Kubatana subscribers have been sharing their reports on the local environment as Zimbabwe gets ready for Harmonised Elections 31 July. In their own words:

• In farms in Bindura North we are being intimidated by Zanu PF with death and people are afraid for their lives. Where are observers because there are rallies daily in our area until election day.
• Guys there is a lot of fighting between Zanu PF candidates in Bikita West. People are being intimidated, the situation is so tense.
• Because of politicians who are inconsiderate of our education and solely concentrate on power, students are now being affected as they are now forced to close school on the 26th. How can we put the same person who ignores our concerns in power? Food for thought.
• In Bulawayo, Zanu PF has distributed tshirts and caps to all civil servants, whether you like or not, signalling beginning of intimidation.
• There is an advert on Radio Zimbabwe against hate speech and they are publishing speeches that were made by Morgan Tsvangirai and Tendai Biti. Now my question is, why are they not giving us reasons why those people came to say that, also I attended a rally yesterday in Vic Falls where Obert Mpofu used hate speech against Morgan Tsvangirai, and that will not be published. Is there justice there?
• Many people attend Zanu PF rally at Kuwadzana Holland because of artist that used be zanu for campaigning, i talk with several people and they say we are here becoz of sulu and jahprazy. And some they say cde betty kaseke will win at 31 July.
• Long queues are being noted at Wedza Police Station for those waiting to cast their special votes, so too at Sadza Police Post in Chikomba. But little did I know that there are so many police officers at these two stations.
• In Gweru Mkoba its so annoying to realise that our MP did noting with the funds meant 2 develop our community. I expected him to repair a water tank which has not been working 4yrs, to service high level areas instead of relying on NGOsto2 drill boreholes. He moves with a car worth 35 000.There is no hope in Zim
• Kuno Mutare south, Dora Dombo, villages (Mundembe & Bvirindi, chief Zimunya Bvirindi is forcing every house hold to attend to a Zanu PF rally being addressed by Pemhenai candidate for Zanu PF on Sat 13/07/2012.
• Here at Ngezi we are crying for Zanu pf strategy to cause the people of Turf complex of Zimplats Ngezi unregister. Please help us we want to vote for a better change. But PM @ our MDC officials you must have one rally at Ngezi mine pliz do us our   favour because we are tired of Zanu pf. We are here to vote for MDC-T.
• WeZanu wari kubvarura maposter eMDC vachiisa awo it shows hawana patrotism (Zanu supporters are tearing down MDC posters and putting up their, shows they have no patriotism)
• I live in my farm near Triangle pamberi nababa vedu vamugabe
• Why is it Mugabe ari kuda kuvandira kumapositori kwamarange (Why is Mugabe using members of the apostolic sect in Marange)
• Today 1hr ago Tabeth Kanengoni was mobilising people 2 vote 4 her on the coming election. She is Z.A.N.U.P.F Candidate for MP Mashonaland Central. Amai Gezi was there Chimukoko the mudert. They said if we loose, runoff & war. Why?
• MDC posters are being torn by Zanu so it shows kuti they are afraid the outcome
• Solders were wearing Zanu Pf regalia at Mutoko Growth Point they torn down MDC ~T that was worn by D KANYONGO in front of ten policemen who had come to solve the reported case
• All civil servants should vote on the special vote.
• I don’t know that our MP was given 50 thousand dollars such a big amount. No development in our constituency. People who were given money for projects were asked to return after use. In our ward we got nothing.
• Gutu district Masvingo province voters cant cast on their votes because ZEC failed to transport ballot papers in time up to now no ballot papers
• I stay in Ascot Gweru .The Gweru Urban MP, Rodrick Rutsvara did nothing for e benefit of e constituency instead he is using e funds to Build a Nite Club in Ascot
• Kutyisidzirwa kuMajongwe  kwanyanya  ward31  mt  north  mkumbura (Intimidation is high in Manjongwe ward 31 Mt North Mkumbura)
• Gutu west polling station Gatenel close at 1900hrs without ballot papers since 6am
• Chikomba East Constituency, Sadza Council Hall Polling Station – Voting in special voting started for Chikomba Central officers only. The rest are still waiting for ballot papers. Worrying is the presence of a white landrover truck without number plates being parked at the polling hall carrying on its sides&back posters of Zanu PF’s candidate for Chikomba Central, Felit T. Mbona.

As Zimbabwe gets ready for elections 31 July, and special voting this weekend, our SMS subscribers have been sharing their thoughts and observations about the electoral environment. Here is some of their feedback:

• Hatisi kufara ne zviri kuitika kuno kuBudiriro uye nhau dziri kubuda mudzi nhepfenyuro dzino taura zvisizvo pamusoro pa Costa Machingauta. (We are not please about what is going on in Budiriro and the way the media (radio) is bringing out the issue of Costa Machingauta)
• Police officers are all wearing Zanu-pf regalia. What does that mean?
• It’s now time up!  People should stand up for their rights! Mazimbabwe hatisadya uroi nokunyara! (Zimbabweans we no longer want to evil against each other) Lets’ vote wisely!
• We want free and fair election 2 make some developments 2 our country. new plans 2 be beautiful Zimbabwe

From our subscribers – Zimbabweans share their feedback on the media, voter registration and the upcoming elections:

ZBC s acting like a Zanu-PF entity only serving one party. It shall come to an end come 31st July. Enough is enough.

——

MDC-T should have a TV station on satellite like Evangelist Guti and Prophet Hubert Angel have done.

——

Quite an informative and inspirational letter.It makes me reflect on some self imposed leaders who claim to be commanding a huge following when,in fact they are taking a walk.Secondly,such persons are not accountable to anyone because they are either volunteers or rigged to their way to the appex through coercion,chicanery or any form of pressure on the so called supporters.We have among us some MPs who forced their way through the primaries by hiding some structurers in order to disenfranchise some potential voters who could have blocked their confirmation.Thats an open secrete where l am.The same people are back on the same electorate canvassing for their support vote in the dreaful contest of 31st July.ls that democracy and the really change the Zimbabweans are longing for?Worse still the same chaps l am reluctant to call leaders,boast of enjoying the support of  the second most senior leader in the organisation in their showdy deals.Is that permissible when someone is using his position of trust in an organisation as an organiser to hide structures leaving people in spoiled mood?That trully happened and can such characters be expected to give a full AND transparent report on how they spent the CDF?

——

Lets ZEC be fair.Kuno kuZengeza paHead Office tirikuswera paQ vachiserver a selected group of people mayouth emusangano achitoboaster kuti tinoregister vedu ava vakawanda ndeveChinja

——

I’m from St Mary’s.I Want to tell you what transpired to the CDF.We excavated drains in our constituency and were promised 5dollars per given hours but we just did all for nothing.I don’t know kana Chibharo chakadzoka. Vakazongobhadarwa matop face vamwe vese ruzha rukabva rwapera.

——

Some pple in makoni south risk not voting after about 200 lost their ids through a food scam by cios

——

Voter registration ended in marondera ystdae at mbuya nehanda hall with a lot of delaying resulted in many youths unable to register disappointment

——

Its unfortunate that our mp is late but he abused our cdf. I am in Mberengwa North constituency. Our mp was jabulani mangena. He abused our cdf. In ward 12, nothing was developed becoz thats where  the man he beats in Zanu pf pry elections come from. It was a sort of fixing us. In ward 15, he donated material for building a teacher’s house at Ruzengwe sec school. The material he donated was scrap material. Asbestos sheets were broken and insufficient. Only 150 bags of cement was tangible and worth receiving .The house which was to be built was already on foundation level but when auditors came, he said he had  built the house from the ground.  But it was foundation structured by the school 6 years b4 cdf was disbursed.  Some asbestos sheets , all door frames, windor frames,  money for builders and paint was paid by the school. At first, he had promised to pay builders but when it was due to pay them, he backtracks . He said the school failed to take the money from council in time and was frozen. Finally , the school had to foot the bill. I was there when auditors came  with cameras to see the project. I was totally surprised to find the mp claiming to have sponsered everything. When auditors came only selected zanu pf people were selected to meet them including the local councillor. Infact people were not told they were auditors . They were told they were meeting mp’s visitors. They were told what to reply when questioned. Truly speaking, everything was inflated in terms of prices. Auditors were taking pictures of things the mp had not sponsered. This is  just a microcosm of what was happening in all other wards in mberengwa north constituency.

——

For the first time since 2000, Mberengwa is towards election with a peaceful environment.  No youth camps

——

Can someone who know how ZINWA works explain to Chimwe Irrigation Scheme farmers in Mberengwa. We buy water  to irrigate our crops from Zinwa on a commercial rate from Chimwe Dam which is 1km from the irrigation scheme. The dam was donated by the Dutch government as poverty alleviation  mechanism . Zinwa is forcing us to pay ZESA  bills for the electricity they use on their pumps to give us water. Which means we pay two bills per month. One for water and the other one for electricity. The reason given by ZINWA for not paying Zesa is that they only sell water not electricity. But they use electricity to supply their product to its customers.  What surprises Chimwe irrigation farmers is, ZINWA has a domestic water treatment plant at the dam which uses electricity and they are paying Zesa for the electricity they use to treat water. Treated water is sold to villagers on  a domestic rate and villagers are not paying electricity used by Zinwa to purify water. What boggles the mind is that raw water sold to irrigation farmers is more expensive than treated water. But treated water has more expenses like electricity, chemicals and many workers who man the plant. I think the minister of water must help correct the rot and make irrigation farmers only pay for water they use than to pay for electricity used by some other entities.

With Parliamentary elections scheduled for the end of this month, we’ve been wondering how to interrogate Zimbabwe’s outgoing Members of Parliament and learn some lessons from their track record. Particularly in cases where an outgoing MP is running for office again, we’re wondering why their constituents might want to vote for them again – or why they definitely won’t.

With this in mind, Kubatana asked our subscribers how their exiting Member of Parliament used the Constituency Development Fund between 2008-2013 to benefit their community.

We got around 300 replies, from subscribers in 130 of Zimbabwe’s 210 constituencies. Their feedback was mixed, as was the track record of their Members of Parliament in using the Constituency Development Fund. Around one-tenth of respondents did not know how their CDF had been used. Around two-thirds did not think it had been used for anything constructive (or had barely been used).  And about 30% of respondents were impressed with how their MP had used the fund, and noted this as a worth accomplishment.

It’s important to note that this is crowdsourced information – So it hasn’t been verified with the MP in question or with any public record or audit of the Constituency Development Fund. This also means that it speaks to how thoroughly an MP communicated with his or her constituency. In Bikita West, for example, two subscribers said nothing tangible was done for the constituency with the fund, but three reported the MP fixing schools, building clinics and sinking boreholes.

A few sample responses include:

• Mutare South, he brought us a truck of roller meal and sold us@ $2.50 for 10Kg only once. Also employed us at his farm and paid us one gallon of maize per day.
• In Chipinge central MP Alice Chitima of Zanu pf hapana zvaakaita (did nothing). GO CHITIMA GO! I DONT CARE
• Mhondoro Ngezi, we never saw anything. Taingonzwa pa tv chete kuti kune mari yakadaro asi chayakashanda hatina kuchiona. Hamheno pamwe vedu mp vamatonga havana kupihwa mari yacho. (WE only heard on TV that such a fund exists. What it was used for we don’t know. Maybe our MP Matonga was not given the money)
• Chitungwiza South Constituency. Drilled 6 boreholes, bought a printer, built a flea market, removed raw/solid waste. The fifty thousand dollars was used to the last cent.
• Haina kubatsira vanhu mu Kadoma asi yakashanda  kwaari MP CDF fund (The money did not benefit the people in Kadoma but the MP himself)
• Wakadya yose chivi central (He spent it all on himself)
• Bulawayo. I stay in Mpopoma-Pelandaba district, our MP Mr S. Khumalo  used cdf in schools for repairing chairs, desks and repairing residential chairs and benches, about $11000  is still in the bank.

You can access the full list of responses here. And you can take a look at a map of selected responses here.

When the 31 July election date was first announced, the majority of our SMS subscriber expressed their shock and disbelief, and believed that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was right to state that this date was illegal and unconstitutional.

As a follow up, we let these subscribers know about yesterday’s Constitutional Court decision keeping the Harmonised Election date at 31 July. They were largely unimpressed with the Court’s lack of independence, and concerned about the way this move has undermined the election’s legitimacy before it’s even been held.

In their own words:

• That’s undemocratic for the court to make such a cruel decision
• There must be some hidden agenda from those who are dictating the election dates
• But why, but who, but which, but what.  Are we back to 2000?
• It shows how unconstitutional this constitutional court is, its a matter to be decided by three parties in govnt as SADC said.
• Very sad only God knows
• Zimbabweans should decide on that date whom they wanted to be the President
• This is part of a rigging strategy as many people are still to get registered and necessary reforms are yet to be implemented.
• Let Mugabe run his usual solitary race!
• Sadc should help us this time zanu pf wants to rig elections free and fair elections Tsvangirai will win a landslide victory
• Kubatana! If elect day has been declared then election campaign material should b brought to the ground 4 da campaign teams
• We’re headed for the ugliest electoral fraud in recorded history, mark my words.
• This is ridiculous. How come Zim lets bob get away with everything? Enough.
• Says who? With no free broadcasting, the same old gang playing the same old tricks in ZEC, ZNA, CIO & ZRP/BSAP, no money & violence increasing daily even within ZANU? It’s time to call their bluff

On 13 June, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe announced that elections were to be held 31 July. On the same day, Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai rejected this announcement as unconstitutional, and stating that he would not accept Zimbabweans being “railroaded” into “another illegitimate election.”

We shared this information with our subscribers, and asked them to share their opinions with us.

About two-thirds of respondents agreed with the Prime Minister, suggesting that the July 31 date was too sudden, and that it did not allow adequate time for the necessary reforms and legal process to be followed. Around a quarter said the President was right, and were eager for Zimbabwe to hold elections and move forward. And around a tenth of respondents were of mixed opinion, wanting to wait for SADC to step in and comment, or more concerned that elections simply be non-violent, free and fair, regardless of when they are held.

As a few examples, messages in support of Tsvangirai’s position included:

• How can he do dat alone .enough tyme is needed reform first
• They want 2 prolong their stay in power to loot more.NO TO 31/07/06 ELECTIONS whats the rush for
• Mugabe shouldn’t declare election date .Zimbabwe new constitution says election is set amoung the principals
• Hazviite Reforms first what’s the rush about?
• Thus grossly unfair to many zimbabwean given the scenario in media and electoral sides which need reforms, PM is right

Messages in favour of a 31 July election included:

• We are sick and tired we want election today
• Elections ar overdue, & we’re ready as voters. The economy is suffering. MT must accept the date & prepare.
• All we need are nuetral observers. Other issues wil b taken care of by whoever wins. The int’l community wil assist. We don’t want to be bogged down in the current situation any longer.
• Lets get over this thing called ‘election’ coz it has been dragged far 2 long! 31 July is indeed gud.
• The court has already made a ruling and the President is simply abiding.

Where possible, we mapped this opinion, colour coded by category (use this link to open the map full screen, then click on a point to view that point’s comment in a pop-up window):

View full screen

Read more comments on this election announcement by downloading the full list here.