Ten kilometres out of Chegutu the melancholic sign post for none other than “Madzongwe Road” tells a story in itself. It is the road to our farm. The sign is bent and faded and tired looking. Maybe it looks a bit like us. If the Prime Minister were to turn off here, the first white-owned farm he would come to belongs to Retief Benade. This farm, like every other, is also under siege. There is no chance of police assistance for the farmer here as the invader is a senior policeman himself. What else can one expect in what has become a police state? Mr Benade realised he would not win. In desperation, last month, he sold his entire beef and dairy herd of a few hundred animals, including his breeding cows. They did not go to another breeder, they went for slaughter. No one buys breeding herds in countries where investments are not protected. Breeding herds are long-term investments – phenomena that have become obsolete in the Zimbabwe of today. Mr Benade has taken his expertise to Zambia. To go elsewhere in Zimbabwe would be asking for trouble. The farm invasions are wide-spread. That is the undeniable truth.

Read Zimbabwean farmer Ben Freeth’s request that Morgan Tsvangirai wake up and speak the truth here

I recently traveled to Tsholotsho, after about a two year absence. I once stayed in Tsholotsho for about four years. I was a teacher there until I decided writing poetry, drama and raising a few opinions about what Mugabe and company are doing wrong once in a while was more fun than breaking chalk.

For years now I have been getting the same warning from family and friends.

“Wazakubulala wena.” Meaning they will kill you, like they have killed countless others who dared be in opposition with them.

I recently visited Tsholotsho and as expected Mbamba sub-station is manned by police officers who all come from other provinces other than Matabeleland. They can hardly speak the Ndebele language and how the ‘government’ expects them to be effective boggles the mind. The fact that Shona police officers have been imposed on us did not surprise me really – that has been the case since Gukurahundi.

What really shocked me was that the Shona boys who are police office officers at Mbamba sub-station think it is within their rights to beat up citizens. They have even convinced the villagers that the law allows them to beat up villagers. The time I was there the boys beat up three married women old enough to be their mothers and had the audacity to summon the headman of the village and ‘punish’ him for not teaching his people the law.

And we dare say Zimbabwe is a democracy?

Most of us when we were growing up fell for a boy or a girl and thought this person was so special that he or she could not be replaced.

A lot of teenagers have committed suicide for refusing to accept that the person that they have fallen for is no longer interested in them, or the parents have decreed that the affair must stop.

It is only after much learning and the process of growing up that one discovers that which had been taken for the truth is not exactly true, love on its own should never be reason to contemplate ghastly things. You learn that love is respect not infatuation. Respect for the one you have chosen as partner and a feeling you don’t want to cause them unnecessary suffering, embarrassment, but happiness.

You discover also that human beings are not exactly infallible, but are prone to mistakes. It is this experience, more than anything that teaches us nothing is better than everything else. But strangely, this is not known by our Prime Minister Morgan Richard Tsvangirai. In his view, his President Robert Mugabe, is irreplaceable. He has supported this belief on more than one occasion to hundreds of our youth who are curious and likely to take his sentiments for the truth.

The dominating view is that Mugabe has presided over the worst period in our history. There is nothing that the all-inclusive government can do, to change this. Tsvangirai would be best advised he represents the hopes of millions of both opposition, apathetic voters, including disgruntled former ruling ZANU-PF supporters who want the best for their country.

Tsvangirai must stop behaving like a pugilist who comes close to deliver an important knockout punch to his opponent, but crumbles, ceding advantage to the adversary.

He must seek to please, but truthfully. As Zimbabweans we are prepared for the pain that will make our country well again, forever.

The First All-Stakeholders’ Conference for Zimbabwe’s new Constitution is set to begin later this week. Zanu PF has been asking that the conference be delayed, but the Parliamentary Select Committee insists it will go on as planned.

A lot of the debate about the new Constitution has revolved around the controversial Kariba Draft, and the question of how participatory the Constitution-making process will be. The National Constitutional Assembly has withdrawn from the process, insisting that the creation of a new Constitution needs to be people-driven, not Parliament-driven. They have also prepared a document highlighting the shortcomings of the Kariba Draft Constitution.

Less publicised has been the efforts of Zimbabwe’s marginalised communities to make sure their concerns are addressed and their human rights guaranteed in the country’s new Constitution. For example, a document by the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) outlines the reasons why sexual orientation should be included among the freedoms guaranteed in Zimbabwe’s new Constitution.

This document does not only argue for greater Constitutional protection for the rights of gays and lesbians. It also makes important points about a democracy’s need to protect the inalienable and inherent rights of all minorities, including the right to privacy and equality.

Fundamental human rights, existing by virtue of the holder’s very humanity, cannot be bought or negotiated, and cannot be reduced to a mere privilege dependant on State beneficence. As they derive from attributes of the human personality they exist perpetually and universally for all people and for all nations regardless of historical, cultural, ideological, economic or other differences.

I believe the more inclusive, participatory, and people-driven Zimbabwe’s Constitution-making process is, the stronger the document which comes out of it will be. This means not only including representation of a range of minorities at the All-Stakeholders’ Conference, but also protecting their rights in the document which is developed – regardless of the majority opinion about the “worth” of a community or the “morality” of their behaviour.

The High Court in Bulawayo on Friday 29 May 2009 stopped Tel-One from disconnecting its customers as a way of forcing them to pay their bills.

That the bills are unreasonably priced is obvious but it is no secret that the company is broke; having made billions of trillions of worthless Zimbabwean dollars that remain stashed in the banks and cannot be useful to anyone any more, particularly not to Tel-One.

The court’s decision while popular is certainly not a solution. A sound communications facility will be vital in the country’s economic turnaround.

The issue of the company’s capitalization is of national strategic importance. Tel-One must devise strategies for fundraising to get it much needed working capital.

And because its customers knowingly enjoyed a ‘free’ service for a long period when the economy collapsed sometime during the last half of 2008 a compromise has to be reached.

The customers have to pay something to get the company back on its feet. Tel-One might be forced to consider ‘switching of’ its clients and charging a reasonable ‘reconnection fee’ before it can be able to start billing its normal rates.

The arguments raised by its clients might appear factual, but are not honest. The parastatal found it broke, even if everyone claims to have paid their dues.

I hope our collective wish is that we get Tel-One and all the other companies, ZESA, ZBC working again so that information, I mean vital information, that will get this country back on its feet again reaches those who need it most.

Our potential to create wealth; the level at which we are operating at present; the reasons how we can get back to full throttle, should make the biggest news.

Is there nothing else that we can do on our own, to lift our selves from this mess before the issue of foreign investment is touted as the only option? It is interesting to note that a nation of more thon 12 million people seems to have one idea of doing things.

The motto of the just ended COMESA meeting was; “Buy African, Buy Africa”, for us in Zimbabwe it should be “Buy Zimbabwean, Buy Zimbabwe”. The first port of call should be local investment, with or without sanctions. Zimbabweans should be the first ones to invest to prove their confidence.

The success of the country’s economic turnaround should be measured by how we use the local investment that is lying idle before using foreign assistance.

A dangerous belief that we have no confidence in our own people is evident and does not bode well for the success of the economy.