On Saturday I went to Miss Tourism. I went there for two reasons.  One – to watch the pageant live because I have only ever watched it on television. I must say I was impressed with the décor, the lighting and the sound was up to the note. Except for the time sho! The programme started around nine and that did not go too well with me. Fortunately I had a great bunch of people around me so the time sort of moved fast. Two  – I did not pay for the ticket, it was given. Call it bragging or whatever but it helps to know people in high places. If I had not been given the ticket I was probably going to wait at home and hope against hope that ZESA stayed on and our broadcaster shows us the live happenings. So I dolled up and headed for the Harare International Conference Centre. The girls on stage disappointed me with the outrageous answers they gave the judges. You see I had hoped that somehow it was going to be different with me watching live that these girls were going to answer meaningfully. My thought was maybe the television gives us what is not so true but I heard it all with my own ears. One girl was asked what she thinks about domestic violence and I quote “domestic violence should be fought agenest because it causes other people not to have self confidence”. I cringed at that statement. Who does not know what is involved in domestic violence especially in our country. She should have spoken on how it separates families and that it should attract a heavy fine on the perpetuators, and how it is still happening in this day and age and how our mothers are still telling us “that there is no house without smoke so we should deal with it, that’s how men show their love”. Anyway that’s a topic for another day. The lady representing Masvingo was asked if you were asked to give a tour of your hometown where would you take me and why. She said I would take you to Heroes Acre or something that disturbing. I had come to a point of thinking that the statement beauty without brains is getting old and over sung. Clearly I am wrong.

Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) have just released a report on the state of democracy in Zimbabwe one year after formation of GNU.  Below are the main findings of the report, the full text of which can be found on www.wozazimbabwe.org

- The belief that the power-sharing government has decreased democratic space in Zimbabwe.

- There has been some change for those who are rich but for the poor nothing has changed. It has remained survival of the fittest. The dollarisation of the economy stabilised prices and the economy in general but the gap between rich and poor widened.

- Many expressed no confidence in an election before the constitutional process is complete.

- People want to give their views and write their own constitution but worry that the current consultation process has too many loopholes that can be manipulated to change their views into those wanted by politicians.

- Most agree that they believe that public funds should go through the Ministry of Finance but the Minister must also be transparent about what he does with it.

- The personal security situation for ordinary people is still very insecure.

- Most people polled believe that the rule of law in the country has worsened.

Wouldn’t it be great if we had a cartoonist like Zapiro in Zimbabwe, a newspaper like the Mail & Guardian and a media environment similar to South Africa where people can shout it out like it is.  If Zuma’s got that shower head, I’d like to see caricatures of our chef politicians walking around with diamonds for balls.

Greenwood Park is just a stone’s throw away from State House where Mugabe lavishly welcomes an array of visiting dignitaries, albeit a dwindling one and most often the usual suspects. For many years Greenwood Park represented respite for kids and adults living in Harare’s central Avenues district where living a life in apartment buildings can bring on claustrophobic misery. I know this because I spent most of my adolescence growing up in a flat on Montague Avenue, which later became Josiah Chinamano.

Lately I’ve been spending some time in the Avenues again. The gorgeous, sequined skirted commercial sex workers that trawl the Avenues at night brighten up the place and provide a welcome distraction to the piles of garbage mounting in alleyways, street corners and even in some of the front gardens of apartment buildings. A small exaggeration perhaps, but thinking of the “dinosaur” sized shark that recently made short work of the Zimbabwean in the sea in Cape Town, last night I saw a dog sized rat sprint across the road in front of my car.

I don’t brake for rats.

My tour of the Avenues has also taken in Greenwood Park. The other day I included it on a run I was doing. The grass is knee high, rubbish litters the place, the swings and other pieces of playground equipment are broken. But still, irrepressibly playful kids try and find some fun messing around on what’s left. There are still a few worse for wear park benches around and about but their occupants are a mixture of the unemployed, the hungry, the  sad and those that are just plain scary. How safe are these kids I wonder?

Mugabe’s motorcade regularly sweeps by this playground whipping up very little dust in its wake because 7th Street is one of the few well maintained and groomed streets in our capital. Go figure – it leads to the little man’s mansion. Mugabe would do well to ask the battalion of street sweepers who keep his immediate periphery neat and tidy to expand their mandate and make good this park that was meant to provide a safe solace for the people of the Avenues.

But the majority of Zimbabweans, myself included, don’t expect much from Mugabe besides more misery while he and his cabal of chefs continue to look the other way.

Presidential Motorcade

Masi, Jamu and I
wave our hands to the President.
The windows of his limo are tinted
and are always closed.
The motorcade travels fast
but Masi and Jamu say
the President waves back.

We wave our hands
every time the motorcade passes
in the hope it will stop
to drop a coin.

But we hear
the chauffeur does not know
the ‘Give-way’ sign
nor the ‘Stop’ sign.

- Julius Chingono, Zimbabwean poet

So the Government of National Unity can’t pay Zimbabwe’s teachers and other civil servants decently but they can pay those who guard the elite quite lavishly. Enough!

Members of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIO) team assigned to Mugabe during a visit to an international telecommunications summit last October were each paid a total of US$50 000 (US$5 000 a day) over Mugabe’s 10-day stay. On another trip to Rome in November, his security detail was paid the same. In Zimbabwe, most of the population lives on less than US$1 per day. – Published on the Zimbabwe Democracy Now web site

Also, on the same web site

The Zimbabwe government spent nearly R86m (US$11.6m) in one year in fees for children and relatives of mostly top Zanu PF officials who are studying in South African universities while local universities struggle to function.

Amnesty International has just published a press release on Zimbabwe:

Abuse of human rights continues under unity government

Amnesty International today called on President Mugabe and Prime Minister Tsvangirai to fulfil their promise to reform state institutions, in a bid to end human rights violations that have continued in the country since the formation of the unity government one year ago.

Torture, harassment and politically motivated prosecutions of human rights defenders and perceived opponents have persisted, while villagers in parts of Zimbabwe have suffered ceaseless intimidation by supporters of former ruling party ZANU-PF.

“The Attorney General’s office, police and army have been left to freely violate human rights in pursuit of a political agenda,” said Erwin van der Borght, Africa Director at Amnesty International.

“By delaying reform, the situation in Zimbabwe remains fragile as perpetrators continue to escape justice and are instead effectively given the all clear to continue violating human rights.”

Amnesty International called on the unity government to end on-going harassment of human rights defenders. Several peaceful protests organized by civic movement Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) were violently broken up by police in 2009.

Seventeen human rights and political activists who were abducted by state security agents in 2008 continue to face charges that are widely believed to be trumped up. One of them, Jestina Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, had her prosecution permanently stayed by the Supreme Court in September 2009 because of overwhelming evidence that she had been tortured.

“The government must end the incessant harassment of human rights activists and take steps to seriously protect rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly,” said Erwin van der Borght.

The Zimbabwean army and intelligence services, as well as the Attorney General’s office, have remained under ZANU-PF control, following an agreement brokered by the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) in 2008. The police are co-chaired by ZANU-PF and MDC-T ministers.

“The onus is on President Mugabe and ZANU-PF to ensure that key institutions under their control are reformed to end the culture of impunity that still threatens stability in the country,” said Erwin van der Borght .

Amnesty International’s call for reform comes amid reports that villagers in parts of Zimbabwe are being threatened with violence by army backed supporters of ZANU-PF, in an attempt to force them to endorse the heavily criticized Kariba draft constitution.

The Kariba draft constitution, agreed by unity government parties in September 2007, has been strongly criticized by some civil society organizations as an attempt by the parties to impose a constitution without consultation.

Villagers in Mutoko, Muzarabani and MT. Darwin are reportedly being warned that they will face beatings unless they support the ZANU-PF position. Similar threats were made and materialised in the run up to the June 2008 presidential elections..

“These are early warning signs that the situation could deteriorate if no urgent measures are taken to stop state security agents from carrying out violent political campaigns.”

“Past involvement on their part has resulted in gross human rights violations, including deaths and torture of perceived opponents.”

The government has so far failed to investigate gross human rights violations allegedly carried out by security forces during the run-up to the second round of the 2008 presidential elections, which left at least 200 people dead, over 9,000 injured and tens of thousands displaced.

“The unity government must investigate past and present allegations of human rights violations by state security agents, including torture and ill treatment of detainees,” said Erwin van der Borght.

Gross human rights violations have also been taking place within the army.

At least two soldiers were tortured to death in October 2009 while being interrogated by intelligence and military police officials in Harare. Another soldier was reported to have committed suicide while in solitary confinement and several others are still receiving medical treatment for injuries caused by torture.

The victims had been arrested along with at least 95 others, on suspicion of breaking into an armoury at Pomona barracks and stealing 21 guns.

“Zimbabwean state bodies are riddled with human rights abusers that in many cases carry out violations with impunity,” said Erwin van der Borght.

“Without genuine reform of institutions this abuse is very likely to persist.”