I came across an article in Newsday titled ‘Cde. Mugabe it’s time to rest’, the article cites several political analysts who examine the President’s legacy and what the last decade has done to it. The article cites University of Zimbabwe lecturer Eldred Masunungure as saying that while President Mugabe would know best when he should retire, his continued hold on power was eroding his legacy. All the analysts agreed that Mugabe is a committed nationalist and a patriot.

I must confess that I too have some mixed feelings about Our Dear Leader. On the one hand I think some of the policies and acts of his government(s) whether official or unofficial have been at best misguided, and at worst evil. I cannot stomach violence and murder. But on the other hand I appreciate his point of view, and have some admiration for his dogged resolve in the face of so much criticism and resistance. Much like Winston Churchill during the Second World War, Mugabe is a man who knows how to stay the course.

On the issue of his legacy, only time will tell. Was land reform just a political manoeuvre to quell rebellion from war veterans? Or was it part of a grander scheme to restore dignity to the dispossessed black majority? Knowing several war vets of his generation, I am well acquainted with their mistrust of white people. How could they not when they grew up in a world where black people were classified as being of less value than livestock? But does that mean that he and his generation can no longer operate in a time in which race is an increasingly outmoded basis for discrimination? More importantly are his ideas less relevant today than they were when the nationalist movement began? I believe he is one of the last great southern African nationalists, so when his time comes what is the future of the nationalist movement? Does it have a future at all, or will it give way to the homogeneity offered by globalisation?

Reaction to the article was emotional with two comments being moderate and the remaining containing hate speech from people who do not understand that Zimbabwe is greater than the sum of the last ten years, as is Mugabe. A man who can inspire such language must surely have a place somewhere in the chronicles of our country. How will history judge the Commander-In-Chief and what will his place in the history of Zimbabwe be?

Upenyu Makoni-Muchema has some fun with Blessing-Miles Tendi, Zimbabwean author and researcher.

Read the full interview with Blessing-Miles Tendi here (includes some audio).

Describe yourself in five words?
I’m a Zimbabwean researcher in African Politics.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Always give your best, and believe in yourself.

What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever done?
It’s probably the women I’ve dated. Professionally I’d say it’s that I’ve been to places asking questions, where I shouldn’t be asking questions.

What is your most treasured possession?
My family, although it doesn’t sound right to call my family a possession.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Self pity.

Do you have any strange hobbies?
Often when I’m working on something I become rather obsessive about it.

What do you dislike most about your appearance?
I’m kind of balding. I used to have very rich dark hair and I’ve got two sisters, who envied my hair. And now to see it go away while I’m still relatively young is just hard.

What is your greatest extravagance?
Giving, in terms of emotional or material support. But it does give you a lot back.

What have you got in your fridge?
I love those South African sausages … fish, pineapples, because pineapple is my favourite fruit.

What is your greatest fear?
Failure.

What have you got in your pockets right now?
This is the most bizarre thing about me. They’re empty; I never have anything in my pockets. I feel free that way. I like my pockets empty. You know what they say about a man who comes with empty pockets? He has no ulterior motives, what you see is what you get.

What is your favourite journey?
For me it’s always home. My parents are Ndau, but I was born and raised in Bulawayo.

Interviewer: Do you speak Ndebele? Ngiyakhulumisi Ndebele, ndino rekete chiNdau, ndino taura chiShona

Interviewer: What do you think about the great Shona Ndebele divide? There’s a book by Brian Raftopoulos and A Mlambo, Becoming Zimbabwe, it’s one of my favourite books right now. One of it’s aims it to take apart historical myths. One such thing they take apart is this divide between Shona and Ndebele. What is Shona really? What is Ndebele really? Ndebele is made out of various disparate groups, so are the Shona, Zezurus, Manyikas, Ndau . . . and they call them Shona. For me really these are politicised constructions, both Ndebele and Shona, which in many ways have kept the country apart, for quite false reasons. But obviously very useful to politicians.

Who are your heroes in real life?
Jocelyn Alexander. She was one of my supervisors at University. She’s an Oxford professor and the most intelligent human being I’ve ever met. I totally admire and look up to her.

When and where were you happiest?
Whenever I’m with my mother.

Interviewer: Are you a mommy’s boy? I guess you could say that. When I’m with my mum I’m at my happiest. Your mum’s your mum; she carried you around for nine months, its unconditional. I’ve made stupid mistakes in my time but she takes me back all the time.

What’s your biggest vice?
. . . Yeah, we’re having this interview and I’m having shots of brandy . . . that’s my biggest vice.

What were you like at school?
Quiet. A geek. Read a lot. Wanted to be popular, but never was because the popular in high school were the athletes.

What are you doing next?
Working on my next book. It’s going to be a history book. The core thesis is still a little disparate right now so I can’t get into what exactly I want to do. I guess I’m going to figure it out as I work on it.

Read Ethan Zuckerman:

We need to recognize activists who don’t use technology. He offers the story of Alaa Abdel Fatteh, a celebrated young activist who’s active both online and offline. Evgeny notes that his parents are seasoned Egyptian dissidents. “Alaa spent five weeks in jail, his father spent five years,” but Alaa got more attention because he’s a blogger. “This doesn’t mean that cyberactivism is not important, but that we tend to fetishize it.” More

Bhekumusa Moyo is a talented young Zimbabwean writer. Here are his reflections on the impact of HIV in the small border town of Beitbridge:

The sex worker in a developing town in a developing nation

Beitbridge is characterized by a hive of activity and business ranging from formal to informal, legal to illegal. Life is fast and the cost of living is double that of other towns like Harare and Bulawayo. One is either robbing or is being robbed. One is either bribing or is being bribed. One is either selling sex or someone is buying.

I have followed closely the life of Chido who has been in the sex industry for 23 years. She is being called by her first name even by young boys of her son’s age. Her life has been revolving around being fucked and sucking from sex hungry men. I met her at Kalahari Sports Bar. She is 39 though she looks younger because of skin peeling creams.

Narrating her ordeal, she quickly demanded beer as we talked. Like many young women who end up hooked into the evil net of the world’s oldest profession, she came into the business not by choice. She was on her way to South Africa. On her first quest to cross the border via the Vembe crossing spot which many border jumpers use, she met the horror of her life, which transformed her to what she is today. She was raped in exchange for favors to cross the river. None of the rapists managed to get her across the river until one Mpisi (a man who escorts border jumpers across the Limpopo River), took her to Baghdad Squatter Camp in Beitbridge. Baghdad was situated by the Beitbridge long distance bus terminus back then. It was destroyed during Muramatvsina invasions, as it was a breeding ground for all crime and ill activity.

The man introduced her to Mai Tinashe who was the aunt of the prostitutes in the area. That is how she came to surrender her life to the twin devices of sex and booze risking her life to HIV. Now she doesn’t even give a damn.

At 18, she had her first child with a Zambian truck driver. A year later the affair with the Zambian ended as he changed routes and all contact was lost. There was no one to support her. The option that was always there for her was the obvious. She continued putting herself at risk as a way of supporting her child.

She remains earning her income, reeling under different sizes of men and enduring the penetration of all sizes and shapes of shafts. Her life is surrendered to the grave. She speaks of her clients as fools. On the subject of HIV, she shows no remorse. Straight faced she told me to fuck off because anytime, anyone can die. She says death is death.

During our discussion, a couple of things came up. The subject of making prostitution a legal profession was top. This, she says, will make all players safe, the client and the service provider. She says that parents who do not love their children, ignoring them and exposing them to conditions that disturb their minds, cause moral decadence.

It was around midnight. She looked me in the eye and said “How about us tonight? $50 only. “  I said “no”. She insisted. I told her that I was only 23, two years older than her son and asked her what she thought of this. She said pussy is pussy, whether from a granny or schoolgirl and she accepts any stick that comes her way, for a price. I gave her $30 and we parted ways.

Beitbridge is at risk because of HIV. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) says that there are almost 8000 prostitutes in the border town. A lot needs to be done before the town is wiped out.

By Bhekumusa Moyo

Bhekumusa is a civic activist, a poet, researcher and freelance writer based in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe and can be contacted on bhekumusamoyo [at] gmail [dot] com

The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) in their Daily Catalyst newsletter reported that:

Senior Criminal Intelligence Organization (CIO) and Criminal Investigation department (CID) officials in Mutare, together with the Manicaland Provincial Governor, Christopher Mushowe today, 19 April 2011, issued a joint order to the Mutare Municipality demanding that they pull down a 3×12 billboard in Mutare which was erected by CiZC. The billboard was erected under the Abasha POSA campaign aimed at supporting the POSA Amendment Bill, which sailed through the Lower House late last year and is currently stuck in the House of Senate.

According to Senior Town Planner for Mutare, Mr Simbi, these officials made it clear that the billboard was “too political” for their liking and as such had to be pulled down. They further argued that the advertising company, Ad Industries, which erected the billboard, did not follow the required process of seeking approval from the town council, which is the norm when a new message is to be posted.

Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa goes Inside/Out with John Makumbe, author, political scientist and commentator

Full interview with John Makumbe here.

Describe yourself in five words?
Bold, courageous, unflinching and very happy to be myself.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
To receive Jesus Christ as my personal saviour.

What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever done?
I bought my wife a car – a Golf – for two hundred dollars. I drove it home and she didn’t like it. The vehicle could go into reverse at any time, even when it was moving forward. It was a surprise gift. She drove it and it was big trouble.

What is your most treasured possession?
My salvation.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
I think to belong to ZANU PF as a member. I’ve been dying to say that! I think you have to be absolutely miserable to belong to ZANU PF as a member. People like Jonathan Moyo need their heads examined.

Do you have any strange hobbies?
I love watching game . . . animals. Last week I was at Chengeta Lodge in Selous. They have captive lions and I was fascinated by the power they have.

What do you dislike most about your appearance?
I wish I were a little taller than I am. I would be happy to be as tall as Obert Gutu, and then I would smash Patrick Chinamasa.

Interviewer: why do you want to smash him?

He’s an idiot. He comes quite close to Jonathan Moyo, but at least he has the decency, when I have a quarrel with him, and we see each other out somewhere he still comes to say hello. Jonathan when he is angry with you, when he has quarrelled with you, it’s permanent and forever.

What is your greatest extravagance?
I’ve just bought myself a Toyota Harrier for $10 000 and I could have bought myself a cheaper car and bought a car for my daughter with the money that would have been left. But I don’t believe in buying children cars. I believe children must be helped to get a driver’s license, my daughter got hers yesterday. She had to go to Kadoma after failing here [in Harare] four times because she would not pay a bribe. I told her I will not pay a bribe; I’m the former Chairman of Transparency International. Now when she works and gets money then she can buy a car.

What have you got in your fridge?
I don’t have a fridge here in the office. At home we have two or three goats, we have polony, duck. I think we also have sausage.

What is your greatest fear?
My greatest fear right now is that Morgan Tsvangirai might be killed. There’s been already a threat; in fact it came from the soldiers. That’s my greatest fear because I do not think we will have someone who is as easily popular with the voters as Morgan. Tendai Biti and Elias Mudzuri are very good, but they are not at the same level of popularity as Morgan.

Interviewer: are you familiar with the Wiki Cables? What do you think of the assessment Dell gave of Tsvangirai when he said he would be a good candidate to effect change but would not make a good leader after the change?

It’s rubbish. Utter rubbish. He is a change oriented man. Dell didn’t spend enough time with Morgan; he didn’t look at Morgan’s track record at ZCTU. He is a highly consultative person. That is what makes a good leader. He will manage the change not because he is skilled in managing it, but because he will put skilled people around himself to help manage the change. If Morgan were not like that he would be where he is today. ZANU PF has done everything they can to get rid of him.

What have you got in your pockets right now?
My keys for the office and some tissue.

What is your favourite journey?
I love flying to Johannesburg. I’m a voyager so sometimes SAA puts me in business class.

Who are your heroes in real life?
Jesus, and my wife. My late father, he was amazing. I wish I could be what he was.

When and where were you happiest?
When I was on sabbatical leave in the US, where I was guest lecturing at Michigan State University. We were very happy. We enjoyed ourselves. The snow was everywhere, my daughter and I used to ride bicycles in the snow for hours.

Interviewer: What are the students there like as compared to here?

Our students are angels. In terms of performance, we have stars. In the US you get some of the dullest students, they can hardly write a straight sentence. We always preferred to use multiple-choice questions, even for tests. In the US you work for money because as they pass you know that they know nothing.

What’s your biggest vice?
Sugar.

What were you like at school?
I was very naughty. I used to be in trouble almost all the time. I was stubborn and for some reason I knew about rights already, and I would insist on my rights so I would get punished. Because I’m albino I grew up being insulted by guys and I started fighting when I was pretty young. After a while guys would still insult me but they would do it while running away. I was intelligent at school, very intelligent. I’ve never failed a class.

What are you doing next?
I’m taking your photo.