I’ve been trying to make a bit of sense of the candidate lists for this upcoming “harmonised” Presidential, House of Assembly, Senate and local government election on March 29th. With 210 House of Assembly constituencies and 60 Senate seats up for grabs, there’s a lot of names to get one’s head around.

The official list of nominees has been published in a government gazette, but it doesn’t necessarily make much sense. In some constituencies, there are multiple candidates nominated for the same party. In other constituencies, it’s not clear which is the MDC (Tsvangirai) candidate, and which is the MDC (Mutambara) candidate. In a few places, both MDC’s have fielded candidates whom I would have considered to be quite senior, or popular, in the same place – surely this might lead to vote splitting? In other places, Zanu PF is dealing with its own issues of internal discipline. A handful of Zanu PF candidates in Masvingo, for example, have been instructed to withdraw, because the party has decided that someone else should be the candidate there. The Herald has yet to publish the complete list of nominees because, it claims, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission hasn’t released it yet. This, some suspect, is because Zanu PF is still busy trying to get some people to back down so that others can stand as the single Zanu PF candidate in a given constituency. When I phoned the ZEC to ask for the list, they said I could ask them to tell me who the candidates are in my constituency – but they wouldn’t give me the list for the whole country. What is this? A democratic election? Or a state secret?

Fortunately, there are a few moments of light relief. Like the fact that one of the candidates in Gokwe-Chireya is named Chemist. Whilst a candidate in Gokwe-Sengwa is named Cowboy. It takes all kinds.

And, curiously enough, barring the instances where there is more than one candidate listed for a given party, one constituency stands head and shoulders above the rest in terms of the most hotly contested. I asked my colleague yesterday – what constituency do you think has the most candidates? Where is it that most people want to be the MP for? Harare Central, she guessed. The seat of business and government, culture and sport. Nope. Gwanda Central. Six people are vying for the privilege of representing Gwanda in the House of Assembly. “What’s in Gwanda?” my colleague asked when I told her this. Indeed.

Last year, a friend of mine sent us a link to this fabulously uplifting Nickelback video on Youtube. Of course, Zimbabwe being the failed state that it is, when I try and watch the video now, it tells me that I can’t view this video from my country. Save me! But luckily, someone else has spotted it here.

Anyway, in the meantime, we’ve gotten ourselves the DVD, and have been sharing it with our subscribers and in mobile video screenings. The song is called If Everyone Cared, and the theme of the four minute music video is the amazing, impressive and even world changing impact passionate, committed individuals can make when they take action on the issues that inspire them.

Last week, my workmate and I took our laptop and DVD to meet a friend for coffee. We set up the computer on a table at the café under a tree, and turned the volume up as high as it would go. Our friend loved it. When the video was over, he had the biggest smile on his face, and said he wanted to get up and join the nearest demonstration.

On the weekend, we took the laptop round to another friend’s house for a home screening. Eight people crowded together around a sofa in the lounge, and watched. Much of the discussion afterwards revolved around the upcoming elections, of course. But more than that, people discussed the sense of frustration they often feel when looking at how far things in Zimbabwe have declined. They spoke about this sense of “What can I do?” that they often experience and encounter in conversations with others.

To answer this question, one person said “get informed.” A woman described the newspaper reading club she’s started in her neighbourhood. A group of people pool together to buy two or three newspapers each week – a mixture of the state and independent press. They then all meet at one person’s house, and read the different papers and discuss the articles in them, trying to get underneath each paper’s bias to decide for themselves what they think of the news.

Other answers to this question “What can I do?” included:

• Help a friend
• Help a stranger
• Write a letter to the newspaper
• Pick up litter
• Smile at a child

Simple, little ways in which we can all start to “be the change we want to see in the world,” as Gandhi put it.

All this reminded me of an opinion piece we recently posted on Kubatana – Albert Gumbo’s thoughts on a new African citizen. Gumbo calls for a citizens’ movement across Africa. This movement isn’t so much about politicians or ideologies as it is about standing up for oneself and demanding the basic minimum of service and respect from a government. He suggests basic demands such as:

• I pay my rates, and I therefore demand that the municipality empties the dust bin outside my house.
• I pay school fees, and I therefore demand that the schoolteacher turns up, teaches my child and marks her work.
• I pay taxes, and I therefore demand that the government builds roads, schools, hospitals and delivers clean drinking water to me.

One of the lines in the Nickelback song is “If everyone shared and swallowed their pride / Then we’d see the day when nobody died.” Somehow, with the momentum of looking out for one another, standing up for ourselves, and demanding a basic level of human dignity from and for everyone, there is the potential to create an entirely different people’s movement for change. This movement isn’t about politics, politicians, or parties. It’s about living with integrity, treating everyone with respect, and harnessing the power of outrage at injustice that can motivate us into action. Like Viktor Frankl said, the world is in a bad state. But it will keep getting worse unless we all do our best.

If you’re in Zimbabwe and you’d like to invite the Kubatana team around for a home viewing of the Nickelback video If Everyone Cared, or you’d like your own copy, please write to us on info [at] kubatana [dot] org [dot] zw

The power of love will overcome the love of power, claims Zimbabwean activist group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA). In what has become an annual event, an estimated 800 members of WOZA members (and their male counterparts in MOZA) marched through the streets of Bulawayo in an early Valentine’s Day protest. The theme of the event was to urge Zimbabweans to stand up for their children. Demonstrators passed out red roses and Valentine cards to spectators. Even though the demonstration only covered four city blocks, police still tried to stop protesters, and urged them to disperse quickly. For once, there were no arrests.

Read WOZA’s statement about their Bulwayao event, or view more images.

Zimbabwe’s education sector has been hard hit by the political and economic crisis of recent years. As schools opened for the new year, teachers are so poorly paid, some couldn’t afford transport back to their schools. Parents, meanwhile, are struggling to afford the school fees, uniforms, and supplies their children need.

Last week, Kubatana sent a text message to ask our members what could be done to resolve the challenges in the education sector in a way that improves things for parents, students and teachers alike.

In addition to Dennis Nyandoro’s blog on the subject, here are some replies from our subscribers:

The situation is a nightmare. It’s not only teachers, what of health professionals? Where is NSSA & NAC fund going to? ARV’s coming from NGO’s cover 3 quarters of patients.

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The crisis in education must be unmasked by us in conjunction with the media. Once parents understand the depth of the crisis, they can stop their children attending school unless there is an overhaul. Teachers seem to be satisfied with their earnings. If not, they should not have attended until they got reasonable amounts in their accounts.

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Nothing can be done to the education sector in Zimbabwe until the bankrupt regime goes on the 29th of March & the new government goes back to the drawing board. Everything needs cash.

Despite a lengthy back and forth with the courts, and harassment by the police, the Movement for Democratic Change went ahead with their freedom march on January 23, 2008.

In this clip, recorded by a journalist on the scene, MDC members run from tear gas which was thrown by the police to disrupt their gathering. They quickly regroup, and toyi toyi their way through Harare’s streets, waving their posters and singing their protests of Zanu PF’s governance.

Another journalist was not so lucky – an Al Jazeera cameraman was stopped by the police and prevented from filming, despite the fact that his network is the only foreign television station tolerated by the Zimbabwe regime.

With our “mother of all polls” now scheduled for March 29, 2008, prospects of a free and fair election are non-existent. In these conditions, some are advocating a stronger stance from the MDC, urging them to develop a genuine programme of democratic resistance. Others are more sceptical of MDC protests.

Leave a comment or send us an email on info [@] kubatana [dot] org [dot] zw and share your thoughts. What do you think the opposition – or Zimbabweans more generally – can do to snatch some kind of satisfactory result from the jaws of what is certain to be another rigged election?

When I went to CABS last week, throngs of uniformed police and army personnel were pushing at the doors of the bank to be allowed in to access their cash. It felt like they were trying to pull rank, or take advantage of their role as “security personnel” to get served first.

Downstairs from our office, there were rising waves of angry shouting as again, a large mass of soldiers and police officers tried to get preferential treatment at the Intermarket Bank – this despite the fact that apparently there is a dedicated branch for them in town, which is where they’re supposed to go.

This cash crisis is squeezing people in the police and armed forces just as tightly as the rest of us. Rather than viewing their uniforms as an opportunity to be self-sacrificing, let others go in front of them, or maintain order when there is cash available, they’re taking advantage of their power, and the fear many Zimbabweans have for their uniforms, in order to sort out their own needs for cash.

Having witnessed a similar problem in town, a subscriber wrote in with these thoughts:

In Harare yesterday I saw long lines outside a number of CABS branches (I don’t have an account with them thank goodness) and in all cases I saw that the army, police etc. were lined up separately. I presume this is because they are entitled to preferential service.

I believe this is in violation of International Law as enshrined in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments.

“Non-discrimination is one of the most accepted principles of international human rights. Everyone is entitled to enjoy human rights irrespective of their colour, race, gender, religion, ethnic, social or national origin, political or other opinion, property, poverty, disability, birth, lack of citizenship, sexual preference, or other status, for example, severe illness such as HIV / AIDS. Decisions on the conditions for promotion, the availability of products (I guess that also means one’s own money) or the allocation of supplier contracts should be taken without discrimination or regard to arbitrary preferences.”

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights calls on every individual and every organ of society to play its part in securing the observance of the rights set forth in the Declaration. Hence an organisation has a responsibility to safeguard human rights in its operations, as well as in its wider sphere of influence. Furthermore, under international law, there are some fundamental provisions that all are bound to observe. Breaches of these fundamental human rights entail liability under international law.

If CABS are made aware of the potential moral, criminal or other legal liability under International Law an organisation may be regarded as complicit in these abuses if it in some way authorises, tolerates or knowingly ignores the abuses committed by a connected organisation (in this case, such as CABS). In some cases, complicity may give rise to criminal or other legal liability. While the participation of the organisation may not directly cause abuse, complicity may consist of providing practical assistance or encouragement to actions that increase their extent. In other words, as I understand this, any individual or organisation dealing with CABS knowing they are committing these abuses will be tainted with the crime. In some cases, complicity may give rise to criminal or other legal liability under international law.

So if you can find out or start a campaign (workers whistle blowing) to find the details of internationally exposed connected organisations to the Reserve Bank (as with CABS) or any individual responsible for the abuses (e.g. going on a trip overseas) International Law can kick in. While case law is developing for complicity in international crimes, organisations in Europe and America are becoming so litigatious that I can imagine they will be very reluctant to be associated with the Reserve Bank or any responsible individual (as with CABS) if you shout loudly enough that they may be liable for complicity in international crimes.