Here are some excerpts from the Prime Minister’s Question Time in Parliament:

Gay Rights
Hon. Dorcas Sibanda (MDC-T Bulawayo Central) asked the Prime Minister to clarify his position on the issue of gay rights in the light of recent media reports. The Prime Minister indicated that he was just echoing what Zimbabweans expressed during the COPAC outreach programme. He said his personal view did not matter and government position would be guided by the outcome of the constitution.

Measures to Deal with Political Violence
Hon. Marvelous Kumalo (MDC-T St. Mary’s) asked the Prime Minister if government had any policy measures in place to deal with political violence. The Prime Minister said government did not condone violence. He noted that there had been reduction in cases of violence in the country. He pointed out that it was the responsibility of the police to curb violence in the country. He said government principals had tasked the co-Ministers of Home Affairs to ensure that police carried out their duties professionally. He also appealed to national leaders to ensure that the message on peace should cascade down to lower structures of society.

Liberalization of the Airwaves
Hon. Innocent Gonese (MDC-T Mutare Central) asked the Prime Minister what government was doing to liberalize the electronic media in fulfillment of Article 19 of the Global Political Agreement (GPA). The Prime Minister said government leader had assigned the Minister of Media, Information and Publicity to reconstitute the Broadcasting Authority of Zimabwe (BAZ) board and to expedite the liberalization of the airwaves. He said that government was also concerned with hate speech and vilification of other government members by the state controlled media.

Health and Child Welfare Minister, Dr Henry Madzorera, said the direct effect of the hot temperatures were dehydration and sweating and encouraged people to drink a lot of water.

Mr Minister, this would be great advice if we actually got water out of our taps; but mostly, we don’t.

I think many Zimbabweans feel the same.

This is a banner from Occupy Durham, building on the momentum generated from the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Visitors would come three times a day after every meal. They would come by the dozen and I would wait eagerly for them. I would sit with them, thoroughly enjoying their company. I spent long hours with them, and yet did not get bored. They would come and give us hope that life had not come to a halt. Every time I saw them, I felt comfortable. They walked so quickly that the guards didn’t know they were there, otherwise they would be eliminated.

I am talking about the wonderful nation of ants. These beautiful creatures would visit me in my steel prison, bringing hope and life. I secretly saved food for them in a corner. If the guards saw them they would either spray them with pesticide or crush them beneath their military boots. I would get angry, and shout at them, “Do not the ants have a right to life? They do not trouble you so why do you have to kill them?’ When the soldiers found out that we fed the ants, they punished us by cutting our rations. That didn’t stop me from keeping ants in my cell. I observed them and studied their way of life every day.

I would sometimes leave them a peanut, whenever available. I spilt the beans into halves and left each half on the floor with the flat side down. The ants would come and eat the entire bean from the inside leaving the skin as it had been left for them. If you saw it you wouldn’t know that the inside had been eaten until you turned it over to find it empty. I found it amusing. Whenever I put food in the corner, one of the ants would come to search. If it found food it would return to its friends and inform them, and show them the way. The ants all varied in the contribution to the work; some carried small pieces, and others carried pieces bigger than themselves back to their homes. I didn’t know that ants drank before, but now I would save them a few drops of sweet tea, which they would drink until they swelled up.

When the ants came to visit, life would creep back into my dead cell. I would feel hope instead of despair. Their presence in my company, however, was not free of danger, as the soldiers would come to inspect the cells, so I always feared for them. Before inspections I would blow towards them, which made them disperse, while I got rid of the food. They soon became accustomed to this puff of air, which became their warning signal, so that each time they felt it they realized danger was close and ran away. When the soldiers would return me back to my cell after the search, the first thing I would look for were ant bodies. When I didn’t find any I felt relieved, knowing that the ants had safely escaped.

- Ahmed Errachidi

[Ahmed Errachidi was held in extrajudicial detention in the US Guatanamo Bay detainment camps in Cuba for five years until his release in 2007. This piece is an excerpt from his memoir, A Handful of Walnuts will be published by Chatto & Windus in 2012. The excerpt was published in Granta.]