Time tips
flooding the world with light
within a week the canopy will close around us
as the dry dusty world draws close her new green cloak

Large portions of the garden are now monitored by Heuglin robins
who perch above our heads and rattle warningly
shepherding their new fledglings out of reach

The paradise fly catchers  arrived two weeks ago and we have already begun to find their nests
housing tiny sitting females – beaks in the air
The couple who had their nestlings snatched by goshawks last year are also back
they sit in a considering way over the old nest
‘is it worth patching up? – perhaps if we put in a new carpet’
do they remember their loss at the gut wrenching level that we do
or is it just a new season?
a new present in the spiraling of time?

Two  White-faced owls
perch fluffily on the fig branch outside the a-frame
watching for food…

I finally worked out where the black and yellow caterpillars come from
(the ones that utterly devastate the calendula crop within days)
the eggs are neatly inserted in the flower buds
and the minute larva hatch into a container of golden petals

as I watch, a wasp lands on one of these gold-eaters
and strikes with a deadly sting
and as it slowly writhes its last moments on the planet
the wasp busily severs off one end
to take this newly killed morsel back to its young

and I – who was about to get rid of all the buds-with-holes to protect the calendulas
am challenged to see the world through another lens

Life cycles at every level

The barbet argues ferociously with the Honey guide
who is trying to lay her egg in the barbets hard won nesting-hole
3 new species of cuckoo have moved into the garden
each one of them with a plan to drop their eggs into the nest of some unwilling surrogate parent

A trillion tadpoles have hatched in the pond
will they all hatch into a trillion croaking frogs?
what act of nature will limit their population?
the pond skimmer slowly sucks the juices from a drowned moth
and the spider who has diligently spun webs overhead
now winds the latest prey in its threads

the guppies have had baby guppies
are they eating enough mosquito larvae to limit this seasons swarms?
are their enough mosquitoes to keep them all fed?

it is that same old matter of survival

but at a distance – this beautiful system shifts a gear into new and abundant life
against the back ground of flaming bougainvillea and purple jacaranda
is a pattern of colour and shape and flower and insect
difficult in detail
unraveling in beauty.

I found it interesting that the super-rich Virgin guy, Richard Branson, has been mentioned as having been part of plans to “retire” our dear old man, and it perhaps shows how desperate the world has been over the years to literally save Zimbabwe from sure doom because of the continued and unsustainable stewardship of someone stuck in time warp. The Virgin guy has dismissed reports that he offered Mugabe USD10 million as part of a sweetener to guarantee his quiet and exit and obviously bloodless power transfer. The Virgin guy says that’s fiction that he never authored and in any case that would be too little a sum. Obviously he has deep pockets, or else he fells Mugabe is worth more than that. Yet like some of the Zanu PF wiki dicks who wanted to see their life-long benefactor leave office reportedly said, Africa’s last King of Nationalism was not likely to take the money and run. It is rather morbidly refreshing that they see old man in that light: he ain’t for sale! Remembering of course that even the UN did dangle back in 2000 what was noted in news reports as a “lucrative exit package.”  He is still around ain’t he? One writer helpfully offered: “An exit strategy for Mugabe is widely believed to be the only answer to Zimbabwe’s political crisis, as it is Mugabe’s presence in the government that is the key stumbling block to progress.”

Now, the same wiki dicks feted by imperialists and lost their heads in the process obviously are for sale, having entered Faustian pacts long ago, and will welcome any largess never mind their indefatigable looting streak since independence came to these shores. We all know their appetite for all things tagged “filthy lucre” resembles that of a sumo wrestler, yet they just can’t seem to get enough, and we just have to point to the find of the century in Mutare. Yet we already know these are the same people named in the looting of the DRC, the national purse, the land what with multiple farm ownership, Willowgate, you name it. Still they are mighty insatiable. If it was libido, these many straws – or strokes – would have broken their backs! It is therefore obvious to me that the same people now falling over each other blaspheming as they use Biblical metaphors and allegories to lionise their supposed benefactor were [are still are in the secrecy of their foolish hearts] in fact cursing the old man saying: dai ndiri ini ndaitora chibhanzi [if it were me, I would have taken the money and ran like the wind]. Wick dicks. Leak, leak.

The USA Embassy played host to a very lively discussion on Transitional Justice in Zimbabwe, based upon a national survey report compiled by the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum. Shastry Njeru, Manager of the Transitional Justice Section in this organization, presented the findings of the report. This presentation was facilitated by Leon Hartwell, a South African academic, passionate about African politics.

Transitional justice refers to legal or non-legal processes in which past violations are systematically addressed. It is a deliberate process of addressing the wrongs of the past.  Though used synonymously with ‘national healing’, the term refers to a more definitive process, focusing more on righting past wrongs than on just forgiveness and getting over the past.

Njeru reiterated the need for the process to begin, expressing hope that the Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration, would come up with policy framework for management of a National Healing Process soon. Njeru believes Zimbabwe needs transitional justice because it has gone through several violent processes, namely,

Colonization
Liberation struggle
Post-independence disturbances & atrocities (Matabeleland & Midlands)
Other processes after the Unity Accord
Land reform
Murambatsvina
2008 elections

He feels that the ideal transitional justice model for Zimbabwe will draw from both western and traditional models, striking a context-driven balance, in order to achieve results that are legitimate to the citizens of this country

Njeru outlined countrywide outreach efforts of the Human Rights NGO Forum, from 2009 to date, including the Taking Transitional Justice to the People project, focused on seeking opinions of Zimbabweans and clearly showed that most Zimbabweans want restorative as opposed to retributive (revenge) resolutions. The Transitional Justice, National Survey continued on from this, and with the use of scientific research and selection tools 3189 randomly selected people were interviewed on what they thought was important for transitional justice.

Their findings

49% – effective healing can be achieved through compensation.
13% – perpetrators need to openly ask forgiveness.

Who’s responsible for compensation?
24% – individual perpetrators
(The majority of which have nothing themselves)
55% – Government
(Which essentially means the people of Zimbabwe, through taxes)

Who leads process?
60% – churches & government.
(But, which church(s)?

Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration the second, least-trusted to lead process.
(Due to lack of awareness?)

Which periods addressed?

41% – from 2000 onward.
18% – from just after Independence onward.
14% – from the Liberation Struggle onward.
1821
Below 45% – indifferent to questions.
(Due to fear and lack of awareness).

Recommendations for the way forward

Encourage awareness and further discourse through outreach programmes.
Use more victim-centered approaches in further programmes.
Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration needs to spread awareness and encourage discussions.

He concluded by saying that Zimbabweans would have to do the work by demanding more on the part of government, civil society and communities, to engage in the issue, and that if past issues are not addressed now, it will become more costly in the future.

Leon Hartwell’s comments

“A lot of people assume… that democratic elections in Zimbabwe will solve your problems… I don’t think that will happen. Looking at the past, if we don’t [properly] deal with transitional justice, violence will happen again.”

Hartwell believes that despite the nature and results of upcoming elections, unless something concrete happens, transitional justice will become meaningless and that Zimbabwe can no longer drag out the issue.

He naturally, drew parallels to South Africa’s TRC process, asking if it might be one way Zimbabwe can approach transitional justice. Although he stated that the TRC helped to bridge the transition process in SA, with over 21,000 people breaking the silence on apartheid, he admitted to its eventual failure. He said, even though it “did not get the complete truth…it [the process] gave a more complete picture of the truth”. South Africa still has a long way to go, and Hartwell said that the country has much to learn from Zimbabwe, and that his country is having discussions now, that Zimbabwe had in the 90s.  He concluded by that the process will meet with resistance and it is important for civil society to keep the debate alive, in spite of it.

Visualise Us

Directed by Jamie McLaren.

The Memory of Water

A dramatic comedy

Written by: Shelagh Stevenson

Starring: Danielle Connolly, Chipo Chikara, Maria Wilson, Lara Hundermark, Joe Levey and Josh Ansley

19th – 29th October at 7pm
Matinees 22nd and 29th at 2:30

Reps Theatre Upstairs

Tickets available at The Spotlight

$5 on Wednesday; $10 all other performances

PG 15