Reading a book by a Franciscan friar on the fall of apartheid and came across this quote: “It is often victims who are cursed by memory while perpetrators are blessed by forgetting,” from  The File by British author Timothy Garton Ash. I looked it up and a review by the UK’s Guardian newspaper says it’s an account on the feared Stasi in East Germany. I thought, yet another poignant reminder why the Gukurahundi ghost lives on. Yet I figured it goes even as recent as the 2008 Zimbabwean polls where we find the murders of political activists remaining unpunished, the perpetrators blissfully amnesiac.

Here’s some feedback from some Kubatana members about what’s happening on the ground. Maybe we need election observers Now!

I stay in Warren Park, about a week ago we had people at our doorstep who said they were checking whether we were registered to vote or not. They practically had a voters roll and they checked our names and all our names were there. I asked them whether they were from the Registrar Office, Statistics Office or any office but they said no. Finally after questioning their whereabouts they said they were sent by the Unity Government and they were people from our constituency! They said they were from the 3 political parties and their ‘Seniors’ will make a follow up after them. Do we have such people? Can anyone (or any political party) get the voters roll from the Registrar’s Office?
- from a subscriber in Warren Park, Harare

Thanks for keeping us updated. I have something that is worthy of public knowledge or public consumption. Can anything be done to improve service delivery on the ongoing voter registration exercise especialy in Chitungwiza. The staff there at Makoni seem to have been trained to frustrate people into not registering. The delays, the daily changes in their demands and the reception has done more harm than good to would be registrants. Its sad and the whole of Chitungwiza has one registration centre yet the population is big. Is there anything that can be done.
- from Obey in Chitungwiza

We heard this from a subscriber today. What are you hearing about cotton farmers?

The Zimbabwe Gvt said it will be the sole buyer for cotton this year and the farmers are still holding on to their crop. All is silent. A friend of mine told me people are turning into stealing livestock especially goats to get the dollar. Worse things may happen if the silence continues. Is there anything that is being done to resolve this issue.

from: Visualise us

More reflections on the ZRP:

I was forced to pay a fine for $10 for allegedly going through an amber light last week. I asked the cop why one never saw police at traffic jams. He didn’t know what a traffic jam was.

It seems we are to pay ZRP for any service, that’s why they put up road blocks at 05:00hrs and leave thugs at Mbare Musika abusing travelers, because the thugs pay them.