As a kid growing up in Salisbury, as it was called then, one of the places I’d go to for entertainment and inspiration was the Rainbow Park Lane cinema. The big screen, popcorn, plastic cups of Coke – bliss for a thirteen year old! Then in my twenties I got to know Sonia, daughter of Jimmy Pereira, the driving force behind cinema in Zimbabwe. Sonia and I would meet up on some nights in the preview room at the Rainbow Park Lane and whilst the main cinema was filled with the movie going public watching the 8:30 film, we’d be checking out new movies being considered for screening in Zimbabwe. We’d share a whiskey and lose ourselves in the stories unfolding before us. Jimmy was often in the preview room with us, sitting in his usual spot, the seat on the aisle, in the back row.

Jimmy passed away recently. I sat in his memorial service looking at the programme. On the front, a dashing young man ready to take on the world; on the back, an older Jimmy, who had indeed taken on the world and forged an amazingly successful cinema industry in Zimbabwe. Here are some of the words from the service that celebrated his life . . .

Born Genaro Helder Pereira on 1st May 1928 in Lourenco Marques, Jimmy (as he has became known) experienced a somewhat challenging childhood. He schooled his prep school in Beira and for his secondary schooling he boarded at Prince Edward High in Salisbury. After leaving school he went to work informally with his father in the import and export business in Beira.

At the behest of his future mother-in-law’s to find a more formal position he moved to a different company in the same line of business. Shortly after this, in 1954 at the age of 26, he married Vanda Maria Lemos Silva. Soon after their marriage they moved to Salisbury where he tried his hand working for a company in the guano business which took him  travelling through Rhodesia, Mozambique and on occasion, Madagascar. After two years the company went bankrupt and Jimmy, now a family of four with Helder born in 1955 and Jad in 1956, returned to work with his father who was now based in Blantyre, Malawi.

In 1959 before his third and final child Sonia later in the year, Jimmy gave birth to the child he has always been most passionate about and opened his first Rainbow cinema. Converting an old plane hanger, he opened “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines” with unprecedented flair and showmanship. It was here that Jimmy finally began living his passion and where Rainbow was born.

After nine years in Blantyre the vision for their family saw them returning to Salisbury arriving with only their furniture, three children and £100 to their name. From these humble beginnings Jimmy secured the investment needed and over the next 44 years gave his heart to his passion which began with Rainbow Park Lane in 1965 and blossomed into the Rainbow Empire we know today. He travelled extensively establishing relationships all over the world making sure he celebrated life long and hard along the way.

He became a well respected businessman in the field and in 2000 he was honoured by United International Pictures with “The Millennium Film Entrepreneur” award for his enormous contribution to the industry.

Always a showman, always a gentleman, Jimmy has become a legend and his passing on 4th April 2009 marks the end of an era.

I’ve been accruing credit notes all round town. Mugabe has dollarised Zimbabwe and we don’t have any change. Yeah right, on both counts: no political change and no American coins. So when you go shopping and your bill is $8.20 the shop offers you a credit note instead of Real, Live Change.

I’ve just come across this very cool campaign which reminded me of all the useless Zimbabwean money I’ve got lying around.

From the web site Marklives! here’s more information:

Conceptualised and created by TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris, these billboards and posters for The Zimbabwean newspaper were made entirely of worthless Zimbabwean bank notes. The billboard is made up of trillions and trillions and trillions worth of Zim dollar notes, which worked out to be cheaper than using paper.

A recent commentary by Eddie Cross caught Dale Doré’s eye. Among other things, Doré suggested:

The MDC must grasp is that they are powerless and that they have indeed been sucked into the ZANU(PF) morass. And, yes, there is something the MDC can do …… GET OUT!

This in turn caught our eye. Yesterday, we included some of Dale’s comments in our email newsletter, and we invited people to email us back with their thoughts. This has sparked a lively debate. The people who are responding to us disagree strongly with Dale, saying things like:

The GPA is cast in stone! We are tired of talks – and we do not want to backtrack and redo the talks. We will not achieve anything, we cant reinvent the wheel! Why should anyone want the MDC to pull out of the GNU when there are signs of progress written all over the wall? I say to this to these peddlers of venom, eat the humble pie. The GNU is here and is here to stay!

Read more here, and leave us a comment to share your thoughts on this debate.

Zimbabwe’s draconian media laws remain unaltered, not surprisingly. Of all the unity government’s designated reforms, Mugabe can be expected to resist this one the longest. Why? Because journalism’s job is to confront politicians with their failures. Mugabe, having contemplated nothing but his omnipotence for decades, will hardly be keen to encounter an accurate view of himself now. Read more from Heidi Holland

According to the Global Political Agreement signed by the three political parties in Zimbabwe . . .

“RECOGNISING and accepting that the Land Question has been at the core of the contestation in Zimbabwe and acknowledging the centrality of issues relating to the rule of law, respect for human rights, democracy and governance. The Parties hereby agree to: (a) conduct a comprehensive, transparent and non-partisan land audit, during the tenure of the Seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe, for the purpose of establishing accountability and eliminating multiple farm ownerships; (b) ensure that all Zimbabweans who are eligible to be allocated land and who apply for it shall be considered for allocation of land irrespective of race, gender, religion, ethnicity or political affiliation; (c) ensure security of tenure to all land holders; (d) call upon the United Kingdom government to accept the primary responsibility to pay compensation for land acquired from former land owners for resettlement; and (e) work together to secure international support and finance for the land reform programme in terms of compensation for the former land owners and support for new farmers.”

Quite clear? Clear enough? So as Rejoice Ngwenya asks “on any clear day, it is therefore impossible to comprehend why MDC, realising the incapacity of JOMIC to guarantee the democratic rights of citizens, is not evoking the clause that binds the implementation of this agreement to be guaranteed and underwritten by the Facilitator, SADC and the AU.”

Below is a letter written by Ben Freeth, a Zimbabwean farmer. The letter is addressed to Morgan Tsvangirai and it asks him to follow through on his promise to stop farm invasions.

Dear Prime Minister Tsvangarai,

As you are aware I wrote an open letter to you 2 weeks ago asking where we were going because “soon it will be too late.”

I likened our countries economy to that of an engine that is continuing to be stripped. Unfortunately the stripping process has increased in momentum significantly since my letter; and police unfortunately remain complicit with it.

Since I wrote to you we have had a fresh illegal invasion on Mount Carmel Farm on the 4 April 2009. We copied a letter to your office addressed to the Commissioner General of the Zimbabwe Republic Police dated 5 April but have yet to have any response.

Some of our workers have been badly beaten [one with a cracked skull]; the Mount Carmel house was broken into and entered by invaders while my elderly parents-in-law were inside; Mike and Angela Campbell have since been evicted by the illegal invaders and stopped from accessing their home and work place by a locked gate that the invaders have erected on the drive into the farm; their house has since been entered by invaders again and some looting has taken place; the mango crop still in the orchards of over 100 tons is being stolen before our eyes; the pack- shed has been broken into and the 50 tons of export mangos that was rotting there [because the invaders have stopped all the 150 workers from loading the lorry that came from SA for export] are being sold by the invaders – we saw the rotting mangos and invader sales of stolen property on 10 April; the orange crop of 200 tons is being stolen and the maize and sunflower crops will be stolen shortly if nothing is done to arrest the perpetrators of these crimes.

Many of our workers are sleeping in the bush due to the violence that remains unpunished. Others are victims of trumped up charges in jail. They have been subjected to torture by police in Chegutu using armoured cable to beat them. The one with the cracked skull [Sinos] was dumped on the charge office floor by invaders in the presence of witnesses who were never even asked to explain themselves. A police constable then smashed Sinos’ head against the charge office wall. As a result of police being used to torture and arrest our workers, our workers are naturally very afraid to make reports of crimes that continue to be committed.

Invaders threatened to kill any of our guards that tried to continue to guard the crops. They stole a shotgun from the guards and used it to threaten workers. This they subsequently handed into police. Not a single one of the workers has been allowed to work for us in the last week doing the vital job of packing export quality mangos for the earning of tens of thousands of US dollars of scarce foreign currency.

Chegutu police will not even give us the name of the main invader who is frequently at the station with them. Chegutu Police now refuse to take reports of crimes being committed on Mount Carmel Farm so there is no official record. On their visit yesterday they saw all the evidence of these crimes and did nothing to arrest the “untouchables” who were in their presence. Evidence of some of the crimes is on film.

In my letter before this invasion I asked why the SADC Tribunal Judgement is not being upheld. SADC has directed that “the respondent [the Zimbabwe Government] is directed to take all necessary measures to protect the possession, occupation and ownership of the lands of the applicants [ourselves]…and to take all appropriate measures to ensure that no action is taken, pursuant to Amendment 17, directly or indirectly, whether by its agents or by others, to evict from or interfere with, the peaceful residence on and of those farms, by the Applicants.”

If there was a political will to restore the rule of law I have been assured by police that it would take 5 minutes. Unfortunately, there appears to be no political will to deal with these latest invasions and to restore the rule of law and to allow us to live and farm in peace.

This is not an isolated incident. Other farmers are experiencing similar situations and thousands of jobs and livlihoods are on the line. We invite you down to urgently see with your own eyes the realities of the continued State inspired lawlessness in Chegutu. We implore you to have the invaders arrested and to put a police guard on the property to allow us to continue farming in peace and to stop the continued victimisation that is being experienced.

Kubatana was copied in on an email written by Dale Dore, a Harare based activist, to Eddie Cross an MDC stalwart. In his email Dale suggested that the MDC are powerless in the unity government and because of the numerous transgressions of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) the MDC should declare the power sharing government dead.

We still have a dictatorship in place in Zimbabwe albeit with a bit more money than it used to have.

Tsvangirai can only cite certain successes because Zanu PF has facilitated them. Anything vaguely unpopular with Zanu PF doesn’t get to see the light of day.

Jonathan Moyo in an article published by The Nation, in Kenya, called the unity government “self indulgent” and that Tsvangirai is “now groping in the dark  in a desperate search for non exist benchmarks of success.”

Tendai Dumbetshena writing for The Zimbabwe Times asserts that Mugabe has something sinister in mind, but then again when hasn’t he? Tendai does ask some very direct questions that we must insist on being answered. We don’t expect the true blue dictator Mugabe to do so but we do expect Tsvangirai to step up to the challenge:

The Global Political Agreement (GPA) was signed on 15 September, 2008 – seven months ago. All issues pertaining to political reforms and human rights were contained in the GPA and Memorandum of Understanding that preceded it. Why do these issues remain outstanding after such a long time?

What is so difficult about repealing repressive legislation such as POSA and AIPPA? Why the delay in allowing the media to operate freely? Why does the government need an extra 100 days to, for example, lift the ban on international networks such as CNN, BBC, SKY and South Africa’s eTV. The above list of banned foreign media is by no means exhaustive.

Why do some MDC and civil society members still face charges for crimes that were not committed while those who actually murdered and tortured people have not been brought to justice? Where are the seven missing MDC members?

When will Roy Bennett be sworn in as deputy Minister of Agriculture? Will it also be done within the next 100 days? When will the endless talking stop and actual deeds begin?

Assurances from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his ministers count for nothing. In a major speech about three weeks ago the MDC leader threatened to arrest those who continued to invade farms and disrupt production. The mayhem continues and not a single person has been arrested. It is his people who languish in jail. The people who enforce law and order have disdain for Tsvangirai.

The MDC leadership must get real. It is excited beyond measure by the new titles, cars and other trappings of office. Its view of this inclusive government is defined by the material benefits it has yielded to those in government.

Tsvangirai and his colleagues must wake up from their comfort-induced slumber.

Serious people never allow themselves to be victims of naiveté or blinkered optimism. There is something sinister brewing in Mugabe’s mind. There is something sinister being hatched within Zanu-PF. If the MDC continues to act as if it has a genuine partner in this charade called an inclusive government a terrible fate awaits it.