From the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association:

Residents dismayed by conduct of Mpilo authorities
Bulawayo residents have bemoaned the negligence of personnel at Mpilo Referral Hospital after reports that women who deliver at the institution are detained until they pay a minimum of $60 without access to bedding and food. To ensure that the women pay their balances, the hospital’s authorities confiscate their identity documents and withhold the new born babies’ birth records. It is alleged that those that fail to pay their medical fees immediately after giving birth are moved to another ward where they sleep on the floor and are not served the hospital food during meal time. This goes on amid the general decline of standards of government hospitals. Despite denial by the hospital authorities that this is taking place, BPRA has it on good authority that the hospital has resorted to these extreme measures as a way of ensuring that all patients pay fully for services rendered to them. Bulawayo residents have said they view this as a gross violation of women’s rights. They said women that deliver at government hospitals should be treated well even if they have not paid their dues. Residents opined that the Ministry of Health should intervene to ensure that hospitals respect the rights of women.

I had a conversation with Melania Chiponda from Chiadzwa Community Development Trust yesterday.

This is what I learnt:

Families at Chiadwza are being forcibly relocated by diamond companies while the government and the judicial system look the other way. Here I thought the point of the Third Chimurenga was to restore land dignity to the peoples of this country. Mining companies have not bothered to hold consultations with the community about relocation; in fact the community found out they were being moved off their land in the newspapers. They have been given a relocation allowance of $1000. They have yet to receive compensation.

The first twelve families to be relocated by mining companies at Chiadzwa were moved into tobacco barns, until there were protests, upon which mining companies began building houses. 89 of the houses built by Anjin for the families they will be relocating were destroyed by the first storm of the rainy season last November. More were damaged.

Companies with majority government shareholding like Marange Resources are easier to negotiate with and more generous towards the community than those which are privately owned like Mbada or Anjin. It’s crazy that Mbada can spend a million dollars on a football tournament to better its public image, yet is miserly with the food packs they give the community and is among the major perpetrators of violence and human rights abuses against the community. The biggest perpetrator of human rights abuses is the police. When CCDT tried to discuss the matter with Police Commissioner Chihuri he was conveniently busy.

Chiadzwa is a dry area, and the little water the community has access to is being polluted by mining companies. Last year four men were detained and beaten by the police for digging for water in their own back yard. One of them died at the hands of a police officer. The other three sustained severe injuries. The police officer responsible for the beatings and murder has never been arrested.

The community doesn’t actually object to the mining or selling of diamonds, they just want it done in a way that their rights as human beings are also respected.

I’m angry. You should be too.

US education reformer Horace Mann: “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” Jane McAdam Freud smiles. “It doesn’t have to be some big victory,” she says. “Just a little thing.”

Source: http://papodehomem.com.br/estupro/

How do you bring people together in the immediate aftermath of a revolution? Meet the Bedouins, the arty skate gang which commandeered an abandoned mansion in Tunisia to promote peace in the wake of the upheaval. More from the Guardian

I was biking up the road the other day and had to slow and detour. The City of Harare was painting white centre lines and lane markings, and traffic was discombobulated. While negotiating around this mess, I had time to think. Why is this new regime in the City painting road markings?

Well, the immediate answer is obvious, to guide traffic! But, the real question – why did the previous regimes not paint, and allow what was painted to deteriorate to invisiblity – and why can this new one now do it? The obvious answer (it is the answer to everything) …  Sanctions!

That knee jerk answer is a) a lie, b) a cover for total incompetence. On the second point I know, as we have succeeded in turning MacDonald Park Pool (Cambridge Road, Avondale) from a green pond where a Hammerkop fed on frogs, into the bestest public pool in Harare, that makes more on gate takings on a Saturday than it does to shut it and hold a wedding on the grounds! And how did we do it? No sanctions busting involved. The chlorine gas comes from the atmosphere (the air we breath) which does not respect borders. The labour came from the community, where we also borrowed a pump. The paint came from Astra (a local company). Etc. No sanctions busting involved!

On the second point, we know there have NEVER been sanctions against Zimbabwe. It is a lie, so often repeated that even the ruling party (that is, the new ruling one – with the majority of seats in Parliament, not the old ruling/losing party – that brought us democracy) talks about ‘removing sanctions’. It is easy to see which ‘ruling’ party has the better verbal gymnasts and brains.

So, back to the original topic – road paint and sanctions. Why is the new regime able to overcome sanctions and paint road markings, while the previous regime was only able to… well, did they do anything?

The new regime at least tries to give the people some of what they want – while the real agenda is to take power, now that they have legitimacy. The old regime has only one agenda, hold on to power, now that they have lost legitimacy.