As a young man, Alexander Cockburn, who has died from cancer at the age of 71, had something of the air of the classic Bollinger Bolshevik: elegant, with his blue shades and his Gauloises cigarettes, well-connected and perversely radical politically. In reality he was more interesting and more admirable, a contrarian who despised cant. He had the courage to take on anything and anyone, from the most powerful organisations in the world to his closest friends, and the energy and persistence to follow his own path wherever it took him.

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Zimbabwe is planning to expand its circumcision campaign to include newly-born babies as part of the country’s fight against the spread of HIV and AIDS, a senior health ministry official has confirmed.

The ministry’s AIDS and TB unit co-ordinator, Getrude Ncube said a pilot project targeting babies between one and 28 days old would be launched before year end with the full programme likely to be rolled out in 2014.

“The project will start in Harare and Bulawayo,” Ncube said adding that, gradually, all maternity sites across the country would be circumcising newly born babies by 2014.

“Although circumcising neonates will not have an immediate an impact, results will show in 20 years’ time. Our sole aim is to try and reduce new HIV infections.”

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90% of council public toilets in Harare suburbs are not functioning and have long been closed down and this poses a health hazard.
- Talking Harare

Being disabled is a challenge and even more when you become infected with HIV as each day you are faced with social exclusion and rejection. The United Nation notes that the growing relationship between HIV/AIDS and disability is an emerging issue and cause for concern as people with disabilities are at higher risk of exposure to HIV.  The majority of people with disabilities live in Africa where they are vulnerable to HIV/AIDS infection due to sex crimes and insufficient legal protection and education, This findings are based on a report done by World Bank in 2006.

This was also evidenced in a baseline report presented by Hamida Ismaili Mauto, the country coordinator for Disability, HHIV and AIDS Trust (DHAT), an organization which promotes rights based HIV and AIDS interventions responding to the needs of people with disabilities. The presentation included the use of sign language to cater for persons who are deaf who were in the audience at the Food for Thought session conducted at the Public Affairs section of the US Embassy on Tuesday.

DHAT undertook a baseline survey on issues on health equity for people disabilities in Zimbabwe. The survey was conducted in five of the ten provinces of Zimbabwe and focused on the challenges faced by people with disabilities and living with HIV/AIDS.

Persons with disability make up the majority of the poorest, highly marginalised and socially excluded groups in any society. Among some of the challenges faced by people with disability (PWD) are high unemployment and low literacy levels, less access to developed support networks and are more vulnerable to HIV infection than their able bodied counter-parts.  In her presentation Mrs. Mauto noted that there are 1.8 million people with disabilities in Zimbabwe and HIV has also contributed significantly to this figure.

The belief that sleeping with a person with disability can cure HIV has seen more (PWDs) being exposed to HIV infection. Also the perception that people with disability are asexual has resulted in more persons with disability shunning health institutions to seek medical advice on health and HIV issues. There also needs to be a review of literature on reproductive health targeted at people with disabilities so that the information can reach intended beneficiaries without compromising confidentiality. The fear of rejection from families and society has made it difficult for persons with disability to disclose their HIV status resulting in them failing to access treatment and behavior change information on time.

Civil society also came under fire for failing to address challenges faced by persons with disabilities in their programs with some organizations blaming it on the high costs incurred in the implementation of such programs.

From an interview with actress, Susan Sarandon:

What’s the signifcance of that tattoo on your wrist?
It’s “A N D A N D”: “a new dawn, a new day”. It reminds me that whatever happens you can’t assume anything. It’s important to surround yourself with people who are living authentic lives.

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The lengthy interview of Welshman Ncube published by Sunday Mail does make the case for bit of reality check for some politicians. When asked his honest opinion about what he sees as prospects for his party in the coming election, if he considers his formation a government-in-waiting so to speak, Ncube threw modesty to the wind and declared he believes he will win.

Look, nothing against any ambitious politician or human being for that matter, but it did highlight many things wrong with all efforts to usher in a truly government of the people without yet another flawed poll that has only spawned collation governments across the mother continent. Afro-pessimists say some irrelevant politicians throw their hats to the ring being only too aware of the possible benefits of being incorporated into the government on some technicality or frivolous claim to represent one region, ethnicity or another.

Welshman’s bitterness is all too palpable in all interviews one reads, and he still considers himself relevant to national politics, perhaps that is one of the reasons why accusations of him being a tribalist always creep into these sit-downs his has with scribes because by asking why he still imagines his relevance it is thought or seen to be ineluctably tied to his belief that there just has to be a chap from Matebeleland in the political scheme of things. But that’s for federalists, regionalists, devolutions to prove at the polls. These things are for some reason always understood that way because Ncube still apparently has to prove his claim of any representation of the people from that region seeing that he himself is not an elected MP or Senator.

He has been asked if he will consider any united front for political parties to come together and battle Mugabe from one corner, and it is only folks who have not followed Welshman’s politics who ask that question in the first place. He still does not have convincing answers as to why he let Mutambara make what was essentially a unilateral decision to back Simba Makoni in the past polls or indeed why Mutambara took the helm at the “smaller faction of the MDC”. By now he knows the old adage that there are no permanent friends in politics, not even permanent interests as Jonathan Moyo has shown. But one thing emerges from all these claims of relevance to national elections not only for Welshman Ncube but also those populist politicians who seem to want to ride on the back of the history of Matebeleland and whip up people’s tribal emotions even, that the people by now know better that the time for splitting votes is long gone, what the country needs, and which Zanu PF is painfully aware of, is a group of people who have relevance to the future of Zimbabwe. And these are politicians who bring to the electorate not stories of perpetual justification why they are engaged in gladiatorial politics and deserve the people’s vote but those whom the Zimbabwean people have no second thoughts investing their time under the scorching African sun to cast their vote as informed by the proverbial bread and butter issues.

For now, in numerous conversations in the streets of Bulawayo, without any pretense to scientific methodologies, questions have emerged if it is at all true that regional representation is an issue for that woman whose kids know not bread with butter, that Ndebele-speaking Nuts university graduate walking the streets as a loafer, that guy right there who for the umpteenth time has been given pairs of shoes by his employer in lieu of his pay cheque. Those are the bread and butter issues.