Vote Zanu PF and get funding for your business proposal?

With elections coming up in Zimbabwe, political parties are trying to win voters. Recent studies have indicated that Zanu PF support is growing. In a country with unemployment as high as 95%, income generating projects are a sure way to win support.

Of course, no party can afford to fund every would-be voter’s income generating project. And clearly, bringing your business project proposal to the Zanu PF rally is no guarantee that it would get funded. But posters like this do raise eyebrows.

Recent reports including the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition‘s Pre-Election Detectors and the International Crisis Group’s Zimbabwe: Election Scenarios suggest that Zimbabwe’s 2013 election probably won’t be marred by the overt violence experienced in 2008. But they also won’t be free and fair. Rather, they suggest Zanu PF will use more subtle tactics – including the unfree press, executive powers, and its legacy of intimidation – to secure a win. Other recent studies have suggested that the March Constitutional Referendum might have been a practise run for Zanu PF to test their vote rigging mechanisms, and to ensure high turn out so that stuffed ballots in a general election are met with less suspicion.

The MDC might have a JUICE plan to revive the economy – including the promise of 1 million jobs. But I can imagine a “Vote Zanu PF and get your project funded” message could be pretty compelling.

Mobile voter registration in Zimbabwe was meant to begin in January. But the three week exercise has only finally gotten underway recently. The publicity around it has been poor, and the rules have been changing along the way. Take for example, Saturday’s Herald headline: ZEC waives voter registration requirements. This development will make it easier for some people to register moving forward, but it prejudices those who might have tried earlier this year, and who were turned away.

I was prompted to try my luck at a mobile voter registration station this weekend, when I saw a flyer that said I could also get a replacement ID at the same spot. Since I need the ID before I can register anyway, it seemed like a great opportunity. Granted, I heard about the initiative late in the day – So I was not among the “early birds.” By the time I got to Courtney Selous Primary School around 3pm on Sunday, the place was packed. There were easily 250 people there, some sitting on the grass outside the school grounds, a short queue at the gate, and a large knot of people inside the school forming at least four different queues.

After 20 minutes spent wandering around the various queues at trying to figure out where I should stand to get a replacement ID, and another hour standing in the correct but slow-moving queue for a replacement ID, it began to dawn on me that I would never get served before the spot closed at 6, so I left empty handed.

The fact that there were so many people there is encouraging – And means that maybe voter education around the new Constitution and changing requirements for voters is paying off. It also means that maybe interest in Zimbabwe’s 2013 elections is greater than some analysts had feared, and makes things like the reported high voter turn out in the Constitutional referendum perhaps more credible.

But mobile voter registration needs more days, more locations and more clarity. If it is not just to be one more example of Zimbabwe’s politicians paying lip service to citizen participation, and doing the bare minimum to tick the various boxes to demonstrate compliance with required processes, the exercise should be extended for at least another month, with more stations and more signage and directions for people about what to bring, where to go, and where to queue once they get there.

Mobile voter registration is currently underway in Zimbabwe. You can find out where the mobile voter registration teams are, and when, by downloading the list from our website. Search the list for your province and district, and check the dates for when they will be in your area.

Visit the Registrar General’s website or the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission website to find out what documentation you need to bring with you to register to vote.

Regarding mobile voter registration, one Kubatana subscriber reports this from Chikomba East:

People frustrated – Mobile voter registration is continuing with irregularities here in Chikomba East. Firstly, its publicity is & information dissemination is poor & confusing especially on payment of lost I.Ds. Again, the proof of residence issue must be reviewed as it is affecting & must be replaced with specially designed affidavits. Youths & new voters are being frustrated by the RG’s staff whose conduct is uncooperative. Most MDC supporters names are not in the voters roll & it is surprising. Also, the 6 hour-one day time per station is not adequate.

These comments reflect observations also made by the National Youth Development Trust (NYDT) in their analysis of mobile voter registration so far.

Get registered! Find out when the mobile voter registration team will be near you, and let us know how it went for you when you registered to vote.

Zimbabwe’s sole power utility hopes to save electricity by influencing behavior change in electricity consumption through pre-paid meters. Pre-paid meters could be a solution to the billing shambles consumers had to face from ZESA but in the long run demand is already surpassing supply – something which is not going to be solved with energy saver bulbs and pre-paid meters. Giving energy saver bulbs to consumers will work only if there is electricity to save otherwise it’s a waste of resources. The nation needs to work on alternative sources of energy and allow the private sector to venture into power generation and stop relying on imports. The recent passing of a statutory instrument allowing high-end electricity consumers to purchase their own prepaid meters will ease the burden of procuring pre-paid meters by the nation’s struggling sole power utility, ZESA. The company has been enjoying a huge monopoly over electricity distribution in the country and it is failing to meet the increasing electricity demands, which has resulted in massive blackouts nationwide.

I attended university during a period where going to school seemed like wasting one’s precious time and adding more strain on family’s financial budgets. This was the period of 2006-2010 where Zimbabwe went through a major economic downfall, the 2008 elections and the dollarisation of the currency – a very difficult period. It did appear much better for one to quit school and cross the border to a neighbouring country as they would be guaranteed of access to their needs and wants. It is during this period that corruption within the various systems in the university grew like it was growing in any other sector in the country. You could see how people would manipulate the system because of a certain commodity they held, which was in demand. You would be shocked to hear what a lecturer would do when promised a bag of maize. As the economy got better with goods and commodities available, corruption, like cancer, still existed.

Students in Kenya and Uganda have established an anonymous website, Not In My Country which seeks to expose acts of corruption within universities in these two countries. By acting as whistle blowers, students rate their lecturers’ performances and have an optional field to explain their ratings. These are crowd sourced to provide ratings. In South Africa, university students at Wits are using the university newspaper, Vuvuzela, to expose lecturers who engage in misconduct in their work through sexual harassment. Students all over have been using various media to expose corruption within their universities but these are only effective if the university’s authorities take up their responsibility by investigating matters reported. Systems run by students often fall short as university staff protect each other as investigations or follow ups on reported cases are not made.