Utter butter

Bitter Biti knows better
Where his bread is buttered
What is uttered behind the shutters,
He should know, also matters

It’s a shame that with all the revenue collected through tollgate fees, vehicle licenses, abnormal load fees, and the fuel levy, our roads in Zimbabwe are still in a bad state. Along one of Harare’s major roads, Second Street Extension, which connects many suburbs and leads to Mazowe and Bindura, a ‘double’ speed limit sign exists. The speed limit sign pictured has been there for the past years. Its evident that due to the nature of high traffic on the road there was a need to increase the speed limit to 70, but seriously … writing the number 7 on top of the existing number 6 is very disturbing. This illustrates the abuse of funds. Under Kubatana’s fix.this campaign, these are the many little things we would like relevant authorities to address in our communities.

By God’s Grace

The one with a perforated face
Could soon have pride of place
If only the coming election
Escapes yet another condemnation
Here stands we, only by God’s Grace (wink)

When we first moved into our offices we were a bit glum about all the ugly partitions. But we’re not the types to suffer stuff we don’t like so we engaged a few creative schoolgirls from a Harare high school and asked them to paint whatever they liked (we told them a bit about our project) on grass mats, which we then hung on the partitions. So the partitions are still with us but they’re covered in Made in Zimbabwe art.

Here you go:

View from a Kubatana desk

It’s so sad to read some remarks that the President of Zambia makes in public. During his first days I used to give him the benefit of the doubt that the media had just caught his out of context words and that he was more on the humorous side.

I have picked two remarks made by Sata, which I found to be rather disturbing.

At the Rio+20 world conference on climate change and sustainable development in Rio, Brazil, President Sata who was inviting delegates to the United Nations World Tourism Conference next year had this to say:

“Come to Zambia and see what we have. We will waive some visa requirements and give you a visa on arrival. We have enough water for everyone, including the Greeks and Italians. We have wild animals and there is a lot more to see. The only thing we do not have in abundance is whiskey and that is because whiskey pollutes the environment.” Read story here

On a visit to Zimbabwe to officially open the 53rd Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in Bulawayo, and having arrived at State House for a State Banquet, President Mugabe asked the First Ladies Grace Mugabe and Dr Christine Kaseba to join them for a photo shoot. But President Sata retorted: “Let them wait. After all they joined us later in our lives.” Read story here

Does Zambia have a clown in their state house?