If you have spent any amount of time in Harare, you’ll know of a popular spot called Mai Faffy’s. Located in the heart of Avondale – at one of the city’s busiest shopping complexes – Mai Faffy’s serves some of the tastiest sadza and relish to be had in Harare.

And as with any place named in such affectionate terms, there is a story behind  Mai Faffy’s – a story  I recall Faffy herself telling me.

After a spell of giving birth to only baby boys, Faffy’s mother finally had a baby girl – a girl she named Tafadzwa.

Faffy was the term of endearment that the family used to call Tafadzwa and it stuck so hard that everyone called her Faffy from then onwards.

Even to the day she died.

Faffy died in a car accident last week Monday, on the 12th of April  – a needless loss at the young age of 24. She would have turned 25 in October.

I only learnt of her death last Thursday from her best friend who sent me an SMS to tell me the shocking news.

It’s still unbelievable.

You may not have known Faffy, but on behalf of all who did know her – and in particular her friends and family – there is need to remember this remarkable young woman who has left this earth too soon.

What do you say when someone so full of life and promise dies so prematurely? Where do you start?

I remember getting a call from Faffy the day before I left to relocate to South Africa in November last year.

Faffy called me early in the evening wanting to make a plan to go out as her farewell gift to me.

I told her that I had a heap of ironing to do and would have to think about it first. Her response was typical Faffy.

“Stuff the iron in your bag and get all that done when you get to SA!”

In her world, there was too much living to be done without having to worry about mundane chores. I obviously didn’t listen to her, but now I wish I had and had just seized the moment and added yet another memory to the collection of brief moments that I spent with her.

When I asked her best friend, who’s also called Tafadzwa, what she’d like me to share about Faffy, she gave me  a long list of things.

But perhaps the most striking thing she shared was the range of people who attended Faffy’s funeral this past Saturday to pay their final respects to her. The lady who sold tomatoes from the corner of the block where Faffy lived came. Her neighbour, who named her child in honour of Faffy for escorting her to hospital in the desperate final stages of labour, also came.

Her kindness and accommodation of all people was well known and celebrated by those who loved and appreciated her most as they bade her a fond farewell.

Tafadzwa and I wanted to let you know about our remarkable friend, about the girl who always made time to brighten someone’s day, about the girl behind Mai Faffy’s.

She will live on in the vibe and atmosphere of Mai Faffy’s, in the laughter and chatter of friends and strangers alike who gather there each and every day.

So long Faffy, and thank you for the memories of a life well lived.

I always read publications by organizations like Harare Residents Trust and Combined Harare Residents Association among others and feel proud of their work as voices of residents in Zimbabwe and feel encouraged by their effort in taking time to meet residents to solicit their views.  However there is one area which is not adequately covered by these constructive initiatives. I wonder if this place,  Ruwa, slightly above twenty kilometers to the east of Harare along Mutare road, has leaders and residents representatives at all?

Ruwa is one of the fastest growing catchment areas of the city of Harare. The area supplies labour mainly to Ruwa industries, Masasa industries well as the city centre. It comprises prominent places like Zimre Park, Windsor Park, Damafalls, and the core Ruwa which people refer to as the “location.”

The three major problems in Ruwa are water, transport and robbers.

Water

Ruwa has a permanent water problem despite having all the infrastructure in place. People usually find water from their taps a day or two before the billing date towards month end. In response to the problem a borehole was drilled in the southern part close to Better Days Shopping Centre but this borehole was last used in November before the onset of the rainy season. A supply of water comes from a pump close to Spur Shopping area. Residents are expected to fetch water from here after travelling distances more or less 2 to 3 kilometers. At the time of writing the pump is not operational as there is reported to be a fault for over a week now.

Owing to the difficulties in getting water, residents have resorted to digging wells in their own premises. These borehole sites are not properly surveyed and given the size of the stands, wells are by default too close to houses, some are even on the wrong side of houses risking the water being contaminated with sewage.  The water is not safe to drink at all. The wells cannot supply water all year round, and during the dry season, they run dry forcing everyone to go and queue for water by the tanks where water is pumped.

Transport

Residents in Ruwa are overcharged by commuters who charge them double fare during peak hours. Residents have tried to resist but they are now gradually giving in. At Fourth Street Bus Terminus, two Ruwa stations have sprouted. The one for those who can afford the double fare and the other for those who can afford the normal fare. For the love of money commuters prefer ferrying those who can afford more, leaving the poor majority stranded by the bus stop waiting for a few large buses which charge reasonable fares. In addition no commuter buses reach into places like Windsor Park. They drop people close to TM store where they have to walk up to about five kilometers to their homes.

Robbers

The whole way from Mabvuku turn off, to well after George Shopping Centre is unsafe for people after dark or towards sunset. Police have at one time camped at Zimre turnoff, where cases of murder are frequent. Now just their tent is left and the police are no more, yet the place remains as risky as before.

At the TM bus stop where people drop to get into Windsor Park, the road has become a hunting ground for merciless robbers who have no hesitation to take peoples’ lives for money. People have been robbed and killed at the place. It is public knowledge yet no action has been taken about it. Darkness remains a dangerous snare for Windsor residents who sometimes have to drop at Maha Shopping Centre to walk across industries for their safety yet increasing the length of the already long distance which they cover on foot.

Faced with these challenges, Ruwa residents are living in constant fear for their lives. Of late a young orphan girl was murdered in mysterious circumstances which the police are still investigating. There has been no media coverage and no talk about it as if it was normal. We call upon whoever has authority to look into this problem as a matter of urgency.

Urban people are leading rural lifestyles yet they pay urban rates and contribute to the urban economy.

Should we take the invitation of the North Koreans to camp in Zimbabwe as an insult? Should we forget that the military ‘strategies’ of the Koreans is what wiped out entire villages.

Who is my enemy here? Is it the Koreans who trained sadistic ‘soldiers in the art of killing and maiming. Or is it perhaps the Zimbabwe ‘government’ – read Zanu PF or better still read Robert Mugabe, who unleashed the violence to begin with.

What will happen if a Korean ever decides to ‘invest’ in Matabeleland? Will he suffer for the sins of his fathers? Or should a son suffer for the sins of his father. Who is my enemy here, the Koreans or Mugabe?

Is Roy Bennett an enemy of the black Zimbabwean? Is he answerable for the sins of his father who destroyed schools that were being  built for black children? Should David Coltart apologise for being in Smith’s police force?

It might seem as if I am asking silly questions, but these same questions and more will always be a stumbling block to a united Zimbabwe. If such a thing will ever exist. We should ask the difficult questions and get answers; satisfactory answers.

Are the Shona and the Ndebele enemies? Is an Ndebele guy who supports Dynamos a sellout? Is an Ndebele guy who marries a Shona woman a sellout? Should we look the other way and spit on the ground if someone addresses us in Shona in Matabeleland? Is there a Shona project to colonise Matabeleland and destroy the very core of Ndebele customs, languages and identity?

Who is my enemy? Is it the Shona policeman deployed in Tsholotsho or was he just deployed there? Is he part of the Shona supremacy movement, an agent, thoroughly briefed on how to go about creating the Republic of Mashonaland? Is the British journalist or human rights campaigner genuine or just here to make sure the British maintain their economic stronghold on Zimbabwe?

Is it as simple as Mugabe being a dictator and the whole charade being about unseating him? But he has killed less people now than he killed in Matabeleland in the eighties? Or is Ndebele blood a lighter shade of red than Shona blood?

I have done enough asking for today and I demand answers?

Who is my enemy?

There is a wide outcry that the charges of many service providers including the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) are unjustifiably high. Responding to public complaints and the issuance of yellow cards by WOZA in Bulawayo over the unfair charges, Mr. Ernest Machiya, of the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), a subsidiary of ZESA, said the authority’s tariffs were justified as they were the lowest in the SADC region.

This is not a new statement, and it’s the only answer that the ZESA ever has. I am sure that the majority of people in Zimbabwe are civil servants taking home between 100 to 200 dollars a month. That person has school going children, who need fees, transport money and food. Power is not the only service to pay for. There is also water, rentals and other rates that are also charged at their own levels of madness. People’s earnings are far below regional levels. Food is very expensive given that we are living largely on imported products. Is there any justification to charge a regional tariff to people who are struggling well below the poverty datum line? Is there any justification to compare normal economies to an abnormal one such as ours. The little that we can afford to pay them has been turned into hefty salaries for themselves without improving the service delivery side. What should come first between awarding above average salaries and improving service delivery?

Despite poor a poor service characterised by severe power cuts, ZESA has no shame in billing its domestic customers amounts close to and above 1000 dollars a month. In some instances it is billing twice a month, a trend that has never been heard of in the history of this country.

During the past era, tuck-shop owners always raised their prices in response to an anticipated increase in supply of money maybe because salaries have been increased. That was simple supply and demand economics. Can ZESA tell us what it is responding to when charging USD2000 to someone with USD150 in his pocket, worse still without any proper supply of services?

Mr Machiya, can you suggest how you expect a headmaster at Mufakose High to pay you say 500 dollars a month only for your power and nothing more, let alone a widow in Budiriro? We encourage leaders of institutions like ZESA to desist from displaying such absurdity. We end up questioning your credentials as professionals and as leaders of socially responsible institutions. Our advice to you service providers is simple, “The issue is not about the regional level, it is about who your clients are and what they can afford.” For South Africans, power charges are a reasonable fraction of the an average person’s salary, the same can be said of Botswana, Mozambique and whichever regional country one can name. The same cannot be said of our dear Zimbabwe. Can you all join us in the campaign for decent salaries for everyone before charging high tariffs. It should be known to ZESA and other companies that the amounts which people are not paying does not constitute an asset in you balance sheet; it is by default bad debt as no one will ever afford to pay up even in a decade’s time.

Showing status has evolved as time has taken its course in our nation. I think it has always been a human need for the creme de la creme to showcase who is who in our society. Even the not so creamy have wanted a ranking in society. For example in the early 1980s if you wanted to see who the city boy was, you could most probably recognize him carrying a big stereo on his shoulders with the volume full blast. You could hear miles away that a boy from the city has come. Unfortunately all those that did not have a radio or the ones who did not want to hear his city music had to suffer the loud volume in silence. All he cared about was upholding status and he did not mind whether all of the other villagers wanted to listen to his loud stereo.

That era has come back now with the phones taking the place of the stereo. But now it’s not about status because just about all of us have phones. There is nothing amazing about a phone, even my 10-year-old niece has one. My question is why should I listen to a Jay Z track talking about getting naked in a public space from another phone. Even if you are playing a gospel song from one of our local gospel artists, it doesn’t give you rope to play it aloud.

Don’t you think it’s a little 1980s for a person to put his /her phone on full volume inside a kombi which happens to be a public space?

Please people do not drag us back to that era. A public space is my space so don’t you violate it by playing whoever you listen to these days; instead, use your headphones! Why should I suffer your style of music in a public space? If we are going to usher this country in a new era where we don’t do things for self satisfaction, where we consider how our actions are going to affect the person sitting next to you, we need to show some Respect. This nation is ready for change and for moving foward. It’s a shame . . .  we have not only stood aside and watched abuse from our leaders, but we have in fact become like them. We have the ‘whatever I want, I get,’ mentality regardless of the next person.

The worst situation that I came across is a little girl who decided to impose her love for Shakira music on me while on the other hand the kombi driver was on some local station. I had to do something. I was not going to let silence be a part of me. I took matters into my own hands and I think that’s what we need in our country. I was not going to be the typical 1980s villagers who did not have the guts to tell Mr. City Boy that, “hey man, we understand you are from town and you are the elite one, but we don’t want to listen to your radio and your songs.”  I said to her please take your volume down or use earphones that’s why your radiophone comes with them.

What am I saying people? I am saying let us consider how what we are doing is affecting the next person. Maybe its still about status. Maybe people still want to showcase that they have a better phone that plays a certain number of songs at a certain volume. Maybe we are still as rank and status obsessed as ever. But if you are sitting next to me and you play your phone aloud I will ask you not to. I will ask you to use you your earphones.

That’s their correct purpose anyway.

I’ve just read the City of Harare’s Special Investigations Committee’s report on City of Harare’s land sales, leases and exchanges. It’s a shocking tale of corruption and abuse of power “by officials, unscrupulous business people and cunning politicians,” carried out over a period of years at the highest levels of municipal and national government.

The report implicates high profile personalities such as businessman Philip Chiyangwa, former Harare Mayor Sekesai Makwavarara and Minister of Local Government Ignatius Chombo in illegal and unauthorised deals in which they misappropriated City resources for personal gain.

As a subscriber who has read it said:

I don’t know whether the Combined Harare Residents’ Association (CHRA) or Harare Residents’ Trust (HRT) are alive, because if they were, the Harare Land Scandal would have triggered a MASSIVE piece-full [yes, I didn't get the spelling of peace wrong] uprising against the system by now. Our activism is DEAD. Check out the attached report and if you don’t cry, you’re not of this planet.

Read the report now, and send your comments to CHRA and the HRT, and cc info@kubatana.net