I think we could do with this in Zimbabwe, although I suspect our Tweets would end up as bird seed. But really, if you could send Mugabe and Tsvangirai a tweet, what would you say (hmmm don’t be rude now!):

Chavez joins twitter
It is known mainly for transmitting celebrity trivia and narcissism, but in the hands of Hugo Chavez, twitter has become something else: a tool of government. Venezuela’s president has harnessed the social networking and microblogging service for his socialist revolution by encouraging the population to tweet him their concerns. Chavez’s Twitter account, @chavezcandanga has exceeded 720 000 followers after establishing a reputation as a way to bypass bureaucracy and appeal directly to the president. It has been gaining 2 000 followers daily.
Source: The Mail &Guardian

Zimbabwe Election Support Network, Zimbabwe Peace Project and Zimbabwe Lawyers For Human Rights have issued the following statement on violence during the current Constitutional outreach campaign:

A Constitution Select Committee (COPAC) outreach meeting was on Saturday 14 August, 2010 abandoned in Chipinge, Manicaland Province after some ZANU PF youths assaulted two villagers prior to commencement of the meeting.

The COPAC meeting was scheduled to be held at Checheche Primary School.

The villagers Charles Chovi and Charles Chunje were assaulted by some ZANU PF youths at Checheche Primary School, who were led by Tonderai Ngwendu and Gilbert Kombo, who used benches, boots and clenched fists.

The two villagers were accused of sitting on some benches which had been set up before the arrival of the COPAC team members for a meeting to solicit people’s input into a proposed draft constitution.

ZZZICOMP monitors who witnessed the incident reported that Chovi and Chunje sustained some injuries on their bodies and on the ear and sought medical attention at St Peters Hospital.

The COPAC meeting was called off after some villagers protested that the meeting could not proceed as some of them had been assaulted and intimidated before the arrival of the COPAC team members. Ngwendu and Kombo were fined by the police at Chisumbanje Police Station, who also asked Chovi and Chunje to pay an admission of guilty fine for engaging in public fighting.

Honourable David Chimhini confirmed the assault and the abandonment of the meeting. He said it was evident that some villagers had been intimidated before the arrival of the COPAC team and his team had to postpone the meeting to a date to be advised as tension was high at the meeting.

The Harare Residents’ Trust (HRT), and many others, are rightly fed up with how our city is being managed. They make the following recommendations to improve service delivery and cash-flows to the City of Harare:

1. The Urban Councils’ Act (Chapter 29:15) should be amended to ensure that local authorities are led by elected mayors, who derive their mandate from the residents, and not from their political parties.
2. Mayor Masunda should desist from making statements that undermine the concerns of residents with regards to transparency, accountability and governance at Town House.
3. The City of Harare should make the necessary adjustments to its huge salary bill, in line with the Government’s directive.
4. Residents of Harare, industry and business should pay justified rates and rentals and not allow themselves to be held at ransom by Mayor Masunda and his colleagues in the top management of the City of Harare who take home 70 percent of the city’s revenue in salaries and allowances against service provision of 30 percent.
5. The mayor should drop his attitude and listen to the voice of stakeholders who have repeatedly expressed concern at the city’s rates and services.

We featured an article on aid and NGOs in one of our Kubatana newsletters recently. Seems like the MDC’s Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga wants the government to monitor and audit the activities of NGOs in Zimbabwe.

All well and good but surely it should work both ways? When do Zimbabwean citizens ever encounter any accountability and transparency from the Unity Government? Like, for example, audited accounts of how revenue from toll gates is used? Or how revenue from City of Harare advertising is used?

Donors require strict financial and programming reporting from the beneficiaries of their funding. If NGOs don’t comply or perform to these high standards they lose their funding. Meanwhile, the Unity Government of which Ms Misihairabwi-Mushonga is a part of, seems to believe that they stand apart from any checks and balances.

Some of our subscribers responded like this:

Why does government all of a sudden want donors to account for its money? Do we know how government uses its funds; which by the way, come from tax payers? Why would government expect donors to be accountable to them when government itself is not accountable to its own citizens? I do not think this is a good move on the part of government, especially now when there is a dire need for funds and government is failing to meet its obligations. NGOs are providing the much-needed food, clean water, agricultural inputs to citizens. Government has clearly failed to meet its obligations. Look what happened in 2008 when we had the cholera outbreak. UNICEF and other NGOs moved in and provided clean water and treatment. Right now clinics are functioning, obviously thanks to NGOs, which ever ones they are. So, is this another example of government shooting itself in the foot?  It does not make sense for a man to start harassing someone who is feeding his family when he has no capacity to do so himself. Minister Misihairabwi-Mushonga should tell us the real reasons for this requirement; she surely does not expect us to believe that this is the norm everywhere in the world? Even if it is, other countries are normal with normal governments. We on the other hand, have a dysfunctional government and one would hardly describe our situation as normal. I hope the Minister does not think that we are all so stupid we would think government is worried about us-we know they are not, ZANU PF or MDC.

I do agree  with Jona Mapako who responded on ZimIand forum saying . . . I think the minister has lost it. The government can only decide where its own money goes. The fact that there are donors reflects failure on government’s part to care for its citizens. This however is very true . our country has made head lines not because of anything but our corrupt politicians whose corrupt minds and actions led to the fall of the Zimbabwean dollar. Channeling all funds to the government will only misuse this money just as they always do. Chakatanga ndicho chakachenjedza to hell with them wanting to own everything. Minister Priscilla is beginning to sound  Zanu pf or has she been promised something in all this. Is she being controlled by someone? “We try to put aid where it’s most effective, and I don’t believe having a rule that says everything must be one way or another. As it stands right now the bulk of our aid goes directly to communities and goes through NGOs,” as said. By the US Ambassador is very true. I believe there is nothing wrong with this. Even the Bible says there is more joy in giving than in receiving but rest assured if your efforts are directed to the wrong destination then you simply have not achieved your goal which is to help. My conclusion is NO to government control over the funds. Them controlling the NGO’s is okay but not their activities and funds.

I think the minister is very right, the government should know who the donors are dealing with, in a way it’s a matter of national security. This is our country Zimbabwe and it is the government which acts as custodian of our safety, our peace, and our resources. It is therefore prudent for them, as custodians, to know everything that transpires within or outside the boarders of Zimbabwe as long as it has a bearing on the life of any Zimbabwean. Whether it is aid or what, the government has to know because they are answerable to us, citizens of this beautiful country, Zimbabwe.  I salute the stance taken by Madam Honourable Minister.

I second the notion that the Minister, (Misihairabwi-Mushonga) has lost it, and has lost it big time. I am sure she has come along a saying which goes like, “beggars are not choosers”.Honestly , have they thought of what would happen if those donors decide to pull out?

Decision on NGOs threatens Western aid

A government decision to police non-governmental organisations working in Zimbabwe threatens future support from Western countries whose funds have been critical in curbing humanitarian disasters, a top diplomat has said.

Regional Integration and International Cooperation minister Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga said the government last week told donors and ambassadors from donor countries that they should inform government of their activities, total funding into the country and the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that they were working with.

But the United States (US), which is one of Zimbabwe’s biggest donors, warned yesterday that such a move would be disastrous, mainly because it was not practical to make such demands when donors were doing their best under the current environment where their options were limited due to restrictions levelled against some people in the inclusive government.

However, Misihairabwi-Mushonga insisted that donors and NGOs should abide by the rules and regulations government has set out for donor funding. Misihairabwi-Mushonga, who chairs the recently set up Government Development Forum in which 10 ministers sit with donors and ambassadors to discuss policy and problematic issues regarding donor funding, said government should be the dominant player in aid co-ordination and aid-distribution. She said she would soon be compiling a database of the total number of donors and the NGOs in the country, programmes that they finance, size and quantity of funding and the criteria they use to select their beneficiaries.

“It is the government that defines where aid should go. We now require everyone in the country to inform us about their aid work, how much they are spending and which areas they are working on. Right now we don’t know and are not sure who is doing what or working with whom and through which NGOs,” said Misihairabwi-Mushonga.

However, US Ambassador to Zimbabwe Charles Ray told the Zimbabwe Independent yesterday that he did not believe in a government dictating rules on how they should operate, adding that what worked at the moment, because of the restrictions on Zimbabwe, was to channel aid through NGOs or directly to communities.

“We try to put aid where it’s most effective, and I don’t believe having a rule that says everything must be one way or another. As it stands right now the bulk of our aid goes directly to communities and goes through NGOs,” he said.

“The essential philosophy of US aid and the way I influence wherever I work is… I refuse to have someone write a set of rules and tell me that I must follow those rules, I look for what works.”

Misihairabwi-Mushonga said what they are doing is the accepted norm in any country in the world. “They have to know that they are dealing with a country which has a government and they will have to follow certain rules. They can’t just operate in this country the way they want.”

Source: Faith Zaba, The Zimbabwe Independent

Haitian-American artist Eric Telfort is currently in Bulawayo as part of an artists’ cultural exchange supported by the US Embassy in Harare, and has been working with artists in Bulawayo.

The Bulawayo Art Gallery yesterday launched When I Was Six, an exhibition of Telfort’s work.
Telfort, a computer games professional, is one of America’s rising young visual artists, with several qualifications in visual arts including undergraduate and graduate qualifications in Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design and New York Academy of Art respectively. His paintings have been exhibited at galleries in both New York and Rhode Island.

Telfort’s exhibition runs until Thursday, August 19.

Read more

Following on from the post yesterday, here are more text messages from our subscribers saying how they’d like Zimbabwe’s diamond income spent:

Pay government workers sound salaries and pay outstanding debts eg IMF etc

——

Education is the pillar of all forms of production. Why should educators be paid $190?

——

Priority 1. Civil svc salaries. 2 support for manufacturing industries. 3 social svces. Governance transformation.

——

The people wil nt benefit much b’cause of huori. I think they should upgrade the education and health systems, the vodzera macivil servant, kuti tisakaura nekubvisa maincentives ematicha, vana vadzidziswezvisvunu.

——

Should pay civil servants vatambura nguva refu veduwe

——

Zesa, education and health care.

——

Gvt shld invest that money in key sectorz of the economy, 4 the betterment of our country.

——

1st develop manicaland for the benefit of these people

——

Civil servant salary, education & health empowerment

——

Pay its civil servants to reduce brain drain and improve the social standards of the servants and eventually the povo will benefit.

——

The Govt must prioritise sad state of civil servants and pensioners packages and fight corruption in and out