After two meetings with the Confederation of Zimbabwean Industries, the Ministry of Transport has agreed to postpone the effective date for implementation of SI 154 from 1 December 2010 to July 2011. The Road Traffic Regulations, amongst other things, require motorists to carry fire extinguishers and reflective triangles approved by the Standards Association of Zimbabwe.

According to The Herald, Transport, Communication and Infrastructural Development Secretary Partson Mbiriri said the regulations had been developed “after wide consultation with all stakeholders,” and that originally they had been intended to give road users 12 months notice before they took effect. But due to delays in the gazetting process, that notice period was greatly reduced – hence the postponement in the effective date.

As of yet, no one in Zimbabwe is authorised to sell SAZ approved products (one of the requirements of the regulations), and some concerns have been raised as to how fire extinguishers will fare sitting in parked vehicles in the sun, where temperatures can get to over 50 degress in the car.

More importantly, whether the regulations come into effect in December or in July next year, the larger questions remain the same – how do we trust the police, notorious for their bribe-seeking behaviour, to not simply view this as one more reason to harass drivers? In the context of Zimbabwe’s much larger problems, how relevant is an attempt to impose detailed requirements as to what I must carry in my vehicle and what specifications these items adhere to? Where does governmental involvement end and individual responsibility end – particularly in a context of authoritarian governance? Is it government’s job to require me to have a spare tyre, or is it my job as a motorist to ensure that I am looking after my vehicle – and respecting the safety of other road users?

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity, George Charamba, has stated that there will be no issuance of broadcasting licences to private players.

This despite the fact that it are more than two years since the signatories to the Global Political Agreement claimed, among other things, to be “[d]esirous of ensuring the opening up of the air waves and ensuring the operation of as many media houses as possible.”

The Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Stations (ZACRAS) issued this response to Charamba’s statement:

ZACRAS response to George Charamba’s report to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee

The Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Stations (ZACRAS) is dismayed by statements made by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity, George Charamba, that there will be no issuance of broadcasting licences to private players.

According to Charamba, the government has no intention of issuing licences to private players in the near future until it has developed the capacity to monitor and regulate the activities of the new players. The Zimbabwe Independent of 12-18 November 2010, reported Charamba as having made these remarks when he appeared before the Media, Information and Communication Technology Parliamentary Portfolio Committee.

Recently, the Minister of Media, Information and Publicity, Webster Shamu, was reported as having acknowledged the need for the liberalisation of the airwaves so as to usher in independent radio and television stations. ZACRAS is now disturbed by these conflicting statements from Charamba. Charamba is a civil servant who is supposed to implement government policy, whereas Shamu enunciates these policies. The question which therefore comes to mind is who is running the Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity; a government Minister or a mere Secretary?

Charamba went on to add that the current levels of investment in broadcasting infrastructure in the country creates no room for new entries as espoused by the Global Political Agreement (GPA). Presently, two of ZACRAS’ members, Radio Dialogue in Bulawayo, and CORAH in Harare, are equipped with broadcasting equipment which will enable them to start broadcasting once they are granted licences. Last year, Minister Shamu visited Radio Dialogue and was impressed by the station’s state of preparedness for broadcasting.

In 2005, the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) invited applicants for broadcasting licenses. The question which one therefore asks is why BAZ would take such an initiative if the broadcasting infrastructure was really not permissible for entrance by new players?

The policy makers’ denial of licencing new broadcasting players is a blatant disregard of citizens’ right to access information from diverse sources. Attitudes such as these are not only retrogressive but are a major stumbling block towards the creation of a diverse and pluralist media environment. The delay in the proper reconstitution of BAZ, and the perennial piecemeal amendments to the repressive media laws, on its own, stands as testimony of a lack of political will on the part of policy makers to liberalise the airwaves.

The broadcasting frequency spectrum is a public resource. As such, it should be accessed by those who have means to utilize it and not be restricted by the dictates of those who seek political mileage.

ZACRAS acknowledges the need to regulate and monitor the use of the broadcasting frequency so as to guard against its abuse. However, it is ZACRAS’ view that frequency management and use should not be detrimental to the needs and aspirations of citizens.

It is ZACRAS’s conviction that the government has no part in regulating and monitoring the operations of broadcasters. ZACRAS believes that there is need for the setting up of an independent broadcasting regulatory authority. The independent broadcasting regulatory authority should be mandated with monitoring and regulating the broadcasting industry through issuance of licences and maintaining checks and balances on licence holders.

Needless to say, the selection into the independent broadcasting board should be done upon consultation with all relevant stakeholders and be as transparent as possible. Transparency will ensure the creation of a legitimate board whose operations are devoid of partisan political, economic or individual interests.

It is ZACRAS’s belief that instead of monitoring and regulating broadcasters, the government should concern itself with creating a conducive national policy framework for broadcasters, upon consultation with all concerned stake holders.

The establishment of community radios is an essential part of development, as it enables communities to devise development initiatives and strategies to tackle pertinent issues such as agriculture, mining, health, education, water and sanitation. To this end, ZACRAS remains committed to promoting the creation of an environment which promotes the establishment and licensing of community radios in Zimbabwe.

I recently had the privilege of being at the ‘Progress’ in Zimbabwe conference organised by the Mass Public Opinion Institute, Bulawayo Agenda and the University of Johannesburg.

Various national, regional and international speakers participated, including: Amanda Hammar, Bill Freund, Blair Rutherford, Blessing Karumbidza, Brian Raftopoulos, Charity Manyeruke, Claude Kabemba, Easther Chigumira, Erin McCandless, Godfrey Kanyenze, Ian Phimister, Ibbo Mandaza, John Hoffman, John Makumbe, John Saul, Jocelyn Alexander, Josephine Nhongo-Simbanegavi, Joy Chadya, Kirk Helliker, Kumbirai Kundenga, Lionel Cliffe, Luise White, Mike Davies, Richard Saunders, Rob Davies, Roger Southall and Showers Mawowa.

Some of the stand out comments for me included:

• John Makumbe on The Parties & Their Politics: In Southern Africa, no liberation movement has ever handed power over to another political party. It is therefore obvious that liberation movements are necessarily dictatorial. So it is naïve to expect to remove them from power through democratic means. Any dictator who is susceptible to removal from power through democratic means is not a dictator. More

• Brian Raftopoulos on Labour’s Past, Present and Future: Raftopoulos discussed the ways trade unionists have tried to use an industrial relations discourse in order to avoid political intervention. Trade unions in Zimbabwe, as elsewhere, are very much children of the Enlightenment – they are very much those who have pushed for universal rights, and have often fought national repression through a recourse to a call for universal rights. This was interpreted by some as labour becoming ensconced in a kind of cosmopolitan Western discourse. Raftopolous found this wrong on two scores. Firstly, it misses the long historical precedent of this kind of discursive framework within labour – it’s not a new thing. Secondly, it assumes that because there is some agreement between international positions and the position of the labour movement in Zimbabwe, that the latter is complicit with imperialism. This is to assume that that whole project can be defined by how it is understood from outside, without looking at the local dynamics which are generating and producing those particular discourses. More

• Ibbo Mandaza on ‘Intellectuals’ and Progress in Zimbabwe: Radical scholars were systematically exorcised from positions of influence over the state. Mugabe’s Zanu PF is right wing, despite its anti imperialist rhetoric. The international community is less concerned about democracy and human rights than they are about stability. Thus, if it is accepted that there is a level of stability now as compared with 2008, this is accepted as “progress.” More

• Easther Chigumira on Landed Economies – Farming & Farmers Then & Now: Responding to Blessing Karumbidza’s presentation, Easther Chigumira questioned his convictions that farming “then” (as in the 1980s) is really so different from farming “now.” She noted there is still multiple farm ownership, still patronage, still bifurcation, but it is by class, not race. Key institutional structures, such as markets, are weaker than they were in the 1980s. Thus, she said, she was not as optimistic about new farmers, particularly given the long term degradation of the environment which has happened in the process. There is gold panning, sand mining, organised by suitcase farmers. Is that really progress? More

• Kirk Helliker on Civil Society – Strategies for Emancipation: Helliker argued that much of the conflict in contemporary Zimbabwean society is a discourse around state politics. The struggle is a struggle for state power. This, he said, marginalises more democratic radical popular movements – like the land movement – captured by state and delegitimisesd by liberals. He agreed that just because trade unions develop a position towards the state, and international capital develops the same position, this doesn’t necessarily that there is some sort of alliance, or that the trade unions are in the in pocket of international capital. However, he cautioned, there is a similar risk of reductionist thinking if you argue that the land movement was just an election ploy. This reduces the agency of rural people and war veterans to being simply pawns of Zanu PF. More

• Luise White on Zimbabwe Compared – ‘Progress’ in the Rest of Africa: White warned that governments of national unity simply reinvent the one party state with more international clout than the one party state has had since the 1960’s. She said this is retrogressive. There is now a single party apparatus that has access to international funding and donor participation. More

For a full listing of write ups and audio files from the different sessions, view the ‘Progress’ in Zimbabwe conference index page

Giving this year’s Lozikeyi Lecture, the Minister of Education, Arts, Sport and Culture Minister David Coltart quoted Picasson on the role of art: “We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realise truth”.

Impressively Coltart used the lecture to make a powerful argument against censorship, and in favour of artistic freedom of expression. In particular, he argued against the banning of Owen Maseko’s art on Gukurahundi, and described the ban on a more recent piece, in the interest of “public morality,” as “patently ridiculous.”

Whilst he didn’t go so far as to argue that the Censor Board itself be disbanded, or reconstituted, he was none the less far more outspoken about the issue than the MDC-T’s co-Minister of Home Affairs, Theresa Makone was on the same issue. For his troubles, Minister Coltart is now being threatened by war veterans who are insisting that he retract statements he made in the speech, suggesting that Gukurahundi was akin to genocide.

Read the full lecture here – it’s worth it!

Having so bollocked the Zimbabwe International Film Festival for their delays in releasing their 2010 festival programme earlier this year, I figured I’d better jump to when I saw the Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe send through the catalogue for this year’s International Images Film Festival for Women.

The theme for this year is Women of Decision, and films are on in Harare from 19-27 November, and Bulawayo on 1&2 December.

Have a look at the programme here and make a plan to get inspired.

The above two notices in Friday’s Herald caught my eye. The first makes a lot of sense to me. Harare has a huge water problem – as evidenced by the lack of water in our three-storey office block this week, as just one example. As the notice points out, “the city’s water supply infrastructure cannot satisfy the current demand. This is further worsened by infrastructure breakdowns and power outages.”

Surely, then, the city would recognise the need to fundraise and invest in infrastructure and power maintenance, repairs and development?

Meanwhile, a second notice warns suppliers against providing fire equipment without a SAZS Seal of Approval (Standards Association of Zimbabwe). This, the notice explains, is “aimed at protecting the public from substandard fire equipment that has found its way into the country.”

But why has this substandard fire equipment suddenly found its way across our borders? Because of a mad rush by motorists to get fire extinguishers, among other items, in time for the 1 December deadline of the new Road Traffic Regulations.

We’ve been looking for a month and have yet to find an SAZ approved fire extinguisher at any local hardware. How is the City of Harare going to warn suppliers of this issue? How will it enforce it, and if they do collect fines, how will that revenue be allocated?

I’m reminded of Thandi’s waste not, want not blog. What about fining people for using hose pipes, using that money to invest in water supply requirements, and dropping the whole fire extinguishers in vehicles issue altogether?