I don’t know about you, but when I think about the water that isn’t in my tap more often than it is, the potholes which have become craters that stretch across the width of our roads, and the fact that rubbish is collected sporadically, not weekly or on schedule, I wouldn’t rate Harare’s services Average. But in a recent performance review of the City of Harare, the Combined Harare Residents Association scored the City a C, on a scale of A-F.

But a C sounds high, when the report card breaks down as follows:

-    Water: “The Harare City council failed to efficiently and effectively provide water to the bulk of Harare’s suburbs in 2012.”
-    Infrastructure: “Not much has been done to deal with the state of our roads despite efforts being made to deal with the issue of potholes mainly in the Central Business District.”
-    Housing: “The housing backlog of council remains pregnant with at least one million people waiting to be allocated land.”
-    Health: “Health delivery has been generally good mainly due to the affordability of the services at community level.”
-    Refuse collection: “Refuse collection has general been good considering that council has been able to procure more refuse collection trucks.”
-    Budget formulation: “The budget formulation process remains as one that is shallow and lacks credibility.”
-    Financial management: “How finances are run in council remains a secret of the technocrats.”
-    Human resources: “The 2011 human resource audit reveals that there are more than 300 ghost workers on the council’s payroll but nothing has been done.”

So. Fail, do not much, keep a backlog, delivery a few things well enough, manage your money secretively and keep ghost workers on the payroll, and you get a C? Low standards overstate Harare City performance? Have we been so traumatized by years of F*-grade service delivery, that we’ll be so grateful for sub-par performance we’ll still call it average?

ZimRights director denied bail. Okay Machisa, who was arrested on Monday has been denied bail, and his case remanded until 30 January. According to this statement from the Regional Coordinator, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition Regional Office [SA]:

The Crisis Coalition Chairperson and Zimrights director, Okay Machisa, was remanded in custody this afternoon to the 30th of January 2013.A Harare magistrate denied him bail on the basis of three flimsy reasons:

1) That the case is a matter of national interest since the nature of the alleged offence is meant to discredit national institutions (that is the Registrar General’s office)

2) That the investigations are complex hence the state needs more time to carry out a thorough investigation throughout all the Zimrights branches across the country

3) That the co-accused (Leo Chamawhinya) is remanded in custody  hence no basis to remand Machisa out of custody.

The magistrate said that the public will lose confidence in the justice system if Machisa is granted bail since it is a high profile case of national interest. The magistrate did not refer to legal arguments to the contrary submitted by Machisa’s lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa in what appeared like a clearly motivated political judgment.

The detention of Machisa shows that the state has no respect for the presumption of innocence principle. We condemn this calculated assault on activists meant to cow civil society organizations that are fighting for democratic reforms before the next watershed election. We reiterate our position that the political environment in Zimbabwe is not yet conducive for a free and fair election.

We appeal for solidarity action, regional and international pressure on the Zimbabwe state to respect the rule of law. Such action is important to mitigate against a possible surge in the harassment and detention of activists especially as we head toward the general election.

The latest report from Human Rights Watch, Race against time: The need for legal and institutional reforms ahead of Zimbabwe’s elections, paints a sobering picture of the absence of reforms during the past four years of Zimbabwe’s Government of National Unity.

The report discusses a range of reforms which would be needed for there to be genuinely free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, and highlights the consistent absence of a willingness by Zanu PF to engage in any of these reforms.

Paragraphs like this are telling:

Genuine and comprehensive institutional reform to end the pro-Zanu PF partisanship of key state institutions such as the security forces, electoral management bodies and public broadcasters are necessary to level the playing field and create an environment conducive to the holding of credible elections. Zanu PF has not embraced such reforms in the name of promoting a more democratic Zimbabwe, but has actively resisted them.

The absence of meaningful institutional reforms to facilitate full restoration of the rule of law increases concern for human rights protections ahead of Zimbabwe’s next elections. The GPA noted that state organs and institutions do not belong to any political party and should be impartial in the discharge of their duties. This declaration remains wholly unimplemented.

With or without a new Constitution, Zimbabwe needs to hold new Presidential and Parliamentary elections by the end of October this year, if it is to respect the term length of the current office holders. But in an environment of continued harassment of human rights workers, there is no prospect of meaningful reforms. To change the environment of fear, intimidation and harassment, these changes would need to have happened already. They would need to be demonstrated through actions on the ground, not just paper laws and policies. International attention will hopefully mean that the 2013 election is less overtly violent than the 2008 one was. But there is little to suggest it will be any more free and fair, or that Zimbabweans themselves will feel any more confident in the electoral conditions and human rights environment than we were five years ago.

Zimbabwe government continues harassment of NGOs. The new year hasn’t brought a new attitude to the Zimbabwe government about human rights and freedom of expression, if the recent harassment of ZimRights is anything to go by. Read this statement from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR):

Police charge Machisa with publishing falsehoods as government steps up onslaught against NGOs

Zimbabwean police on Monday 14 January 2013 charged Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) Director, Okay Machisa with publishing falsehoods, fraud and forgery as authorities intensify the onslaught against non-governmental organisations.

Machisa will be a guest in the police cells of the coalition government of President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai after detectives at the Law and Order Section at Harare Central Police Station detained him at Rhodesville Police Station following the recording of a warned and cautioned statement from him.

The police charged Machisa with contravening Section 31 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for allegedly publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the State. The ZimRights director was also charged with committing fraud and forgery in contravention of Section 136 and 137 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act. Faith Mamutse, who is employed as a secretary at ZimRights was released after the police interrogated and recorded a statement from her.

Machisa, who is also the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition chairperson handed himself to the police on Monday morning, accompanied by his lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, who is a member of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR). The police also raided and searched the ZimRights head office in Harare, where Mtetwa and Gift Mtisi, another ZLHR member lawyer were present during the search.

Meanwhile, ZimRights programme manager Leo Chamahwinya and three others, who were arrested in a raid on the ZimRights offices last year, remain in police custody, with their bail appeal having been denied last week.

With elections looming for this year, many Zimbabweans are wondering how to register to vote. Whilst voter registration is a continuous process, that is, you can go any time to register, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has announced a push for voter registration, and verification, through April.

In the past, these voter registration drives have been accompanied by vast publicity, advertising and also mobile registration, to spare would-be voters from having to go to the small handful of fixed registration offices for this process. However, indications are that a shortage of funds will compromise this mobile registration process.

So, it’s not the easiest thing in the world, but if you want to vote this year you need to be registered to vote. Even if you have voted before, it can’t  hurt to also go and verify your entry on the voters’ roll to make sure you are still there.

How to register to vote – Zimbabwe

1)    Figure out where to go. Use the drop down menu on the Offices tab on the Registrar General’s website to find the office or sub-office for your province and district.

2)    Take everything you need. You can find a list of the eligibility and documentation requirements on the ZEC website as well as on the Registrar General’s website. You can also phone ZEC on Harare 774095 or 759130, or the Registrar General’s office on 706311 or 702295 (we’ve found them helpful on the phone if you hold on for long enough, but it can take some time to get transferred to the right person).

3)    Let us know how it goes. If you go and register or check your name on the voters’ roll, tell us what you think of the process. Drop us an email on info [at] kubatana [dot] net, a comment on Facebook, or a message on Twitter.

A sunset. A dog walk.