My friend was recently stopped at a police roadblock in Harare. The police officer requested to see her license, which she showed him. She said he went on to check the motor vehicle license disk whilst still examining the driver’s license. And when he got back to the driver’s window he requested to see the fire extinguisher and other safety accessories. She opened the boot where her fire extinguisher, two reflective triangles, reflective vest, spare wheel, jack and the wheel spanner were. To her surprise the police officer told her to hang the reflective vest on the driver’s seat.  And yes she was so shocked. It’s true that most motorists in the city have their reflective vests hung on the driver’s seat but is it mandatory for one to do so? When she shared the story I was equally shocked but for a while I thought she was joking until she convinced me that it happened. I thought that this was Zimbabwe police’s ‘latest’ line in trying to find fault with motorists.

This morning I overheard a proud parent showing another her young son’s penmanship homework. She was thrilled with how tidy his writing was – and how he stayed inside the lines.

I want to be the parent who’s thrilled when her daughter writes outside the lines. Surely that’s where progress is made in this world – by people who don’t stay inside the confines we prescribe for them?

Okay. So maybe it’s the same world over. But I found the headlines from this weekend’s papers particularly depressing:

• Go to hell, Tsvangirai tells Generals (The Standard)
• Mugabe wants deadlock on constitution (The Standard)
• Armed forces averted coup, says Shiri (The Herald – Talking not about any specific or recent coup, but about a coup that might have been in the era of the rapidly collapsing Zim Dollar)
• COPAC Management Committee exposed (The Sunday Mail)

Is this really as pathetic as our politics is? Or is it just as good as our local press can do?

After enduring the pain of the Zimbabwe 2008 election violence residents of my constituency are yet to see the “change” we were promised by our Honorable Member of Parliament (MP). With an overwhelming victory in 2008 people thought real change had come. Like any other urban areas in Zimbabwe where poor service delivery is now the order of the day, Chitungwiza South constituency’s woes have been worsened by the recent Typhoid outbreak. Still reeling under the effects of the 2008 Cholera outbreak residents in my constituency thought our Honorable MP was going to do a noble thing by using funds he received from government under Constituency Development Fund (CDF) to sink more boreholes. Living in a town where rusty and slimy drops of water trickling from the tap are received with loud cheers and ululation doesn’t require a rocket scientist to figure out that a crisis is looming.

Water rationing is increasing by each day.

Children now spend most of their time helping parents to queue for water at the few boreholes donated by UNICEF. I wonder if our Honorable Member of Parliament is still living in Chitungwiza for him to understand these problems? I guess he also can’t feel the effects of bumps on most of the pot and ditch-hole riddled roads in this constituency because he was allocated a four-wheel drive truck by the government.  As a school headmaster and a former mayor for the town these problems should not be new to him.  Where and when he consulted residents on how to use CDF funds boggles the mind because the only time our Hon MP was seen addressing a public meeting was during a tour of the town by high-ranking officials from his party.

With nothing to write home about as a success story, it’s a pity that legislators like these would seek another term in office. Prepare to choose another career, or go on pension because the time for cheap politicking is over and your time is up Hon MP.

Work in and for Zimbabwe. Help grow our nation. Check out the vacancies below. If you’d like to receive this sort of information, as well as civic and human rights updates, by email each week drop us a note saying “subscribe” to info [at] kubatana [dot] net

Please note that the job vacancies we carry are related to the NGO and civil society sectors only.

Assistant National Food Security Officer: Zimbabwe Red Cross Society
Deadline: 9 August 2012

Reports to the National Food Security and Livelihoods Officer

Duties and Responsibilities

-Contribute to the development of Food Security programmes supporting vulnerable population, with particular focus on agriculture-based interventions, sustainable farming systems and market linkages

-Administer monitoring of different stages and provide technical assistance to field level staff where needed

-Participate in compliance and monitoring visits to projects

-Maintaining close liaison with area project implementation staff on project planning, implementation and monitoring

-Identify needs and opportunities for strengthening

-Programme progress report writing and compilation

-Assessing training needs of beneficiaries and households

-Organize and training of  beneficiaries on sustainable livelihoods strategies

-Co-ordinates with other agencies on food security issues at national level

-Co-ordinates and liaise with programme and provincial managers on other programming issues e.g. initiatives on the integration of programmes within the Zimbabwe Red Cross

-Represent the ZRCS at various stakeholder meetings at national level

Qualifications and experience

-Degree/Diploma in agriculture or equivalent

-At least two years experience in a similar or related position

-Good communication skills and ability to relate to people from different backgrounds is a distinct advantage

-Good reporting skills

-Class 4 drivers licence

Only short-listed candidates will be acknowledged.  Interested candidates to submit their written application, including a detailed curriculum vitae and certified copies of academic and merit certificates.

Applications in envelopes marked the position applied for and addressed to:

The Secretary General
Zimbabwe Red Cross Society
P.O. Box 1406
10 St. Annes Road
Avondale
HARARE