Hello everybody and anybody out there!

Just a short note to say that we are discontinuing this blog so you won’t see any new posts on it. This isn’t because we’ve fallen asleep over our keyboards, it’s because we are hopefully going to be launching another platform soon that will keep some elements of this blog as well as adding some spice!

Change starts with us. Right?

Bye for now.

The US president Barrack Obama will be attending Nelson Mandela’s funeral accompanied by 3 former US presidents – Bush, Clinton and Carter. His Excellency Robert Gabriel Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, will also be attending along with 3 former presidents of Zimbabwe – R. G. Mugabe, R. G. Mugabe and R. G. Mugabe.

The Institutional Capacity Assessment by the Department of Social Services (DSS) noted that Zimbabwe was in a crisis situation where the ratio of Social Workers to the population of service users is wildly out of proportion. In Zimbabwe the ratio of children to Social Workers was in the order of 49 587:1 social worker. This is in stark contrast with other countries in the region: South Africa: 250:1 social worker / Botswana: 1 867:1 social worker / Namibia: 4 300: social worker

ZimAsset is not a plan; it’s a wish list. It doesn’t address the basic crisis Zimbabwe’s economy is in. – Eddie Cross

ZimAsset sets a very tight timetable + ambitious goals. Not encouraging that Deputy Minister of Finance is running 1hr late for his presentation on it. – Amanda Atwood

Zimbabwe is unable to access IMF & World Bank because we’re not in good standing. It’s not sanctions. If you don’t repay, you can’t borrow. – Dr Kadenge

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has moved to quash reports of a return of the Zimbabwean dollar: “The Reserve Bank wishes to unequivocally put it on record that such reports have no basis whatsoever. As monetary authorities, we wish to assure the business community and members of the public that there are no plans to reintroduce the Zimbabwean dollar in the near future.” – Acting Governor Dr Charity Dhliwayo

Power cuts? Oh well. No water? What’s new? What is it about us Zimbabweans asks @kay__sweets. Do we really not care?

As the countdown to year-end begins lest we forget the bumpy road we traveled throughout the year in 2013.

We are now in December, it’s summer, and the heat is unbearable but political tensions have cooled down. There’s been a lot to write home about but very little to be proud of. The year ends under a dark cloud of poor service delivery. We spend most of the day without electricity while condemned to consume unsafe rations of water from local authorities.

In 2013 we saw the sailing in of a new constitution but questions still remain unanswered on whether to decentralize or to go the devolution path. The year was full of drama especially coming from the August House as some of the elected legislators were caught with their hands in the cookie jar of the Community Development Fund. This didn’t come as a surprise as their intentions were clear from the first day that they took office. And for their efforts spent on heckling and trading insults in Parliament, they were rewarded with hefty ‘sitting allowances’; very expensive cars and some even demanded residential stands as exit packages.

It was a competition to break the world record in flying hours as political parties in the inclusive government globetrotted to drum up support for their different causes at the expense of the ordinary taxpayer.

As the political game turned out to be nasty in 2013 we were subjected to hurling of insults and obscenities. Fellow countrymen and women especially from the Civil Society were accused of unpatriotic behavior and prison became a second home for human rights defenders.

We endured threats of election every day during the life span of the inclusive government and by grace the year 2013 brought an end to these threats. In politics its either you win or lose and the most difficult part is moving on. Up to now the debate on “credible” or “free and fair” rages on but a few still have the energy to engage.

A new government took office but the challenges have remained the same.

The announcement of the national budget was postponed owing to the liquidity crunch and as if that was not enough to kick start a new five-year term in office we got a taste of another Operation Murambatsvina some urban dwellers bracing for government’s clamp down on the so-called illegal structures.

Above, how the New Yorker chose to depict Mandela.

And below, From Africa Is A Country.

Songs for Mandela

This is the South African edition of our selection of Songs for Nelson Mandela. Last night we posted the international edition and many of our readers asked if we’d forgotten about the many South African musicians who’d written music about him. We didn’t. Here is a selection of South African music about Madiba or in tribute to him. It’s a bumper playlist, and in no particular order. Of course, we couldn’t include everything from the vast and varied music inspired by Mandela and the liberation struggle. Enjoy and feel free to post your own favourites in the comments. More

From a Kubatana subscriber:

This is the type of water that the residents of Hatcliffe are subjected to drink. It’s our constitutional right to have clean water. Is it incompetence or it’s just that they don’t care about our health?

The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum shares this statement about the charges against Zimbabwean human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa being dropped today:

In a week that shall always be remembered as consequential for the vindication of  Zimbabwean human rights defenders and civil society organisations, on 26 November,  Harare Magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa delivered a verdict of not guilty in the Beatrice Mtetwa  trial where charges of contravening Section 184 (1) (g) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.

The Prosecution had alleged that Mtetwa, a fiery and prominent human rights lawyer, had defeated or obstructed the course of justice. She was arrested on 17 March 2013 and had been defending the matter  in court since  10 June 2013.

According to the Forum’s Court Report, The Magistrate gave reasons for her judgment saying that  Mtetwa had done nothing to interfere with the investigations the police were conducting. She cited that the police testimony was contradictory and it did nothing to put the Mtetwa to her defence.

The inspection in loco conducted at the premises where the arrest was effected also served to cast the State’s case in doubt and bad light as it was established that there was no way Mtetwa could have interfered with what was going on in an area of the house where she could not see what was happening; whilst guarded and  in handcuffs  in a vehicle outside the premises.

The Magistrate castigated the police for presenting contradictory testaments when they are professionals whose work relies on observation. She also made it clear that it is not an offence to take photographs and in any case after forensic examination, Mtetwa’s phone was found without any evidence that photographs of the scene had been taken. The Magistrate found that there is no evidence that  Mtetwa stopped or interfered with the search and returned a verdict of not guilty.

In addition to the Mtetwa case, on 22 November the same Magistrates Court acquitted Abel Chikomo, the Forum’s Director on charges of running an ‘illegal’ organisation. The details of the case and our analysis can be accessed here.

Both the Mtetwa and Chikomo cases  are reminiscent of the infamous Glen View 29 case, in which Justice Bhunu chided police officers for their unprofessional conduct in arresting human rights campaigner Cynthia Manjoro and MDC-T youth assembly president Solomon Madzore and other activists as they did not have credible evidence linking them to the commission of the offence. In that case the judge said the police had arrested Manjoro as an inducement for her boyfriend to surrender himself to the police in connection with the commission of the offence. The Judge made these remarks  on 19 September when he passed a not guilty verdict on 21 of the Glen View 29 activists who include Cynthia Manjoro, Solomon Madzore, Stanford Maengahama, and others.

Given this pattern where the police arrest human rights defenders and the judiciary takes a different stance, albeit, very late, could this be the beginning of a new era in the Zimbabwean Judiciary? The jury is still out on this. There is more to be said about Zimbabwe’s justice delivery system.