In some ways I agree with a recent article in the Zimbabwe Independent (New Zealand Tour Postponement An Utter Sham) and in other ways I don’t.

Much as I’d like to see my on screen cricket heart throb, Brendon McCallum, in the flesh at Harare Sports Club, I support New Zealand opting to stay home rather than tour Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Independent article rightly points out that the reasons that New Zealand have put forward for postponing the tour, being the safety and security of their team, are mere excuses. As far as 5 * hotel cricket tours are concerned, you won’t find a safer place than Zimbabwe to play. The New Zealand cricket board are speaking around the truth, and that makes them rather repugnant. The truth is they’re not coming to Zimbabwe because everyone knows that old Bob, patron saint of cricket and chaos, is still in charge of the country.

Suggestions by the newly appointed David Coltart (in the crease as Minister of Education, Sport, Art and Culture) that New Zealand give the Unity Government a chance are a load of bollocks in my book. Here we have a nation that’s been used and abused for many years and Suddenly we must put the past to rest and move forward. David, things take time.

The majority of Zimbabweans are saying let’s wait and see what happens with this whole Unity Government thing. So why shouldn’t the international community as well? It is entirely naive to suggest that politics and sport are separate; they never have been, and they never will be.

Coltart reckons that he’s prepared to jump on a plane and convince the Kiwis to come play cricket in Zimbabwe. I wonder if he’s also willing to welcome back a couple of cricketing heroes, namely Henry Olonga and Andy Flower, to open the first game in our “new” Zimbabwe. And guarantee that they won’t be stalked, abducted and thrown into jail like Roy Bennett was?

I’ve just been reading an article online about Mugabe saying that fresh elections will be held in Zimbabwe in two years time. It reminded me of a quote I saw in Time Magazine in January 09. On hearing the news that President Mugabe plans to hold new elections in 2011, Matidaishe Nzou, a Zimbabwean who has lost five relatives to cholera, said ‘We will all be dead by then‘.

I’ve just had an exchange with one of my colleagues about being petty. She reckons I’m being petty about wanting to blog this issue . . .

A couple of weeks ago we sent out a Kubatana email newsletter asking people to write to Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara to remind them that illegally detained pro-democracy activists needed help, and that they needed to be released, forthwith. We used the email addresses that we receive communications from for the two men. A Zimbabwean who wrote to Mutambara got this reply: don’t write to me pliz.

Again I come back to Leonard Mutsa’s recent blog in which he asks, where and when do our politicians welcome and encourage the views and input of ordinary Zimbabweans? Is it too much to ask that a political party have mechanisms through which members of the general public can ask them questions and get some answers?

I’m sitting at my desk in my office in Harare this Saturday morning. The room is being painted and furniture is piled up high around my desk. The Zimbabwean sky outside is big and very blue. The Kubatana team reckoned that its time our work space had a face lift. Quite a good idea I think at this point in time as our country could possibly be on the verge of something new. Possibly.

Somewhere in the city Mugabe has turned 85: talk about needing a face lift, he needs much more than that, like a plane to somewhere else; anywhere but here.

I’ve just come across an article sharing memories of Mugabe from various Zimbabweans on the BBC web site.  Andrew Mutandwa, former press secretary to Mugabe, said that “we were hungry for a hero”. Back in the early 80s, Mugabe was that hero to millions of Zimbabweans.

Why I mention this is because I’ve been reading an email from a big hearted, patriotic Zimbabwean who believes that we should shun the phrase “let’s wait and see”. This is what just about everyone is saying in response to the formation of the Unity Government. He believes that we should engage the term “let’s work and see”. The thing is, the majority of Zimbabweans have never stopped working hard, but as Leonard Matsa points out, the politicians care very little for the man and woman on the street.

Another suggestion in his email is that photos of Morgan be put up alongside Mugabe’s in all the public, and private (would you believe) spaces in Zimbabwe where presidential portraits are currently hung. But, we don’t need to do this. Instead, we need to take Mugabe’s portrait down, rather than add to the mugs gallery. The elevation of our leaders through grandiose birthday parties, presidential portraits, brash motorcades and a a host of special privileges must cease. Very quickly the trappings of power corrupt our leaders. And through our consent, we encourage this.

Zimbabweans are going through a lot right now. Besides being challenged by maintaining a sense of dignity and hope on the battleground of unemployment, inflation and a cholera epidemic, this new Unity Government will take some getting used to. Whilst we must look forward with optimism, we have to have some time to reconcile our feelings of doubt and mistrust.

As Chris Magadza, a Zimbabwean poet, writes in “Sun on my Face” . . .

Softly
Wipe away the bitterness
From my brow.
Heal my soul, and
Calm the rage of betrayals.

The International Socialist Organisation (ISO) has always offered a different vision and plan for ridding Zimbabwe of the Mugabe dictatorship. The February 2009 lead story in the Socialist Worker, the ISO’s quarterly newspaper, called for the fight for fresh elections under a new people-driven constitution. The article has just been published online by International Journal of Socialist Renewal.

The ordinary people have no choice but to fight back against the massive attacks on their living conditions arising from dollarisation and liberalisation. For these reasons, progressive social movements, trade unions, student unions and civic groups must not call for a ceasefire and must not have naïve illusions in the GNU deal or the constitution drafting process. Some elitist and pro-MDC NGOs are trying to persuade, bribe and bulldoze civic society to give a chance to the GNU and its politician-driven constitutional process, saying we can improve on this. We must reject this. If the engine is defective, the car can never move.

Read the whole article here

On the same site you can read how Morgan saved the Mugabe regime

Meanwhile, the University of Johannesburg has organised a seminar called,  Zimbabwe: youth, intellectuals and politics. Three men (why only men?) from Zimbabwe are speaking including Munyaradzi Gwisai, who’s always been strongly involved with the International Socialist Organisation. Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe’s new finance minister will be joining him. And then the already confused realm of Zimbabwean politics just got more confused with the University of Johannesburg advertising that the Prime Minister will speaking as well. That’s Arthur Mutambara, according to them.

There’s an unfortunate headline doing the rounds right now: Zimbabwe’s teachers: what a treacherous crowd. Joram Nyathi, the author of the article, castigates Zimbabwe’s teachers for not accepting and being grateful for the US$100 voucher that was recently waved under their noses in an effort to get them to go back to school. Joram believes that most families would do ok on this paltry sum. As some of the comments on his blog point out, teachers have to pay transport, medical fees, buy clothes, food . . . so US$100 is really pretty much a smack in the face. Yes, the sum that teachers are asking for right now – US$2300 – is high, especially in a bankrupt country. But more to the point, Zimbabweans should really be asking how we can afford one of the most bloated governments in the world? And indeed why we are going to allow it? Joram at least raises this issue in his blog. But we need to do more than simply write about the fat salaries, perks and allowances that all of these ministers, deputies, senators, governors, and their swathe of support staff are going get. It’s not fair to take it out on the teachers. At least the teachers have a solid sense of what they’re worth. Zimbabweans have for too long bowed and scraped and bobbed up and down for the few crumbs that come our way. Let the teachers strike continue. Let doctors and nurses strike. Let bank staff strike. Let housewives and domestic workers strike. Let NGOs strike. Let our whole country resist, and let all of us say no to a Unity Government that is irrationally large. It’s time for our politicians to grow up.