In an effort to share the Chicken to Change video more widely, and to gather feedback on what issues Zimbabweans want addressed in the current Constitution making process, we sent the following text message yesterday:

Kubatana! Get video of Chicken to Change by SA band Freshlyground. Text yr postal addr & top issue for Constitution by noon 16 Sept. First 100 replies will win.

We have been flooded by responses, with issues ranging from Presidential powers and term of office to the reform of the security sector and resolution of the land issue.

Here are some of the first responses:

• Age and term of office of president
• Decentralisation of government
• Systems of government
• Top issue is abt dual citizenship
• Affordable health and education for all
• Devolution of power, land and unitary gvt
• Checks and balances in the presidium. Separation of power should be clearly defined and everyone subject to it. Independent electoral body must be appointed. We must amend the running of the elections
• Presidential Term
• Presidential term should be 2 years
• Diaspora vote
• Top issue: How the constitution can be protected from violation by executive and service chiefs and generals
• Arms of the state
• The President’s terms of office
• Appointment of electoral commission
• We need to know the definition of a hero, and who decides the status of a hero – national, provincial or district etc. Zanu PF (Politburo) should not do that alone. Men should be granted maternity leave to monitor their pregnant woman even if the woman is not employed
• Dual citizenship must be allowed and coloureds need to be recognised as indigenous.
• Executive authority to cabinet. 2 natural and gvt resources, eg. land, human not for political milage
• Elections
• The top issue is about the 99 year lease
• Top Issue 4 Constutition – Powers of the President
• Human rights and total democracy
• Constitution top issue: Use of 99 year lease agrm or title deeds on land    ownership. We prefer title deeds
• Presidential tenure and presidential powers.
• Presidential age and term of office.
• It’s about how to issue the new Constitution in favour of public, not ruling government
• No to executive powers to the president.
• Arms of State – Executive
• Registrar General
• 2 x 5 year term limit for President. Executive power share between Pres and PM. Dvld state. No capital punishment. Rt to personal preferences
• Top issue for constitution is the president’s term of office
• Devolution of power
• Presidential age limit. Minimum 40 max 65. Two terms only
• Terms of office for president and age limit. President to be answerable to senate / parliament. No one is above the law of the land.
• Lots of harassment by those who claim to be the ruling party but have already lost the support. No transparency in this programme
• Gay and lesbian rights.
• Right of freedom of expression.
• AG, RBZ Governor and all service chiefs should be elected in Parliament then sworn in by President.
• Reduce Presidential Powers
• Separation of powers
• Land issue
• Appointment of electoral commission
• Gay issue
• We want free and fair monitored elections in the constitution please especially in presidential terms!
• What was collected by copac is what should be in the constitution
• Term of office president
• Many meetings were disturbed by Zanu PF thugs e.g. in Amaveni Ward 9
• Constitutionalisation of local authorities in Zimbabwe
• President must have 2 x 5 year term of office
• I want democracy to be brought back so that we may be able to exercise our rights and to express our feelings without fear
• Redistribution of land
• Gender equality and women empowerment
• Press Freedom
• President should rule for two terms and hand over to the other.
• Decetralisation of govt
• Top issue is the right of gays to be allowed to marry people of the same sex.
• Presidential powers

Okay so it’s official. Freshlyground have been banned from performing in Zimbabwe next month because of their Chicken to Change video. I know it’s official because I saw it on ZA News. Those puppets don’t lie.

Meanwhile, I’ve just made the Freshlyground Chicken to Change song my ringtone. Maybe now I’ll look forward to people phoning me . . .

You can download the ringtone here.

Now tell me. If in any given week we can have Freshlyground banned from performing in Zimbabwe, Owen Maseko’s work on Gukurahundi banned, and SW Radio Africa jammed, what’s the point of this inclusive government again?

The Constitution outreach process has been extended to give more time for public consultation, and the COPAC teams will be in Harare and Bulawayo on the 18th and 19th of September 2010.

The Women’s Coalition has issued an alert calling on women and women’s organisations to participate in the remaining outreach meetings, reporting that:

COPAC statistics reveal that although women attending outreach meetings total 38 percent compared to men at 42 percent, women did not participate actively by speaking out at meetings. On average, women account for a small only 14.6% ONLY of the speakers at Outreach meetings. This means that our issues have not been articulated adequately.

We are encouraging you to reach out to the surbarbs where you have traditionally worked and has a constituency. Sit down with the women and make sure that they speak from beginning to the end of the meeting. We need all our issues in the constitution.

Read more

The latest monthly round up from Veritas / Peace Watch provides a valuable summary of recent events, particularly around the Constitution making process in Zimbabwe.

Worryingly, it mentions incidents of political violence, harassment and intimidation associated with this process, raising questions as to how genuine public input into the new Constitution will be.

For example:

Intimidation of farm workers attending outreach meetings: General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) said farm workers, especially those from Mashonaland Central and West, have been forced to voice certain positions at outreach meetings and are being silenced on issues related to land.

Read more

I really am stumped by co-Home Affairs Minister Theresa Makone’s insistence that the police have been reformed. The implication is that all is rosy in Zimbabwe’s law and order department. But if that’s the case, how can a young man be jailed for a year and sentenced to hard labour, as in the SW Radio Africa story below, simply for calling an 86-year-old man old.

Man jailed for one year for ‘insulting’ Mugabe

A 23 year old man has been sentenced to a year behind bars with hard labour, for ‘insulting’ Robert Mugabe.

On Friday Chipinge provincial magistrate Samuel Zuze handed down the stiff sentence to Gift Mafuka, who was accused of make an “insulting” remark to two children wearing pro-Mugabe T-shirts. Mafuka apparently asked the boys why they were wearing T-shirts, picturing an old person with wrinkles.

Mafuka was found guilty of contravening the Criminal Codification and Reform Act, by “insulting the office of the President.” However, his sentence was reduced by two months on condition he does not call Mugabe ‘old’ again in the next five years. Mugabe will be 91 by that time.

Human rights lawyers have called the sentence “political” as Mafuka’s comments could not in any way be considered a crime. The lawyers have encouraged Mafuka to appeal, saying his conviction and sentence were unlikely to stand up in a higher court.

May we suggest to Mr. Mugabe that he checks in with his plastic surgeon the moment there is a window of opportunity in his busy schedule, as clearly he is in need of a top up of the Botox he has on a regular basis.

Alex Bell, SW Radio Africa