Kubatana continues to receive citizen feedback about the environment on the ground as Zimbabwe prepares for harmonised elections 31 July 2013.  You can read other comments and feedback here, here and here.

• Zanu PF is forcing business people to remove MDC-T posters from the walls of their shops in Gutu South at Nerupiri Business Centre, and threatening people saying they must vote for Zanu PF because there will be a computer inside the ballot box recording the names of people voting for MDC-T and those people will be beaten at the time of re-run.
• The way Zanu pf is reacting it shows that they now know that Tsvangirai is ready to rule.
• Could you please tell Mr PM to boycott for the sake of those who love him. We need peace.
• I was on a Zanu PF meeting in Tamandai Chipinge East with D Mutasa being the centre man. It was all about M Tsvangirayi, ‘achinzi pasi naye mbavha yevakadzi, hure revarungu. Akauya kuzoparadza dzidzo yakaunzwa na R Mugabe. Chipufkuto chakapinda muminda yatakapihwa navaMugabe 90 percent of the people where not of that area and 10 percent where all from MDC. They were saying vote for Zanu PF kuti nzara ipere.
• Hello Zimbabweans. Last week when i told you that political violence can start anytime in Mberengwa, some of you cried foul.  Look at what happens today. An Mdc-t supporter by the name Melusi Ngwenya  of  Matibini Village in Mberengwa North constituency was  chased from a funeral because he was carrying Mdc posters on his bicycle.  Sanson Mahwowa of Yorks resettlement  area and Edias Madhumera who are Zanu pf stalwarts  threatened Melusi with unspecified action before chasing him away. The fenural was at Matibini village where a respected old woman was being buried.
• Intimidation is rife from suspected CIO, soldiers and Zanu PF campaign agents in mission schools rural areas e.g. Murewa South. Newspaper vendors are being threatened not to display newspaper headlines that denounce Zanu PF or their leader.
• Can we please see a presidential live debate with all presidential candidates like most countries do before elections.
• Do you really discuss about the underdevelopment of Gokwe-Kana when you deliberate as cabinet/parliament & if so with what solutions?
• I’m worried about what  the media campaigning live but mdc no coverage it’s not fair
• Is it true MDC did it during the POLICE election.
• In Shamva MDC posters are being removed
• Pres Tsvangiraì mus consider de wishes of the pple 4 de pple know wat they want.
• Pamberi ne peaceful elections.peace is my responsibility.yo responsibility n our responsibility. Ngativotei murúnyararo.

There is an old, deep wounding that runs through our land
the pain of the torn flesh of old hatreds, bloodletting, abuse of power, colonialism and wars for ownership of land

However, 33 years ago our country gained independence
and we covered the wounds in an ‘agreed forgetting’
with the hope that the new dreams had the space to come in

but beneath the scarred skin,
the festering pain of the unheard stories continued

a legacy inflicted on our youth
old wounds – belonging times before they were born

and we used our children to bleed them back into the world
no longer in a battle framed by tribe or colour or religious ideal
but in the simple pursuit of personal greed and partisan political power

5 years ago
a ‘failed’ election left us with the dictator in control of the army and police, sharing the government with the opposition party
together they were tasked with creating a new constitution and putting in place a set of agreed reforms
to make way for a new election.

5 years with the hierarchy involved in a struggle
for the Mercedes/house on the hill/women/control of business/diamonds/ownership of land

5 years in limbo
as the country continued to suffer the abandonment of roads/schools/water systems/electricity/refuse collection
our children on the streets

for the people no longer counted in the way of things

5 years in which growing circles in communities across the country
have come to realize – we are on our own
and the survival of our communities is our own business
that peace will only come from our hands
that old wounds/new wounds could no longer buried
they had to be spoken before they could heal
and that they would only heal from the inside out

5 years in which we have grown to understand
that we have no place in battles that are not of our making
that the time is passed to ‘fight against’
that the time has come to ‘stand for’ something we believe in
for peace and truth and stability in our lives

This week we will have an ‘unconstitutional’ election
(the president fast-tracked changes to electoral laws agreed on by all political parties in cabinet and used a presidential decree to bypass Parliament)
almost 2 million of people under 30 years of age have been from prevented from registering
on a flawed voters role that contains the names of nearly a million deceased or departed
(we  surely have the largest population in the world of people between 100 and 120)
and 63 constituencies that have more voters than residents

We walk through a gateway of designed chaos
knowing that old men do not readily give up power

not knowing the next steps
other than that this time, we have something else to bring to our future
our own learning

tichaona – we shall see

Was up in the rural area for the weekend, Madziwa area, north of Shamva. Nicholas Goche country. I know, because I saw one poster to vote for him, as MP. Saw another poster on the back of an ET. And saw two torn (but new) posters. And that is all I saw out there. Is there an election coming?

Five Police points on the way home. But never even slowed down. Waved through every one. I guess we did not look like we had drugs under the seat, or explosives in the spare tyre. Were they just practicing (to intimidate)? Or just showing a sudden presence (which in itself is intimidation)? Or were they getting to the rural areas for the weekend too?

Back past the toll gate, inside the city, before the Shamva turn off from Mtoko Road, then elections is a bit more evident when you look. Whole ZESA substations covered in posters. A few on trees. Many vandalized (or just put up badly by clumsy people who tore them in the effort – too much excitement). But even then, cannot read them as you drive past. No one else seems to be looking at them.

Looks to me like this will be the non-event to rival the Constitution referendum. Which caused a landslide somewhere.

According to the Heal Zimbabwe Trust community update, a headman in Gutu West has threatened MDC-T campaigners that the ZANU-PF party is going to install hidden CCTV cameras in every house in the area. This is a scary threat for everyone (just look at the trouble the states got into when Edward Snowden decided to have his five minutes of fame), and for the MDC-T campaigners it must have been terrifying, but thinking about the logistics of this makes you snigger. They are saying a government, which can’t even provide power to its capital city for 24 hours is going to set up CCTV cameras? I would love to know where the funds for this one would come from, since apparently we don’t have enough money to complete our mobile registration. The threats that are coming out are ludicrous and completely unrealistic, and yet they have struck such deep fear into so many thousands of people who want something as simple as a peaceful and credible election!

Zimbabwe’s 2013 election is in 9 days time, and political party posters are papering the streets. As Bev Clark pointed out last week, Zanu PF’s tactic seems to be to plaster their posters on private property (and the occasional large rock).  Whilst clearly that has its problems, the MDC posters I saw this weekend covering up advertising for artisans and informal business people isn’t much better.

With formal employment being so scarce in Zimbabwe, many people have taken to informal employment, and advertise their services on trees. As this blog by Lenard Kamwendo demonstrates, key cutters, plumbers, electricians and more all find a place on Harare’s streets – and trees. If the MDC were serious about Jobs, Upliftment, Investment Capital and the Environment (JUICE) and the promises it makes in its 2013 election manifesto to tackle unemployment, you’d think it would be promoting these enterprising individuals, not covering up their advertising to further their own political agendas.