The latest report from Human Rights Watch, Race against time: The need for legal and institutional reforms ahead of Zimbabwe’s elections, paints a sobering picture of the absence of reforms during the past four years of Zimbabwe’s Government of National Unity.

The report discusses a range of reforms which would be needed for there to be genuinely free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, and highlights the consistent absence of a willingness by Zanu PF to engage in any of these reforms.

Paragraphs like this are telling:

Genuine and comprehensive institutional reform to end the pro-Zanu PF partisanship of key state institutions such as the security forces, electoral management bodies and public broadcasters are necessary to level the playing field and create an environment conducive to the holding of credible elections. Zanu PF has not embraced such reforms in the name of promoting a more democratic Zimbabwe, but has actively resisted them.

The absence of meaningful institutional reforms to facilitate full restoration of the rule of law increases concern for human rights protections ahead of Zimbabwe’s next elections. The GPA noted that state organs and institutions do not belong to any political party and should be impartial in the discharge of their duties. This declaration remains wholly unimplemented.

With or without a new Constitution, Zimbabwe needs to hold new Presidential and Parliamentary elections by the end of October this year, if it is to respect the term length of the current office holders. But in an environment of continued harassment of human rights workers, there is no prospect of meaningful reforms. To change the environment of fear, intimidation and harassment, these changes would need to have happened already. They would need to be demonstrated through actions on the ground, not just paper laws and policies. International attention will hopefully mean that the 2013 election is less overtly violent than the 2008 one was. But there is little to suggest it will be any more free and fair, or that Zimbabweans themselves will feel any more confident in the electoral conditions and human rights environment than we were five years ago.

Zimbabwe government continues harassment of NGOs. The new year hasn’t brought a new attitude to the Zimbabwe government about human rights and freedom of expression, if the recent harassment of ZimRights is anything to go by. Read this statement from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR):

Police charge Machisa with publishing falsehoods as government steps up onslaught against NGOs

Zimbabwean police on Monday 14 January 2013 charged Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) Director, Okay Machisa with publishing falsehoods, fraud and forgery as authorities intensify the onslaught against non-governmental organisations.

Machisa will be a guest in the police cells of the coalition government of President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai after detectives at the Law and Order Section at Harare Central Police Station detained him at Rhodesville Police Station following the recording of a warned and cautioned statement from him.

The police charged Machisa with contravening Section 31 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for allegedly publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the State. The ZimRights director was also charged with committing fraud and forgery in contravention of Section 136 and 137 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act. Faith Mamutse, who is employed as a secretary at ZimRights was released after the police interrogated and recorded a statement from her.

Machisa, who is also the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition chairperson handed himself to the police on Monday morning, accompanied by his lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, who is a member of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR). The police also raided and searched the ZimRights head office in Harare, where Mtetwa and Gift Mtisi, another ZLHR member lawyer were present during the search.

Meanwhile, ZimRights programme manager Leo Chamahwinya and three others, who were arrested in a raid on the ZimRights offices last year, remain in police custody, with their bail appeal having been denied last week.

Development Outreach and Communications Specialist: USAID/Zimbabwe
Deadline: 23 January 2013 (5pm)

(DOC) Position
Grade: FSN-11
(US$42,311 – US$61,351 basic salary grade range)

The US Mission in Zimbabwe provides equal opportunity and fair and equitable treatment in employment to all people without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, political affiliation, marital status, or sexual orientation.

USAID/Zimbabwe (hereafter the Mission) manages the USG development program in Zimbabwe, with an annual program budget of approximately $130 million.  The Mission portfolio includes a broad range of program activities.  The DOC supports the Mission to achieve its objectives by strategically producing and disseminating public information about USAID activities and by supporting the Communication Specialists of Implementing Partners (IPs) to define and achieve their communication goals. The DOC is responsible for collecting, investigating, and distributing information associated with USAID programs in Zimbabwe, and serves as the primary Mission point of contact for information requests.  The DOC reports to the Program Officer and/or his/her designee, and collaborates closely with the Mission Director, DO Team Leaders, and IPs to develop and implement the overall Mission communications strategy.  The DOC facilitates information access and sharing within the Mission, amongst USAID partners, as well as collaborates with other Mission agencies to ensure that personnel are properly apprised of USAID public activities and projects.  The DOC serves as principal liaison with the USAID/Washington Bureau of Legislative and Public Affairs (LPA) and remains in close communication with other USAID/Washington stakeholders.

For more information and details on how to apply, please click here

Regional WASH Coordinator: Oxfam GB
Deadline: 15 January 2013

Oxfam is a global movement of people who share the belief that, in a world rich in resources, poverty isn’t inevitable.

Public health (water and sanitation hygiene or WASH) plays a central role in the poverty continuum of Southern Africa. WASH is key in addressing issues of HIV, food security, livelihoods and emergencies. Oxfam in Southern Africa through its public health programmes in the region has an opportunity to increase the scale of our public health work, and more importantly to increase the impact of the programme, by ensuring that it is structured to most appropriately respond to the real underlying problems and to ensure that it integrates more effectively with other existing programmes and complements the implementation of WASH related policies in the countries and the region..

Oxfam GB seeks to appoint a Regional WASH Coordinator, based in Harare, Zimbabwe, to play a pivotal role in cementing water and sanitation as a core component of the region’s programme and will ensure that Oxfam continues to maintain key competencies in access to public health and emergency WASH preparedness and response.

The Regional WASH Coordinator will be responsible for leading regional WASH programme development and implementation support and regional WASH emergency preparedness and response.

This is an exciting opportunity to undertake pioneering work and innovation in humanitarian as well as development contexts working in both urban and rural settings. This is also an opportunity to inform and influence Oxfam’s regional and global WASH priorities in areas such as risk reduction, resilience and integrating and aligning WASH with Oxfam’s livelihood and gender work. Oxfam in Southern Africa has upgraded this position to reflect the importance and commitment to these expectations.

Requirements
-Master’s degree in water engineering (or similar) and / or equivalent technical experience and training in the design and implementation of water hygiene systems in Africa
-Demonstrate sound experience in leading public health programmes, programme policy and strategy development as well as the monitoring and management of large budgets
-Experience in assessing and responding to emergencies is essential
-Willing to travel up to 50% of the time.

Click here for a detailed job description and information on how to apply for this position (quote ref: INT5881).

Oxfam is an equal opportunities employer. It particularly encourages applications from people living with HIV and AIDS, people with disabilities, women and previously disadvantaged people.

Oxfam GB can only accept applications from qualified candidates with the right to live and work in Zimbabwe.

Mary Banda (aged 80) came to Zimbabwe in the 1960s from Malawi for ‘greener pastures’ with her now deceased husband. She is one of those old sweethearts who wax lyrical about the “good old days,” only too happy to reminisce about “how things were better when we were growing up,” a life story she gladly tells anyone who will listen. She says they had five children but all are deceased and she is left with grandchildren and great grandchildren all of whom live elsewhere. She stays with lodgers, and since she cannot go to the borehole by herself she has to rely on their benevolence for water. “But they also have their own needs,” she says referring to her tenants who have a young child. When water “finally arrives” she tries to stock up. She is old school and knows Zimbabwe like the back of her hand. She says she is disturbed by the water problems and “someone must have done something for the rains to have disappeared in the country.”

Simba Dube (aged 36) is a vendor at Machipisa shopping centre. There is a public toilet just behind his stall where he and a number of women sell vegetables. The toilet hasn’t been functioning for years now and is under lock and key. But he says that this has not stopped folks from shitting on the toilet’s doorstep. It is symbolic perhaps: the logic seems to be, “this is a public toilet and we will shit here even if it is locked!” There are a number of public toilets in the suburb but Dube says none are functioning. The story is the same everywhere: they are all littered with faecal matter outside their entrances. It is worse for the vendors, he says, as the convenience of a public toilet is no longer there and he has to rush home every time he wants to answer the call of nature. “It has now become like a landline (telephone). I can only answer the phone at home and nowhere else,” he quips.

Zenzo Moyo (aged 33) is a kombi driver in Bulawayo CBD. His kombi rank is at TM hyper, one of Bulawayo’s busiest commuter omnibus ranks. Drivers, touts and commuters previously used the public toilets at TM Hyper but now, because of the water shortages, the loos are under lock and key. What is now available are pay toilets, at R5 per visit. “That’s money I cannot afford,” Moyo says. “It means my tout also has to dip into the day’s takings to use the toilet and there is no telling how many times one may want to use the loo,” he says matter-of-factly. Typical of these chaps known for all sorts of adventures and misadventures, they have turned alleyways into latrines, creating an odour the Devil would be proud of. “What do they (the municipality) expect us to do? Paying to use a toilet for me is like paying to drink water,” he says, expressing a common sentiment.

Jairos Ngwenya (aged 29) is a cleaner at a cocktail bar. Folks never seem to run out of cash, they have money to burn as they patronise the joint everyday of the week and business is brisk. But this comes at a price for Ngwenya. No running water for days on end means the pub is also affected, and the laws of necessity have meant even without running water, the pub still remains open. Just because there isn’t any water doesn’t mean the patrons don’t shit, and Ngwenya knows this painful truth is a part of the job. “It’s a tough call anyway, expecting tipplers not to piss or shit,” he says rather grudgingly. He has even found human waste on urinals after some drunk defecated where others piss. “I wonder what time they do this,” Ngwenya muses. I jokingly suggest that maybe one patron stands guard by the door to stop others from entering while his friend shits by the urinals? He laughs: “That’s possible.”

Marko Phiri and Chumile Jamela writing for Kubatana.net

More stories, and photographs here

External Evaluation – Community Based Child Care Project – Children First Project: The Child Protection Society
Deadline: 10 August 2012

Child Protection Society seeks to engage a qualified consultant(s) to conduct an end of project evaluation for the Children First – World Education funded project. The main objective of the project was to strengthen the capacity of communities to care for, support their families and to uphold children’s rights, specifically through ensuring access to essential services and facilities for orphan and other vulnerable children.

Qualifications and experience
-Advanced University Degree, preferably a Masters in any Social Science discipline or other relevant field
-10 years of relevant experience in child welfare and community based programmes
-Experience in undertaking similar evaluations in Zimbabwe
-Demonstrated ability to undertake both qualitative and quantitative research
-Excellent communication, analytical and report writing skills
-Knowledge of the Zimbabwe context is desirable

Terms of References can be obtained on request from pmpofu@cps.org.zw or physically from Child Protection Society Harare offices, Cnr H.Chitepo & Snowdon, Belvedere, Harare.

All applications should be hand delivered addressed to Administration Assistant in sealed envelopes or/and emailed to pmpofu@cps.org.zw with a clear Proposal and Budget, clearly marked: External Evaluation – Consultant.