Services which citizens of a nation are supposed to get from local authorities as a basic right have become a privilege.

In almost every town in Zimbabwe citizens are bemoaning poor service delivery – from dry taps to dark nights caused by load shedding. Mounting complaints fall on deaf ears. Recently it was reported that City of Harare’s wage bill has doubled leaving little revenue going to service delivery.

For decades now the Zambezi water project (now Zambezi water pipe dream), which is supposed to help solve Bulawayo’s water woes, has not produced positive results even when the Movement for Democratic Change took over the Ministry of Water. Residents of Bulawayo recently had to resort to the so-called “Big Flush” and Councilor Thaba Moyo was quoted saying, “The big flush is meant to take care of areas that would have been placed under water rationing. Residents will be asked to systematically flush all their toilets so that sufficient water will be deposited in the system in order to get rid of the material that would have dried up and blocked the system.” I just can’t imagine residents trying to beat evening traffic to reach home so that they can comply with the 7:30 pm Big Flush directive.

Service delivery problems are even affecting smaller towns like Gweru and Masvingo.

Try to imagine a growing town like Chitungwiza with no independent water supply of its own having to rely on City of Harare for supply of this precious basic right which sometimes gets disconnected for non-payment.

Soon it will be raining and heaps of gravel will be dumped along the roads to patch up pothole riddled partly tarred roads. This exercise of patching tarred roads with gravel has not done any good to the roads as the potholes have increase to ditches making the roads impassable during rainy season.

And, instead of just starting with putting the pre-paid meters in households somebody didn’t do his/her job right at Zimbabwe’s power distribution company ZESA by wasting money ordering millions of bulbs to save electricity which residents only receive less than twelve hours a day.

Exhibition runs from 13 October – 19 October 2012.

The Cycle, a photographic exhibition about water and sanitation in the city of Harare, by Davina Jogi.

Davina Jogi is a freelance photojournalist from Harare. She focuses on telling daily life stories about Zimbabwe that are often not covered by international media, and has worked with a variety of local and international newspapers, magazines and NGOs.

She was awarded the 2012 Media and Advocacy Grant from Market Photo Workshop for which she photographed a story about Harare’s water and sanitation challenges, entitled The Cycle.

The Media and Advocacy Photography Mentorship
The Media and Advocacy Photography Mentorship is solely aimed at the development of photographers with an interest in documenting societal issues that might often go unacknowledged in the mainstream media.  Davina Jogi is the first recipient of the award and her mentor for the project was Jonathan Torgovnik.

About the Market Photo Workshop
The Market Photo Workshop is a Johannesburg-based school of photography, gallery and resource centre for practicing photographers. Since its establishment in 1989, the school has played an integral role in the training and growth of photographers from South Africa and further afield.

For more information
Davina Jogi: www.davinajogi.com

Work in and for Zimbabwe. Help grow our nation. Check out the vacancies below. If you’d like to receive this sort of information, as well as civic and human rights updates, by email each week drop us a note saying “subscribe” to info [at] kubatana [dot] net

Please note that the job vacancies we carry are related to the NGO and civil society sectors only.

Deputy Director: Childline Zimbabwe
Deadline: 20 October 2012 (4pm)

Childline Zimbabwe is a child focused, not-for-profit, apolitical, non-denominational registered Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO 7/2001) that has been a key role player in Child Protection in Zimbabwe for over 10 years.

Childline is seeking a passionate, motivated and dynamic individual to fulfill the role of Deputy Director to a growing and dynamic children’s organisation.

Job Summary: Assisting the Director with the day-to-day management of the operations of the organisation including Human Resources, in line with the organisation’s policies and procedures, meeting donor requirements and expectations for accountability and transparency. He/She will have a sound understanding and ability to apply governing laws and best practices surrounding issues of child protection, gender based violence, social protection and children’s rights. Working closely with the Program teams and with the Director on program implementation, responsive services and strategic partnerships.

Entry Qualification and Experience
-A minimum of a Degree in Social Sciences, Social Work, Development Studies, Public Health and/ or Administration
-A minimum of 5 years relevant working experience of working with children
-At least 2 years in a senior management position
-Previous experience in the NGO Sector is an advantage
-Demonstrable experience at networking with key development stakeholders, international donors and partners in child protection and child rights programming
-Strong negotiation, communication and influencing skills
-Research, analytical and strategic thinking skills
-Proficiency in MS office tools and advanced computer literacy
-Clean Class 4 drivers license for over 5 years
-Police Clearance (Zimbabwe or relative country of origin that gives you clearance to work with children)
-Registration with Council of Social Workers is beneficial
-Fluency in English – Shona and Ndebele is beneficial
-Individual must be of high integrity with good, traceable references
-Passionate about children, their well being and children’s rights

Childline is an equal opportunity employer. Interested candidates who meet the above mentioned requirements are welcome to contact Childline on the following numbers: 04 252000/796741 or director [at] childline [dot] org [dot] zw or jobs [at] childline [dot] org [dot] zw to obtain an application form which needs to be completed and submitted with covering letter and the CV. No applications will be accepted without a completed application form.

Reference and background checks will be performed including clearances on child related offences in conformity with the employer’s Child Protection Policy. Only short listed candidates will be contacted. The employer reserves the right not to fill this position.

Assorted body parts reduced to clear.

In the words of the Kubatana community:

The Fix It sticker that I have is too small to stick where there is water running just opposite the Southerton police station. There is now an artificial river yet there are people without water. My heart bleeds. – Kubatana subscriber

I am writing to you because I don’t know where else to write. Please is there anyone out there who can remind ZESA that when people pay bills in full they deserve electricity. Its so disturbing that the power cuts in ZIMRE are almost unbearable. We pay more than 100usd dollars but nearly every day we have no power. Would it be better for not sending bills if they cannot supply any electricity.
- Kubatana subscriber

As residents of Hatcliffe we’ve had it to the bream. The City of Harare has completely failed us as they have failed to deal with the shortage of water for over a decade now. The situation has worsened as most wells and boreholes have dried up in the past 2 months resulting in people having to rely on contaminated water for house hold purposes. If possible we would like to hear what the mayor thinks about this and how he wants us to react.
- Kubatana subscriber

The whole of Harare is a death Trap. We are all too meek and mild to do anything about it. One day we must all stand up and fight and get ALL this Government out. – Kubatana subscriber

Source: Visualise us