Kubatana has a new DVD compilation to share with you and . . . it’s free!

Check this out: 6 Fresh Films

1) All of the Lights – Even Mo’ Lil Swaggery Boy$. This video pokes fun at our power problems. A must see and a must share.

2) Toindepi? Reflections from a Discarded Generation produced by BornFree Trust and recent winner of Best Documentary at the Silicon Valley Africa Film Festival

3) Singer and activist Angelique Kidjo interviewed on BBC HARDTalk shares her experience of speaking out about the abuse of power in Zimbabwe

4) Zimbabwe War Veterans – Victims, Villains or Victors: A case for the national healing initiative is a film produced by Heal Zimbabwe

5) Activist Dave Meslin shares some insight into the barriers that discourage people from acting. Produced for a Canadian audience, his talk resonates in Zimbabwe as well

6) SHEROES: an interview with Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liberian Leymah Gbowee

… and wait for it, there’s a very big …

*Bonus Feature*
Also in this pack is The Zambezi News series.
Recently the ZBC complained that Zambezi News “tarnishes its image.” Watch it and tell us what You think.

Want to get motivated and inspired? Get yours now!

Please email products [at] kubatana.net with 6 Fresh Films in the subject line giving your name and postal address and we will mail the DVDs to you.

We’re hoping that you like what you watch, that it gives you some inspiration and that it provokes conversation and action. Please make sure that you share this DVD with others.

To coincide with the international diamond conference currently being held at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, Partnership Africa Canada has released a new report: Greed and Corruption in Zimbabwe’s Marange Diamond Fields:

The report is divided into three main sections. The first looks at ongoing trade irregularities and the lack of transparency of diamond revenues, and examines ways ZANU and the global diamond industry have interacted, before, during and after the Kimberley Process imposed an embargo on Marange stones in 2009. The second examines the various revenue streams of Obert Mpofu and concludes the Minister of Mines is utilizing monies and assets divorced from his ministerial salary and known business entities. The third offers policy suggestions and recommendations that would improve the management and public beneficiation of Zimbabwe’s diamond revenues.

The biggest conclusion of this report is that despite government pronouncements to the contrary, the illicit trade of Marange diamonds is alive and well. A parallel trade in Marange diamonds continues to thrive, with the full knowledge and complicity of top officials in the Ministry of Mines, ZMDC, MMCZ and military.

The theft of Marange diamonds is perhaps the biggest single plunder of diamonds the world has seen since Cecil Rhodes. Conservative estimates place the losses due to illicit activity at over $2 billion since 2008.

PAC has found that while the mismanagement of Marange remains primarily a Zimbabwean problem, the global dimensions of the illegality has metastasized to compromise most of the major diamond markets of the world. Previously most of the illegal trade primarily involved South Africa, Mozambique, UAE and India. This remains the case, but greater vigilance by enforcement authorities should now extend to other centres, particularly Israel.

Read more

According to a statement issued by Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) today:

Seventy-nine members and two babies are under arrest at Bulawayo Central police station for staging a peaceful protest at the City Council Tower block on the water issue. A 16 year old girl was handcuffed for over an hour as they officer concerned could not locate the handcuff keys. Initially 150 members were arrested as police swooped but 70 were refused entry into the police station.

Read more

The three Counselling Services Unit (CSU) staff who were arrested Monday in Harare and transferred to Bulawayo have finally been released on bail. They’ve been charged with causing malicious damage to property, and now have to report at Harare Central weekly pending trial.

A Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights statement reports:

According to State prosecutor Marlvin Nzombe, the three CSU representatives together with some unidentified individuals smeared some MDC graffiti on an information centre located in Mpopoma high density suburb in Bulawayo 07 October 2012 in contravention of Section 140 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act. The State claimed that the CSU senior staff members inscribed the words “MDC” and “MDC Chinja Ndizvo” on a bill board and on a durawall surrounding the information centre.

Seriously? Three nights in detention over some graffiti. And graffiti that the people you’ve arrested clearly had absolutely nothing to do with?

Let me get this straight:

You raid my office, intimidate my clients, threaten us with tear gas, steal my computer, find some spray paint I bought in July, decide this MUST be the VERY SAME SPRAYPAINT used in Bulawayo in October, arrest me, lock me up for three nights, move me to Bulawayo in an open truck, handcuff me, take my glasses, and finally release me.

Whereupon I have to pay you $100, give you my passport, and am obliged to come see you in town every Monday for who knows how long.

All because someone in some city more than 350 kilometres from where I live sprayed some graffiti that you don’t like. Where is the recourse here? You mess me around for no apparent reason, and I have to pay you for the privilege of it?

Honestly. Even as I write it, it doesn’t make sense. You wouldn’t believe it if you read it in a book or saw it in a movie. So why do we let our police force indulge in such absurdity?

This statement from the Counselling Services Unit (CSU) draws attention to and requests solidarity to protest police abuse of power and harassment:

Fidelis Mudimu, Zachariah Godi and Tafadzwa Geza have just spent their third night in the police cells, two in Harare Central and last night in Bulawayo Central Police Station, after an unwarranted transfer to Bulawayo. They were transported on the back of an open pick up truck, registration ACD 6377, with no protection from the sun, despite the temperature reaching 33 degrees in Harare. They were then moved to Bulawayo from Kwekwe in a twin cab ABI 3608 and arrived at 18h00. They were not interviewed by the police, but immediately detained in the police cells on a detention order which had been prepared in Harare.

The following facts of the arbitrary raid and arrest and detention need highlighting.

Counselling Services Unit is a lawfully registered medical clinic providing non-partisan counselling and referral to all victims of trauma.

On Monday 5 November, the clinic was threatened with violence and normal services were disrupted by the invasion of the clinic by 12 uniformed and non-uniformed police officers, including members of the Bomb Disposal Squad and an Information Technology expert. The clinic was surrounded by armed riot police who threatened to fire tear gas into the building, which is also occupied by other tenants. Patients awaiting services were left unattended for 4 hours while the police demanded and forcibly accessed confidential medical records. They removed a computer which contains confidential client information and client records. No further booked patients were able to enter the building to receive treatment.

Counselling Services Unit adheres to the Environmental Compliance requirements for health facilities, following the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health. The guidelines require separation of cleaning materials for areas of ablution and areas of food storage and preparation. The cleaning utensils are clearly marked using spray paint, and the paint is stored on the premises in the work area of the janitor. It is not hidden or stored secretively and was purchased in July 2012. CSU have handed the receipts of purchase of three 250ml cans of spray paint from the local hardware store to the police. The police fixated on the finding of this paint and refused to listen to any explanation. With no further investigations, 5 staff members were arbitrarily arrested and transported to Harare Central Police station for further questioning. 2 staff members were released 2 hours later, and 3 have been detained since then with no warned and cautioned statement and no indication of charges. The removal of the 3 staff to Bulawayo after the required time for a court appearance and the further detention order with no defined charges or substantive evidence of illegal activities constitutes serious and illegal harassment.

Counselling Services Unit is deeply concerned about the protracted course of this situation and the non-adherence to the law by the arresting officers. CSU is concerned about the safety of Fidelis Mudimu, Zachariah Godi and Tafadzwa Geza.

We would request solidarity and protest on the following fundamental issues of this series of events:

1. Disruption of medical services to victims of trauma, and the unwarranted terrorisation of patients awaiting services
2. The illegal access to confidential patient medical records
3. The unwarranted deployment of armed riot police to the offices creating alarm and fear to the other tenants of the building and surrounds
4. The illegal removal of a computer, which is not covered in the search warrant which stated a “search for material likely to deface any house, building, wall, fence, lamp post, gate or elevator without the consent of the owner or occupier thereof”.
5. The removal of confidential medical and legal records without permission of the patients to whom they pertain.
6. The arbitrary selection of staff for arrest with no concrete evidence of any crime having been committed, particularly in Bulawayo where CSU has no clinic.
7. The illegal detention and transfer of senior staff to Bulawayo without formal charges, and exceeding the time limit for appearance before a magistrate with formal charges.

It’s that time of  year again, when the swifts that nest above the car park at our office return and start to have babies, and the babies, invariably, start to fall out of the nest and into the car park. Last year, I kept finding dead, or half dead, baby birds – pink hatchlings, vulnerable and naked without even fluffy baby feathers – which I would take home to bury.

Today, I found this year’s first capsized baby bird. This is the largest I’ve found fallen out of its nest – maybe three four weeks old, with flight feathers on its wings, but its neck is still scrawny and pink, and it’s no where near flight ready. Happily, it is still alive, and seemingly healthy enough, but it’s a long way back up to its home and we don’t know how to shove it back in there. So we’re trying to keep it alive – not an easy prospect.

A crash course in swift rearing however has taught us that our bird is insectivorous. And a few helpful online videos make it clear that hoping birdy will open wide for the worm is wishful thinking. So in lieu of our usual lunch time run, today Bev and I set off on a bug hunting expedition. Ideally, we’d like to find flying bugs – the kind we figure Momma and Poppa Swift would bring home for birdy’s staple diet. But catching flying things requires a coordination I have never possessed. So I kept my eyes on the ground looking for ants and spiders, whilst Bev more optimistically was on the look out crickets and butterflies. It certainly made for a different kind of run. From a bug’s eye view our city is enormous – Just one small patch of grass holds endless crawling creature potential. And shaking up the Tuesday routine to help out a creature in distress gave a valuable reminder of the importance of slowing down, of not being too busy to help, or to care. It’s like the root of activism, or social justice, or trying to make the world a better place. It’s an uphill battle, but you do it anyway. I know birdy probably won’t make it through the night. But that doesn’t mean you don’t try.