Too often people write analysis and commentary on Zimbabwe without ever really immersing themselves in our country, and its complicated politics. So I was very pleased to come across a blog by Craig Barnett who visited Zimbabwe and has taken the time to share his experience and reflections.

Living at Hlekweni, I gradually came to think that the reality is considerably more complex and ambiguous than this, and increasingly started to question the way our media represents Zimbabwe and other non-Western nations (especially those that are usually represented as outside the ‘international community’ of US allies).

More here

Most countries reserve a date on their calendars to celebrate Mother’s Day and it occurs on various dates and goes with distinctive names. In Zimbabwe, as with some other countries like the USA, the celebration is on Sunday 13th of May. This year marks my first celebration as a mother, and of course, I will continue to observe it as a daughter. Being a mom is very difficult especially in developing countries where the availability of resources is limited for mothers to provide for their children. Some mothers actually do not get the right nutrition they require during pregnancy and as such the child will fail to get good nutrition too when they are born.

In a report on world rankings released recently by Save the Children, on the Status of the World’s Mothers, Norway tops the list and Niger is the last on the list. Norway is therefore ranked as the best place to be a mom in the world. It is important to note too that in 2010 Norway was ranked the best place to live in the world. According to the Status of the World’s Mothers Report, Norway ranks among the very best on contraceptive use, female education, political representation and has one of the most generous maternity leave policies. Niger is last on the index and is regarded as the worst place to be a mom in the world. Niger, a country in West Africa is faced with hunger thus a posing major threat to children’s lives.  In comparison of the two countries, the child mortality rate in Niger is one in six, versus one in 333 in Norway.

Save the Children is an international organisation dedicated to creating lasting change in the lives of children in need around the world. The report, which reveals the Best and Worst Places to Be Mom examines165 countries, with 122 being developing countries. Factors used to determine the rankings were examination of maternal care, education of mothers, economic status of the country, health and nutrition of children, lifetime risk of dying from childbirth, mortality rate of children and maternity leave policies among others. According to Save the Children concentration was turned to mothers because, “the quality of children’s lives depends on the health, security and well-being of their mothers”.

In the 2011 report, Zimbabwe in Tier II of less developed countries was ranked 70 out of 79 countries. Other African countries in Tier II of the 2011 report include Nigeria, Namibia, and Botswana. According to the Status of World’s Mothers Report 2011, the lifetime risk of maternal death is one in forty-two. The percentage of births attended by skilled health professionals was 60%.

The 2012 report did not only focus on rankings but it went further to offer solutions and recommendations. Where hunger is rife in developing countries, Save the Children recommended the solution of breastfeeding. Regularly breastfeeding newborns helps to combat malnutrition in children and lives can be saved, said the report. Other recommendations in the report included investing in frontline health workers, investing in girls’ education, maintaining better hygiene and supplementing meals with iron foliate, zinc and vitamin A.

In my own personal experience in Zimbabwe, I have met mothers who give birth without having seen a doctor or a nurse and the worst scenarios being that of mothers who give birth outside the health system. This is largely due to a lack of money to pay for maternity services rendered at health care institutions. However, with the launch of UNICEF’s Health Transition Fund for Zimbabwe which will see pregnant women and children under five years receive free medical health care at government hospital and clinics there is much anticipation for an improvement in the maternal health care of the country. With this initiative and others taking place in the country we should see Zimbabwe climb a step or two up the rankings.

I wrote to the Mayor of Harare last year about my concerns regarding the flagrant abuse of zoning regulations for businesses in suburban areas in Harare. No response. No big surprise. Everywhere you look there’s a creche, or a cafe, or a restaurant, or a clinic, or a security firm … it’s just not acceptable. I can only think that the authorities in the City of Harare are just plain incompetent, powerless or corrupt. Years ago people operating businesses from residential properties used to duck and dive to avoid The Law. But these days in Zimbabwe, the rule of law, along with any kind of rules and regulations, are flouted with impunity. Do the authorities in the City of Harare honestly think that it is fair and just for home owners to have the value of their property plummet, along with their quality of living, on the back of second hand car dealers et al getting to operate businesses illegally?

Here’s Mr Dube from Eastlea who shares similar concerns. In the meantime, Mr Mayor, please Wake Up, or get the hell out ….

Open Letter to the Mayor of Harare

We, the residents of Wheeler Avenue, Eastlea, Harare, wish to register our strong objection to the granting of consent for the setting up of car sales or any other type of business along this road.

Previous experience has shown that areas zoned for car sales businesses along Robert Mugabe Road/Glenara Avenue are de-greened in order to create parking space. We do not want this environmental damage to happen again in our area. Trees are central to our existence and we know why they are important. We value most of the great natural beauty and the charm of the treed area than the current piece-meal planning. Let us build the environment, instead of destroying it.

Whatever the merits of that decision may have been at the time, conditions have since changed so much since then that is no longer relevant. Already, there are a lot of car sales in the area; we do not see the need for more! The hard practical truth, in our opinion (although we are not experts in traffic engineering or town planning), is that the zoning for car sales ignores the absolute necessity of widening this access road to the city centre. To serve the material increase in population in Harare, Goromonzi and Ruwa as well as traffic from the entire route (Mutare-Harare), Robert Mugabe Road now requires extra road space equivalent to a six-way freeway with separate levels of crossing traffic to remove congestion. The current developments will cause Robert Mugabe Road to remain at its present abnormally low width. The blossoming car sales in our area engender traffic problems. Public and private vehicles are now using the roads on both sides of Robert Mugabe Road which is supposed to be an arterial transportation route, to avoid congestion at the Chiremba road traffic lights.

At least your good offices should have had the courtesy of asking residents if they had any objections to the zoning of our neighbourhood for car sales or any other business. This raises questions about the professional conduct of business and accountability at the Harare City Council offices. We call upon those with the requisite expertise on environmental governance to cause the city fathers to reverse irrational decisions that have a negative impact on the environment, let alone a residential area.

We hope this matter merits serious consideration.

Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

Yours Sincerely

G. Dube
CHRA Member (Eastlea)

We can no longer deny that the hopes and aspirations of the Zimbabwean people have been usurped by politicians. Neither ZANU PF nor MDC may claim innocence in illegally seizing what was supposed to be a ‘people driven’ constitution making process and manipulating it for their own political ends.  In truth neither party has the people’s wishes at heart.

In  Pambazuka, Maxwell V Madzikanga writes that the process has become a ‘tokenistic exercise for the rich corrupt and powerful’:

A national constitution is not a political and partisan document and thus all political and non-political actors in Zimbabwe were expected to unite around this very noble cause. This did not happen as politicians from the major political parties selfishly and parochially promoted their partisan position at the expense of national virtues, ethos, rationality and reason.

The constitution is not about regime change. The constitution-making phase was not supposed to be a stone-throwing, political space expansion exercise, sovereignty-induced visitations to the rural areas. The forums were supposed to be focus group reflections, listening tours and detailed discussions of fundamental, all and cross-generational ethos, virtues, values and thinking. The consultations were supposed to dialogical, discursive, give and take clinics and memorable encounters in the life and history of a republic in general and all stakeholders in particular. Sadly, this was not the case. A process that could have been harnessed to promote national unity and reconciliation ended up being hijacked by political heavy weights that stubbornly postured and arrogantly promoted their partisan agendas.

Read the full article here

Being too tired (and too full) to move last night, I found myself watching last night’s 8 ‘O’ Clock news broadcast on ZBC. For the most part I try to avoid watching the news, it long ago abandoned its analytical, investigative and informational functions, and now merely serves to justify ZANU PFs existing position.

In an in-depth report, the bulletin featured unabashed condemnation, badly disguised as analysis, of the Pretoria High Court Ruling passed on Tuesday obliging South Africa to investigate Zimbabwean torture allegations. It then moved on to discuss the issue of the lack of coin change from retailers, a cold news item that had been publicly discussed last year; and as a coup de grace a feature report on the lack of innovation in the tourism sector.  I quite doubt that the programmes producers appreciate the irony of their levelling this charge when they are lacking in innovation themselves. Chris Mutsvangwa ZBC’s newly favourite public intellectual was quoted in at least three stories, in his multiple capacities as a legal expert, economic analyst and government representative. One might assume that he was the only person in all of Zimbabwe with any kind of education or opinion.

There’s an hour of my life that I will never get back. The entire bulletin was poorly constructed and superficial in it’s coverage. Zimbabweans are not stupid, their response has been to access paid and free to air channels from South Africa. It’s no wonder that the Zimbabwe All Media Products Survey has consistently reported a decline in viewership. I wonder how Zimbabwe Broadcasting holdings management can doggedly continue to create programming that few can access and even fewer care to watch. Surely they cannot be so deluded as to call what I witnessed last night journalism? Thankfully ZBC’s reception is limited to an 80km radius around Harare, leaving the rest of the nation unaffected. I can’t say it’s a loss to Zimbabwe’s media-scape.

The difficulties experienced by rural women include water and sanitation challenges. It is therefore with much delight that I note that rural women were the main talk at this year’s United Nations, Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). This is a platform created by the United Nations and is held annually at the UN Headquarters. According to the UN, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global policy making body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women. In this regard, each year member states gather at UN Headquarters to create various platforms to enable the advancement of women rights through discussions and exhibits among other means of communication. This year two ZUSAA Alumni members, Grace Chirenje and Lucy Mazingi where sponsored by the US Embassy in Zimbabwe to attend this annual event. Grace is the Director of Zimbabwe Young Women’s Network for Peace Building, and Lucy Mazingi is a director at the Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust thus they participated as members of the civil society in Zimbabwe.

This year’s theme of CSW focused of rural women and it was interpreted as, “The empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges”. The theme was in full support of MDG number 3 that states the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.  Rural women are believed to be the medium for economic progression in the world.  On justifying the importance of the theme the UN clearly stated that, “Rural women’s economic empowerment is key. If rural women had equal access to productive resources, agricultural yields would rise and there would be 100 million to 150 million fewer hungry people.”

This week’s Food for Thought session at the US Embassy Public Affairs Section gave a platform for Grace and Lucy to give feedback on their experiences at this year’s CSW. Both the participants alluded that it was a learning curve for them as they got to interact with government representatives and civic society members from different parts of the world. Lucy Mazingi supported this year’s CSW theme as she said, “In agriculture, rural women are economic agents that can help reduce poverty thus they require empowerment”. Both women work with rural women and girls and empowering them is one of their mandates.

Grace Chirenje highlighted that rural women are no different to urban women as they face the same issues. Also the challenges and issues being faced by women in developing countries and the developed world are similar. She did point out that some countries in the developed world referred to rural women as ‘indigenous women’, but there was no difference in the aspects regarding these women, it was just a matter of different expression. Asked on why they did not take any rural women with them to the CSW, Grace replied saying that the US Embassy on the basis of being ZUSAA members sponsored them but it would have been ideal to have physical representation of rural women from Zimbabwe. The government representatives at CSW did not bring rural women with them either instead they showcased a video of rural women in Zimbabwe from Binga. Other countries including our neighbours South Africa managed to bring rural women with them. With this in mind Grace Chirenje and Lucy Mazingi highlighted the need for close networking and collaboration between government ministries and civil society.

One attendee at Foord for Thought urged women activists not to waver in their fight for women’s rights especially when it comes to holding the government accountable in implementing policies they have signed and promised to adhere to. She also highlighted that the early fighters for women rights fought not only for themselves but for us too.

To conclude, the call for boys and men to be engaged in gender equality and women rights issues was brought up. Engaging men in the conversation for women’s rights not only helps enlighten them about gender issues but gives them a platform to air their views too. Removing them from this picture is not going to yield results. Youth participation was also considered to be vital and it was resolved to include youths in delegations representing the country at such high profile and important events.