The retrogressive Anti-Homosexuality Bill is still being debated by Uganda’s parliament.  Uganda’s Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law is coordinating opposition to the  Bill within Uganda. Regionally, The AIDS Law Project and the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project in South Africa are circulating the following statement against the Bill:

Statement by African Civil Society

We, the individuals and organisations from African countries listed hereunder, recognise the universality of the human rights of all persons.

We affirm that the right of men and women to have same sex relationships is a fundamental human right.

We are further guided in the knowledge that all forms of discrimination, in particular against vulnerable groups, undermine the human dignity of all in Africa.

We are therefore profoundly disturbed by the nature, content and potential impact of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill (“the Bill”) that was recently tabled in and is currently being considered by the Parliament of Uganda.

We believe that the Bill, if enacted, will cut deeply into the fabric of Ugandan society by–

• Violating the rights of an already vulnerable and severely stigmatised group of persons by attacking their dignity, privacy and other constitutionally protected rights;
• Disrupting family and community life by compelling everyone, by the threat of criminal sanction, to report those suspected of engaging in same-sex sexual activity;
• Seeking to withdraw Uganda from the family of nations by reneging on the country’s international law obligations;
• Undermining public health interventions such as HIV prevention, treatment, care and support;
• Promoting prejudice and hate and encouraging harmful and violent action to be taken against those engaging in same sex relations.

We respectfully call on the Parliament of Uganda to reject the Bill in its entirety.

We also call on African governments and the African Union to call on the President and Government of Uganda to withdraw the Bill and to respect the human rights of all in Uganda, without exception.

They are seeking civil society endorsements of the statement.  Submit your endorsement before 12 noon on Monday 29 March (SA Time – GMT +2). Please supply the full name of your organisation together with your full name, office address, telephone contact details and organizational website. Please also indicate in your email that you have been authorised by your organisation to endorse the statement. Encourage others to also endorse the statement.

Please send your endorsement to Ms Adila Hassim of the AIDS Law Project at hassima@alp.org.za. Please copy your email to Ms Phumi Mtetwa of the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project  at phumi@equality.org.za

Rejoice Ngwenja rocks.

Kubatana.net recently interviewed him and you can read and listen to his views on a variety of critical issues in Zimbabwe on www.kubatana.net

In the meantime, below we carry an article by him entitled Scorpion in my Shoe, published by www.africanliberty.org

Thanks to Robert Mugabe’s reign of record-breaking incremental destruction, my country is struggling to redeem itself from the abyss of infrastructure collapse, so much that even hardcore urbanites like me have to make do with irritating wood smoke just to have a warm plate of sadza [Zimbabwe’s staple maize meal paste].    And that was without additional injury to the back breaking exercise.   A week ago, I was stung by a small black scorpion on my big toe as I chopped firewood to beat Zimbabwe’s notorious power outages.

The sting, while irritating, passed off just like any other experience of living in modern-day Zimbabwe under the Jurassic governance of the primeval ZANU-PF.  Thinking back, I imagined that Morgan Tsvangirayi was persuaded to take Robert Mugabe into his political boot, wherefore the old trickster settled at some dark corner until MDC fell into a stupor of artificial comfort.  But now, Tsvangirayi has been inevitably stung while he least expected.

Instead of focusing on the business of building high yielding relations, Mugabe continues to conspire evil against our nation hiding behind questionable legalism.  According to a recent Zimbabwe Situation news online report, “…. Mugabe is entitled under the law to assign functions to ministers, [but] he still has to consult his partners in government on the allocation of the ministries, according to the GPA”.  In complete defiance of this noble proposition, Mugabe unilaterally takes it upon himself to strip MDC-held ministries of essential powers.

Apparently, the biggest challenge confronting Tsvangirayi is not the quality of Zimbabwe’s coalition government, given that most such arrangements are products of large-scale compromise.  Agreements are made on the basis of partner credibility, honesty, consistency and transparency – traits which ZANU-PF is not exactly endowed with.  Most progressive analysts will agree that Tsvangirayi knew exactly the nature of the partner he was committing himself to, that is why he needed to have a comfortable stock of antidotes to deal with Mugabe’s chicanery.   More importantly, ZANU-PF is a completely discredited partner, headed by one Robert Mugabe who comprehensively lost the March 2008 Parliamentary Election, only to be ‘salvaged’ by an equally discredited one-man masquerade in June of the same year.

According to Professor Arthur Mutambara, the Global Political Agreement [GPA] is the only source of Mugabe’s ‘presidential legitimacy’.  In fact he would have proceeded to add that had SADC taken the right decision to call for a more organised, African Unity-supervised presidential re-run, Mugabe would now be confined to overdue retirement at his Zvimba rural home.  It therefore is astonishing by what authority Mugabe cherry-picks ministerial responsibility, if it were not that he is of a tyrannical genre obsessed with power.  I have argued time and again that our Zimbabwe government is too big and expensive, hence the shifting of ministerial powers would, on any other day, have little impact on service delivery.  And yet if you really put Mugabe’s juggling under the spotlight, he is only interested in ministerial adjustments that entrench his hegemonic hold on political power.

What is left now is for both Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirayi and his deputy, Arthur Mutambara to place an inexpensive political device that should shatter once and for all, Mugabe’s life-presidency ambitions. Both MDC cadres must come out of their friendly accommodative shells and tell Mugabe to fulfill all the provisions of the GPA. This is the opportune time for both men to stop making excuses for the aging dictator and embark on three-dimensional activism. The more sensible side of government – MDC – must promulgate statutory instruments to licence all applicants for radio stations and newspapers.  The democratic parties must dispatch all ambassadors, governors and appoint deputy minister for agriculture Roy Bennet.  Morgan Tsvangirayi and Arthur Mutambara must repeal all anti-democratic laws while all pubic appointments not sanctioned by the GPA must be nullified, including that of attorney general Johannes Tomana and central bank governor Gideon Gono.

The gist of my argument is that Robert Mugabe lost the election, thus has no moral high ground to play god.  Five million Zimbabweans have given both MDCs the mandate to govern, so the one-man political dance of the discredited Robert Mugabe has no authority or legitimacy to give five million voters a single sleepless night.  If both Tsvangirayi and Mutambara are weak, they should immediately hand over their power – Nigeria style – to more capable members of their parties.  This weakling image of subservience they are portraying does not augur well with our expectations.  It could also endanger their 2012 electoral standing in their constituencies.  Mugabe’s unpopular mandate expired in 2000, so any compromise on the part of Tsvangirayi and Mutambara is blight on the noble fight against ZANU-PF fascist dictatorship.  Luckily, we now know there is a scorpion in our boot.

I went to the International Women’s day events hosted by the National Gallery of Zimbabwe last Saturday.

The pond in front of the gallery has got a pathetic bit of water in it, but enough to float the debris from Zimbabweans who sit on the edge of it and chuck their litter overboard.

It isn’t only the National Gallery of Zimbabwe that needs to keep the litter in check, its also the folk who clearly couldn’t care less about treating one of our national institutions with respect.

C’mon Zimbabweans, clean up your act.

Zimbabwe civic organisations ZimRights and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) recently issued a joint statement drawing attention to the rising repression directed at human rights defenders in this country.

The statement says that various members of the ZimRights board have received threatening text messages.

ZimRights and ZLHR also said:  “We urge the inclusive government and particularly the co-Home Affairs Ministers and the Police Commissioner-General to unequivocally guarantee the safety of all these human rights defenders and to assure them of their security pending full investigations into the alleged threats.”

Here are some of the text messages:

Nunurai Jena, ZimRights Regional Chairperson for Mashonaland West received a message saying, “If we give you a task to ask your ZimRights colleagues to slow down and forget about the constitution making process will you do that or else…? Just comply.”

Chitungwiza regional chairperson, Netsai Kaitano’s message read, “Chipositori nekodzero, kana matongerwo enyika zvinopindirana papi? (How are apostolic faith and rights or politics linked?) Have you forgotten the pain of those beatings. Bidi and Tsunga are gone, Pelagia, Ok, Phulu and Tshuma won’t be there anymore, when we will come for you.”

Jabulisa Tshuma, the organisation’s treasurer’s message said, “Mr Treasurer Tshuma, who are your sponsors? You are all over the country. Are you turning ZimRights into a political party? What is the motive of your donors?”

Please get in touch with ZimRights and send them a message of solidarity.

And while these abuses take place under the Government of National Unity, the MDC is responsible for them. Email the MDC on mdc.internationalrelations@gmail.com and ask them to demand a full investigation.

Citizen activist Michael Laban has done a great job of sharing some feedback with us on various local community meetings he’s attended lately.

Her are some interesting snippets:

Ward 7: we again had no word, no apology, no excuse, from our Councillor, Masiya Kapare. Just . . . blank. Strikes me he serves the MDC – his party, and not the residents – the people who elected him.

Ward 8: I attended a Ward 8 meeting at Highlands Church, and that was well attended (over 100 people). The Councilor was there and ran the meeting with some skill, and there were many Heads of Departments there, who answered questions! I was impressed.

Waste:  The city needs 45 vehicles to do the job, it only has 8. 20 new vehicles are ‘under negotiation’. However, has the City (and everyone around it) learnt the lessons? The vehicles need to be maintained, which cost money you cannot put into your pocket, and you have to hire and pay qualified people to maintain them, not your friends (all of whom need to be fired to pay those qualified).

Parliamentary Portfolio Meeting: The city is in chaos. Most significant fact – the budget/finances have not been audited in ten years! People have been billed for water for 3 years, but not received any water in that time. Then, the first thing the city does is buy nice, fancy cars. Is it a wonder people just don’t pay – if they do not know where the money is going, why should they? There are tolls on the roads, but the potholes are still there.

Corruption: Just too much. From the airport road to allocation of stands.

The constitution making process is underway and it is up to you and me to make sure it addresses issues that are going to benefit generations to come. So when the COPAC people come your way be sure to express your views without fear and tell it like it is.

To all the women in this country I have a few tips I got from the Deputy Minister of Justice herself. And by the way men can also take part in asking for these things because all of us are part of the solution. She says if women asked for these 12 things to be included in the constitution then we are sure to make a difference in the Zimbabwe.

So listen up and get ideas on how to change things around in this country.

1. We must ask for a constitution that has an equality clause
2. We want equal citizenship to men
3. The constitution should make sure that women have the right to the security of her person. That sexually based violence should not be tolerated. We must have zero tolerance for any type of violence
4. In the new constitution women must not be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or the colour of their skin or anything else for that matter. No discrimination of any sort
5. We must have a constitution that subjugates customary law to human rights
6. Women should have economical, social, cultural and environmental rights
7. The constitution must have a clause that addresses a gender sensitive electoral judiciary system and a quarter of the decision-making bodies
8. Rights of children because children directly affect women and children are directly affected by women
9. There should be a gender and equal opportunities commission
10. Whatever treaties and human rights protocols that we have signed up to should be applied straight into law
11. Public finance provision must include gender budgeting

So there you have it. You know what the elders say “Okulumi ‘ndlebe ngowakho-akuruma nzeve ndewako” (forewarned is forearmed).