The Parliament of Zimbabwe is attempting to make changes to the Electoral Act (Chapter 2:13). The Electoral Amendment Bill, 2011, currently before Parliament seeks to make several changes to the existing law with a view to promoting free and fair elections. Dr Alex Magaisa last week presented a lecture on the analysis of the Electoral Amendment Bill. This event was organised by Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN).

Alex, who is a lecturer at the University of Kent in the Law School, broke the Bill into simple and edible modules for all to understand. Often these bills come in many pages, filled with legal terminology that will not be easily understood by the majority of citizens. Among other things, Dr Magaisa emphasised the need to remove deceased or absent voters from the voters roll. A report published earlier this year by SAIRR indicated that persons listed on the voters roll are questionable as some of them their ages go over 109 and many were all born surprisingly on the same day.

Dr Magaisa said that in the Bill there was a provision for a mechanism to allow for the removal of the dead, and those absent from the country. It does so by allowing the relatives of the deceased, or absent voter to require the Registrar’s Office to remove the persons upon proof. He said however that people need incentives to go forth and report.

For example in Mozambique they ran a campaign in which relatives that managed to inform the Electoral authorities of their deceased were given state assisted burials. Dr Magaisa put forward his own suggestion, which he deemed to be more practical in the Zimbabwean context. He said that the Registrar’s Office has records of deceased persons since it is a prerequisite for a burial order to be produced before one is buried.

In his words, “There should be a process of inter office exchange of information, so that upon notification of death to the Registrar General’s Office this information should be passed on to the Commission which will then effect the removal of the person”.

This is one of the many issues that need to be addressed to ensure credible elections in Zimbabwe.

Will a stone or a poppy sprout between my shoulders, will the animals caged inside me escape, will I doze off and betray my limbs, will I make plugs out of dirt to stopper my lungs and lie on the black stone of obedience, will I anoint myself with engine oil and stuff my throat with yes, yes, no, no?
Adonis, from Desire Moving Through Maps of Matter

After being chosen to represent Zimbabwe on Big Brother Africa Wendall Parson did not enjoy a fair share of media publicity like his fellow housemate Vimbai Mutinhiri. Barely 2 months ago The Sunday Mail published an article entitled “Who is Wendall?” Instead of supporting our Zimbabwean representative the paper went on to publish a racially charged article questioning Wendall’s citizenship.

Despite the racist reporting, the people of Zimbabwe went on to prove that our country is made up of people of different backgrounds. Since Wendall is white the Sunday Mail reporter just assumed he is foreign only to be proved wrong with positive response and support Wendall got from fellow Zimbabweans. The smear campaign and bad journalism actually propelled Wendall Parson to victory much to the surprise of the reporter. We have so many Zimbabweans who are flying our flag high representing the country in various activities regardless of race, colour or creed.

There is a crack in everything: that’s how the light gets in.
- Leonard Cohen

Notice the S.M.S. message in his hand—the tools of social networking, especially Facebook and Twitter, were useful for massing people and outwitting the police during the revolution.

Check out Wendell Steavenson’s New Yorker article on revolutionary graffiti in Cairo. There’s a really great slide show of the street art that has emerged all over Cairo. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Amid the cacophony of protest and debate since the revolution—which I wrote about for the magazine this week—there has been one method of expression that has regularly stopped me in the middle of Cairo traffic so that I can get out my iPhone camera: graffiti. (See the slide show above.) It’s suddenly all over Cairo, on schools, on telephone exchange boxes, on empty walls and corrugated fencing around building sites. Daubs of slogans, finely rendered panoramas of Tahrir Square, and, increasingly, the kind of biting satire and subversion that Banksy made famous.

Student Intern: Institute for Young Women Development
Deadline: 7 August 2011

The Institute for Young Women Development is a young-women development oriented organization working in Mashonaland Central with its head office in Bindura. The organization is inviting applications from suitably qualified individuals to assume internship within the organization. The successful individual will be based at the head office in Bindura.

Expectations:

The incumbent will be expected to contribute towards physical implementation of projects aimed at empowering young women around Mashonaland Central and will also be expected to carry out other assignments as may be delegated by the Director or management.

Qualifications and skills:

* Minimum of a diploma in the social sciences/related fields or students seeking attachment for social work/related fields
* Knowledge on facilitating sustainable community centered development projects with rural communities.
* Good communication and report writing skills.
* Strong organizing, planning and management skills.
* Computer proficiency
* Excellent oral and written communication skills

If you meet the above criteria, please forward your current CV and relevant certificates via e-mail to: youngwomeninstitute [at] gmail [dot] com or alternatively submit hard copies to Institute for Young Women Development, 9 Matuka Building, Chenjerai Hunzvi Street, Bindura.