A friend and I were walking at Borrowdale Race Course recently
(it was for a good cause!) and had a small laugh at this sign.

Bev and I were interviewed last month as part of the Global Voices research project and podcast series Technology for Transparency research project. Victor Kanoga asked us some interesting questions about what we do, why we do it, and what difference it makes. It’s a bit rough and ready – we know from our experience with Inzwa how difficult it can be to accurately transcribe recorded interviews, particularly when they’re conducted over the phone. But it’s still a useful overview of our work and some of the challenges we’re facing. You can read more – and listen – here.

Lately the debate about women’s rights has been taken to greater heights than ever before. It is historically evident that women have been oppressed mainly on the basis of their physical weakness, which was mistakenly assumed to overlap also to mental capacity. As a result they have been treated as mere observers in a male dominated world. Or as mere commodities; for example, a young girl could be exchanged for food or cattle. People with wealth ended up having many wives, some as young as their grand daughters.

Giving birth to a boy child has been regarded as enlarging the family, whereas giving birth to a girl child is seen as enriching the family through cattle, food or any form of wealth that would come out of lobola. Even the terminology speaks for itself, “Mukomana anoroora, musikana” meaning that the act is not reciprocal. Rather the boy child is the object whereas the girl is the subject. Just like the relationship between a boy and the ball in the sentence, “The boy kicks the ball.”

Today’s world drives us to a new dispensation – that of equality. A free world for all. How can this be valid where marriage demands payment from one side of the pair? In my view payment of lobola removes that balance which we strive to achieve in a relationship.  Despite the amount of noise made about human rights, women are literally reduced to mere commodities and given a monetary value. One pays that much for an educated woman, the other pays that much more for a moneyed women and so on. Yes it is our culture, but is it not the same culture, that we should blame for its ills of disregarding women? If it is merely a cultural token, why does it differ depending on the social status of who is getting married? In as much as we are moving out of the era of unbalanced oppression towards women, our approach lacks practicality as we still hang on to cultural practices that can promulgate inequality right from the first day that people are married.

And from the women’s side, many are convinced that payment has to be made to their family before they are married. I once asked a lady if she would agree to exchange vows without any payment made. In response she asked me why I wanted to be ‘given” a wife for free. To me she reduced herself to a mere commodity rather than an equal partner.

My argument here is simple. Lobola payments minimise the gender equality we want to achieve when people enter their marriage without a balance. When the wife is ill treated, she is slow to take any action because someone paid for her. Even her parents will look at the matter considering that they received something from the Mukwasha. With lobola in place, and pressure to be equal, I foresee a time when men will not be committed to a relationship. Rather they go the “hit and run” way where they impregnate and go free again with no responsibility and no risk.

Citizen activist Michael Laban has done a great job of sharing some feedback with us on various local community meetings he’s attended lately.

Her are some interesting snippets:

Ward 7: we again had no word, no apology, no excuse, from our Councillor, Masiya Kapare. Just . . . blank. Strikes me he serves the MDC – his party, and not the residents – the people who elected him.

Ward 8: I attended a Ward 8 meeting at Highlands Church, and that was well attended (over 100 people). The Councilor was there and ran the meeting with some skill, and there were many Heads of Departments there, who answered questions! I was impressed.

Waste:  The city needs 45 vehicles to do the job, it only has 8. 20 new vehicles are ‘under negotiation’. However, has the City (and everyone around it) learnt the lessons? The vehicles need to be maintained, which cost money you cannot put into your pocket, and you have to hire and pay qualified people to maintain them, not your friends (all of whom need to be fired to pay those qualified).

Parliamentary Portfolio Meeting: The city is in chaos. Most significant fact – the budget/finances have not been audited in ten years! People have been billed for water for 3 years, but not received any water in that time. Then, the first thing the city does is buy nice, fancy cars. Is it a wonder people just don’t pay – if they do not know where the money is going, why should they? There are tolls on the roads, but the potholes are still there.

Corruption: Just too much. From the airport road to allocation of stands.

Students in tertiary institutions have faced a lot of challenges in their academic lives due to the governance crisis in Zimbabwe. Hence the Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe has given them a platform to say out their anger and bitterness through the ‘I’ Stories Booklet, aimed at helping the students to heal, accept and forgive.

I spoke to the National Coordinator of the Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe, Mr Innocent Kasiyano, and asked him why they put together the ‘I’ Stories Booklet. I also ask him what challenges were highlighted in the booklet that students are currently facing in tertiary institutions and what the vision of the Students Christian Movement of Zimbabwe is. Listen here

ZimRights recently engaged in various consultative meetings around Zimbabwe to get grassroot views on the constitution.

According to the feedback they received, Zimbabweans “have expressed concern over the president’s term of office” while registering other demands, such as:

- No one over the age of 60 should be President

- Each President should serve a maximum of two five year terms

- A President’s age should not be less than 40

- Every person who gets into office must first declare all their assets

Sounds reasonable except in Africa where scared old men cling to power.