Today Zimbabwe has an inclusive government.

A compromise arrangement between the three political principals of Zimbabwean politics. Not even the most imaginative mind would have placed Zimbabwe in this scenario twenty years ago. An embarrassing and sad scenario for a country that fought a bitter war for majority-rule to find itself being steered by an unelected executive. And it so happens to be the best, considering!

I was a fierce critic of this idea when it was first proposed. Viewing it as AU’s lazy short-cut out of a leadership crisis of Kenyan roots set to be a litmus test to AU’s mandate, relevancy, policies, stamina and legacy.  But as the Zimbabwean political and economic tale continued on an unpredictable and painful path, most progressive individuals within and without Zimbabwe (my little self included) started buying into the inclusive government idea as the better short term solution out of the Zimbabwean crisis. The merits of this are no longer here or there. The dhiri government is now upon us. A reality whose best we have to find, and make do with.

It is in this imperfect arrangement that the whole nation’s hopes today lie. But unlike the euphoria of 1980, even the most optimistic persons are embracing this dhiri government with extreme caution. The bitter experiences of post-1980 haunt many. And the life lesson from it that politicians can never be trusted is well-learned. The question that I am asked everyday by even those I think should be answering it is, will this inclusive government work? Thus meet the people’s expectations and needs. I hope and pray it does, for everyone’s sake.

So what are the imperatives, basic key elements necessary for this inclusive government to succeed? For me we first need to agree on what we want IT to achieve, but more so, how far we want IT to work. This dhiri needs to act the role of a foundation for a Zimbabwe all Zimbabweans want, not to be reduced to a stage for politicians to outmaneuver or outshine each other settling old scores as in the case of BITI/GONO saga. We need to go back to the basics and craft a truly inclusive national reconstruction agenda. This might sound like the vocabulary of yesterday as the ship is already in motion. Well apparently the ship is sailing without the basics of a destination, compass and its passengers. Should we let it sail away? The number one basic is people ownership and tangible participation in the revival process. We have seen how the people’s exclusion and resultant withdrawal/non-participation from the previous regime’s programs escalated the crisis more than the public looting of state resources by state officials and the sanctions. Without the people rallying behind the previous regime, the centre gave in. It would be tragic for this country if the people continue on the sidelines. Like now.

The mistake politicians are making is because they know what the people did not like prior to this, anything which is not it is therefore what the people want. Armed with this they are unilaterally deciding on behalf of the people. This explains why the dhiri was pushed for by a handful of politicians and crafted by an equally smaller number with the assistance and guarantee of foreigners. Politicians having eaten on behalf of the people for a long time see no reason why they should not think and act on our behalf too. But in this haste to put things in order and fast, the current government risks personalizing the Zimbabwean crisis, its solutions and its pending failure. As we speak right now the only communication to the man in the street has been to be patient and ready to sacrifice more. A far too familiar demand from politicians while they eat. And herein lies our first pothole. The remote participation of the major shareholder – the people. Yet broken and divided as we are, we need the contribution of everyone as a unifying element and as a resource. I bet you people will take the proposed us$100 per month if they know why and exactly how long they are going to sacrifice especially when MPs are set to receive us$27 000+ per year. Most Zimbabweans aware of this brazen disdain by politicians are leaving en mass to democracies where governments respect its citizens. Among these are the few skilled workers required to oil the revival agenda.

But of course politicians do not care. Government, through The Herald, will order them back!

I agree our situation is complex and urgent. But that doesn’t automatically mean we have to urgently employ complex secretive and excluding solutions. We have seen how technocrats failed to solve our crisis at a time the crisis was less complex as it is today. The complex learned-excuses that previous learned-ministers have forwarded failed to deliver. We are done complex, haste and people exclusion. The chef/povo we-are-government syndrome if not destroyed now, will destroy us.

So are the people the main protagonists in this venture or the audience to the politicians’ mystical national revival show? By people, reference extends beyond the joint MDC and ZANU PF supporters. For it is an unsaid truth that these supporters collectively are by far fewer than Zimbabweans outside politics erroneously termed voter-apathy, unregistered voter or ineligible voters who also have a legitimate stake in this country.  Again I probe, is the nation on the same page on where we are, where we want to be, how we want to do this. Who or what might get in the way? Who needs to do what? Who and what is on our side? What is the tangible pay-off? How and what can we put in place in defense of this ideal Zimbabwe so that it can outlast political doctrines? Timelines? These are not your very educated questions, but crucial mass questions ignored at owners risk. For if these are not shared and addressed by us all, we risk achieving nothing.

I will submit that our nation has experienced the crisis in different degrees as such cannot all be on the same page on where we are today as a people. Within the same breath, as divided as we are, our desired tomorrow is not necessarily the same. Yet we have to be one from the word go lest we continue to hear zvinhu zvavo varume ava zvinobuda here izvozvi? Haameno, ngavaite tione.

Finding each other should go beyond politicians. In fact, it should be the recurring theme for the dhiri government. Genuine national unity, not a united front for politicians aboard the dhiri’s gravy train. Otherwise the unfortunate beatings of ZANU PF supporters by MDC supporters recently witnessed in Mutoko and Bindura will spread as the people begin to misinterpret the dhiri mainly due to lack of information. The people’s anger continues to boil around the country and without clear guidance and information – its set to be like that for a very long time.

These seemingly little but key basics ought to be clear to all Zimbabweans at this teething period of the dhiri government. ALL OF US regardless of education, political and economic status, for when the hut starts burning as we have experienced before – even the smallest rat faces the torch. All of us making sure our collective hope for a peaceful and prosperous Zimbabwe is not again betrayed through arrogance, avoidable negligence, short-sightedness and most dangerously, exclusion.

What we are not seeing is a government or individual party outreach programs in explaining the dhiri and its direction as a matter of urgency. Gathering the people’s input. The people are running around pathetically scrounging for information (newspapers are now expensive) about this dhiri creature that is steering their lives. Already we have started to witness a familiar gap growing between politicians and the people. The people treated it as a blessing, glimpses of their MPs on TV ever since the elections when they converged to rubber stamp the 19th Amendment and Security Bills! Elected people’s representatives must talk to the people they represent. Its that simple! They are some who will say we have consulted. Well consultation should go beyond your bedrooms, drinking clubs, executive meetings and internet blogs.

It now appears politicians from all parties took a secrecy oath against the people. And just why is this? We know. Politicians find it easy to short-change and maintain a diabolic hold on the masses when the people are in the dark. The poverty of information, respect, food . . . is ammunition for politicians to escape accountability. Empowered by the people’s desperation politicians are running around town acting as if they are the people. This disrespect of the people is now endemic. The now impoverished Zimbabweans have been stripped of their deserved respect and worth. Our crisis and needs go beyond sadza. The people want and deserve respect and joint ownership of this country and its destiny.

Am I being too forward and not giving the dhiri a chance? My reply is a question – when should we start monitoring, critiquing and contributing to the dhiri (and post-dhiri)? When it starts failing and we have a bigger crisis? Have we as a nation got so used to reacting to crisis? This reactive and scatter brain type of doing things must have no room in our new way of doing things. It is high time we stop it.

We ought to have a plan together, and work on making the plan work, now! Tisumukirane.

Again I probe, do we have a plan to heal the nation? Who has it and when do they think they can bless us with it? How are we going to unite feuding neighbors split by politicians who are now eating and wining together? How do we plan to heal the scars of June violence and before? Or it is a given the people must unite because the leaders united? Can an aggrieved ordinary person get re-dress from JOMIC or it is a preserve for politicians only? Even more critical is how we make sure this embarrassing dhiri government episode will never visit us ever again. These are key national concerns.

A shared national vision I believe will assist us in making make sure we know what is broken and to what extent, so that we do not blindly build on top of the ruins when building afresh. This shared vision will make us stop seeing the crisis from within blindly and react blindly. Again I maintain practical and not lip-service national healing and revival of the economy must together anchor that plan. A people driven Constitution is only but one of the key tools to shape this. However we must do this with a third eye on when can craft mechanisms to defend the same Constitution from political abuse by not so nice political characters as in the past.

Already our MPS have gone into mute mode – that is when they are not rubber stamping Bills in Parliament. So, the time for all pro-democratic, pro-people forces to start working hard is now. Fighting for the placement of the people at the centre of their nation’s welfare and affairs. To put sustained tangible pressure on politicians making sure we deny them room to destroy our nation ever again  through negligence or the current disrespect for citizens. To build people power so that it becomes mightier than politicians. To make state business, except for those issues to do with state security, very open so there is no room for corrupt characters. Having put these basics in place, the insincerity that everyone is so worried about on the part of politicians in this dhiri will be exposed there and then should it manifest. Kufemera muhuro tirinavo nemumvura nemumvura.Kuvagara chasi!

Having brought the people to the centre of rebuilding their nation/lives, the other process that should be running concurrently to this, is securing the state from local and external threats. Local thieves and foreign thieves who pretend to like us while busy looting our heritage. Making a rich country like ours unable to feed such a manageable population. This ends now! The time is now. Every one must start demanding a role in the rebuilding of our country which is their future. For some of us we have already allocated ourselves roles. After all, it is “the only country I know and have”.

There’s an unfortunate headline doing the rounds right now: Zimbabwe’s teachers: what a treacherous crowd. Joram Nyathi, the author of the article, castigates Zimbabwe’s teachers for not accepting and being grateful for the US$100 voucher that was recently waved under their noses in an effort to get them to go back to school. Joram believes that most families would do ok on this paltry sum. As some of the comments on his blog point out, teachers have to pay transport, medical fees, buy clothes, food . . . so US$100 is really pretty much a smack in the face. Yes, the sum that teachers are asking for right now – US$2300 – is high, especially in a bankrupt country. But more to the point, Zimbabweans should really be asking how we can afford one of the most bloated governments in the world? And indeed why we are going to allow it? Joram at least raises this issue in his blog. But we need to do more than simply write about the fat salaries, perks and allowances that all of these ministers, deputies, senators, governors, and their swathe of support staff are going get. It’s not fair to take it out on the teachers. At least the teachers have a solid sense of what they’re worth. Zimbabweans have for too long bowed and scraped and bobbed up and down for the few crumbs that come our way. Let the teachers strike continue. Let doctors and nurses strike. Let bank staff strike. Let housewives and domestic workers strike. Let NGOs strike. Let our whole country resist, and let all of us say no to a Unity Government that is irrationally large. It’s time for our politicians to grow up.

Patience Mambo submitted the following piece to Kubatana recently on the subject of expectations in regard to the new Unity Government. She believes that its good to have hope and faith, but within the bounds of reason and realism . . .

The political crisis in Zimbabwe since 1999 has led to a rise in the cost of living, an unlivable economic climate, despair, unrest and socio-psychological turmoil. That the two political rivals should finally agree to work together presented a thin thread of hope millions of Zimbabweans were desperate to clutch at. But are they placing their eggs in one basket? Are they being too hopeful for solutions in a scenario that may or may not work?

In 1980, Zimbabwe gained independence from white colonial rule. Suddenly blacks were free to walk in Salisbury’s First Street, they could stay “kumayard” such as Highlands, and they could ride in first class public transport and so on. Most (many of whom were poor and impoverished) dreamt that independence meant an instant change in their social position. They dreamt that suddenly they were in a land of milk and honey and when they realized that they still had to work for every bread crumb they ate, they got a rude awakening.

The story is the same for black South Africa. Independence from White apartheid rule in 1994 carried a huge wave of expectation. Many black South Africans thought independence would usher in a lightning bolt of social transformation. Suddenely they saw themselves rising from shacks (mikuku) to brick houses; they saw their pockets filled with the much coveted Rand; education for their children in the plushest of schools formerly meant for white South African children; the list is endless. But this was not to be and today, the majority of black South Africans are still to realize those dreams.

11 February 2009 marked a great and historic event in the Zimbabwe’s, and indeed the Southern African Development Community’s calendar. Three major political rivals formed a joint government in perceived to be impossible circumstances. Zimbabwe has had the same president for close to 30 years. The ruling party has been battling with a stubborn and headstrong opposition for the past 10 years. So it becomes not only exciting and intriguing that they should finally come together to form a much awaited and long overdue government.

The majority of the people are looking to this new political dispensation to dilute (if not erase completely) their suffering and magically transform their lives from Egypt and lead them to the New Canaan.

People should be informed that manna will not simply fall down from the sky to pick up and eat at free will. People will still have to work hard to produce and henceforth generate much needed foreign currency. If you are uneducated you will not wake up a general manager, if you are lazy, you still won’t have bread to feed your children. Those willing to give the new leaders a chance, while working hard for themselves stand a better chance. Those who think things will automatically improve have a bitter pill to swallow. It’s good to have hope and faith, I think, within the boundaries of reason and realism!

Back in November, I organized and was part of a discussion forum that explored the topic of sexual vulnerabilities as well as some of the challenges associated with conducting research concerning sex/sexuality. I provided introductory comments from the perspective of being an anthropologist interested in the ways HIV/AIDS has transformed spaces to understand and speak about sex. Emphasizing that in most African countries, HIV transmission happens through sex; thus, for nearly 30 years knowledge generated about HIV and AIDS is also knowledge about sex, sexuality, sexual orientation, sexual identities, sexual subjectivities, and sexual vulnerabilities.

Six distinct, yet related, concepts interwoven into human sexual potential. A potential which extends beyond the act of sex and serves as a path through which individuals embody, express, and experience sexual desires and sexual selves. Like most human attributes, sex is such that societal dynamics and life experiences, both pleasurable and painful, shape the ways sexual potential is embraced – as individuals, in perceptions of others, and in relationships with others.

With this background, each of the panelists spoke about projects they are working on. Through poetry, fiction, and qualitative social science research methods, the panelists highlighted the ways sexualities – how they are understood and practiced as well as emotionally lived and dynamically not static – contain layered sets of meanings and complications. Following the presentations, the audience engaged in a lively discussion. Repeatedly people commented that there are not enough spaces for people to speak about sex. Yet also, noting that on the ground experience, through for example, NGO programming, family counseling, or field-based research, indicates that Zimbabweans are eager and searching for opportunities to speak about sex.

Read more

I need to get a car.

Be it a jaunty jalopy or sleek fuel-efficient machine; whatever it is, I really don’t mind at this point in time. All I need is a dependable specimen that will save me from the continuous wear and tear that I experience daily from my use of public transport, particularly the dreaded ‘kombi’.

If you have ever hailed one of these rickety vans to stop and give you a ride, you will have noted how eager and enthusiastic the driver and tout always are when they notice you standing at the road side, desperately waving your hand to get their attention. The driver honks his horn profusely while the tout leans half his body out threw a windowless pane, frantically calling out, “Town! Town! Town!”

You feel an instant relief at this because you are running late and town is exactly where you are headed. And though you are well-dressed and beautifully preened, none of the nice men and women in their neat sedans and SUVs are stopping to offer you a lift.

But the joyous mood immediately fades the moment you get your kitten-heeled shoe onto the first step of the van. For before you have even had time to find your footing, the driver is impatiently revving up his engine, making ready to get back onto the main road and slice scandalously through the morning traffic. Hunched over into the low space of the kombi – and trying desperately to find a vacant seat – as well as fight the forward force of the vehicle which is in direct opposition to the course you must follow to find a place in the back, the moment begins the domino effect of bad events intended to ruin your day.

Firstly, in your efforts to reach your seat, you are very likely to either ladder your brand new pair of stockings, or acquire a weeping wound to the knee or lower-leg area. This is because these third-hand write offs they like to call vehicles usually have anorexic seats with bits of steel jutting out from everywhere like unclothed bone. Or even worse, just as you have managed to get to a vacant place without too much drama, you plonk your behind into a scruffed up seat which begins to fray the hem of your skirt or prick uncomfortably into your rump. And already you are counting down from ten, just to keep your cool.

A kombi drive is nothing close to a ride in a luxury vehicle. So don’t be too surprised if you find yourself face to face with the beady eyes of a chicken confined to a plastic bag and nestled in the lap of the man or woman sitting next to you.  Also, if the kombi driver insists on giving his ‘cousin-brother’ or girlfriend a free lift, do not be too perturbed to find your hip bone buried in the side of your neighbour as you each manoeuvre yourselves to force a fifth person onto a row of seats that accommodate a maximum of four people.

And never expect the tout to be any kind of gentleman. All he wants is to get your money. Having achieved this aim, he might proceed to torment you about not providing him with changed money, and how he has none to offer you. Right then, you might start to feel your blood boil with rage – “Nine, eight, seven,” the silent countdown continues.

Mind you, all of the touts raving might be going on with his armpit over your row of seats, exuding a potent olfactory experience that could certainly kill small rodents and other creatures. And if you are really unlucky, you might find yourself in the front seat with him, your head buried somewhere between his armpit and shoulder, and his mid-section nestling over your knee. Your might try to contort yourself away from his anatomy, but alas, the 20 kg bag of sugar the woman next to you has at her feet, has clogged all thoughts of attaining some leg space.

Don’t expect any sort of ambience or mood music in there. In the claustrophobic chaos of hoarded goods and wares, rickety seats and dangerous swerves and turns, expect the poorest bleeding sound systems that were ever invented to burst the ear drums of cash-strapped third worlders. If you can wrestle both your hands free and hold them shut against your ears, this will help lessen the harm. But if you can’t, mouth along to sungura or rhumba beats.

Just like with aeroplane travel, always try to get a window seat! In our kombis, the first two seats, towards the window, are usually immovable. But the last two can be folded up so that folk can walk up and down the aisle to get in and out. Now, let me tell you, there is no fun in being stationed on one of those fold up seats and having to get up, fold it up and make space for someone further in the back to make their way out of the kombi, at each and every stop. Beside being annoying, it also adds to your chances of laddering or grazing something!

Finally, the merciless vehicle won’t even leave you at your direct destination. You will still have to face the harsh elements (blazing morning sunshine, or dreary summer drizzles) and foot your way through the city streets, probably to get another gruesome kombi ride to some other place. And unlike a trusty friend who promises to pick you up at a certain time, kombis have their own time tables, as they only get going from one point to the next when the vehicle is positively sagging with human and non-human loads. So always expect to be running either too late, or too early, but never quite on time.

Need I say more?

I just need a car.

Colletah, a Kubatana subscriber wrote to us recently sharing views on the recent power sharing deal in Zimbabwe . . .

What happened in Zimbabwe is not good. When will African leaders ever be able to appreciate the democratic fact that those who lose elections should simply hand over to the winners? The fact that Morgan  agreed to be sworn in with dozens of his supporters jailed for the most spurious of charges is deeply troubling. The fact that he dropped his legitimate demand for their unconditional release before taking any oath is very disturbing.

I have deep reservations about his strategy to fight  ZANU from within. I will always remember one of my students who said “one cannot push an immobile bus from inside – it does not work.” Those who have cohabited with Mugabe in the hope they can reform from within have ended up either being absorbed into the same defective system they sought to reform or being completely emasculated or ruthlessly eliminated. There is nothing to suggest that  Mugabe is serious about the power sharing deal. Which is why he keeps on detaining dozens over trumped up charges. There is nothing to show that he is serious about the reforms required to reform Zimbabwe’s institutions to restore the rule of law. That is precisely why he would not give  Tsvangirai sole control of the Home Affairs ministry in charge of the highly politicized Zimbabwean police force. Not to mention the defence and state security portfolios he has used to bludgeon opponents. I don’t expect any stampede of donors and investors back into Zimbabwe. In fact, by rushing to bankroll the new government, the donors will be promoting the very disturbing trend in which election losers stay through power sharing deals. I am very sad at the developments this week

If at all there are opportunities in genuine Nation Building please remember that there are people  willing to come  home but do not know how to go about it .  Taneta nekugara musango!