First they prayed and now they’re in mourning. Bafana Bafana . . . will they still get through?

“It would be fantastic if before every soccer game, the team captain stood up and said we believe in safe sex, consensual sex, and the dignity of every woman and child,” says Bonita Meyersfeld of the Gender Unit at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at Witswaterand University. “FIFA is a rich organization and they are putting so much money into this event, but when they leave the same problems will still exist.”

Will a billion condoms be enough during the World Cup 2010?

She opens herself to all influences – everything nourishes her. Everything is gravy to her, including what she does not understand – particularly what she does not understand.
- Henry Miller

Here is a statement just in from the Law Society of Zimbabwe:

The Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) wishes to express its deepest concern at recent media reports that a government Minister has told villagers to defy a Court Order.

Minister of Presidential Affairs and ZANU PF Secretary for Administration Didymus Mutasa reportedly told villagers in Chipinge that they should not vacate Makandi Tea and Coffee Estates despite a Court ruling ordering them to do so.  It is the LSZ’s contention that the Minister may have committed an offence of Contempt of Court.

During the inaugural Joint Judiciary and Legal Practitioners Colloquium held in September 2009, stakeholders, among them members of the judiciary, expressed serious concern over the disobedience of court orders especially by state actors.

The LSZ notes that the Minister and others may be aggrieved by the decision of the Chipinge Magistrate in that particular manner.  However it is important to remember that any litigant has the right to appeal against any decision of a lower court up to the Supreme Court.

The LSZ calls upon the Minister concerned and any likeminded individuals to desist from inciting members of the public to disobey court orders.  Such actions, if they remain unchecked, may result in members of the public losing confidence in the justice delivery system and are likely to result in anarchy and lack of respect for our Constitutional order.

The LSZ further calls upon the Minister to immediately issue a statement in which he reaffirms his respect for the rule of law and the judiciary in Zimbabwe.  He is advised to assist the villagers to appeal against the Magistrate’s decision instead of taking the law into his own hands and advising them to disobey court orders.

Josphat Tshuma – President

Reading Bev Reeler’s blog about our communities being invaded by cell phone towers and uncaring and non-responsive city officials, I was reminded of a poem by Ignatius Mabasa, one of Zimbabwe’s leading poets.

Concrete and Plastic

I miss the open air
In the open fields.
I miss the stretching space
That was usurped,
By high-rise glass buildings.

I see ashen street kids
Playing and fighting
For an inflated used condom.
“Strong, dependable and
Can hold up to 3 litres of water”.

I look around me
For the coloured butterfly
And the soaring eagle,
But the city has created
Urban modern birds.
The candy eating pigeon
The hamburger-munching crow.

I miss the human-being
In all this concrete and plastic
Where robots and computers
Professors and talk-show hosts
Telemarketers and experts
Tell me what is best for me
Even if they don’t know me.

Taurai Maduna is a well known and talented Zimbabwean photographer. He’ll be sharing World Cup 2010 photographs with us. Here is a Bafana Bafana fan seizing the cup for South Africa!

All rights reserved – if you’d like to use this photograph, visit our web site and write us an email.