Kubatana! Get Up. Stand Up in Harare to mark International Human Rights Day. Join Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights on Thursday 8th. Meet 12:30 at High Court. Sharp!

C.E.E. (Climate Economic Empowerment)
By Comrade Fatso

Comrades I’m sure you’ve heard of the crisis in the world today
Floods in France, disappearing islands and droughts in Zimbabwe
How do we deal with all our carbon emissions rising
With global warming, increased instability and insane petrol pricing
Comrades I would like to announce my brand new policy
I call this policy C…E…E…
Its simply entitled Climate Economic Empowerment
How to make money from mother nature and from the environment
Because climate is the new bling
The new diamonds, the new shiny, spangly thing
We’ve run out of ways to make money for a living
But, comrades, now we have carbon markets and carbon trading
So will we save the planet? Hell muthafukking no!
But we’ll have the biggest, most fantastic party til we hit ground zero
So lets co-opt the NGO’s and some scholarly scholars
Coz we wanna go green like freshly minted US dollars
So in that sense yes we are the real green party
Because nature is time and time is money
So give us your money and give it to us by the tonne
Put it in my bank account – it’s called the Green Climate Fund!

As fear and repression mount in Zimbabwe because of Zanu PF’s pre-election jitters, what we don’t need is individuals and organisations forwarding unverified information.

Kubatana received this email from various sources about five times:

TALKING ON A CELLPHONE WHILE DRIVING
This is a update to warn all motorists that you will no longer be fined or given community service, if you are caught talking on your cell phone whilst driving.  Replacing the fine and community service is now JAIL.  You will be arrested and taken to Court, you will then be sentenced to between 2-3 weeks in jail, that is now the sentence, you will now have a conviction and a Police Record.  Please avoid using your cellphone when driving, as there is not monetary fine it is straight to Court.

To ascertain whether this information had any validity we contacted the Legal Resources Foundation who replied:

I was just talking to the LDC (Law Development Commission) Chairperson who categorically stated that as of Friday there was no such change in the law. It could be the Police deciding that they will not fine people but take them to court as a way of deterring cell phone use while driving BUT this is not to mean the law has changed.

Hitting the forward key is much easier than taking the time to verify information but its critical.

It is a trait peculiar to politicians that evidence of abject poverty does not prick consciences in pursuit of their own happiness. The opulence flaunted by monarchs pales into insignificance when one recalls that monarchs are born blue bloods while politicians claim their wealth to election into public office ostensibly by claimed popular vote. Thus one has to think deep and taste the mood of very ordinary folks each time Zanu PF gets down to boogie in their annual shindigs. It is that time when the party that has claimed perpetual bankruptcy – both moral and financial – has its staunch loyalists lining up to make stupendous donations towards the hosting of these conferences. I have heard folks ask the moral philosophy questions such as why it has been found apt to give so generously to the party when constituencies claimed by the donor wallow in abject poverty, where that kind of wealth comes from, yet it also known how since independence, the line between party and the state has been blurred as Zanu PF used state resources as if they were their own.  And while other Zimbabweans curse, it has been baffling that other equally ordinary folks have taken these shindigs with such gusto reminiscent of the 1980 independence euphoria.

Saw some young men and women last weekend milling outside the Zanu PF offices in Bulawayo and a friend quipped: “do these people really believe in what they are doing?” But then it was a question that has been answered before: “as long sisidla” – “as long as we are we eating” – (getting something from Zanu PF). It has become one huge farce that young people thrown into the ranks of loafing by bad governance and “voodoo” economic policies can still proudly hold their heads up and claim their place within the party machinery, when at the same time they are not at it because they believe in anything it stands for but rather like vultures wanting to pounce and reap where they did not sow.

Every amoral young person who wants to be an instant money-bag and own a small mining claim knows they simply have to extol the virtues of Savior (some name huh?) Kasukuwere and they got it made. Forget hard work, forget scruples, coz these are virtues that do not apply here! What then are these young lions being bequeathed as a legacy they will one day have to pass on to other young lions? Should we start worrying then that Zimbabwe will have an unending cycle of bad people coming and going, seeing that any hopes of an MDC-T political dispensation remain but a mirage on the horizon?

Read the latest statement from the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) about the continued police harassment of their staff:

MMPZ Director Andrew Moyse taken for questioning by CID Law and Order Harare

MMPZ Project Coordinator Andrew Moyse was this morning (at about 1130hrs) picked up from the organisation’s offices by a team of five police officers from Harare’s Law and Order Section led by Detective Assistant Inspector Phiri. The officers were armed with a search warrant and proceeded to search MMPZ offices for “material which comprises of compact disks containing Gukurahundi information”. In terms of the search warrant, the police purport that they have reasonable grounds to believe that MMPZ officers may have acted in breach of section 31 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, that is, “publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the state”.

Pursuant to the search warrant, the police then took possession of 127 DVDs produced by MMPZ essentially calling upon the media to contribute to peaceful elections through fair, accurate and balanced coverage of election campaigns by Zimbabwean political parties. Whilst the police officers indicated that Andrew was not formally under arrest, MMPZ is concerned that the police may detain him to investigate a matter whose circumstances and gravity do not at all warrant pre-trial detention. MMPZ urges the police to grant Andrew Moyse all his pre-trial rights and not to harm his physical and psychological person for the entire period he is in their custody.

In the meantime, MMPZ advocacy officers Fadzai December and Molly Chimhanda, and MMPZ’s Public Information Rights Committee chairman for Gwanda Mr Gilbert Mabusa remain in police custody at Gwanda police station. They are being charged under POSA for failing to give notice of a meeting and also under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for “participating in gathering with intent to promote public violence, breaches of the peace or bigotry”.

MMPZ vigorously denies the allegations in both cases.

In April of this year, the Mass Public Opinion Institute conducted 20 Focus Group Discussions in 10 of Zimbabwe’s administrative provinces. The aim of the discussions was to assess public opinion about Zimbabwe’s future. The qualitative data from these discussions was compiled into a report titled ‘Phobia of Elections: Deep fear and Anxiety about Zimbabwe’s future’. Among the key findings of the report were that election induced fear was deep and pervasive in the country and nearly all focus group participants felt that the country was not yet ready for elections in 2011 and felt that Zimbabwe should either wait another two years or wait until a new Constitution was adopted.

In general the study found that the public mood was positive about the social and economic conditions at the time and people were generally optimistic about the future. Most participants in the study felt that life in Zimbabwe had improved because of the increased availability of goods, better employment opportunities and the relative peace as compared to the situation prevailing in 2008.  One man from Midlands province is quoted in the report as saying:

“I think our lives have changed politically speaking though not economically in Zimbabwe at least we are living in peace.”

However, the majority of focus group participants relayed their misgivings with regard to elections. Many were reported to believe that elections would bring a resurgence of politically motivated violence. A woman from Mashonaland West said:

“I am shaken at the mentioning of any election. I think of the brutality against humanity that some experienced during the election campaign…”

Another man from Manicaland Central said: “We know every time we approach elections, some people will move around threatening war if they lose elections.”

Participants who said elections made them fearful were asked to describe how big the problem of fear was in their communities. Some intimated that the problem of fear was so pervasive that they would consider supporting a ban. Others felt that they had to resort such drastic measures as confining  themselves to their homes and stop supporting the political party of their choice to protect themselves.

“You don’t even trust the person that you will be walking with. You don’t have that freedom to discuss certain things that you want to talk about and most of the times you have to be cautious and remain quiet.”

Asked how this situation could be improved in the event of another election, many participants felt that international observers could help to ameliorate the situation. Further, many felt that a new constitution and assurances regarding the security of the general populace would help to restore public confidence.