Education is a very powerful tool in life. We all seek and need education with the hope that we would find employment. Countless people are not been given the opportunity to utilize this powerful resource because of the deprived economy in Zimbabwe. Thousands of graduates and postgraduates are seated in their homes with nothing to do. Where are the jobs? Jobs must be created.

There are so many universities in Zimbabwe. But can Zimbabwe’s economy sustain this? It’s like adding harm to injury. It is a fact that Zimbabwe is one of the best countries in Africa in quality of education. I for one agree with that because I am a result of this good edification. Despite lack of resources, Zimbabwe still maintains that standard. What worries me is whether being educated is still worth it in our country anymore. The rate of unemployment is so high and keeps soaring. I was amused when I read an article in the Herald about auditions for a radio talk show where thousands of people turned up in hope. The director of this radio talk show insinuated that people were enthusiastic about the auditions. I should think that these were just unemployed people with a hope of just getting a job and being able to earn a living. The next batch of graduates are yet to be released adding to the already high rate of unemployment.

Economists with their jargon talk about the demand and supply curve. It does not tally at all. There are not enough jobs to meet the number of educated people in this country. Thus people resort to leaving the country to what they have termed “greener pastures”. But is it all green and rosy out there? I know of many Zimbabweans who would die to come back home, but to what?  They would rather sacrifice to be out there to earn the little they can and send some back home, with their professional and academic certificates safely tucked away in the hope that one day an opportunity will arise that would best suit their qualifications. Hoping that the dust would not have settled on them too…

I do wish that our economy will one day improve, and if possible the sooner the better. People cannot hustle forever, and if hustling wont work then what? Crime?

To those graduating this year and the years to come, I say brace yourselves for the reality, they call the Industry.

On the big issues, just say for example, stimulating the manufacturing industry, reducing the levels of unemployment in Zimbabwe, not to mention a generally repressive human rights environment, the Unity Government, (those fellows the MDC and Zanu PF cuddling together in the same bed), are also right, royally, screwing things up on a local level too.

Where I live, in Greendale, there hasn’t been rubbish collection for three weeks. In the hope of catching a City of Harare refuse collection vehicle (a rare and uplifting sight) home owners have taken to leaving their rubbish, and adding to it, out on the street. Rubbish is piling up. It smells. Its ugly. Its a health hazard.

Then there’s the trickle of municipal water sporadically dripping out of our taps. A common sight on our neighbourhood streets is men and women heaving under the weight of water, being carried either on their heads, or pushed in wheelbarrows. The water having come from friendly and helpful homes that have boreholes.

Then there’s the issue of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) and their inability to deliver power. During the past week we’ve had power between 9pm and 5am. While we’re sleeping, ya dig.

Oh. And then there are the pot holes, or craters, as people like to call them. They are  getting deeper, and deeper, and wider and wider.

Meanwhile along Borrowdale Road, the President’s drive-way, we have minions cutting the grass on the island, with … wait for it: hand held grass cutters. Whoa. Of course, why be surprised by both the inequity and the stupidity of initiatives like this?

However, nothing would be more stupid than all of us voting in (again) or letting our vote be stolen (again) these people who treat us like dirt.

I don’t trust Gideon Gono with my money. I lived through enough of his quasi-fiscal policies not to trust him at the helm of the Reserve Bank. My other thinks I protest too much, but I will not open a bank account until he is removed from office. Why should I trust a man who authored a book titled “Casino Economy” whilst in the midst of playing Russian roulette with the nation’s livelihoods?

I’m no fan of former Gono Advisor Munyaradzi Kereke either. Given that he was a senior Reserve Bank official during that chaotic decade he is just as culpable. Kereke also allegedly raped his 11 year old niece.  The Harare rumour mill purports that the rape was for ritual purposes, not that it has helped him in his present predicament.  Rape of a minor is an egregious offence, more so at gunpoint. It is curious that despite evidence and charges being filed on behalf of the minor, the police and Attorney General have apparently refused to investigate and prosecute.

Once thick as thieves, it seems that Gono and Kereke have had a falling out, one which the local media, both private and public refuse to give coverage. Curious, considering the nature and scope of allegations made by both parties against each other.  Kereke’s most recent letter, published in the Zimbabwe Mail reveals that Gono was willing to betray his paymasters. This is not anything new – the Wiki Leak cables concerning him revealed as much. Kereke also alleges that Gono has the Anti-Corruption Commission in his pocket, closed banks on a whim, violated the State Secrets Act, looted tens of millions of Public Funds and authored draft legislation that, if passed, would spin Zimbabwe into a civil war.

Kereke appears to be the underdog in this fight. Gono, despite the numerous rumours and allegations that surround him, clearly must have some influence. Whether it is enough to silence Kereke remains to be seen. It makes for interesting reading and speculation, like something out of a novel about an imaginary African state governed by the power hungry who employ witchcraft, sex, lies and betrayal to further their goals. If it were my story to write I would have a third major, but shadowy character, the seemingly benevolent but actually ruthless leader. The Leader would be the puppet master who would watch this drama unfold, and protect both just enough to make the fight between them fair, ensuring that each causes the destruction of the other.

A Herald editorial in the run-up to the 1990 Zimbabwean elections is pretty telling when the 2012 buzz is that 88-year old President Mugabe (who is 5 years younger than Nelson Mandela) will again fight it out in the coming polls. In the Herald of 14 March 1990, the editorial titled “Punishing Campaign for a man of action,” wrote that: “at 66 and assured of victory in the…general and presidential election one would have expected President Mugabe to slow down a little and spare a thought for his personal health.” Calling him a “sober workaholic whose track record is as impressive as that of the party itself,” the editorial continued: “only the dim-witted would expect anyone to effectively challenge Cde Mugabe.”

And that my friend was in 1990. Go figure.

Interesting that the much talked about Marange diamonds are creating tens of thousands of jobs in India, at least according to international media reports which have been picked up locally. According to these reports, up to USD1,5 billion worth of Marange diamonds will make their way to India this year alone. Remembering of course that media reports remain the primary source of “the truth” for millions under the sun, the incredibility thereof notwithstanding. And you have to go “wow”, remembering that this national money is headed to one country when bogus Dr. Mpofu has said – apparently much to the consternation of the fiscus point man Biti – that the Marange godsend will “easily” pour into the national purse USD2 billion annually. Ehe. With these Indian reports claiming USD1,5 billion, one obviously has to question where the bad doctor gets his civil-servants-pleasing numbers when it is apparent the country (and of course the civil servants) stands to get stupendous returns to what Zanu PF is claiming as its birthright: much love to compatriots who are neither MDC-T nor MDC-99! Can’t a country get honest people who will share the resources with the ordinary man? I ask this deliberately perhaps as that Panglossian trait that, despite all pointers to the contrary, you would still expect the best from mortal men who themselves expect the best from everyone else but still continue to controvert those very same expectations! Talk about the painful contradictions of contemporary Zimbabwe. Yet the Indian reports bring bad vibes when you recall that Zanu PF has only seen benefits accruing from the mining sector as deriving merely from the community share ownership when the bigger picture demands employment creation proper as the Indians. “We believe that the flow of Zimbabwe diamonds will create over 60,000 jobs,” a diamond buff in India swooned. Yeah, Zimbabwe has over 80 percent unemployment with swarms of korokozas and one dead ZBC News at 8 expert caught with a Lebanese trying to smuggle the “tsotsi khiphi daimani”  (thief, hand over the diamond) helping themselves to the wealth that has stomped even the granddad of liberation politics.

Attorney General Johannes Tomana has rubbished recent media reports regarding the reappointment of Augstine Chihuri as Police Commissioner General by the President.

President Mugabe is the only person with the mandate to appoint or reappoint the Commissioner-General of Police and other constitutional bodies without consulting anyone except the Public Service Commission

Tomana uses a superfluous semantic argument about the legal differences between appointment and re-appointment in the constitution. Truthfully, he needn’t have wasted his breath.

The MDC is trying to exercise Subsection 20.1.3 (p) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 19)Act, 2008 states that the President:

in consultation with the Prime Minister, makes key appointments the President is required to make under and in terms of the Constitution or any Act of Parliament;

Where “in consultation” is defined in Amendment 19 as meaning that the President is required to consult and secure the agreement or consent of the person consulted. In this case the Prime Minister.

However, Chapter IX Section 93(2) of the Constitution which deals with the appointment of the Police Commissioner General requires that any appointments to this position be made “after consultation with such person or authority as may be prescribed by or under an Act of Parliament”. In other words, the President may appoint, or re-appoint as his whims dictate.

In an audit of the Global political Agreement Dereck Matyszak notes that the MDC placed undue emphasis on gaining control of the Ministry of Home affairs which administers the Police Act. Given the number of lawyers amongst the MDC’s Party officials it is surprising that they were unaware that only the President and Police Commissioner General determine appointments within the Police Force, while the Attorney General may -Commissioner General to direct the Police Commissioner General to investigate criminal offences and he as the final say over  prosecutions. I’m sure that the MDC-T is very aware that the Attorney General, Mr Tomana, serves at the pleasure of the President.

In the beginning of the MDC-Ts formal relationship with ZANU PF Mr Tsvangirai has the opportunity to exert the authority of his office. He neglected to do so in favour of political expediency. MDC-T will of course cry foul to anyone who’ll listen over Chihuri’s inevitable re-appointment. They may even threaten to pull out of the Inclusive Government and throw themselves on the ground in front of Zuma and SADC begging that their boo-boo be fixed and the world made right again. They have only themselves to blame.

In concluding his introduction to the audit, Mr Matsyszak wrote:

No one should be surprised by the failure of the GPA to open democratic space. The chain of command over the instruments of state repression was unaltered.