Late yesterday afternoon I got a Big Shock. While I was at home there was a hoot at the gate and lo and behold, a Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) meter reader had arrived to do an Actual reading rather than the usual Estimate.

I took the opportunity to ask him two (2) questions:

1) If I only get power between 8 or 9 at night until about 5am most days then surely my electricity bill shouldn’t go up, or stay the same, it should go down? He nodded his head in profuse agreement but said that ZESA seldom does actual readings so they continue to estimate useage and don’t take into account the fact, the sad, sad, fact that they supply very little power to home owners. In other words, every month, if ZESA doesn’t actually read your meter and do some accurate calculations, they’re robbing you and me, all of us, blind.

2) Why doesn’t ZESA publish a load shedding schedule so that we know when to plan to eat and all that stuff? Well the ZESA meter reader said that ZESA can’t vaguely guarantee any kind of regular supply and that the power deficit is so huge that they have to flip the switch Off at any given moment.

I said thanks a lot – its not his fault – and said see ya later. I watched him drive away, clutching his meter readings, in a brand spanking shiny new mini bus.

What sense does this make? This 15 seater mini-van hopping from house to house when ZESA should have a fleet of motor-cycles moving around our city, doing Actual meter readings.

Today I met a man fixing leather shoes on the side of the road and stopped for a chat and a quick photo session. All this man had was his work bench on the side of the road, his tools and his bicycle but he still had a smile on his face and a friendly manner. It is people like this that make me feel Zimbabwe can, and will make it. He’s not hanging around begging for money; instead he is getting out there and using the skills he has to make a living.

Being back in Zimbabwe has made me realise what a desperate situation people in Zimbabwe are in. Every day is a struggle for survival for the average Zimbabwean. Degrading poverty has driven people to the point of vending anything and everything in an attempt to make a living.

While out taking pictures this morning vendors offered me the opportunity of taking pictures of them in exchange for money. Some men fixing a broken drain in the street asked me if I was going to pay them for the pictures I was taking.

Yesterday my mother paid a visit a to the Avondale flea market and while she was browsing through the DVDs the man selling them begged her to buy a DVD that she already owns. When she explained to the man that she already had the DVD so there was no use in buying it he implored, “madam I am so hungry, I don’t have any money to buy lunch, please buy this DVD for $5 so that I can have lunch.”

While the constant harassment and hounding by vendors aggravates me immensely, it is a reflection of the current state of the country and evidence that there is still a long way to go in the stabilising of the economy.

Everywhere you look Zimbabwean streets are littered with rubbish. The vlei in Newlands looks as if it is actually a dump. In the shopping centre you see bins with more rubbish around them than in them. To be quite frank, the streets are filthy.

Something needs to be done. In Zimbabwe we have an extremely high level of unemployment. Is it too much to ask the municipality to employ people to clean the streets?

Seeing as the various authorities responsible for removing the waste are incapable of doing so, the ball is now in our court.

“Rotary is organizing a Clean Up Harare Campaign, set for July 3 2010.  They are in need of “big black dust bin bags”. A roll of 20 costs between US$3 and US$5 in the shops.  If there is anyone who is keen to donate a roll” your co-operation will be appreciated”.

This was a call to action that we included in our last Kubatana newsletter.

There are many different methods we can use to draw attention to this issue. One of which is a peaceful march or protest. We could take to the streets with banners and signs expressing our grievances. Another form of protest against these unacceptable conditions could be the use of a bulldozer or some sort of “earth moving equipment” (that the municipality seems incapable of using) to remove the rubbish and dump it right outside the municipality. I am aware that this is not a solution to the problem however I do feel it will certainly get the municipality to take our grievances seriously.

Another form of protest that may be effective is if we all went on strike and instead of going to work we could clean up all the rubbish ourselves. Once all the rubbish is collected we could then march with our large plastic bags full of rubbish and dump it all outside the municipality.

The responsibility is on YOU, on ME, on US, to write letters to the municipality and various other authorities complaining about the lack of service in regard to the removal of rubbish. Many people walk past this filth everyday and do nothing. Sometimes they even add to the litter!

Do you want your country to look like a wasteland? The onus is on us; the people, to make sure that those in positions of authority fulfil their responsibility to the community. Do not sit there and complain – instead, do something about it, because it is very clear that if we sit around waiting for the municipality to do something it will not get done.

One of the problems with Zimbabwe is that we are far too tolerant, we do not complain, we do not go on strike, we accept these inadequate services. The time has come for us to stop tolerating this “RUBBISH” (excuse the pun) and do something!

Two weeks ago I was Cote d’Ivoire or bust. But then they had that shocking exhibition of poor sportsmanship on Sunday, and I was heartbroken. So my orange jersey has been hanging limply in limbo. Can my love for my team trump my principles of justice? Not bloody likely. I might even find myself rooting for North Korea on Friday. . . Hmmm. No. That’s not very likely either.

But as I get ready to cheer for Ghana tonight, this LA Times article from Robyn Dixon spoke to me: Africans cheer for their teams, their continent, despite a lack of faith

Despite disappointment over the performance of Africa’s World Cup teams, the competition here appears to be bringing out a keen sense of Pan-African pride, a border-transcending spirit and attitude that one would almost surely not encounter on most other continents.

When any of the six African squads has scored a goal, shouts of joy have erupted across the continent, in exuberant food and beer joints like Mama’s Place in Lagos, Nigeria, in shops converted into mini-screening rooms in the narrow streets of Freetown, Sierra Leone, in the pubs of Nairobi, Kenya, and in open air, vuvuzela-infested parks in the townships of Johannesburg.

The idea of South Koreans rooting for Japan or the French cheering on England may be far-fetched. But in Africa, even those who don’t normally follow the game are praying that at least one African team will make it to the quarterfinal in the first World Cup on African soil. Or even to the round of 16.

Read more

In April 2010 the  President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, announced to the public that he is HIV negative.

“By publicising the results of his test, Mr Zuma said he hoped to promote openness, and to eradicate the silence and stigma that accompanies this epidemic.”

During  his 2006 rape trial he admitted to having unprotected sex with an HIV positive woman. He then explained  he had a shower afterwards “thinking this would reduce the risk of being infected”. While I admire Zuma’s openness and willingness to get tested in order to promote his “campaign” to “get 15 million people tested during the next year, and provide drugs to 80% of those needing them”, I still feel that the message he is sending out, perhaps unintentionally, is: lead a promiscuous life, have unprotected sex and at the end of the day your HIV test will be negative. While Zuma’s public campaign against the prevention of  HIV may be admirable, I feel his personal conduct totally contradicts and undermines his campaign. What message is he trying to send  to the public?