Keep Left South Africa have issued this message requesting solidarity actions to support Munyaradzi Gwisai +5, whose verdict should be handed down on Monday.

On Monday 19th March 2012 the 6 activists in Zimbabwe go to court when the Magistrate hands down a verdict in their case. They were charged with attempting to create public disorder for showing a video on the uprisings in Egypt last year.

19th March is exactly a year since their release on bail following an international campaign.

If the comrades are found guilty, then (most likely within the same week) they will be sentenced to jail terms of a minimum of 6 to 10 years.

We are asking comrades to rally to this cause once again to ensure that injustice is not brought upon these fighters for democracy and the rights of the poor in Zimbabwe.

We would ask that you please text protest messages of protest to:

• Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena + 263 712 801 172
• Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri + 263 712 808 290
• Police Minister Kembo Mohadi +263 712 605 424
• Security Minister Didymus Mutasa +263 0712 200 532

In the event that the activists are found guilty, activists in neighbouring South Africa will be staging a picket at the Zimbabwe embassy on Tuesday 20th March from 12 – 1pm, at 13 Boeing Street West, Bedfordview (on the opposite side of the road to East Gate shopping Mall). This is to add further pressure on the Zimbabwe tyrannical authoriies to ensure that they do not get away with jailing activists (again).

SAMWU trade union in South Africa has issued a call for people to rally to this cause once again.

We are asking activists to consider urgent action on Tuesday as well. For anyone on Facebook, please search for the page “Calling for the Release of Zimbabwe Activists” where updates are posted.

Cartoon: The Herald, 6 March 2012

The announcement recently that ‘litter bugs face arrest’ has been met with understandably mixed reactions. The requirement that shops and combi ranks have rubbish bins is welcome – but what good are rubbish bins if, as Bev Clark pointed out last week, refuse isn’t collected from bins, or elsewhere? Without regular, reliable rubbish collection, bins just over flow and become health hazards in their own right. Rubbish dumping is free at Pomona Dump on weekends – for those with the wherewithal to take their rubbish there. But the city needs to uphold its side of the bargain. Rubbish hasn’t been collected in my suburb for over three weeks. In desperation, residents have taken to leaving their rubbish out on the street day and night – on the off chance the city finally comes round to collect it – turning our entire road into an effective dumping site.

This spoke right to my heart. Maybe because I found #7 particularly validating . . .
(From an Atlantic Monthly advert for Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking)

At 4pm I got this SMS from a co-worker. How could I refuse?

Combi from belvedere delayd by police n its drizzling in town. May I report back t work tmoro.

Walking through town the other day, a friend and I thought twice before taking the road that goes in back of State House. You know the one – up past the Harare Sports Club and Royal Harare Golf Club on the one side, and past the camouflage-wearing, gun-toting, State House-guarding soldiers on the other. We didn’t have ID on us, and the stories of people getting harassed on that road by officious guards are countless.

But we took a deep breath, and in the interest of claiming our freedom and refusing to bow to intimidation or self-censorship we carried on.

We were nearly out of the woods when a soldier – yes complete with camouflage, helmet,  and bayonet readied gun, called to us across the road -

Armed soldier in camouflage: Hello.
Me: Hello.
Armed soldier in camouflage: How is the morning?
Me: Good thanks, how’s yours?
Armed soldier in camouflage: How is the day?
Me: Good thanks, how’s yours?
Armed soldier in camouflage: Can I have your number?
Me: [Silence]
Armed soldier in camouflage: I need to phone you.
Me: [Turns to face him with a puzzled expression]
Armed soldier in camouflage: Bahahahaha [Packs out laughing like he’s just told the best joke ever.]

Harassment, yes. But not quite the kind of harassment I’d been worried about.