In our election email newsletter yesterday we made a few suggestions as to what we (at Kubatana) would like to see change immediately in a free Zimbabwe. We know that there is also the Big Stuff that needs urgent attention (education, the health sector, rehabilitation of the police force etc) but here are some quick fire requests:

1. No more presidential portraits: let’s stop deifying our leaders
2. The President of Zimbabwe does not need an ambulance, 2 jeeps full of troops, several accompanying cars and ear splitting sirens when he travels through the city
3. Seventh Street is public space: this street should not be sealed off from the public between 6pm and 6am – we need openness
4. How about a Youth Parliament to facilitate the expression of Zimbabwean youth in national matters
5. More independent and community radio stations ~ free the airwaves and let dissent and debate flourish
6. Re-claim camouflage: some of us look cute in camo pants
7. Design new ballot papers for the next Presidential and Parliamentary elections ~ “none of the above” should be an acceptable expression of choice
8. Create an environment where the military and police don’t bully their way to the front of queues, or demand free travel on public transport
9. Free medical treatment for the aged, and orphans
10. No more bearers! We want “proper” money
11. The new president shouldn’t “hijack” our national carrier for state business, nor delay flights due to tardiness
12. Limit the term of office of the President
13. A new constitution within a reasonable time of the next President taking office
14. Specific respect for the rights of minorities

Our subscribers have also weighed in suggesting the following:

• I would like the new Zimbabwe to have an independent electoral commission that is non partisan that is not appointed by the President, preferably with a few members appointed from other bodies such as the Pan African movement.
• Where the government holds meetings where they actually listen to the will of the people and public meetings where the government can obtain suggestions from the public regarding national challenges so that government becomes truly participatory.
• Better checks and balances and accountability for all government officials.
• Annual government score cards by the public, academics and journalists as seen in S. African Mail and Guardian. – Where joy rather than fear rules and people are praised for the good works they do for the country.
• The government should have only 15 ministers.
• The new Independence Day should be 29th March to reflect the day Mugabe was voted out.
• 11 March 2009 should be a national commemoration of the day the police cracked down on Morgan Tsvangirai and members of civil society.
• Our new constitution should have a clause disqualifying people from standing as MPs who have been guilty of inciting the electorate to violence and using hate speech as well as committing actual physical harm.
• Reasonable income tax.
• Fair land distribution.
• Free medication for the terminally ill.
• More manufacturing and increased exports.

Comrade Fatso reminds us that whilst the fist has faltered it hasn’t quite fallen – yet. And that as the old man goes we must make sure that the new government is held accountable.

Anyone know someone with a truck? There’s a guy wanting to move all his stuff from State House to Zvimba. The jokes spread as text messages refer to our aged dictator relocating to his rural home. People really do believe this is a general election – because our generals decide who gets elected. Another joke walking the streets of Harare is that the only difference between an election and an erection is that you can’t rig the latter.

The mood is lightening in repressed Harare. The sun shines here too. With the MDC having claimed parliament people are beginning to dare to dream. Beginning to believe that the 10 year old dream may be coughing its first breaths. And that’s what it is – the first breaths. Alongside the first breaths of the new are the kicks of the collapsing jongwe. Now is a time where history can be made or unmade. The last kicks of the jongwe could be bloody. And the new birth already seems to have something of the old. There is the likelihood of ZANU PF elements being brought into an MDC government to pacify the armed forces and ZANU PF itself. Some say any new birth is better than the old. True. But the struggle will continue under any new government. We will have more democratic space that we will need to burst open. We will have to struggle to make sure a new government delivers social services, that it doesn’t repay illegitimate foreign debt, that it doesn’t privatise our resources into the hands of the new elites. The struggle will continue. Freedom is always on the horizon. And we have to keep marching.

So in the next few days let our joy be drunk with vision. The results we hear have to be defended by our actions. And when our actions win freedom and a new government let us know that the struggle continues. For our dreams of freedom to be born in our homes, our neighbourhoods, our communities. We are the dream.

This is Comrade Fatso’s Daily Blog during the Zimbabwe Election period. See www.comradefatso.vox.com

For Daily Election Blogs by other MAGAMBA! poets and activists see www.myspace.com/magamba

The MDC is claiming victory, the government is dismissing this and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is slowly letting results trickle out.

View more Zapiro cartoons here

Against brute force and injustice the people will have the last word.
That of victory.
- Che Guevara

Zimbabwe state broadcasting says that the government is still collecting presidential ballots from across the country. Yeah right, pull the other one. I know we do things slowly in Zimbabwe but this is ridiculous. Never mind water torture, try listening to Zimbabwe state radio and television day in and day out whilst waiting for the drip feed election results. The national broadcaster has been filling their programming time with a mixture of local dramas which feature a lot of wailing, and aged documentaries on subjects like the manufacturing of artificial limbs and the rescue of wayward dolphins. Meanwhile someone suggested the delay is really because its takes an awful long time to pack up a mansion that has too many rooms to count.

Harare central feels quite relaxed with an air of expectancy. On my way to the bank someone smiled and called out to me, A New Zimbabwe! I guess most of us here on the ground are thinking we’ll believe it when we see it. More than ever I get the sense that Zimbabweans are willing to take Mugabe on, unwilling this time to be taken for a ride by Robert.

At the moment I hear that the MDC is holding a another press conference claiming victory, this time backed up with their parallel vote tabulation figures. So now we wait a little longer to see what the regime’s reaction will be to this public statement. And if the MDC manage to get this information out to Zimbabweans on the street, what groundswell it will create.

Once more sharing Comrade Fatso’s down to earth views on Zimbabwe and our efforts to bring political change. Please visit Comrade Fatso’s blog to stay in direct touch with Harare’s leading activist poet.

Rumour rhymes with ‘ruma’, Shona for bite. Harare has literally been bitten by rumours. Our city is famed for many things but one thing specifically. The ability to turn no news into headlines. The skill of spinning no knowledge into street wisdom. The hustle of selling unconfirmed stories on a hungry parallel market. Our only non-state daily newspaper was bombed so the people’s paper is the people’s stories, nyayas that circulate like a whisper at a bottle store. Mugabe has fled to Malaysia. Morgan has 68% of the presidential vote. Mujuru has lost her seat. Morgan’s win is being broadcast live on TV. A people starved of truth begin to manufacture their own. So truths roam Harare like street kids, tapping your window at every robot. Like an undelivered text message notification ringing on your phone. Constantly.

But just minutes ago some rumours may have become reality. Our hopes may be backed up by facts. When Morgan held his press conference at the Meikles Hotel he told us that after years of struggle we have a new challenge – that of governance. The need to start to restructure and stabilize our country. MDC believe they have clinched victory. Morgan has never appeared so joyous. Once again the rumours begin to bite. MDC is said to be in talks with the armed forces and ZANU about negotiating a hand over of power. Morgan denies the rumours. So, many things are in the air. Hope and rumours. And once again the joy and the certainty of the press conference need to get out into the townships. The people need to taste the joy of a dream becoming reality. They need to be ready to defend their victorious dreams. Otherwise tomorrow will just be another day of spoken headlines and hustled truths.