The above two notices in Friday’s Herald caught my eye. The first makes a lot of sense to me. Harare has a huge water problem – as evidenced by the lack of water in our three-storey office block this week, as just one example. As the notice points out, “the city’s water supply infrastructure cannot satisfy the current demand. This is further worsened by infrastructure breakdowns and power outages.”

Surely, then, the city would recognise the need to fundraise and invest in infrastructure and power maintenance, repairs and development?

Meanwhile, a second notice warns suppliers against providing fire equipment without a SAZS Seal of Approval (Standards Association of Zimbabwe). This, the notice explains, is “aimed at protecting the public from substandard fire equipment that has found its way into the country.”

But why has this substandard fire equipment suddenly found its way across our borders? Because of a mad rush by motorists to get fire extinguishers, among other items, in time for the 1 December deadline of the new Road Traffic Regulations.

We’ve been looking for a month and have yet to find an SAZ approved fire extinguisher at any local hardware. How is the City of Harare going to warn suppliers of this issue? How will it enforce it, and if they do collect fines, how will that revenue be allocated?

I’m reminded of Thandi’s waste not, want not blog. What about fining people for using hose pipes, using that money to invest in water supply requirements, and dropping the whole fire extinguishers in vehicles issue altogether?

SW Radio Africa this week launched Question Time – “where listeners get a chance to ask politicians direct questions,” hosted by Lance Guma.

The first guest this week was co-Home Affairs Minister Theresa Makone of the MDC.

One listener asked why the pivotal Home Affairs ministry had been shared between the MDC and Zanu PF, and how the sharing of this with Zanu PF’s Kembo Mohadi was going.

Makone replied: “On a personal level, and on a professional level, I can work very well with Comrade Mohadi. We’ve got absolutely no problem with each other and with the way we see things and the way they should go.” Listen here

Oh really?

Kembo Mohadi has been Minister, or co-Minister of Home Affairs for such incidents as the:

• Violent induction for police recruits
• Arbitrary and prolonged detention of diamonds campaigner Farai Maguwu
• The ban of Owen Maseko’s artwork on Gukurahundi
• Numerous arrests of human rights campaingers such as Women of Zimbabwe Arise, and their continued harassment
• Judicial harassment against GALZ staffers Ellen Chademana and Ignatius Muhambi
• Enforced disappearance of Jestina Mukoko and dozens of other human rights defenders

Some of these incidents, including the arrest of GALZ members, the banning of Maseko’s artwork and the detention of Farai Maguwu on specious charges for over one month have occurred since the signing of the Global Political Agreement, and the sharing of the Home Affairs Ministry. Does Minister Makone – and by implication the Movement for Democratic Change – really have no personal, or professional problem with of these actions?

Other questions asked the Minister by our SMS subscribers included:

• There was violence during COPAC . What is the stance during election period ?
• What’s being done on police officers demanding money on road blocks?
• Are we going to see free elections next year?
• I still note that long ques stil exist at passport office.what measures have u taken so far to improve situation considering that we are going into festival season and lots of pple need 2 travel?
• As the Minister of  Home Affairs what measures have u put in place to help the city dwellers from the tranpsort operator s exorbitant fares?

Listen to the full programme here

Participate in Question Time

Using new media tools Facebook, Twitter, Skype, e-mail and SMS, listeners are told in advance who the guest is and using the same media tools they can then send in questions for the presenter to ask on their behalf. On Facebook, Twitter or Skype you can reach Lance by typing lanceguma. On e-mail lance [at] swradioafrica [dot] com and in Zimbabwe text +263 772 643 871.

Half way through a too hot, too long run yesterday my friend asked me if I wanted a “penny cool,” one of those colourful, frozen sugar water drinks thus named from the 80’s when they really did cost just one cent. Gratefully, I assented. So much for one cent each though. In 2010? They’re 5 (South African) rand each, or two for a (US) dollar.

According to Agence France Presse:

Using mobile-phone text messages to remind HIV patients to take their dose of life-saving medications can give a major boost to drug adherence, according to an innovative trial in Kenya unveiled on Tuesday. In the “WelTel Kenya1″ study, three clinics recruited 538 patients with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). They either received the weekly SMS message on their mobile phone in addition to a standard course of antiretroviral drugs or were given standard care alone.

The text recipients typically received the discreet message “Mambo?”, which is Kiswahili for “How are you?” They were instructed to reply “Sawa” (“fine”) or “Shida” (“problem”) within 48 hours. Those who said they had a problem or who failed to respond to the prompt within two days were then called by a nurse to find out what was wrong. In the SMS group, the number of patients who achieved 100-percent adherence to their drug regimen was 12 percent higher than in the non-text group. In addition, the numbers who were able to achieve suppression of HIV to below detectable levels in their blood — a key benchmark of success — was nine percent higher in the SMS group than in the standard-care group.

Read more from AFP or check out the full study in The Lancet

This update from Veritas (below) impressed me – the MDC is demonstrating in action what it means when it says it “won’t recognise” appointments like the Provincial Governors.

The part about the Senators “singing, dancing and whistling” brought to mind this image from Anton Kannemeyer’s Alphabet of Democracy series.

For the second day running MDC-T Senators brought the Senate to a standstill in protest against the presence of “intruders”.  Immediately after the opening prayer MDC-T Senator Tichaona Mudzingwa rose to object to the presence of Thokozile Mathuthu, David Karimanzira, Jason Machaya and Faber Chidarikire in the House.  [These are persons who the MDC-T say are no longer ex officio members of the Senate, as they were illegally and unconstitutionally appointed as provincial governors by President Mugabe.]  The President of the Senate refused to accept the objection, whereupon the MDC-T Senators starting singing, dancing and whistling and made such a noise that the President of the Senate rose to adjourn the Senate until February.  No business was conducted.  MDC-M Senators present did not join in the demonstration.

Today’s events were a repeat of yesterday’s adjournment without business being conducted, after MDC-T made a similar protest against the presence of Thokozile Mathuthu. The MDC-T position is that MDC-T Senators will continue to prevent the Senate conducting any business until the issue of provincial governors’ appointments has been resolved.

If the issue over the provincial governors is resolved before the 8th February, it will be possible for the Senate to be recalled early.  Senate Standing Order 187 empowers the President of the Senate, at the request of President Mugabe, to recall the Senate for an earlier meeting if the “public interest” so requires. The Senate could be recalled at any time, even if the provincial governor problem is not resolved, but this is unlikely to happen as it would, no doubt, lead to further incidents.

This other day a middle aged woman was having her hair done in the small salon I run. She was discussing her life story with the hair dresser and I happened to overhear them.

This woman had just been released from prison for armed robbery (she insists she was innocent – on that particular occasion). After putting her and her colleagues in leg irons and handcuffs they shot her twice in the abdomen. They covered her head with a sack, dunked her into a drum of water and electrocuted her. After that she was ready to admit to any crime that she was accused of.

“You can sue them you know”, I suggested.

A local guy who was close by laughed derisively.

“Sue? Sue who? Chihuri signed, the police can shoot to kill!’ He confidently said.

I was shocked. I could not believe the level of ignorance amongst ordinary Zimbabweans. I carefully explained how the justice system works and Chihuri had no authority whatsoever when it came to legislation on how the police handle suspects. A law that allows police officers to shoot a suspect who is not shooting at them can never be passed anywhere in the world, I explained.

The guy was adamant.

“Policemen shoot people at will; they will beat you up, anything…”

“Just because they do it, does not make it right,” I interjected.

What I realized that day is that people do not have information as to their basic human rights and that is one area that civic society should focus on; educating the masses on their basic human rights.

The police should not touch you and in the event that they do, you can sue them!