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GALZ and Katswe Sisterhood will be hosting a photo exhibition at the Alliance Francaise on the 1st to the 2nd of December. Tinzwei is a photo voice initiative carried out by a diverse group of Harare women aged 19 to 43 sharing the experiences of their struggles and successes.

Today’s Newsday reports the story of a 20 year old teacher, Fanuel Dube, who ‘proposed love’ to his fifteen year old pupil and impregnated her.

The reporter writes:

In his defence, Dube claimed that though he knew the girl was still doing primary level of education, he believed she was grown up due to her big frame and big breasts.

Judging from the sentence for what is statutory rape, Filabusi magistrate Shillah Nazombe, must have been sympathetic to the poor man’s plight. After all, it must take superhuman strength to resist the pert breasts and firm buttocks of an underage girl. The man was given a 20 month sentence, 6 months of which were suspended for five years on condition of good behaviour, and the remaining 14 months were commuted to 490 hours of community service where no doubt there will be other mature looking underage girls.

Fanuel Dube’s case is not unique. Several studies and reports conducted by the Girl Child Network, USAID and other organisations observe that sexual exploitation of girls aged between 9 and 16 is rife in the education sector. The studies found that the perpetrators were most often young male teachers aged below thirty with less than five years of teaching experience.

The awarding of broadcasting radio licences to Zimpapers and Supa Mandiwanzira’s AB Communications’ Zi Radio is another step in limiting media space to private broadcasting companies.

In today’s Daily News it is reported that:

“The two radio stations are owned by companies with links to Zanu PF.

Zimpapers has for long been accused by civil society and the two MDC parties of being biased towards Zanu PF and for promoting hate speech through its various newspaper titles.

On the other hand AB Communications owner, Mandiwanzira is a known Zanu PF member. He was recently introduced at a Zanu PF rally in Nyanga North as a potential parliamentary candidate for the party in forthcoming elections.”

Such an inspiring film trailer.

We Are Many is a documentary about the never-before-told story of the biggest protest in history, on 15 February 2003, and its legacy, through the Arab Spring to the Occupy Movement. The day that saw an estimated 30 million people in over 700 cities around the world, gave birth to a new global social movement.

You could help it get to theatres in February 2013 . . . Find out more

I just saw this tweet from SW Radio Africa,

and it reminded me of something I heard in the office today.

There is so much back and forth media coverage about this Morgan Tsvangirai marriage. I don’t know if there was lobola, damages, or none of the above. But either way, if he’s the Prime Minister, and he can’t even manage the information going out about his personal life, how does he expect to run the country?