We recently published information by the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) on the issue of lodger’s rights. Here is one of the responses that we got:

Thank you for your informative news. That piece with lodgers’ rights has opened old wounds for me. We were renting 2 rooms in a house in Glen View 7 at $40 dollars each. We were paying our dues on time but to our surprise the landlord came one morning and told us to look for accommodation elsewhere. We assumed that there was 3 months notice but we were proven wrong as he started calling us 2 days later demanding us out. He started terrorizing us with phone calls and sms, each and every hour telling us time was not on his side. We requested him to give us time citing our demanding work schedules, 2 days was too little for us. l vowed that l was going to make him throw us out and would sleep by his gate with our the 9 months old baby. l am an African and l would like to say strange things started happening at the house during the night. There was one particular incident that really frightened us and the next morning we found ourselves in a rat infested storeroom a sympathetic friend had offered as temporary accomodation. For me, it was fine as long as l had shelter but the poor kid got ill. The rats had the habit of playing all over and would go for the food, clothes etc in that room. She had nausea and a running tummy and also got some rash from the lice the rats normally carry around. We only managed to find some decent place four months later and l believe what the man did to us was one of the most brutal, inhuman things anybody can do, especially to a baby.

Only 100 people will be selected to attend – application open to the public

More than just another talk-shop TEDxHarare will celebrate the transformative power of ideas that improving the way citizens of the world live, learn, work and play. The conference will honour African innovators whose passion, curiosity and dogged resolve is paving the way to a newer, brighter future for Zimbabwe and the continent. TEDxHarare will feature presentations by phenomenal professors, entrepreneurs, story tellers and remarkable artists who are contributing to the vast potential that is Africa’s future.  Confirmed speakers and presentations include Chris Kabwato, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Oswald Jumira, Marianne Knuth and Sarah Norman.

In order to create an intimate setting for more interaction, conversation and connection with the speakers, organisers of TEDxHarare have limited attendance to only 100 seats. The event is open to anyone who is passionate about spreading ideas in the spirit of TED. Interested attendees must apply to participate in the limited-space event.

To register either send a blank email to register [at] tedxharare [dot] com or visit the site at www.TEDxHarare.com and click on the ATTEND tab.

On Monday 18 July, Chronicle newspaper reported that Defence Minister “Munagagwa” [that’s how his name was spelled right there in the front page] had declared that the Gukurahundi debate was a closed chapter, accusing “the private media and leaders of other political parties” of “engaging in cheap politics” and “trying to reverse efforts by the national healing organ by opening the Gukurahundi wounds.”

Predictably perhaps, the minister said the Unity Accord signed by President Mugabe and the late VeePee Nkomo “brought the nation together, bringing an end to the sorry chapter of Gukurahundi.”  Then on Thursday 21 July the same paper (Chronicle) carried a story with the headline “Gukurahundi issue sparks fierce debate.” The report was based on a public hearing convened by the Thematic Committee on Human Rights and the Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal, Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs, and members of the public spoke their mind about the “Gukurahundi killings.” You have to ask the Minister what his opinion is about this seeing Gukurahundi obviously remains a very open chapter, and it was not the private media nor was it “other political parties” that opened the Gukurahundi book. It was “ordinary” residents who “demanded that the committees should review the political disturbances of the 1980s, popularly known as the Gukurahundi episode,” Chronicle reported.

We know “Munagagwa’s” government colleague Moses Mzila-Ndlovu still has a lot to say about these ’80 atrocities and is not about to let the matter die a natural death. But then that’s Zanu PF’s idea of government of the people, for the people, by the people. Zanu PF speaks and you listen, never the reverse.

Looks like the Gukurahundi chapter remains very open and will not wished away mate. But then the minister’s insistence is perhaps understandable because activists here have fingered him as one of the architects. Sorry Cde. Minister.

According to Julius Malema being poor means not being able to own means of production. He made these comments in an interview on SABC after a public outcry over the ANC Youth League President’s 16 million rand house he is building in Sandton, South Africa. Among Malema’s properties in South Africa includes a mansion in Limpopo province and he drives C63 Mercedes-Benz AMG. Not so bad for a poor man! Malema claims he has acquired these assets using his monthly salary from the ANC. And he is a representative of the poor people?

According to the Oxford dictionary poor means “lacking sufficient money to live at a standard considered comfortable or normal in a society” … so one wonders whether Julius’s society consider him to be poor with this kind of a lavish lifestyle. If Malema’s definition of poor is true then, for South Africans, what it means is that Mzansi has poor rich people living in mansions.

Imagine if we banned all mention of the phrase “what lessons can we learn” in Zimbabwe? Essentially our dictatorship wants to turn us into unquestioning dumbos. It’s up to us to resist them.

Zimbabwe ‘Egypt uprising’ activists in treason trial

The trial of six Zimbabwean activists charged with treason for attending a lecture in February about the Egyptian uprising is due to open in Harare.

The seminar by a university lecturer asked “what lessons can be learnt” – which the prosecution says means they were planning a similar revolt.

Charges were dropped against 40 other activists arrested at the same time.

The six accused face the death penalty if found guilty of treason. They all deny the charges.

Read more

I read with some kind of disgust the other day a story about ZESA managers who were fuming because Energy Minister Elton Mangoma had ordered the slashing of their salaries. They actually told the minister it was not his business to question their salaries. I wondered rather blithely if they would have responded with such brashness if this had come from a Zanu PF minister! But then it has become the typical story here where parastatals and state enterprises senior officials have continued to command ridiculous salaries when there is virtually nothing to justify it.

We all know about the mismanagement of these big concerns over the years with accusations that officials were riding on the back of Zanu PF patronage, and where in fact keeping up with the party’s streak of looting state resources. It is here where consciences have been numbed as the plundering of resources has rendered these state utility providers a huge burden on tax and rate payers with no service provision to speak of. So a minister who comes through with a broom to sweep the rot naturally becomes the bad guy because the logic is simple: no one ever complained before, and simply because – as some have claimed – these officials have been political appointees.

We read each time how South African government ministers are ever vigilant cracking the whip on unnecessary perks for officials who appear to think working for government is a sure way to bleed the purse. What then is amiss with Mangoma putting caps on salaries, or at least demanding that they get performance-based salary increments? Makes sense to me. We heard even from Ignatius Chombo the other week when he demanded a salary cap for Town Clerks where in some cases these municipality CEOs are reported to be earning monthly salaries of up to USD15,000.

Surely these salaries must be justified, and for a long time these people have been getting absurd perks that are not even based on performance, which reminds one of those US CEOs who run loss-making corporations but at the end of the year award themselves multi-million dollar bonuses, of course much to the chagrin of shareholders. Indeed Zimbabwe is in dire need of ministers who will put a stop to this nonsense.