of starving Zimbabweans.

The other seven members were released later that same day, but Williams and Mahlangu were charged under Section 37 1(a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act – ‘disturbing the peace, security or order of the public’. In pressing the state to deny the two bail, prosecuter Chifamba argued that there was still an outstanding case pending. Chifamba was referring to the May 28 arrest of the Chikurubi 14. But the group had been removed from remand on Wednesday 15 October – so the prosecuter’s argument to deny bail should have fallen away.

Instead, the Magistrate, Maphosa, gave the state until 21 October to verify this fact. When Williams and Mahlangu went back before the Court on the 21st, Magistrate Maphosa reserved judgement as the ‘court is very busy’. In Zimbabwe, bail hearings are normally heard on an urgent basis. But not for these WOZA women. All this despite the 15 September political agreement. As the WOZA update from last night says, “the on-going detention of Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu and the delaying tactics and machinations of the state are a clear violation of their rights and the power-sharing agreement signed by the political parties in September 2008.”

Register your discontent. Phone the Bulawayo Attorney General’s Office: +263 9 77651/61603 and the Bulawayo Public Prosecutor: + 263 9 63173 (ask to speak to Prosecutor Chifamba) and ask why the women are being denied bail when they have never been convicted of an offence – the state should not imprison to investigate.

My work mate came back from the bank today and informed us that the minimum bank balance is going up to $10 million as from 1 November – up from $5,000 currently. I suppose we should be grateful – at least this time they’re giving us advanced notice.

Meanwhile, we just got an email from a subscriber:

So many things are not right and it takes a brave person to say it. The kombis are ripping off the poor people as they raise prices uncontrollably each time they feel like. Here in Kadoma a journey of less than 8 kilometres cost $15,000 just imagine and nowhere to report to. What world are we living in and where is this going to take us.

The politrixians continue to block any progress, and you begin to wonder what the point of all of it is anyway.

As another subscriber wrote:

Does it matter who gets the ministry of Home Affairs? Years ago, the then minister, Moven Mahachi, told me the police commissioner was not reporting to him as he should. He knew he was not getting the truth, but couldn’t find out what the hidden truth was. If this is how they treat their own, can anyone else expect them to cooperate?

The Frustrated Citizens of Zimbabwe wrote to us recently – begging the question, what citizen isn’t frustrated these days:

I would like to put on record that I, along with probably the vast majority of Zimbabweans, am disgusted with the utter lack of advancement regarding the settlement of the political situation in this Country.

The last month or two has seen the total collapse of virtually every scrap of the last remnants of civilisation that was gasping for survival in Zimbabwe while the negotiators carry on ad infinitum as if nothing is amiss!!!

Surely the population of this Country demonstrated loudly and clearly that they do dot wish to be dominated any longer by the corrupt and evil ZANU PF. Just what right have they to “demand” certain Ministries? None whatsoever as far as we are all concerned!!

The economy has finally been TOTALLY destroyed. We consider that it is now completely beyond any form of resusitation. It is DEAD. Why cant you politians accept that and simply bury it? Why on earth Mugabe wants to hang on to it is beyond imagination. He and his cronies do not remotely have the capacity to revive any sort of economy whatsoever. For goodness sake just tell him that; although we must agree that his mentality is beyond reasoning!!

Further, no form of law and order has existed in Zimbabwe for many years now and will never return as long as ZANU PF have any sort of control over it. Even the most simple of simpletons can see that; except the most simplest of the lot; ZANU PF.

We are getting sick and tired of the situation. Everything has fallen to pieces. The Cities are a disgrace, cholera and worse simply waiting in the sidelines to break out causing a catastrophic situation. We cant even get our own money out of the banks any more, and when we finally manage to scrape a little cash up, there is no food to buy anyway. I think that the biggest achievement ever made by ZANU PF was the total destruction of the food chain, from the farms to the industrialists to the shops!! The time is more than ripe for MASSIVE public demonstrations!!

Failed state service on South African Airways

The 720pm flight out of Johannesburg leaves after 8. The steward slaps down a tray of food. A limp piece of meat sags on a layer of “seen better days” pasta. The bread roll is stale. There isn’t a choice. Sorry if you’re vegetarian. Good service doesn’t apply on flights to a failed state. The lights are dim at Harare Airport. We identify our luggage with some difficulty. The sign on the toilet says, Sorry for the inconvenience but the toilet is broken. As is the rest of the country.

No money for parking

I head out to the airport at about 1015pm to pick up my partner. This time the 720pm SAA flight gets in at 1040. I drive slowly wanting to time my arrival so I can effect a stop and grab. As I approach the airport I see car after car pulled over on both sides of the road. At first I think the little dictator and his motorcade is about to round the bend. Of course what was I thinking, he’s round the bend already. But like me, countless other Zimbabweans don’t have enough cash for parking so we wait down the road instead and watch the planes come in. The full moon and my hunting dog keep me company. A face looms at my window. “Excuse me ma’am, has the SAA flight landed?”

Midnight emergencies

My dog Frank looks pregnant. His stomach swells before my very eyes. It’s midnight. What to do? Is Second Street Extension 24hr vet still functioning? Is there any power? Are there drugs? Is there anyone on duty experienced enough to deal with my best loved dog? Tick all of the above. Thanks to Soloman and his team Frank is home today, worse for wear but still alive, for now. A reminder to check my cynicism at the door.

Subscription sustenance

My issue of The Sun arrives. The articles make me think, give me insight and hope. Viktor Frankl was right when he said, What is to give light must endure burning.

I sing the song of the Matebele,
I sing the song of the tortured, butchered, marginalised and ostracized,
I sing the song of the hopeless,
It is the cry of the downtrodden, weary, and abused,
It is the voice of the Ndebele people.

My muffled voice wails from the deep dungeons of the Great Shangani River where my king’s story ends.
Deep in the dungeons, I cry for recognition and inclusion yet no one seems to take notice.
Every time I make an attempt to claim my position, to claim recognition and identity I am labelled a tribalist and a sell-out.
Every time this happens I am drawn back to self pity and self hatred.

My pain has been worsened by the Son of Bona
The Son of Bona tortured, brutalised and killed my clansmen simply because they were Ndebele.
Since then he never looked back.
He has made sure that my people are marginalised and peripherised.
Now he has made it worse by refusing to let go the reigns of leadership.
My cry is now so deep such that its tears can fill an ocean.
It is this deep because I see myself and my clansmen buried in poverty and swallowed by doldrums of history.

My cry has grown to be a cry of the people of Zimbabwe.
This is because the bitterness is no longer the Ndebele one only but a bitterness of everyone in Zimbabwe.
Son of Bona, you have destroyed our beautiful land, you have destroyed our pride as a nation.

I cry for the departure of the Son of Bona.
Son of Bona, Zimbabwe has had enough of you.
Son of the Bona, you cannot offer us anything that we can believe in.
Give others a chance to lead; Zimbabwe is for all of us.
Farewell, Son of Bona, Zimbabwe will be a better nation without you.

When the AU was formed in 2002 as a successor of the OAU, one of its main objectives was to achieve peace and security in Africa and to promote democratic institutions, good governance and human rights. It was also going to promote and defend common African positions on issues of interest to the continent and its peoples.

The Zimbabwe crisis is just the latest indication of why we must place no confidence in the ability of either the AU or its young brother SADC to handle regional problems as well as sail this continent onto the path of development. Their inaction on Zimbabwe is shocking and appalling to say the least and it smacks of both lack of will and incompetence.

Mugabe derives his spunk from the indifference and silent support of his peers. Ejecting him from the AU and verbally condemning his actions would probably have made some difference in his behavior or at least lessened his confidence. But only a few leaders like the late Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa, Botswana’s new President, Seretse Khama Ian Khama and lately, Kenyan Prime Minister, Raila Odinga have dared to be vocal about Mugabe’s self-imposed government and have even called for his and Zimbabwe’s suspension from the AU. The rest of the whiteheads especially in SADC have been inexplicably maintaining what Odinga calls a “diabolical conspiracy of silence bound by personal misdeeds and complicity in refusing to condemn their neighbors,” especially Mugabe. The same culture of impunity is what nurtured the excesses of the continent’s infamous dictators like Mobutu Sese Seko of the DRC and Uganda’s heartless Idi Amin under the banner of predecessor OAU’s founding principle of respect for national sovereignty.

In trying to understand why the AU and the SADC are toothless bulldogs barking endlessly from the periphery, Odinga postulates that African leaders are an old dictators’ club that have an inherent fear of criticizing each other. This is because, as Mugabe so rightly put it at the Sharm el Shaik, Egypt AU summit, they too have skeletons rattling in their closets.

It is thus not surprising that the AU has failed to put the people of Zimbabwe first and to stand up for democracy. In an ironic joint statement, the AU/SADC pledged “As guarantors of the implementation of the agreement, both AU and SADC will spare no effort in supporting its full and effective implementation.” What have these two organs done in the face of Mugabe’s latest unilateral declaration of cabinet? Again, as was the case in Kenya, the party that should have rightly taken over power is being forced by regional pressure to concede to an increasingly unworkable compromise deal and endless mediation processes by an inefficient go-between who insists on a concept of quiet diplomacy that only he understands. Recently, in response to a legal application filed against it by the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum two months ago, SADC has for the first time acknowledged that Mugabe should not be recognized as a legitimate head of state. But the organization rejected the demand to refuse to allow Mugabe and his government to participate in future SADC activities. Its excuse was that former South African President Thabo Mbeki, the SADC appointed mediator, was able to facilitate a power sharing deal to end Zimbabwe’s political crisis.

What ‘African’ common position are the AU/SADC defending when they fail to condemn errant dictators who hold whole starving nations to ransom in order to protect selfish interests?

In its thirty-nine year history, the OAU could only be judged as an abysmal failure. It failed to challenge any major dictator on the continent and stood idle while civil wars, ethnic conflicts, poverty and disease ravaged ordinary Africans. Its only success was in preserving the notion of sovereign borders in Africa. Wole Soyinka once described it as a “collaborative club of perpetual self-preservation.” The AU is the new OAU under a different name: its membership is the same and there are no new institutions to suggest that it will be any more effective or less selfish than its predecessor.

As a pan-African organization, the AU must be willing to stand up to African dictators and military rulers that have been the real causes of bloodshed and poverty on the continent. So far the AU has failed in this mission: Mugabe is still a revered charter member of the AU and it has failed to recognize Morgan Tsvangirai as the country’s rightful elected leader. If we start to question the complacency of the AU, we start to ask, why was it tolerable that a tyrant lost an election, imprisoned, killed and molested those who dared oppose him, then proceeded to reelect himself to the presidium, and no action was taken?

The AU has failed the people of Zimbabwe by its unwillingness to deal effectively with the political crisis that was single-handedly constructed by one dictator. For months they have insisted on mediation and dialogue when decisive action has been called for. The AU has failed too often or remained inert when it should have acted, and its internal procedures are often agonizingly inadequate for the challenges it faces in problem countries. For far too long, and with immensely destructive consequences, the AU has downplayed the dimensions of crises in various African countries and the urgency of large-scale humanitarian intervention. This is particularly true of the situation in Africa’s largest country, Sudan with the longstanding and ongoing conflict in Darfur that stretches as far back as 2003. Look also how dictators recently bulldozed their way into leadership in Kenya.

The AU has only been good at issuing statements. The AU’s fine words at the moment are little consolation to Zimbabwe’s hungry, oppressed people. Once more, like its predecessor, the AU is set to fail the people of Africa.