From the Parliamentary Roundup Bulletin No. 41 – 2011 published by the Southern African Parliamentary Support Trust:

Dissolution of the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) Board

Hon. Settlement Chikwinya gave notice to introduce a motion in the House of Assembly calling for the dissolution of the BAZ Board and the cancellation of the radio licences that it recently awarded to Zimpapers talk Radio and AB Communications. He said the BAZ Board was improperly constituted and ultra vires the Broadcasting Services Amendment Act (2007) which provides for the appointment of BAZ Board by the President in consultation with the parliamentary Standing Rules and Orders Committee (SROC). However, the current BAZ Board was unilaterally appointed by the Minster of Media, Information and Publicity, Hon. Webster Shamu.

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?