There appears to be something inherently wrong with everything concerning African politics. The more rhetoric is contradicted by reality, the better the job. While everybody agrees that Zimbabwe needs a literal quick-fix, there appears to be no “global” signposts about what ideal conditions have to set or met for this quick-fix to come to fruition.

We have on one hand the PM appealing to the end of the violent expropriation of white-owned commercial farms, on the other, the usual militants upping the ante making sure they loot whatever is left before anything emerges from this government that would bar lawlessness and effectively forced farm acquisitions and abductions – at least among other State-sponsored evils.

We still have the country’s highest courts refusing to grant bail to jailed activists, yet Mugabe calls Tsvangirai his brother, a brother who has demanded the release of those same activists and also his incarcerated supporters. So much for fraternal love!

The formation of the inclusive government is obviously something sceptics accepted grudgingly and one which inveterate optimists welcomed as a sure-fire solution to the country’s longstanding crisis.

But debate has raged about the Vic Falls shindig where a 100-day plan was adopted as a benchmark to be used to keep tabs on what needs to be done to move the nation forward. Intellectuals, academics, street know-it-alls had unkind words for the retreat that it was a waste of time and money. Turns out the World Bank met the tab, so then it wasn’t our money being spent why complain right? Wrong! Is this not the same WB that has set stringent conditions for the government concerning the re-opening of credit lines etc? The same people who always have harsh words against government spending.

Where the splashing of money occurs no matter how noble – if at all –  in a time and place where poverty is ubiquitous, surely questions are bound to be asked about the morality of it all. Why waste so much on an already bloated cabinet when it could have been put to better use considering cholera and dead everything? But that is now water under the bridge: they came, they talked, they ate, visited the John, they went. The nation watched, drooled, cried, and slept on empty stomachs. Harsh you say. Well, that’s the truth Ruth.

Perhaps these are just some of the issues that have been blurred and become inconsequential both in public and media discourse that people become conveniently amnesiac when the money is THROWN AT them not WITHHELD FROM them?

We were told it (the Vic Falls retreat) was designed as an opportunity for them to bond, James Bond. Whether it worked remains to be seen, but I always have a problem with people who always try to stretch and impose the Christian virtues on others, and for purposes of political expediency, appeal to superhuman responses and glibly preach “forgiveness” and “moving forward.”

Is the political Man easily inclined to that metanoia – perhaps Mandela, but it sure is a marvel to see men and women who were bludgeoned to near death grinning and rubbing shoulders – among other things – with their erstwhile tormentors all for good of the nation. Ain’t that saintly? But all this takes a lot of stretching of the faith of “ye of poor faith,” to understand really what is happening, yet we also know the fate of hypocrites as laid down by the Holy Book. So, as they would say, hypocrites beware! And here I am particularly thinking Zanu PF. Sorry. Speck in a brother’s eye, log in mine? Heard it all before folks, thanks!

I was taken aback when I read the Sunday Times of South Africa the other day where Finance Minister Trevor Manuel cracked the fiscal whip on public servants where he cut unnecessary spending on travel, hotel accommodation, restaurant bills etc. These are the chaps who seem to believe taxpayers’ money is manna from heaven to be spent whichever way they please. Reminded me of the old Sicilian saying: “public money is like Holy Water, everybody helps himself to it.”

But good thing there are men with enough scruples to stymie these palatial romps. The minister said the saved cash could go a long way in meeting the government’s more urgent social services obligations or something to that effect. This same thrift has been demanded by the Zim Finance Minister, but still we get pointers that African politics will always be tinged with that unpalatable attraction to extravagance in circumstances that demand utmost self-deprecation.

But then, the sentiment here has always been that one cannot be a politician and be poor at the same time. A poor politician, come on give us a break! It is obvious then that our own FM will have a tough task convincing men and women who since 1980 saw a seat in parliament as a passport to wild wealth to cut down on “eating” taxpayers’ money. Thus the dangling of the ostentatious Mercs to the very men and women who vehemently criticized these status creatures as the ultimate sign of the betrayal of the struggle by the founding party becomes for the ordinary Jack just that – a betrayal of the very principles that gave birth to Zimbabwe’s only real political opposition. But who cares?

Contradictions galore in our politics and one just has to forgive them who see this GPA thing as being another Africa hocus pocus meant to pacify restive citizens by means of perpetuating the status quo but disguising it as a people-centric experiment. If it doesn’t work – which it never will as we all know because we will still go to elections at an appointed time – then we can always point to the traditional fall guys and blame them for the fallout.

As some sages of yore observed, the human spirit is full surprises. We may wake up one day with Zanu PF deciding the MDC-T is sure indeed the only political entity with the wherewithal to rescue the country. Well, dream on, a voice whispers.

The question one has to ask is what are we likely to see at the expiration of the tenure of this inclusive government when polls are called and the MDC-T once again emerges victorious in those elections? Another Zanu PF rebuttal of the people’s popular vote, then another protracted impasse as political parties jockey over what is best for the country, then another inclusive government? When is it all going to end? Perhaps when there is no one to offer political opposition to the founding party? You must hear the frustration in the street. Listen to any civil servant and you will weep.

Someone said the other day that with the coming of the MDC into government in February life suddenly changed for the better, so imagine if free and fair elections were held in the 18 or 100 months they are scheduled, would Zanu PF stand a chance? These are questions crisis and poverty weary Zimbabweans ask – well at least in Bulawayo. They just want to get on with their lives without envying the politicians’ gravy.

I interviewed a vendor the other day and asked him what he most strongly felt should change in his life after the signing of the GPA and the subsequent formation of the tripartite government. He was brutally honest: “I just want a proper job in the factories. I have no respect selling razor blades in the streets and living in fear of police raids all the time.” There you have it gentlemen, go ahead, wear the fancy suits, drink the whisky, drive Mercs you benzis, have another retreat after the 100-days, again put benchmarks but for god’s sake remember that vendor. It ain’t easy being an African politician, just don’t make it even harder for yourselves by doing all the wrong things.

When they torture your mother
plant a tree
When they torture your father
plant a tree
When they torture your brother
and your sister
plant a tree
When they assassinate
your leaders
and lovers
plant a tree
When they torture you
too bad
to talk
plant a tree.

When they begin to torture
the trees
and cut down the forest
they have made
start another.

- Alice Walker, from Horses Make A Landscape Look More Beautiful

The planet tipped north
celebrating equinox in a pink flush at dawn and dusk

Already the sun sends shafts of rainbows through the crystal on the A-frame
and cold fingers reach out and touch
my cheek in the early morning the manikins have returned to the seed holder
the bush babies to the fruit tray
the tall summer  grasses begin to fall

It has been some time now, to find words to speak of the present

We watch our own chaos with a strange compassion
who else could understand all is the same all is different

The dictator still waves his fist
takes the last farms with brutal violence
arrests the opposition
controls the media
the army
the police

and the new ministers drive their Mercedes
in a show of wealth
in the face of the people who voted them in

there is no currency below 1 US$ (R10)
change is bartered and bargained
given in eggs or sweets

SADC tells the west to pay for our salvation
despite the evidence of continued abuse and corruption

Noel and his small family have been evicted from their one room
Wadzi and her children have been evicted from their cottage

rents are exorbitant as landlords try to make a living out of small rooms
hundreds of dollars beyond what is possible
dignified and hard working people back on the street – without jobs

the intensity and immediacy in which life unravels
shakes the system

so we wait in a stunned silence
still with dignity
where there should be devastation
still with humour
where there should be despair

counting the rainbows

Go to the Village Walk shopping centre in Harare’s Borrowdale suburb and the first thing you’ll see is Dexter Nyamainashe’s mobile wire sculpture.

The wire sculpture is large and intricate, and people can’t help but stop to have a closer look.

Which is part of the point. As much public installation as a work in progress, the machinery, as Nyamainashe calls it, is a mixture of heart-felt expression and deliberate attention seeking.

A composite of small, unique wire sculptures, Nyamainashe’s art is several stories high with sections covered in carpeting and bunting. Each sculpture within the piece depicts different scenes. Many are of rural African village life – pounding maize, collecting firewood, minding cattle. But others include experience from Western cultures including the US and Europe.

The mobile wire sculpture that Nyamainashe has been developing since 1994, sits on six wheels and can be dismantled into five sections. It features moving parts and flowing water. When asked where his ideas came from, or how he learnt to make the water flow and the sculptures move, Nyamainashe says, “It’s just like art of imagination. It’s always on plan. When you’re working on this it’s like you’re spirited by the Holy Spirit and you get possessed somewhere during the course of doing it.”

“The main theme is saying it’s all about uniting all people,” explained Nyamainashe in a recent interview. “I cannot see any reason why we should fight one another. We should get together and learn to share, equally and unify the world.”

He sees the purpose of his art primarily to convey a message of peace and harmony, and to get people talking. “We are seeing so many wars in other countries, worldwide. We don’t like situations whereby an innocent human being gets killed.”

But the wire sculpture is also helping Nyamainashe, 43, reach another one of his goals, to become an artist.

Life, as he describes it, is a ladder. And “in life,” says Nyamainashe, “you don’t climb five steps at one time. You start from the first, then the second. Can I say maybe I’m just on the third step. I’m still close to the ground.” Times have been hard for the artist. When he finished his O Levels in Bulawayo, he took up tree cutting. But after seven years, his business collapsed and he had financial problems. Visiting Harare, he saw artists selling their work to tourists on First Street. He had been good at art at school, and calls art his “inborn concept, from younghood up to this age.”

Nyamainashe rediscovered the talent he had with wire in school and started making wire sculptures to sell to tourists. And so, he says, “I injected myself into art.”

He gets his materials from people who see the wire sculpture and bring him materials for it. He also uses objects he collects from the ground and off cuts from places like carpet shops.

Nyamainashe has dreams for how he’d like to expand his wire sculpture. “Because so far, I have Africans, Whites and Jews. So that means there are many races left which are supposed to be put on so that the whole world is there together with all races. And then I can add onto it Hell and Heaven. And some other planets. Maybe I can work on a big moon, and put the astronauts doing something after coming from earth. Then it’s going to be a united universe at last.”

The mobile wire sculpture attracts attention – and, occasionally donations, or orders from tourists and locals. The café owner that his taken him in, and given him a permanent place to host his wire sculpture, was “anointed by God,” he says. On a good day, Nyamainashe might take home USD 30, on a bad day, next to nothing. With Zimbabwe’s economy in decline, and tourism in a slump, the bad days far outnumber the good.

But Nyamainashe holds out hope that his fortunes will change, that he’ll travel the world with his wire sculpture, and that he’ll earn enough money to marry and start a family.

As Bev pointed out a month or so ago, we’ve started getting these fantastic little occasional newsletters from MarkLives. They point out highlights in art, design and technology in South Africa. The MarkLives blog site isn’t exactly an example of compelling design, but the posts themselves invariably draw your attention to hidden treasures you’d never otherwise know about.

Even better, on the right hand sidebar of the blog site is a link to Mark magazine. Far more than your average pdf file, this is an interactive fully featured magazine experience. What’s more, the magazine content itself is stimulating, diverse, and interesting. The downside is it runs on a flash player type interface, and I shudder to think how much bandwidth it must chew. But where else will you find a reference to Vivienne Westwood’s Manifesto – Active resistance to propaganda (“We shall begin with a search for art, show that art gives culture and that culture is the antidote to propaganda.”) in the same place as an advertorial promoting recent University of Cape Town research on “The Feasibility of Mobile Technology as an Information Medium” (about how much more education needs to be done in South Africa to help mobile phone users there take better advantage of the communications potential the phones have) and this photo of the rubbish bins decorated by five Cape Town ad agencies in an urban design project.

To subscribe yourself for the MarkLives newsletters, email join-marklives [at] emessagex [dot] net.

I recall how President Mugabe and ZANU-PF invoked national sovereignty at every rally and in every campaign message and managed to retrieve the phrase from relative obscurity to national prominence. Virtually the entire nation had heard about sovereignty, albeit, without necessarily knowing what it meant. Sovereignty was indeed ZANU-PF’s mantra.  It was the magic word that would instantly send supporters into frenzy. ZANU-PF repeatedly warned the electorate to use their votes to defend Zimbabwe’s sovereignty and make sure that ‘Zimbabwe will never be a colony again.’

By sovereignty President Mugabe and ZANU-PF probably meant the right to be left to do as they please with Zimbabwe without the international community being able to say or do anything. On a number of occasions President Mugabe publicly declared something along these lines, “Blair, keep your England and l will keep my Zimbabwe.” And recently, President Mugabe (at some function during the worst cholera crisis in Zimbabwe’s history) simply and matter-of-factly declared, “Zimbabwe is mine…”

Now it appears all this talk about national sovereignty was disingenuous; meant only to hoodwink the (quite often) gullible electorate. At present all talk about sovereignty has suddenly become irrelevant and has been replaced by pleas for international assistance to fund Zimbabwe’s economic recovery program. A country that elevates and celebrates sovereignty now has to rely on international aid to pay its security forces and diplomatic missions (along with everything else). Government coffers are empty and l am reliably informed that Zimbabwe’s diplomats and diplomatic staff have not been paid a cent in ages!  Money to pay the diplomats, soldiers, police, prison officers and CIO is expected to come from international aid! The so-called defenders of Zimbabwe’s sovereignty will get their salaries from international donors. At least ZANU-PF has finally realized that people do not eat sovereignty. Or maybe this is a new form of national sovereignty?

The security forces must now realize that in a globalised world, there is no such thing as absolute sovereignty where a country can do as it pleases without some action from the international community. They must also realize that, since the international community is paying their salaries, they have a legitimate reason to expect the forces to conduct themselves in a professional manner. Zimbabwe has a responsibility to act responsibly and the international community expects each State to do its duty. Without a serious commitment to a respect for human rights by Zimbabwe, the international community runs the risk of being accomplices in human rights abuses in Zimbabwe when they pay those who perpetrate a reign of terror.

And finally, to the Honourable Prime Minister, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai, please do not prematurely declare that Zimbabwe has reformed before there is evidence in hand. I hope your attitude to ZANU-PF is not in any way being influenced by the saying: “if you can’t beat them, join them.” The struggle for democracy, freedom and human rights did not end with the consummation of the inclusive government, it is just beginning. And so the struggle continues unabated.