The agreed draft constitution by the three Zimbabwean political parties will be tabled in Parliament and after that the final say will come from the people in a referendum. The draft constitution took almost four years and nearly $100 million. Since the document had to be agreed upon by the three signatories to the Global Peace Agreement in the government of national unity a “YES” vote campaign is already under way. Most people would wonder why exactly they should vote “YES”.  Is it a YES vote to allow a no term limit for Members of Parliament or it is a YES vote to allow Parliament to add 60 more seats to the already resource straining House of Assembly? Our already poor performing Members of Parliament will have two jobs both in Parliament and Provincial Councils to replace the current system of provincial governors. A further analysis of the new draft by the National Constitutional Assembly will leave you wondering on why the Zimbabwean people are being forced to vote “YES” and settle for less when as a nation we can have more. Seems like the plot was already lost when the views of the people were discarded and politicians dominated the whole process. After four long years of resource grabbing, the nation’s supreme law had to be negotiated by politicians at the expense of the ordinary people. Is a “YES” vote the right way to go for the new constitution?

Voyaging begins when one burns one’s boats, adventures begin with a shipwreck. - Michel Serres, The Five Senses

A report in The Chronicle recounts a startling issue of lost cadetship application forms submitted by students at Lupane State University. The spokesperson for the university said they either got lost or misplaced at their Harare offices. I find it weird for an academic office to lose a bunch of 121 three or four paged forms. Before the students are asked to re-submit these forms investigations should be done to ascertain what happened to the forms they had submitted. I have always questioned the way universities handle the cadetship application process and reading this article brought back my dark cloud over this programme. For me there was always a lack of transparency. Being an orphan I thought I made it to top ‘A’ list of those credible but alas my application was turned down.

That then programmed my mind to feel that some local universities are structuring themselves to be ‘money making’ businesses thus having fewer students on cadetship will prove more viable for their business. They would rather do away with having to wait for the government to give them the disbursements for fees for students on cadetship and have students pay their full fees directly to them. University authorities find it much easier to chase away students who haven’t paid their fees in full at the exam entrance door than to drag the government to pay its cadetship dues to them on time. Thus on the universities’ end they are never keen to get more of their students on cadetship. On the other hand you cannot blame them since the government has failed to fulfill its mandate on the cadetship programme. But then if the government lets down universities and they in turn ‘punish’ students on cadetship what is being achieved at the end of the day? Every stakeholder involved in the cadetship programme should play his or her part because if this vicious circle continues we are killing the future of the nation.

Consultancy: Translation of the Advocacy Toolkit  from English to Shona and Ndebele

Voluntary Service Overseas is an international development charity organization that works through and with people (volunteers) to fight global poverty.VSO has been in Zimbabwe since the 1980′s and initially its mandate was sourcing and delivering human capital to government and other institutions. VSO Zimbabwe is registered under the PVO Act of 2003(PVO 27/2010).

VSO Zimbabwe is part of an international organization that operates in more than 40 countries and has over 90 years of experience in development work. During that period, VSO International has placed over 40,000 professional volunteers into different professions globally. As a result of these efforts, over 14 million children are receiving a better education and almost five million people are accessing better quality HIV and AIDS services, and over a million disabled people are better able to enforce their rights to education and health services.

VSO is always looking for new ways to turn human energy and ingenuity into lasting change. VSO Zimbabwe has send professionals to share their skills with their local counterparts as one aspect of our vibrant National Volunteering Programme. The programme is also working towards enhancing national professional volunteerism in Zimbabwe.VSO work is demand driven. We embrace a range of development methods that allow us to provide whatever kind of help is needed most, including promoting international strategies and action, knowledge brokering and youth exchanges. We no longer exclusively recruit from the developed world as over 30 per cent of our volunteers come from within the country their nationality. VSO has just initiated a South to South fellowship programme where professionals from southern countries exchange knowledge and ideas through a 60 day exchange programme. At a global level, VSO is working very closely with the Commonwealth in promoting international learning exchange visits. (Commonwealth Fellowship Programme)

Purpose of the consultancy
VSO would like to recruit a consultant / consultancy firm / company or organization to translate the Advocacy Toolkit from English to Shona and Ndebele.

Criteria for selection
-Professional knowledge in Advocacy, Governance and law.
-Professional experience of at least 3 years in translation of community interventions material to shona and Ndebele.
-Strong analytical skills and good Shona and Ndebele writing skills.
-Experience and familiarity with communication for advocacy.
-Good appreciation of effective communication and facilitation skills, with readily available examples of translated work particularly on community interventions in Zimbabwe.
-An understanding of community interventions in Zimbabwe and interpersonal communication issues is an added advantage.

TORs for the consultancy may be requested from: peter.mutoredzanwa [at] vsoint [dot] org

Please submit applications including a proposal in a sealed envelope marked “Translation – Advocacy Toolkit” no later than 12 noon on 8 February 2013 to:
The Country Director, Voluntary service Overseas, Ref: Translation – Advocacy Toolkit, Room 14 Cambitzis Building, King George Rd, Avondale, Harare, Zimbabwe, P.O. Box CY 1836 Causeway, Harare; or by e-mail to peter.mutoredzanwa [at] vsoint [dot] org