From Comrade Fatso, one of Zimbabwe’s best spoken word poets:

Mdhara we ma Sweets/Mr Candyman

They call him Mr Candyman, Mdhara we ma Sweets
Trodding all over town with bags of tricks ‘n’ treats
His scream like seventy sirens silencing the streets
He’s known to break into dreams and steal your signature while you sleep
His feet are bandaged with the people’s hijacked hopes
His hands hard as dogma hanging like hanging ropes
His bag filled with al the sleepers souls he stole
His eyes murky and deep like puddle that’s pothole
His goal is to teach the children to undream
Exchanging hopes for sweets is his sugar-coated scheme
Hawking his goods in this land half-full, half-empty
Telling people that his sweets are their sovereignty

Mdhara keeps tricks for his enemies and treats for his friends
For friends read vendors who lick his boots with no end
But then again no vendor ever truly made it
As soon as they got close to him their goods would be confiscated
One hawker though comes to mind
He became really popular -  Blaz we Airtime
Who sold cellphone credit and dreams to the poor
Let the people talk and talk some more
Everyone was connected and the people were enthralled
They texted his name, spoke of him when they called
Insisting he was inspired to change their world
All across the land they spoke his name
Blaz we Airtime had brought the winds of change

Mdhara got the message and read the text
Realised this time of air could be the end of his sweet success
This new network could knock him to the pits
So he reached deep into his dark bag of tricks
Invited Blaz to join him at his stall
A rickety cardboard box called ‘The Sweet Juice Up Mall’
Blaz’s customers came hour after hour
But soon the deal became sickeningly sour
Mdhara kept eighty percent of all profits made
Decided the prices, made sure Blaz’s pay was delayed
Soon Blaz ran out of credit
The people couldn’t top up and they couldn’t get his messages
They sent him a please call me back hoping he hadn’t become a traitor
He replies “Your dreams are currently unavailable. Please try again later”
Finally Mdhara got him arrested for hawking hope without a licence
The police pounced and kicked him for his kindness
As Blaz is dragged away he screams “Mdhara, one thing. Where’s your name from?”
Mdhara replies “The people long ago asked me for change.  I gave them chocolates and chewing gum”

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Up Close
Top officials tell-all in exclusive interviews. It’s all about party makeovers and sprucing up the leadership.

Do’s and Don’ts
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Find out what life, politics and health have in store for you until 2013.

Tell Aunt Charlene-Rae
There’s nothing like a secret meeting with your trusted agony aunt to get things off your chest and all over the Net.

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This list will put an end to your friends mocking you and making fun of your leadership style.

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I’ve recently heard about a new directive from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Announced in RBZ Governor Gono’s July Monetary Policy Statement, it effects sellers of immovable property such as real estate.

A synopsis by MBCA Bank Limited explains the directive, but the notice on the Seeff home page draws more question marks around it, in terms of it not being written down formally or gazetted in a Statutory Instrument.

Effectively, the new policy required home sellers to wait a year before they can access the proceeds from selling their property. During that year, the money goes into a special “FCA Property” account. I’ve heard some estate agents argue that the new regulations “aren’t so bad.” You can access $50,000 of the value immediately, you can earn interest on the funds in the meantime, and you can access them if, for example, you have sold one house to buy another, or if you need to pay for things like school fees or other services locally or internationally.

But looking back at the past decade of Reserve Bank autonomy – and the impunity with which it printed money, financed pet-projects and engaged in quasi-fiscal activities such as car purchasing, it’s very difficult not to be cynical.

Surely if I sell my asset, the proceeds from this sale (barring perhaps something like a capital gains tax) are mine? No doubt since the switch to the US Dollar, the Reserve Bank has been short of work. Is the RBZ not trying to just divert all property sale proceeds through itself so it can keep some operating funds, have to fire fewer people,  and try and keep itself afloat a little bit longer?

I’m surprised not to have heard more about this. Maybe it isn’t actually as outrageous a move as it sounds? Or maybe  property sellers are such a small pool, the RBZ knows it can target them in this way without too much fall out? But if Zimbabwe is serious about trying to rebuild its economy and attract investment, surely the idea should be to make the transaction environment more free, rather than more restricted? It sounds like one rationale behind this new regulation is that buyers and sellers have been moving off shore without the Zimbabwean economy benefiting from these transactions at all. I agree that’s problematic – but with a history of the RBZ seizing assets, freezing accounts, and redirecting funds for its own purposes, is there any wonder investors are reluctant to keep their funds here? Surely moves like this one make it even more difficult to recover, rather than less?

Informed opinions about the legality of this move by the RBZ, and what it means for the Zimbabwean economy, are most welcome.

Inside/Out with Marianne Knuth, founder of Kufunda Learning Village
Kubatana.net

Describe yourself in five words?
I’m a woman that loves to connect with other people’s passion and spirit.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
To listen to my heart and not to look for answers from outside.

What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever done?
I think I suppress those memories (laughs).

What is your most treasured possession?
My Tingshas, they’re Tibetan bells. We use them for dialogue and circle work. Sometimes to mark the beginning with a sound and then people can just sit and be, and we always end with it. It’s marking space in a way that’s more sacred.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Probably losing hope, related to that, losing faith in yourself and your ability to escape whatever situation you’re in. To think that there’s nothing more you can do and you don’t have that internal resource to rise above whatever is challenging you.

Do you have any strange hobbies?
No I don’t think so. I like to run, do yoga, meditate, and read.

What do you dislike most about your appearance?
One of my teeth sticks out, but when the dentist said I could have it changed I realised that I would lose my capacity to whistle, so I decided not to.

What is your greatest extravagance?
A really nice glass of red wine and Lindt dark chocolate.

What do you have in your fridge?
Freshly milked cow’s milk, and I just went to the Doon Estate Market on Sunday, so I’ve got the most incredible bream paste. Otherwise there’s the usual yoghurt, juice . . .

What is your greatest fear?
For some reason the thing that jumped into my mind was that Marianne Williamson quote about how our greatest fear is not that we’re inadequate but that we are powerful beyond measure. I mean I don’t go to sleep thinking, ‘I’m so afraid that I’m powerful’ but I have noticed that there are times when I have an opportunity to shine, that I’m afraid of taking away attention from someone else. Another worry is that this constant source of energy and belief that everything is possible, what if that dries out, and that would be the worst possible thing that could ever happen.

Are there times when you feel that flame flicker?
I’ve just come out of four years that’s been an all time low. I think I made rational choices which was alright, but it wasn’t coming from that place of inspiration, where I know if I work from that place anything is possible. Returning to Zimbabwe was a part of listening to my inspiration.

What have you got in your pockets right now?
I don’t have anything in my pockets.

What is your favourite journey?
The journey of creating Kufunda. The journey of coming home and creating something. It wasn’t a matter of choice. Every cell of my body was directing me back home.

Who are your heroes in real life?
Ghandi was a real inspiration for me, now I think he’s a little bit too austere. I think we can do good in the world and enjoy life at the same time. A lot of my heroes are people who have chosen slightly different avenues than what we see as traditional success, but that are so full of life and vitality and inspiration. There are people who are creating similar things like I’m doing at Kufunda, but all around the world. There’s Manish Jain from Shikshantar in India. His mission is to create learning societies. There are two women in Greece, Sara Whiteley and Maria Scordiales, their enquiry is around living wholeness and they’ve created a beautiful centre in Greece where people gather a few times a year, and they do work in Europe and apply their work to real issues and problems and they bring a feminine way of negotiating to the corridors of power.

When and where were you happiest?
In the early days of Kufunda, when I was letting purpose flow through me, and also when I was at university. I became president of an international student organisation called AIESEC. That for me was the first real lesson that anything is possible.

What is your biggest vice?
For all this talk about collaboration and needing each other, I’m not very good at asking for help. I’m good at creating process where people can work together, but when things get stuck, I still think that I have to figure it out myself.

Interviewer: Do you have a stubborn streak?

Somewhat. Which is probably why collaborations are so important for me because I’m still learning it (laughs).

What were you like at school?
I went up to O level here and I was very studious and hardworking. Then when I went to Denmark, I kind of stayed like that, but suddenly there was this big world and I was free. I was exploring life and doing all sorts of other things that my parents didn’t think were as important as book learning.

What are you doing next?
Right now I’m in a place where I’m doing things that inspire me, whether it’s at Kufunda or elsewhere and I want to write about the last ten years of my life and see what comes out of that. I’ve been so busy for such a long time, and it feels so good to have time for an afternoon to write.

ZESA Holdings Group Stakeholder Relations Manager, Mr Fullard Gwasira clarified the new electricity tariffs In a telephone interview. He said that the 31% increase in tariff was not an increase in the overall charge to ZESA customers and the new tariff is structured as follows:

- The first 50 kWh had increased to 2.35c
- 51kWh to 300kWh will be charged at 11c
- Any usage over 300kWh will be charged at 15.c

Mr Gwasira said that with the new tariff they expected the average customer bill to be charged at 9.34c/ kWh. Since ZESA has removed the fixed monthly charge, this will translate to a marked reduction in charges to the customer, as long as they remain within expected usage parameters.

ZESA has changed its tariff scheme because the company is unable to sustain its operations. In the period 2009 to present the commodity prices of water, diesel and coal, all of which are required to generate power increased, but ZESA was not been able to raise its tariffs in order to compensate. Electricity in Zimbabwe was subsidised by the government through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, however, since dollarization, the RBZ has been unable to support ZESA operations leading the power supplier to operate at sub-economic levels. Other factors affecting electricity tariffs include the strengthening of the Rand against the US Dollar, as ZESA purchases power from South Africa and Mozambique, both countries are members of the Rand monetary Union. Further there had been no inflation adjustments to the price of electricity.

Mr Gwasira went on to say that on the 1st January 2009 ZESA had written off customer bills that were unpaid prior to this date.

View the tariff schedule here