Kubatana.net ~ an online community of Zimbabwean activists

Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

SMS reminders double HIV testing

del.icio.us TRACK TOP
Thursday, January 13th, 2011 by Bev Clark

“Short text messages can be used to increase HIV awareness and double the number of people who go for HIV testing, a survey has stated. According to the results of a survey conducted by Text to change, an SMS quiz and reminder sent to respondents led to an increase in the number of people who went for HIV testing.” More

No to misery, no to unemployment

del.icio.us TRACK TOP
Thursday, January 13th, 2011 by Lenard Kamwendo

Riots which have swept through Tunisia started when a young man set himself on fire after police had confiscated merchandise he was selling on the streets. The young man had a degree from university and he was jobless. He resorted to selling fruits and vegetables on the streets and had his stuff confiscated by police. Through frustration and anger the young man set himself on fire. That same week in December another jobless man electrocuted himself to death. Before he torched himself he shouted “no to misery, no to unemployment.” Unemployment in Tunisia has an official unemployment rate of around 14%, but it is believed to be much higher in some areas.

With Zimbabwe’s unemployment rate reportedly standing at over 90% at present, one wonders what would be the fate of young people in this country. Every year thousands of graduates are churned out from Zimbabwe’s tertiary institutes. Most of them are jobless and some have trekked down to South Africa hoping for the better. Right now we have university graduates who are on the streets selling airtime cards, and some have resorted to becoming commuter omnibus conductors.

After having a chat with one of my friends, who is a college graduate, he said he really missed “the high rate era.” Though he hated the high inflation era, at least the days he spent on Harare’s street corners as a money changer provided some food on the table. But now after dollarisation, he said, “life has become tough.”  Most youths have resorted to drug abuse so that they can forget that they are not working. I know some can deny this but it’s a fact. These youths may look calm but soon their patience will be stretched to the limits and we shouldn’t be surprised when Harare becomes another Tunisia.

Like a virus spreading this wave of youth uprisings will reach our country and door steps. Time will tell.

Foot in the motor mouth

del.icio.us TRACK TOP
Thursday, January 13th, 2011 by Marko Phiri

“The country’s policies on indigenisation will not be there forever, hence the need to grab the chance now and not wait. There is no reason to wait as opportunities might elude you…the challenge I see with most people is that they want to commit to investing home when things are OK, but when things are OK, there would be no opportunities to talk about,” Affirmative Action Group president Supa Mandiwanzira, Business Chronicle, 11 January 2010.

And when Zanu PF critics say the party goons smelt their exit with the advent of a vibrant political opposition and went on looting overdrive, who will argue when Mandiwanzira openly makes such declarations? If all is okey-dokey it means you have a functioning state with checks and balances that make looting criminal, so strike the iron while it’s hot; use bad laws to create wealth; loot as much as you can such that when good men appear on the horizon to take charge, who gives a shit, coz dude, we got it made!  And the rest of the “lumpen proletariat” who continue to wallow in misery? Well, they empathised with the enemy and chose not to heed the call to arms, that’s what Mandiwanzira and his confederates will say when asked by St. Peter to justify how they got so fabulously wealthy and forgot the old Christian stricture “what does it profit a man…?”

Being a responsible citizen

del.icio.us TRACK TOP
Wednesday, January 12th, 2011 by Elizabeth Nyamuda

Despite giving themselves hefty salaries and most recently the big holiday cheque, our City Fathers did us good by placing orange bins on most of the major roads in the city center. What still surprises me though is that you will find someone throwing his or her empty ice cream paper on the street. If this is to continue the risk of getting cholera will be high considering it will be combined with blocked sewer pipes. Hopefully littering will be short lived as people are soon to be jailed for littering and spitting on the street.

For the city to deal with litter problems it has to change the mind-set of its citizens. Mr Mapako, an environmental officer with the Environmental Management Authority, said “The problem of litter is now quite rampant throughout the country and if we are to find a solution we have to deal with human attitude first. For instance when customers go into the shops they have a habit of collecting plastic bags and dumping them on the streets. They should learn to use one shopping bag several times”.

With most supermarkets now selling their plastic bags this will easily be achieved. It’s so boring having to pay for a taxi bag when you used to get it for free. At least most people will now move around with a plastic bag in their pockets or hand bags and hence there will be less litter in the streets.

Not so friendly neighbours

del.icio.us TRACK TOP
Wednesday, January 12th, 2011 by Elizabeth Nyamuda

Robert Nzara, a Zimbabwean living in South Africa, who had joined the rest of his fellow countrymen applying for passports, was assaulted last Thursday at the temporary Zimbabwe consulate at the Bellville Home Affairs office in Cape Town. Just when our neighbors in South Africa gave our fellow Zimbabweans a reprieve to regularize their stay to March 31, here we are busy fighting each other.  Read the story on the Sowetan website

What do you believe these days?

del.icio.us TRACK TOP
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011 by Elizabeth Nyamuda

I read online today that the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, and his alleged ‘lover’ Aquilina Kayidza Pamberi, have both denied the allegations that they were having an affair. Was this one of those “unfounded and baseless” stories to “besmirch the person and office of the Prime Minister”? Read the stories from Newsday here and The Standard here