This a painful and sad reality to hear the Minister of Finance Hon. Tendai Biti saying after paying last month’s civil servants wage bill only $217 is left in the Zimbabwe state account. Some may ask whether the Minister is washing the nation’s dirty linen in the public. Or he is giving a service to the nation by being accountable and sharing the status of our bank balance. But to whose sympathy since it is also his responsibility to manage the economy? Ever since the Minister assumed the role of Minister of Finance he has been preaching the gospel of “only eating what you kill” but in a situation like this the big question is, where will the next kill come from? Proclamations of the mineral richness of our country should show up at times like these not to be seen globe trotting with begging bowl all the time.

Some may argue that the Minister is politicking instead of doing the job he is being paid to do. In a country awash with minerals to report only $217 in the state account literally means the country has individuals richer than the country who may need to bail out the government.

Writing for the Mail & Guardian, Jason Moyo asks whether the MDC can still win the next election? Their call for change has worn thin.

A new constitution for Zimbabwe has been agreed on and now parties are looking to the elections.

So, what does Morgan Tsvangirai have to do to win this time? His biggest task will be to reignite the fizz of 2008, which has died down over disappointments in his party’s performance in government and his personal scandals. But there is hope for him yet.

This week, analyst Lance Mambondiani asked in an opinion piece: “Is it possible that we are experiencing a shift in the maturity of the voter, in which politicians are held to account based on their policies rather than their rhetoric?” Yes, but not enough. And as long as candidate quality and policy are still taken as secondary to removing President Robert Mugabe, Tsvangirai has a chance. His party can only win by targeting that “anyone but Mugabe” vote that has carried it for years.

The options on offer are stark: on the one hand, it’s a choice between Mugabe and Tsvangirai. The alternative is simply not bothering to vote at all, an increasingly appealing prospect for many.

Mugabe will run on his black-empowerment drive, promising rural communities near mining operations shares in the mines. Tsvangirai’s own economic policy, known by the acronym Juice, is vague at best. But lack of clear policy is not new to the Movement for Democratic Change and has never stood in its way before.

The MDC’s major struggle will be recreating its vibrant March 2008 campaign. The country’s economic collapse made Tsvangirai’s “change” platform far more appealing than Mugabe’s “100% empowerment” refrain. Tsvangirai ran a well-funded campaign, addressing thousands of red-card-waving supporters. Young people who had previously stayed away from politics came out to vote for the first time. There was a zest in the air, a great expectation that this time change was, indeed, coming.  In an unprecedented turn of events, the MDC was able to campaign freely in the rural areas. Having long been cordoned off by Zanu-PF militants, rural voters flocked to MDC rallies.

The results showed: Zanu-PF lost its parliamentary majority for the first time ever and Tsvangirai won more votes than Mugabe, although not enough to avoid the violent run-off that would follow.

Now, besides the mechanisms still needed to make the election a fair race, rediscovering its 2008 form is what the MDC needs the most. The events of the past five years have broken voters’ resolve: the violent 2008 election aftermath, the mind-numbing talks on the formation of the unity government and then its failure to bring about reform.

Although the economic growth of recent years is stalling, it is not as bad as it was in 2008, when hyper-inflation and food shortages bred deep resentment of Mugabe and drove desperate voters to the polls.

Tsvangirai will need to capitalise on Zanu-PF rhetoric that the party will revive the Zimbabwe dollar if it wins. The “Zim-dollar era” is a dark one for many and the MDC will need to play on those fears.

Tsvangirai’s personal scandals do not help. Those controversies showed that he, too, had built his own Mugabe-esque base of fanatical supporters. It wasn’t his fault, his lieutenants said – it was all some dark conspiracy. The scandals disillusioned many. The erosion in Tsvangirai’s support may not translate to backing for Mugabe or other rivals, but may simply keep people away from the polls.

In the previous election, many voters simply put an X against the name of any MDC candidate on the ballot. Nobody cared who the candidate was. But those voters now feel let down by corruption and lack of service delivery by urban councils run by the MDC.

There is little enthusiasm for the forthcoming election, which, including two referendums, will be the country’s eighth poll in 13 years.

A coalition against Mugabe would seem an obvious option, but it is unlikely. The bitterness between Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube, leader of the smaller MDC faction, runs deep. In 2007, an attempt to forge an alliance failed, partly because the parties could not agree on who would get certain positions in government if they won. In his autobiography, At the Deep End, Tsvangirai said Ncube and his backers never had any clout. They “were simply riding on my popularity, in the forlorn hope that part of it would rub off on to them”. Many Tsvangirai supporters agree. The two men trade frequent barbs in public, many of the insults eyeroll-inducing in their pettiness. Tsvangirai recently dismissed Ncube as a “village politician”, to which Ncube retorted that allowing Tsvangirai to lead would be like giving a cyclist a bus to drive.

So with no strong policy platform and little chance of an alliance, the only real game the MDC can play is the same one it has played before. The old “change” mantra is really all the MDC has – and it will be tougher to convince voters this time around.

I was not surprised when I read reports that ZimRights director, Okay Machisa, cried in court when his bail hearing failed to be heard at the High Court.

A lot of people who have never been through the same ordeal will just take it lightly. Every man reaches a breaking point in life regardless of how strong they are. To miss an opportunity for freedom breaks one’s soul. Words like “Further remand” coming from the judge or magistrate makes one go hysterical.

Let me give you a little preview what the day is like for an accused person on remand.

In the morning at 9am you get served plain porridge or brown water called tea with bread crumbs (donated leftovers from bakeries). In the afternoon its sadza and boiled cabbage, same for the evening menu. On a good day it’s sadza and boiled beans with some groundnuts. Bedtime starts at 3pm, not mentioning the time you sit in line to get counted. Your bed linen depends on how generous your inmates will be. You may get only two see-through blankets and if you have cigarettes you may trade for more, same as for the uniforms. Two cigarettes will get you a not so clean uniform.  If you are a non-smoker too bad because those cigarettes you would have traded will give you sleepless nights, as fellow inmates will be smoking stress out all night long. Visiting time is another moment of sadness because depending on your crime you will be in leg irons and handcuffed to another inmate. And if you don’t believe me ask someone who did prison time in Zimbabwe about the leg irons. If I tell you about the sanitary facilities you may miss your lunch.

Now this is the reason why Okay Machisa cried. He is in prison. His freedom is limited to between meals and bedtime. It breaks one’s spirit; it makes a grown man cry.

Ask the 45 of 2011 they cried too.

Yesterday Bulwayo24 published a story, which created some controversy on their site and some social networks. The article, Why it is risky to marry a Shona woman like Sheila Mutsenhu, was removed from the site after some few hours. I never got to read the article myself, though I wish I had. Here is a comment which was posted on the Bulawayo24 website by someone who had read the article.

I would like to complain about the tribalist hate speech that was published in the following article.

Why it is risky to marry a Shona woman like Sheila Mutsenhu (Article removed)

The author of this article chooses to parade his prejudices and ignorance and expose his own virulent tribalism rather than offer any meaningful discourse. Any responsible editor should not have allowed him a platform to air such irresponsible nonsense, or would have at the very least solicited counterpoints.

For the record women stripping in protest is not even part of Shona culture. Nor is it unique to Sheila Mutsenhu. I have witnessed several examples of it here in South Africa at service protests. Maybe the editor of Bulawayo 24 should look at the website (teealimodels.wordpress.com) or even this one (huffingtonpost.com) against the speaker of the United States congress.

Please understand that I am not advocating naked protest, but I am merely seeking to point out that Ryton Dzimiri’s views have absolutely nothing to do with his dislike for naked protest but everything to do with his tribal prejudices against the Shona. Naked protest has been happening all along including streaking at sporting matches but we have never heard even a whimper of protest from him.

The choice to make Bulawayo24 a site for the airing of tribalist hogwash is their editor’s choice. However they should not complain if others start making similar tribalist claims against one of their favoured tribes whichever that is.

Believe me such tribalist judgemental and prejudiced opinions do exist against all tribes in Zimbabwe. It is out of responsible consideration for others, that we often correct those who hold them.

Yours sincerely
Jupiter Punungwerecovery efforts.

We import helicopters
We export baby elephants

How nice.

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.