Please read this press statement from Rooftop Promotions and email them a solidarity message to help keep them positive.

I hope this mail finds you well. As the “Rituals” 10 member team (8 artists, 1 driver and 1 Tour Manager), which was arrested at Nhedziwa Business Centre in Cashel Valley on 5 January 2011 and detained for two nights before being released by Mutare Magistate’s Court, is set to appear before the Mutare Magistrate’s Court on 17 March 2011 being charged with “criminal nuisance” under the Criminal Law (Codification & Reform) Act, we appeal to artists, cultural and civic activists to issue solidarity messages with the 10 as they stand for freedom of artistic expression.

According to filed papers, the group allegedly “intentionally and unlawfully made noise or disturbance and beating drums in a public place performing drama reminiscent of political disturbabces of June 2008 elections. The drama incited the affected members of the public to revive their differences”.

“This is clear suppression of our artistic work in promoting national  healing and reconciliation, through a play that has been seen by the  Organ on National Healing Reconciliation and Integration and has been approved by the Board of Censors, and discussing an issue (political violence) which the GPA and its principals acknowledge that it needs to be addressed. We are disturbed but not discouraged or disheartened, by this especially considering that we hold a valid censorship certificate from a board which falls under the same ministry (Home Affairs) and theatre is one of the exemptions under POSA.

This is a piece of art nominated for National Arts Merits Awards 2010 Outstanding Theatrical production which is meant to promote community driven healing and reconciliation and has opened constructive dialogue in communities in a 100 performances tour that began in mid- December last year and ended on 22 February 2011 having covered Harare, Manicaland, Midlands, Bulawayo, Matebeleland North, Mashonaland West and Central provinces” says Daves Guzha, Producer of Rooftop Promotions.

“Rituals” is written by Stephen Chifunyise after going through a research on community approaches to healing and reconciliation, directed and produced by Daves Guzha, featuring arguably Zimbabwe’s best theatre talent who include: Mandla Moyo, Zenzo Nyathi, Joyce Mpofu, Chipo Bizure, Silvanos Mudzvova and Rutendo Chigudu with music from Joshua Mwase and Norman Kamema. It is a story told in panoramic fashion chronicling how community initiated cultural solutions meet with serious challenges which either prevent their conclusive enactment or achievement of the desired results.

The cast stood for their artistic freedom and freedom of expression and now its time for us to stand with them by sending your solidarity messages rooftop [at] zol [dot] co [dot] zw or posting them on our facebook account: Rooftop Zimbabwe Group or on Twitter:- rooftopTITP or website:- www.rooftoppromotions.org

If you’re living in Zimbabwe and have good experience in communications and media, why not try for this . . .

Communications Support: Training and Research Support Centre
Deadline: 25 March 2011

This work is being implemented in the Training and Research Support Centre.

Aims: The aim of the consultancy is to provide support to communications work to the training and research activities of the organization, and specifically to:
i. Produce specific written training materials
ii. Participate in relevant meetings to support the development of communications materials including at community level
iii. Produce simplified or target-specific information and media materials from technical reports produced by the organization
iv. Redesign or reformat existing materials and reports produced by the organization to be suitable for policy, technical and community audiences
v. Provide mentoring, skills and peer review support to personnel in the organization to improve the quality of reports produced.

The work will be part time for about 5-10 working days per month over the period April-October 2011. It is envisaged that there will be additional work in April/May (about 20 days) and in July (about 20 days).

Qualifications of the consultant:
- Graduate or Masters level qualification in a field of relevance to communications and media sciences
- Proven experience for at least five years in communications work with technical, official and/ or community audiences
- Proven ability to design and produce communications materials (reports, briefs, leaflets, posters, DVDs) for a range of audiences, from policy and technical to community level . Proven writing skills
- Ability to use electronic and internet communication

Time period: A part time contract between April 1 2011 and October 30 2011, with options for renewal. The work will be based on outputs / deliverables and the consultant will organize their own time.

Conditions: Specific deliverables and their timing will be set in the consultancy contract and the consultant will organize their work schedule independently to meet these time frames. The consultant should have access to his/her own laptop and internet/ email communications, although facilities at TARSC may be made available on an ad hoc basis during the consultancy. The fee payable to the consultant is negotiable.

Applicants: Applicants should submit electronically to admin [at] [dot] org

- A letter outlining the skills and experience offered to this work and an indication of the expected daily fee rate.
- A full CV
- Two samples of media and communications materials on which the consultant was lead author.

The successful applicant will be notified in end March for interviews and the contract is projected to commence in beginning April 2011.

By the end of my graduation day from Zimbabwe’s National University of Science and Technology (NUST), the 22nd of October 2010, all I could say was this was one of my best days ever! Just to see my siblings, relatives and friends with these huge smiles because I had made them proud made me feel like a little princess. I felt honoured to have His Excellency President Robert Mugabe cap me. I couldn’t even hide my smile when I heard him say, “Congratulations”. However, in the midst of celebrating and having fun my mind went back on a journey 5 months ago.

Monday the 31st of June 2010.

Exams were scheduled to start on that day at 9.00am. As usual students had spent the whole month, week and the weekend preparing for papers they were going to sit for. Not known to them was the fact that they weren’t going to do so. As students approached the examination hall, to their disbelief they were told that ‘only students with zero balance statements’ for their accounts were allowed to enter the examination room. Which meant one had to have cleared all their fees.

Students were baffled. I mean there was total chaos. Per semester fees range from $315 to $815 depending on the programme and whether one is in the convectional or parallel class.

A very few ran to the bursar’s office to collect their statements. I remember that only 10 students wrote their exam for a department in my faculty that had an exam on that particular day. Of the 10, many confessed that they only managed to enter by mere luck because the guard did not closely look at their statements. A few also managed to get in one and half hours late for a three-hour paper.

The majority, who did not make it into the examination room for their exams, stood by the entrance gate hoping for a miracle of some sort to take place. When they realised that nothing was going to happen, as the university’s authorities and security insisted they were not going to enter, they cried. It was so pathetic to see them and others, myself included, who did not have an exam that day cry at university. As final year students we wept, these were our last exams before graduating and we did not want to have our stay prolonged at the university.

All the time spent at university – for some four to seven years (depending on the programme) – seemed to be going down the drain just when you could smell the coffee.

Here’s a bit of background on fee paying at university.  For final year students the situation was bad. In the first semester fees had to be paid in Zimdollars and in the second semester dollarisation had taken place which meant we had to pay fees in foreign currency. That we did. However, when we got to campus to commence our first semester for our final year we were told that semester which we had paid Zimdollars for had been dollarised which meant we had to pay US dollars for it! The case was taken to court and the university authorities requested that students bring receipts showing payments made in Zimdollars together with their registration forms. Some students had lost their receipts and upon going to their respective departments to get their registration forms, some departments resorted to playing hide and seek with the papers.

I didn’t have an examination that day, but still my first exam was on Tuesday the following day at 9.00am. I got my statement from the bursar’s office stating that I owed the university US$485.00 which meant I had 24 hours to get that money and pay. You cry but you reach a time when you realise that tears won’t bring you anything. My parents are late, so I had to get in touch with my sisters and a few immediate relatives. They were all similarly shocked and ran around, but still they weren’t going to be able to get the money to me before 9.00am the following day. Luckily for me I was renting a house with first year students, my younger brother included, and their exams were scheduled to start two weeks later and because they were first years they were not implicated in the Zimdollar saga. Thus I borrowed money from them and also from a friend. I went and paid the balance before the exam with borrowed money, which meant I was in debt.

The following day police were all over campus and this was really intimidating. As I got my ‘zero balance statement’, I made my way to the examination room. A room, which is usually full, was literary empty. It was painful to see that the candidate, who sits behind you or in front or beside you, did not make it. I felt the coldest breeze pass over me not only because the room is exceptionally cold but also from having fellow students absent. We waited for nearly an hour hoping that other candidates would join us but only a few joined in after that hour had passed.

When it was time to start writing the exam, I realised my mind was blank. This was because instead of preparing for the exam the previous day, I had spent my time worrying and in tears. I had also spent my time visiting relatives around town, ‘begging’ for money. I had spent the day recounting the few notes I had and rechecking my statement to see if any miracle had taken place. I had spent the day with my phone in my hand, calling this person and the next.

Thus on my graduation I was over the moon not only because I had managed to endure the sleepless nights of reading and working on a dissertation, but because I had managed to sit for exams. Its sad to know that some students had to defer their studies because of the very short notice we were given to clear the fees balance.

I not only left the university on graduation day with a BSc degree but also with survival skills.

This moving statement from ZINASU for International Women’s Day shares some of the challenges facing women in tertiary institutions in Zimbabwe:

It is now common knowledge that in Zimbabwe there is an upsurge in enrolment. Which is not bad in itself but the problem comes when the welfare of the students is forsaken, to be particular the female students who are the most vulnerable as compared to their male counter parts. When I say the welfare of students I refer to issues relating to accommodation, availability of food, a conducive learning environment, access to sanitary wear etc

Since 2007 the halls of residence at the University of Zimbabwe have been closed despite the high court ruling to open. Accommodation therefore is a nightmare for all students at the oldest University. The undergraduates have been reduced to live like rats in off campus residence where they pay full rentals per head.

As a female you will never escape paying with sex, the lecturers will be waiting for you. Abusive lecturers demand sexual favors for you to pass your courses. As you move to industrial attachment the bosses will be waiting for you no attachment without sex, no report without sex, no assessment without sex. If only we can go back to the era where industries would bid to get a student on attachment the incidences of sexual abuse will be reduced. How do we get there when only a few people own the means of production and we have a corrupt government.

Read more

It’s that husky voice that I will always remember first.

That and the love story that I saw playing out between Shingie Chimuriwo and Fungai Tichawangana over the years.

The last time I saw Shingie and Fungai was late last year before I left Zimbabwe for the UK where I am currently studying. Shingie and I hadn’t seen in each other in a long time and we chirped on and on for a while about life and some of the controversial articles I had been writing (and there are always many!). She was, as always, amazingly forthright and self-assured; never one to back down from a hard argument and so fully supportive of free expression.

Fungai, my namesake or ‘sazita’ as we call each other, kept hovering about her asking her if she needed something – more food, a jacket, a seat – anything to make her more comfortable. Their love was like watching the characters of an epic romance movie peeling off the silver screen and taking human form. They loved so easily and naturally; so beautifully that you could see the vivid shades of their emotions light up when they were together. They were and still are soulmates.

Ever since I have known Fungai, there has always been Shingie.  I remember how she would come to many of our poetry workshop sessions held on cold and unfriendly winter evenings back in 2005. I remember how in 2009, Fungai went on a hunger strike after the Norwegian embassy denied him a visa to go and visit Shingie as she studied in the European country. His brave and unshakeable love for his woman saw ordinary citizens as far afield as the Americas taking the time to lobby their own Norwegian embassies to take action. It was awe-filling to see a man so committed to the cause of love.  It was even more special to see the happy pictures of the two in Norway when he eventually got his visa.

Something urged me to add Shingie as a Facebook friend last month. And on February 25, we became FB chums. Somehow, we’d managed to keep fairly up to date without relying on status updates and pokes and other things, but I was compelled to add her onto my list of FB Friends. We never did have a conversation in the 19 days that we were ‘Friends’, but on 16 March at 7:57 pm, I saw an FB notice flicker at the bottom left of my page. I had written a status update congratulating a mutual friend for winning a South African journalistic award. The status update I had written read, “I’ve just got to show off that I have got cool trail blazing friends! I am surrounded by GREATNESS!”

At 7:57 pm, Shingie’s finger hit the ‘Like’ tab and a message flickered at the bottom left of my Facebook page conveying her action to me. I am told that she had her car accident at 10pm; the fatal accident that killed a beautiful woman in her prime.

When I learnt of Shingie’s death, I kept looking at that status update wondering how someone who’d liked something could then be involved in a horrible crash just two hours later and be dead within a few more. I wanted to rewind time to the moment that she’d liked the update, wished I could have found her on chat and said, “Ndeipi.” Maybe if I had, we would have had a short conversation and she might have been running five minutes later and perhaps things might have turned out differently.

But who are we to know what life holds?

I will not question or challenge God’s will. He knows His own ways. But I thank Him that I have the honour of a thought, however ephemeral, from Shingie in her last few hours on earth. I am thankful for this potent message, painful as it is for I was having a horrible week of self-doubt and pain. Shingie has reminded me, through that flicker of her fingers that life is still with me, that my lungs drink in air and that I am still here to make a difference to this doubtful and painful world, that I am surrounded by GREATNESS, as I myself observed in writing that status update.

I am thankful for Shingie and for that lesson that she has left with me.

We will cry in the days to come. But we will celebrate too for Shingie is a woman who leaves behind a rich legacy of selfless deeds.

Thank you Shingie. And thank you Shingie and Fungai for the amazing story that your lives together tell.

I hold you in my heart filled with love and respect for both of you.

In this important statement below, WOZA makes several good points including the need for Zimbabwe to have a professional and non-partisan police force. And watch their Valentines Day footage on YouTube (see the link at the end of the statement):

Persecution by prosecution of Human Rights Defenders continues: Court appearances; Williams and Mahlangu avoid persecution; Release our comrades

SEVEN members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) appeared in Tredgold Magistrates Court today 16 March, they will reappear again on 23rd of March 2011. The 3 women and 4 men arrested on 28 February in two separate incidents in Entumbane and Mabutweni. Although reporting conditions were relaxed and they now only report once a week, charges were not dropped as there is resistance from the police officers.

Before they appeared in Court, the Defence lawyer Matshobana Ncube met with the provincial area prosecutor and the Attorney general’s office Mrs Cheda who indicated that they have formally requested a meeting with the District Commanding Police Officer Inspector R. Masina to obtain understanding as to the significance of the Supreme Court ruling to prevent the continued arrest of WOZA members by the police officers in defiance of the ruling. The Supreme Court ruling was obtained by WOZA leaders Jennifer Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu from a 16 October 2008 arrest and 3 week detention at Mlondolozi prison.

An update on the three women, Eneles Dube, Janet Dube and Selina Dube arrested during the 7th March protest were followed home and brought  to court to be formally charged.

On the 10th of March 2011 Lizwe Jamela of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights was advised by Bulawayo Central Police Station from Constable Runesu that District Commanding Police Officer (DISPOL)  Inspector R Masina had demanded that the three Eneles Dube and others  be formally charged. They appeared in court on 11th of March 2011 with Defence lawyer Kossam Ncube. They were charged with criminal nuisance as defined in paragraph 2[v] of the Third schedule to the Criminal Law [ Codification and Reform] Act, Chapter 9:23 as with section 46 of the said Act which basically means ‘blocking the pavement’.

They appeared before Magistrate Gideon Ruvetsa and Public Prosecutor Jeremiah Mutsindikwa, where they were remanded on free bail out of custody to the 21st of March 2011. Lawyer Kossam Ncube indicated to the court than on the 21st he will note an application of refusal of further remand.

WOZA leaders Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu are currently on a speaking tour of the United Kingdom and United States of America. In the last month after the Valentines Day protests, Police officers launched regular visits to their homes and sent messages through members that they tortured to reveal the whereabouts of the leaders. Police officers also contacted a Human Rights lawyer, demanding he bring the leaders to Bulawayo Central Police station indicating that they ‘must prepare themselves for a long detention’. As a result of the supreme Court ruling which police are obviously ignoring, it was determined that they  of this heightened harassment and obvious ignoring of the Supreme Court ruling, Williams and Mahlangu have not voluntarily presented themselves to this persecution.

WOZA call on the all officers Zimbabwe Republic Police to professionalise and shake themselves from the choke of their political masters.  The days of reckoning will come soon and they will be faced with the guilt of their torture alone. They must not blindly follow the dictates of politicians to arrest and detain human rights defenders but should interrogate as decent human beings the letter of the law and the principle of investigate to arrest not arrest to investigate. We call on them to free all human rights defenders in custody including our Comrades Gwisai, Gumbo, Tafadzwa and others.

Please watch this rough footage of the Valentines’ Day protest that has got the state shivering http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2-PrFvmwQs