ZimRights Director, Mr. Okay Machisa was arrested yesterday, Tuesday 23 March 2010 at Gallery Delta. He was in the process of finalising arrangements for the launch of an art exhibition entitled ‘/Reflections’/. Following the intervention by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights Mr. Okay Machisa was released from Harare Central Police Station.

At a press conference today, Irene Petras, Director of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, described the conditions for Mr. Machisa’s arrest and the holding of the photographs in the following press statement:

The Officer Commanding Harare Central District, *Chief Superintendent G Gwangava,* advised that he had ‘/not approved’/ the launch and gave Mr. Machisa seven days to provide ‘/letters of consent from individuals and organisations’/ appearing in the photographs, failing which he threatened to prefer unspecified criminal charges against Mr. Machisa.

It is ZLHR’s considered legal opinion that the seizure and retention of the photographs by the police is unlawful and unjustifiable, as are the threats of criminal prosecution and the attempts to prevent the invitation-only launch from proceeding.

Such actions are solely calculated to instil fear and paralysis within civil society and to prevent free assembly, association and expression around national events and processes. For too long, civil society has been excluded by political parties and state institutions and actors from participating – as is its fundamental right – in issues around governance, national healing and reconciliation, and other matters which are in the national interest.

For this reason, ZLHR has been instructed by ZimRights to file – and has indeed filed – an Urgent Chamber Application demanding the immediate return of the photographs. The application also challenges the unjustifiable attempt to prevent the launch from taking place today, and the threats to prefer criminal charges, which, in our considered legal opinion, have no basis in law.

Mr. MacDonald Lewanika, co-ordinator for Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition expressed civic society’s concern regarding the unlawful arrest and harassment of civic activists by state security agents. These actions have escalated in the last few months. Other ZimRights officials as well as Mr. Machisa have received threats via cell phone and email. In addition, the Secretary General of the General Agriculture and plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe has also recently experienced harassment and intimidation from state agents. Mr Lewanika stressed that this behaviour was unwarranted and unjustifiable. Crisis In Zimbabwe Coalition is working to bring these matters to the attention of the mediators in the dialogue process around Zimbabwe’s political agreement, including President of South Africa Jacob Zuma. When asked about engaging the Ministers of Home Affairs in this issue he said:

“I think that the question of local remedies in Zimbabwe in situations like this, and this kind of behaviour by the police shows that as a place where you can run to [for protection] they are not an option. This idea of even engaging the Co-Ministers of Home Affairs Mr. Giles Mutsekwa and his counterpart Mr. Kembo Mohadi, is something that even while we do it, we think that that is no way for a country to operate. You can’t ask for ministerial intervention every time that something happens. It shows us that the problems we are trying to deal with are more fundamental than what we are looking at. Which is why this is important. The exhibition itself sought to raise the issues around the conduct of the police services. The police need to conduct themselves in a manner that ensures that such actions [intervention by high ranking members of government] are not necessary.”

ZHLR is currently waiting to hear from the Judge President, and has asked for the photos to be returned. The launch, which Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is expected to attend, will go on as planned.

A week ago Carl J Ncube announced to a press conference that he would be spending a week living on First Street in Harare to raise public awareness about how piracy affects the local music industry. The public response as compared to the online response was disappointing.

“I didn’t expect people in Zimbabwe not to respond to something as simple as moral support. All we’re asking them to do is sign and say that they appreciate Zimbabwean music. That even though they can’t afford to buy it, and they’re burning it, all we needed was just moral support, to say thank you, I’m burning your music, but thank you, I appreciate it.”

Very little has been made in the local press of Carl’s Street Campaign. According to Carl, junior entertainment reporters have submitted their stories about his campaign to The Herald’s editors. However they (the editors) did not feel that Carl’s Campaign, and by extension the welfare of local artists, was newsworthy.

As the country’s most widely read daily newspaper, I think The Herald has failed in its mandate to inform the public about our various entertainment artists and industries. I have seen columns and editorials indicting Roki and other artists for riding on combis, and lowering their status with fans. But, as the state media, they do nothing to promote local artists save for selling advertising space. Why was there no coverage for M’afriq’s last album, or even a profile of Stunner and the success that he has made of his career? And what about the underground music scene and fledgling artists who are yet to be discovered by the public?

I know the articles much like the one covering Carl’s campaign are written, but what use are they if they are not published? The Herald’s entertainment editors seem to only be interested in the type of journalism that destroys typified by the vitriolic and unsubstantiated article carried by The Herald last year about former Big Brother housemate Munyaradzi Chidzonga. The entertainment department of that paper should partially shoulder the blame for the state of our local music and entertainment industries.

It’s no wonder then that Sam Mtukudzi’s last performance was to an estimated gathering of 20 people and it is only now, in having passed away that he becomes newsworthy. Ironically, public sentiment about young artists can be summed up in what Carl was told on the street:

“People are saying its better if they just die, it’s better if they get broke, and we don’t need them. They’d prefer to buy and listen to Little Wayne.”

Even as the son of the virtually deified Oliver Mtukudzi, Sam only had a handful of articles published about him in The Herald since his career began with the release of his first album Rumwe Rimwe in 2007. Compare this to the media coverage received by Jamaican artist Sizzla, who was in Zimbabwe briefly for the President’s Birthday. He was featured in The Herald everyday for a week, and had a full double page spread on the weekend. As Carl rightly pointed out, we have become a nation that supports other people’s music industries.

“It really upsets me to see artists quitting their jobs. We know Zimbabwean artists have gone into industries like porn and prostitution. They’ve gone and changed careers, and at this rate, we won’t have any music. What we [as Zimbabweans] continue to do though is to build [other people's] industries. So people like Sizzla get paid forty thousand to perform in Zimbabwe, he goes back to Jamaica, he builds up ten studios and brings up fifty more artists, then those fifty artists start growing and then what do we do? We invite them again and give them another forty thousand. We’re the biggest donors to international industries.”

Carl will be on First Street for another 24 hours. I’m afraid his campaign has done more to reveal the negative and negligent attitudes of the State media and in turn the public, than what it was originally intended to do. That is, give our beleaguered and beggared artists the encouragement that they need.

Self interview by Mgcini Nyoni, Poet, Playwright and freelance writer based in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. With poetry published in FIRE IN THE SOUL 100 poems for human rights (New Internationalist / Amnesty International UK 2009), Intwasa Poetry (Amabooks, Bulawayo 2008), Poetry for Charity Vol 2 (Nigeria 2008). Creative director of Poetry Bulawayo www.poetrybulawayo.webnode.com.

Q: Why poetry?
A: Poetry liberates you. There is no right or wrong way of writing poetry, really. I remember Loyd Robson saying you can paint a picture and call it poetry.

Q: Sounds confusing.
A: Only if you don’t understand poetry. I don’t appreciate hip-hop so I was a bit confused when a hip-hop person was trying to explain that there is good shit and bad shit.

Q: But hip-hop is poetry.
A: What aspect of life is not poetry?

Q: What inspires your poetry?
A: Life. Like if I am thing that I would love bacon with my bread and I can’t afford bacon; It sort of formulates into a poem, like:

they are eating
bacon and eggs
in the state house
The man in rags
eating burnt bread . . .

Q: That’s political.
A: Life is political. Everything can be traced back to a politician either doing well or messing up. Most times they are screwing up.

Q: Is there real hope for poetry?
A: The numbers of artists who write poetry is increasing. And because everyone is literate, there is a lot of self-expression using poetry. Poetry Bulawayo is trying to give all these people a platform.

Q: There is a sort of rebelliousness associated with poetry.
A: Not really. There are people who always take things too far in anything: eating, sex, poetry…

Q: Last word.
A: Brace yourselves; the poetry movement is about to take over the world.

Mind blast; what artists want in the new constitution was the title of a recent Book Café forum that was calling artists to come and air their views and contribute to the industry that has so much potential in our country. But there were no artists to be found much to my disappointment. The artists that were there did not even fill my hand, they were just a spot of them in the venue that so fills with artists when there are events like the Sisters Open Mic and Bocapa just to name a few.

I really must repeat that I was disappointed. The place should have been buzzing with artists; we should have failed to fit in that space but eeish. One other thing I noticed is how late the discussion started, almost an hour late. In my mind I was thinking that if the Arts Industry is to be taken seriously then we must start being professional. The reason why people do not understand us artists is that we have stepped up to the plate that labels us as shady and doing it because we enjoy it and not because it’s a profession.

One speaker said that artists take it for granted that the society knows that art is a true expression of our culture. How are we going to change people’s minds when we don’t want to change our own? I tell you if artists had come to that discussion many could have left with a different mentality and start to place real value on what they do and whom they are.

One speaker described artists as practical people and I agree with him one hundred percent but that’s not how it looked at the meeting. A lot of artists were not practical enough to come to a forum that sought to find out from them what they want so that it is worth their while to be in the arts sector.

Enough of the disappointments though. I left early so I guess I too acted like a typical artist leaving before I would at least hear what other artists want from the constitution. One thing that one of the speakers talked about was that artists want all the rights, liberties on expressing their religion, views, tradition, identity and aspirations. I think many artists should have been there to applaud and nod their heads and say indeed that’s it, that’s what we want.

Only serious democrats must have celebrated the parliamentary boycott by more than half of MDC-T legislators on Tuesday 2 March 2010, against their leader’s call for the lifting of sanctions. For one, this incident is pregnant with meaning for our fumbling democracy and besides, the honourable members have a right to react in the manner they see fit.

This understanding could have been marred by the ZBC News reporter who had gone there to cover the story, but decided to give the nation his opinions instead, about the members of parliament involved in the fray. The language used against the legislators was harsh and to the effect that they were useless and did not deserve to be members of parliament.

It is clear this incident has ruffled a lot of feathers. Very few people will realize that it might not have been Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s wish to call for the lifting of sanctions, at least not for now. Even his speech suggests that it is a case of somebody holding a gun onto his head.

Certainly everything proves the matter is not top priority on MDC-T’s agenda. Nobody knows for sure that much has been done in breaking down the old order. There is still a lot of intimidation, and suspicion. What ZANU PF will have to realize though, is that while MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai has played his role, even against such stern rebuke from his subordinates in the Global Political Agreement, it is the ZANU PF party now that will have to do most of the enormous work by providing sufficient, authentic evidence that all the suspicions are false and reports of acts of a criminal nature are without a basis, with guarantees that indeed there is no return to the party’s known terrorist ways.

And above all ZANU PF will have to convince their counterparts in government that they are doing something that deserves MDC-T support in calling for the urgent lifting of sanctions. It is ZANU PF that will have to mollify the aggrieved scores of MDC-T legislators whose memories are still fresh and thus are not ready to see things the ZANU PF way.

And to the honourable members of parliament who were brave enough to walk-out, you have made democracy work for the country. It is important to emphasize the vital point that there are thousands of Zimbabweans out there, who do not feel, like you do, that ZANU PF is tame enough to allow for the removal of the sanctions and for the holding of a free and fair democratic election. A lot more has to be done in stemming the levels of human rights abuse,  still prevalent in our society including giving Zimbabweans a truly democratic environment.

What we need not lose sight of is the fact that those whom we are calling upon to remove the so called sanctions were given compelling, graphic evidence that was used in the crafting of the legislation that put in place the said embargo.

The Government of National Unity will have to come up with an equally compelling dossier of facts that proves beyond any reasonable doubt that Zimbabweans are actively involved in the full implementation of the terms of the Global Political Agreement without a fear or favour.

But still, the situation has put a lot of pressure on ZANU PF, to prove to the international community that the party will never sink to the same stinking levels that it sank to in the years leading to the 2008 harmonized elections. ZANU PF will have to undergo a serious public sanitization exercise to rid itself of the stink that has associated with its image, if it is serious about courting the support of the electorate in the next election. For who, in his right frame of mind, would vote for a party that beats up its citizens, maims them, or even kills them for harboring views different to its own.

Unfortunately ZANU PF is not capable of change. The party and its leadership will not apologize to Zimbabweans for what it has put them through since it assumed power at independence, in 1980. It will not apologize to the people of Matebeleland and indeed the entire country for the horrors of the Gukurahundi genocide, not even for the untold human suffering caused by the destruction of people’s homes in the crazy state sponsored Murambatsvina program, or that of the economy or even the orgy of violence millions of Zimbabweans were subjected to in the run up to the 2008 disputed election.

Zimbabweans do not know that these people are sorry, or that they wont let these things happen again. A lot of people are still reportedly being harassed for making public their opinions. Public space is still being used exclusively for ZANU PF propaganda. Corruption and the politics of patronage is still the order of the day. The public is not convinced it is the sanctions that are solely to blame or that we should be crying about. ZANU PF will have to account for the collective administrative incompetence that led to the collapse of the once jewel of Southern Africa. And the party’s elite will have to explain their apparent affluence against the state’s bankruptcy. Somebody must be guilty!

No, we do not know that the Government of National Unity has done enough, in implementing the terms of the Global Political Agreement. As such, we cannot all be seen to be calling for the removal of targeted sanctions whose real impact on the masses remains public speculation.

Zimbabwe Democracy Now releases weekly news updates which summarise key news developments in Zimbabwe.

Highlights from their latest issue include:

• State-owned Air Zimbabwe is to retrench a further 468 workers this year after it laid off 700 workers last year. The airline has also had to ground two of its three Chinese aircraft due to a serious shortage of spare parts and debt to the plane’s suppliers.
• Mugabe and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono have reportedly differed on the indigenisation law, with Gono arguing that the act discourages investors. He has also said the law is being created by greedy Zanu-PF officials who want to grab companies for free, in the same way that they appropriated white-owned farms.
• Zimbabwe’s largest auto assembler, Willowvale Motor Industries, is on the verge of collapse due to a US$3.4 million debt to its principal supplier in Japan.
• The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe said prices of basic commodities rose 20.5 percent from January to February, placing pressure on low-income families.
• Zimbabwe’s government is earning only US$100 million per month, 65 percent of which goes to wages, Finance Minister Tendai Biti told said on Thursday. He also said Western donors are ready to cancel Zimbabwe’s US$6 billion foreign debt if the country declares itself a heavily indebted country, but Zanu-PF is firmly opposed to the idea.
• Mines minister Obert Mpofu said Zimbabwe would pull out of the Kimberley Process (KP) if the diamond regulatory body finds the country has failed to comply with its regulations. Mpofu said Zimbabwe would continue to sell its gems to diamond trade markets.
• Zanu-PF has proposed in its nationality programme that only children born in the Diaspora be allowed dual citizenship. If this regulation is adopted, it could affect Zimbabweans living abroad who have taken up foreign citizenship. This has been interpreted as a method of stripping diasporeans of their nationality and thereby reducing voter numbers.

Read these valuable bulletins each week.