According to the statement from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) below, a pastor and 26 mourners who were coming from a funeral last week have been charged with public violence and have spent their fifth night in police custody. “Evidence” seized by the police include MDC regalia and a vuvuzela.

Pastor, Mukoyi and mourners wallow in detention

27 mourners including a Pastor, who were arrested and charged with public violence last week, on Monday 23 May 2011 spent their fifth night in detention after Mbare Magistrate Reward Kwenda postponed his ruling on their bail application to Tuesday 24 May 2011.

Pastor Dominic Dziwedziwe (36) of Kuwadzana, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Harare Province Vice-chairperson Shakespeare Mukoyi and 25 other mourners appeared in court on Monday 23 May 2011 for their initial remand, where their lawyers Gift Mtisi of Musendekwa and Mtisi Legal Practitioners and Tarisai Mutangi of Donsa-Nkomo and Mutangi Legal Practitioners, who are members of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights applied for their admission to bail.

In his bail application Mtisi argued that his clients were mourners who were travelling to Kuwadzana high density suburb after burying their colleague at the graveyard.

But Magistrate Kwenda postponed the bail hearing to Tuesday 24 May 2011 to allow State Prosecutor Sidom Chinzete to respond to the bail application after he indicated that he was not in a position to file some submissions in response to the bail application, although he indicated that he would oppose bail.

Chinzete alleged that the 27, Charged with contravening section 36 (1) (a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23 for public violence were arrested on Thursday 19 May 2011 while coming from burying the body of an MDC activist Jack Ndeketeya at Granville cemetery, who had passed away early last week.

He alleged that the mourners alighted from their vehicles at Boka Tobacco Auction Floors and assaulted some farmers and other people by throwing stones at them and tore some ZANU PF posters and banners pasted at the tobacco auction floors.

The prosecutor accused the mourners of throwing stones at some tobacco farmers who were waiting to sell their tobacco crop at the auction floors forcing them to flee for safety while leaving their goods at a flea market unattended.

Chinzete claimed that the mourners stole clothes, a mobile phone handset and a sim card valued at $339 before they were arrested by the police near Kuwadzana suburb.

Police seized the five vehicles which were ferrying the mourners to Kuwadzana suburb and intend to use them as exhibits together with MDC regalia, which include a red and white cap, a red vuvuzela and a wrapping cloth.

Two funerals in the neighbourhood brought back the pain not just about lives being lost before the individuals reached their prime, but the whole thing about people leaving the country only to return in their caskets.

A young man who had barely made it into his twenties was buried last week after falling terribly ill in South Africa, and I’m told he had actually made it as far as the States or UK in his journey in search of a better life for himself and his family much like millions who have left over the decade.

One just has to imagine the parents’ pain. Every parent who has a child abroad or just across our borders has a sense that they will live a life better off than the average person/granny in the neighbourhood, so one really has to empathise with these folks. Being the Africans that we are, when a death occurs, graveside whispers are inevitable about how these young people take on lives that have no semblance of how their mothers raised them only to succeed in accelerating their departure from what is already a wretched earth.

But folks will always moralise even if they have no clue about the circumstances that led to that premature loss of life, yet the constant thing that one hears at these funerals is why people have to leave their motherland in the first place. You hear it all the time: “If he/she hadn’t left, perhaps he/she would still be alive today.” Yet it points to the desperation of the common man to find answers not just about life and death, but why families have to endure all this simply because a country that had so much promise for all its people could turn out so badly.

The other death was one that for many boggles the mind about the trek to South Africa that has lured “older” folks we thought would be content having a job and never dream of joining young bloods in the cruel universe of job hunting. This is a “young grandmother” who worked many years as a primary school teacher and toiled reading for a psychology degree with the Zimbabwe Open University. As soon as she took her degree about four or so years ago, she did not wait for that piece of paper to gather dust: she immediately left in search of a teaching post in South Africa. I recall having a chat with the son back then. The son said he found it hard to live with the “humiliating fact” that it was his mother not him who had left the country to look for a job in SA.

Yet this has become the story of so many people’s lives you ask yourself how and why so many families have been destroyed by this quest for a better life. What use is it then when so many people in the process die “before their time,” as some say here? Sounds like the Biblical “what does it profit a man…” Of course it’s a truism that death will always be part of us, but one has to listen to families whose relations die outside the country as they try to understand the death of one of their own. These stories have become too common in virtually every neighbourhood, and it points to Zimbabweans being virtually powerless abut what to do about their circumstances, be it economic or political despite the claim to being a democracy.

The bitterness of families and the people in general about the bad turn the nationalists took finds justification because while these families continue losing loved ones outside the country, the men and women who authored the country’s economic demise still hold their heads high and claim relevance to the country’s political space. It is no surprise then that these men and women will never countenance giving the millions who left their suffrage as the authors of bad politics know only too well what this would mean.

For all the departed who left the country of their birth to fend for their families, may their souls rest in peace.

Whether it is the love of the motherland or our hard-earned American dollar is the question that still needs answering.

In a scenario typical of the scramble for Chiadzwa diamonds, this time it’s not for the precious gems but for the American dollar. Barely 2 months after poor performances by hip-hop artist Sean Kingstone, another group of American artists are on the way to Zimbabwe for another rip off show.

Last year’s performance by Akon and Sean Paul at the National Sports Stadium left many Zimbabweans, including the promoter, counting their losses. Imagine parting ways with $100 for a show, which only lasted 60 minutes. All for someone coming from America to do lip-syncing in front of you. Our local music artists, who are always used as supporting artists, generally end up stealing the show from the much-hyped international artists.

Some people say Zimbabweans deserve it because after several times of being ripped off, we still allow these artists to come back again on the pretext of the love for the motherland. Or is it for the love of the money? Some say music is business and one has to make profit at the end of each day so sometimes it’s the music promoters who are fleecing the poor. It’s no wonder that most of these hip-hop artists are always singing about getting rich, or die trying. The recent HIFA event is a clear testimony of what good performances should be like. Zimbabweans are prepared to pay for a good show, but not disappointments.

This time its Timberland, Lil Kim and Ciara who are on their way to give us another performance, which will leave us, complaining again. I say “complaining” because if you remember the way Akon, Sean Kingstone and Sean Paul performed, little will change in terms of performance from Timberland and company. The only change will be the personality.

I hope this time we are not going to hear them talk about love of the motherland in an interview because we now know that its strictly business when they come to Zimbabwe.

Calling All Young Women in Southern African to 3 Days of Empowerment and Celebration!

The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and the African Women Millennium Initiative Zambia (AWOMIZ), in collaboration with young women’s networks and formations in Southern Africa, are hosting a Southern African Young Women’s Festival (SAYWF) in Lusaka, Zambia from 17 to 21 October 2011.

The Festival, organised under the theme “My Rights, My Freedom, My Responsibilities” is designed to provide spacefor young women between 18 and 30 years of age, to come together and share experiences, share strategies and energise each other and celebrate their youth and the potential they have to advocate for social justice in their respective communities.

Find out more and download the application form here

Applications are now being accepted for Artist in Residency Programmes via The Africa Centre. There are 8 different residencies available from around the world for artists from a range of disciplines. According to their website, “the programme has been conceived to support artists from Africa who are provocative, innovative, relevant and highly engaged with both social issues and their art forms.”

The application deadline is 1 June 2011.

Find out more

No wonder Mugabe travels with such large entourages. Here’s a statement from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR):

ZIMBABWE STATE SECURITY AGENTS TARGET CSO’S AT SADC SUMMIT

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) condemns the malevolent and illegal actions of unidentified Zimbabwean state security agents who on Friday 20 May 2011 harassed Civil Society Organisation (CSO) representatives at the SADC Extra-Ordinary Summit in Windhoek, Namibia.

Some Zimbabwean state security agents who refused to identify themselves, accompanied by some Namibian law enforcement agents under unclear circumstances interrogated some CSO leaders who were attending the SADC summit.

The CSO leaders had on Thursday 19 May 2011 shared their position concerning the road map to free and fair elections in Zimbabwe at a press conference organised by the Southern Africa Development Community-Council of Non Governmental Organizations (SADC-CNGO) in partnership with NANGOF Trust, Namibia.

The CSOs also attended another press conference that had been organised by the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition focusing on CSOs input into the Zimbabwean election debate.

First to be targeted were about ten representatives including National Association of Non Governmental Organisations (NANGO) chairperson Dadirai Chikwengo, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition officials MacDonald Lewanika, Pedzisayi Ruhanya and Dewa Mavhinga and other representatives from the Zimbabwe Election Support Network who had been distributing statements with key demands from Zimbabwean CSOs at Safari Court hotel, the venue of the Summit.

The CSO’s representatives were whisked away by Namibian law enforcement agents while state security agents watched. During that time state security agents asked Lewanika some questions on his personal details, his business in Namibia, where he was residing, how long he had been in Namibia and how he had arrived in the country.

The CSO representatives were then told to leave the premises of the hotel after some interrogation by the Zimbabwe state security agents.

The state security agents also briefly detained Jelousy Mawarire for allegedly capturing pictures and chased away Shastry Njeru of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum from the venue of the SADC Summit.

Mawarire, who had his pictures deleted from his camera, was later released after the intervention of Namibian human rights lawyer Norman Tjombe.

Also targeted were ZLHR Executive Director Irene Petras, Joy Mabenge of Institute for a Democratic Alternative for Zimbabwe, Lloyd Kuveya of Southern Africa Litigation Centre, Makanatsa Makonese of SADC Lawyers Association who were having a meeting at the hotel.  The four CSO representatives were force-marched into the hotel’s parking area by two armed Namibian police who took them to the Namibian Chief Inspector dealing with security at the Summit and the Zimbabwean security agents.

The Zimbabwean state security agents were very hostile and proceeded to profile Petras, Mabenge, Kuveya and Makonese. They refused to identify themselves.

The CSO representatives were interrogated by the state security agents for more than one hour and the questions centered around their personal details, their mission in Namibia, their place of residence in Namibia, and their residential addresses in Zimbabwe while officials from the Zimbabwean embassy were observing.

ZLHR strongly condemns this despicable conduct and reminds the state security agents and the government that civil society has the right to have its voice heard that is why there is a strong delegation drawn from various networks in Zimbabwe and the region. The actions of the state security agents highlights the need to urgently reform the security sector players as enunciated in the Global Political Agreement as they continue to be a law unto themselves even beyond the borders of Zimbabwe.