Eat Out Zimbabwe has posted an inspiring write up by Theresa Wilson, who has been helping prisoners at Harare Central for the past year and a half. Wilson shares some of the challenging and humbling observations of her work:

St George’s College has now been involved in helping at Harare Central Prison for almost eighteen months. The school has formed a prison committee, made up of six members of staff. On a weekly basis Father Freyer, the resident priest at the school and Mrs Theresa Wilson, a teacher at the school, visit the prison with all important goods for the plus or minus 1300 inmates imprisoned there.

There is no section which we have not visited now and the conditions, although not as desperate as early last year, are still concerning. The prisoners are tightly packed into the cells and they are still all sleeping on the hard concrete floor. The prison was initially built to house about 700 prisoners, full capacity. On our last visit there, there were 1400 prisoners and I measured a cell by pacing – about three and a half metres by three and a half metres, in which seven prisoners were to sleep, they could hardly even fit sitting up. The corridors, with cell blocks on either side, have even been made into makeshift cells, with very little air streaming through. A ‘single’ cell, of about a metre and a half wide, housed three men.

Oddly enough, those with the so called biggest individual space are those in death row who have a cell to themselves, however, this is no consolation for them as one cannot even open ones arms out to full extent when measuring the width of the cell. The condemned prisoners stay in this tiny tomb for 23 hours a day, with one hour to shower, exercise and receive their food. The only reading material they are allowed are bibles, of which Father Freyer has sourced for the 54 prisoners there. There has not been a hanging, the method of execution in Zimbabwe, for three years now, but on each door is the prisoner’s name, his weight and height, measured to be strung up when the time comes. Many of them have lived like this for over ten years. It is a privilege to even be allowed within this area, and we go into the heavily secured “B Hall”, the doors are individually and laboriously unlocked and we have a few seconds interaction with these men. They are often the most grateful for our attention, as the non-judgmental shake of a hand and enquiry as to their well-being is usually more appreciated than the goods we bring them.

The International Red Cross continues to provide soap, oil and beans for the prisoners and Prison Services provides mealie meal, their staple diet. We have been supplementing this with fruit, whatever is in season, usually apples, oranges or bananas. Boiled eggs are a popular alternative, given in the holidays when the College kitchen can boil the 1300 required to give to all of them. Toilet paper is also a necessity and we try to bring them at least a roll a month, hardly sufficient, but provides a scrap, literally, sometimes, of dignity. The St George’s students have collected old ice-cream containers and old 2 litre juice containers for the prisoners. These serve as their plates and cups for the sadza and water, which they take into their cells to consume. We are presently encouraging a ‘shoe drive’ at the school, whereby students bring old trackshoes or slops for the prisoners to wear.

When we provide the food for the prison, we make sure that we take it to each and every inmate, a process that usually takes about two and a half hours. This is to ensure that all the prisoners get their fair share and goods are not stolen in the process.

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Some sobering research coming out of Uganda directly links experiences of homophobia with the spread of HIV.

According to AIDSmap, a recent study drew from 303 men living in Kampala, Uganda, who had had anal sex with a man in the previous three months. Some interesting statistics from the study include:

The vast majority (78%) had had sex with a woman at some time; 29% had fathered children; and 16% were currently living with a female partner.

There was often a mismatch between the sexual orientation terms that men most identified with and their reported attraction to men and women:

• Whereas 56% identified with ‘gay’ or ‘homosexual’, 70% said they were attracted mostly or only to men.
• 37% identified as ‘bisexual’, but 12% were attracted to both men and women.
• 7% identified as ‘straight’ or ‘heterosexual’, while 19% were attracted mostly or only to women.

Commercial or transactional sex was common: 42% had ever sold sex to a man, and 25% to a woman.

But most worryingly,

The researchers wished to identify the demographic or behavioural characteristics that were most strongly associated with HIV infection. In multivariate analysis, factors such as condom use or numbers of partners were not significantly associated with having HIV. In fact, only two factors were: age and homophobic abuse.

Men aged 25 or over were four times more likely to have HIV (odds ratio 4.3, 95% confidence interval 1.5 to 12.8). Amongst men over 25, HIV prevalence was 22.4%.

Men who had ever experienced violence or abuse because of their sexuality were five times more likely to have HIV (odds ratio 4.8, 95% confidence interval 1.8 to 13.1). Of the whole sample, 37% had been physically abused at some point, 37% had been blackmailed and 26% had been forced to have sex.

It seems from this study that one of the most valuable things one could do to stop the spread of HIV among men who have sex with men is to fight homophobia and intolerance. Promoting human rights means preventing HIV.

I love reading Sarah Carter’s writings from the Bally Vaughan animal sanctuary.

Here is a small excerpt from her latest newsletter:

When Bart the Jackal arrived, having been found on the university campus, he was a tiny fluffy scrap, almost catatonic with fear. For several months he haunted the marshy thickets at the bottom of his enclosure, constantly on the move once the sun went down, nowhere to be seen during daylight hours. I sat with him each evening as he chased flying ants and grasshoppers and the quicksilver little fish in the stream and he kept a cautious eye on me, circling within a metre or so on his endless, effortless laps, but no closer. I noticed that he was intensely interested in the caracals, serval and dogs living in my garden adjacent to his enclosure and showed no fear of them. At this stage, Rover the Wriggly Red Dog was a puppy and each day he would be carried up to the jackal enclosure for a play date with Bart. Bart adored this but Rover, ever the curmudgeon, loathed it and would sit with his back pointedly to the prancing little jackal, hogging the toys and hoovering  up Bart’s food even though he had usually just eaten his own breakfast. Eventually I gave up trying to rehabilitate the playground bully and Bart went back to relying on rather unsatisfactory interaction through the fence with my animals for company. Exchanging nose kisses with Smeegal the serval cat was part of his routine, and to my surprise Smeegal seemed to seek out the little jackal, lying along the fence line and watching his antics intently.

Smeegal came to us as a refugee from an invaded farm. A pampered and adored pet, he spent three happy years on the Chirundu sugar estates with Jon and Chooks Langerman, sleeping on their bed under the air conditioner and enjoying gourmet meals prepared for him by Jon. Life in my home was somewhat different. Detested by the xenophobic caracals and chased from the house by them at every opportunity (as they do to all visitors including members of my family), he took up residence in a little thatched structure in the garden, sneaking in to the house to unroll the toilet paper and chase the shampoo bottles round the bathtub when the caracals weren’t looking. Each evening he cut a solitary figure as he made his lonely way down the garden, and I felt that he was rather sad.

One evening I returned to my house to find Bart lolling triumphantly on my front lawn. He had tunneled under the fence and made himself totally at home. Unfazed by my dogs, deliriously defiant of the caracals and enamored of the huge serval cat, he set about organizing a life to his satisfaction. He pointedly ignored his own dinner of chopped chicken and offal in favour of the dog food and soon was getting his own portion in a green plastic dish on the lawn each evening. He adopted a teddy that he carried about until Harry the caracal ripped its head off and pulled out the insides, and he learnt that peanut butter toast is an excellent and delicious source of protein for an omnivore. Each morning as I sit down on my veranda with toast and coffee, Bart appears, trotting busily on his tiny feet, fabulously bouffant tail bouncing behind him like an outrageous fashion accessory, and snatches up pieces of toast I throw to him. The caracals firmly believe only they should receive hand-outs and stalk him relentlessly, but he relishes this. A jackal’s psyche is all about scavenging from scary predators, and he is so swift and so cunning that my portly, couch-lolling caracals have no hope of catching him.  (Harry the caracal’s reputation as a Fearless Super-Predator was  irrevocably damaged recently when he was discovered actually sitting on an enraged puff adder. Harry was oblivious to the potentially lethal threat under his capacious bottom and fortunately the puff adder seemed equally dense, striking furiously at the fence post in front of it as it struggled  to free itself from this inglorious situation).

Incredibly, Smeegal and Bart have become inseparable. These two unlikely companions, who would be sworn enemies in the wild as they compete for the same food, can be seen in my garden playing wild games of chase, grooming each other tenderly and sleeping curled up in their shared bedroom. Each morning they slumber in the sunshine together, nestled in picturesque harmony in the wild flowers bordering the stream. They love to hunt insects together, pouncing and leaping in the late afternoon light through the grass in search of grasshoppers, and one memorable moonlit night I saw the two of them hunting a bushbaby. They were so absorbed in their task, stalking silently through the silvery shadows, gazing intently up into the trees where the bushbaby was feeding, that they walked straight into each other, like two slapstick comedians, and gave each other a terrible fright. After a bit of muffled yelping and hissing, they sat down with their backs to each other and groomed themselves ferociously to regain their composure, watched with disgust from the window by the two irritable caracals who had been roused from my bed by the commotion.

At last, two creatures whose lives had been irrevocably altered by circumstances totally beyond their control have found a new and happy life, together. With two caracals, a serval cat, a jackal and two dogs living in my home, life is a little chaotic. Breakfast time degenerates into a melee every morning.  The caracals like to sit on their own chairs at the table. Quite often they jump on the table, knock over the coffee or lick the topping off the toast. They leap off their chairs when Bart appears and chase him with their lolloping, rabbity gait around the garden before returning to their seats to glower and hiss at the dogs who are relegated to the floor. Sometimes Harry, a true feline eminence, will casually extend an immense, savagely-clawed, furry foot and rest it on my wrist so he can wash it, licking my hand at the same time and purring intermittently, just a few breathy rumbles to indicate that he is content, before resuming his reign of terror amongst the other family members.

To find out more visit www.ballyvaughan.co.zw or email sarah [at] ballyvaughan [dot] co [dot] zw

The Zimbabwe Liberation Veterans Forum recently shared with us their passionate letter to the GPA principals.  It reads, in part:

The current approach by the inclusive government is like getting to a point only a kilometre away by setting off in the opposite direction in the belief that since the world is round, we will get there anywhere, whenever; but at what cost in terms of resources, time and human suffering?

To us, the inclusive government should have been strictly a transitional arrangement, a means to a definite end i.e. the establishment of a legitimate government based on consent. That route can only be paved by addressing the attendant challenges to a credible electoral process and the acceptance of its outcome as inviolate popular will. We contend that this approach will lead, not only to the sustainable resolution of the political impasse but to the amelioration of the economic, social and humanitarian havoc as well and bring about lasting stability that is conducive to social prosperity and development. Taking the constitutional route as at present, only serves to accentuate political tension, destabilise the body politic and polarise the country before the shock absorbers of a stable and legitimate government are in place. In any case, given the best will, the outcome of the constitution debate would be another example of exclusionary elite pacting through bipartisan compromise; a far cry from a people driven product that should guide Zimbabwe for generations to come.

To this end, we hold that the road map to free, fair, transparent and popular elections should focus on addressing the glaring impediments to credible elections as the uttermost priority. We therefore call on the parties to the GPA to shift and realign their focus to this political imperative.

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We’ve just received the latest report from the Research and Advocacy Unit, entitled Challenging Zimbabwe’s bloated executive.

The report discusses the fact that Zimbabwe has more Ministers than it is actually Constitutionally allowed to have. This has been the case since the swearing in of the inclusive government cabinet on 13 February 2009, but it has recently come back into public discussion. According to RAU, “on 7 May, Zimbabwean citizen and civil society activist Moven Kufa filed papers in the High Court challenging the constitutionality of the appointment of the extra Ministers.”

However, this court application has been largely ignored by the Zimbabwean media, both state and local.

The response of the MDC itself to the case – Morgan Tsvangirai is one of the respondents, in his capacity as Prime Minister – has exhibited a worrying lack of seriousness for a party that paints itself as the “rule of law party.” The report comments:

The Ministers cited as Respondents to the Application have not filed any opposing papers. The President, Robert Mugabe, and Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai are cited as the 1st and 2nd Respondents in addition to the Respondent Ministers. In a further irony, these two Respondents have not attested to any opposing affidavits. That task has been left to the Attorney-General who claims in his opposing papers to have the authority of both Respondents to attest an affidavit on their behalf and that he is constitutionally empowered to do so. So the very individual whose appointment is so hotly contested by Tsvangirai, Johannes Tomana, is now engaged by Tsvangirai to oppose what is stated as an attempt to compel compliance with the rule of law and the Constitution.

This situation becomes even more remarkable when one considers that the arguments advanced in the opposing affidavit by Tomana are, legally speaking, those of Tsvangirai and Mugabe. Supporters of Tsvangirai may then be astounded to learn what those arguments are and that Tsvangirai is prepared to be not merely associated with then, but to allow them to be advanced on his behalf.

Tomana, and thus Mugabe and Tsvangirai, contend that Moven Kufa is not entitled to bring the Application at all, as there has been no violation of his rights set out in the Declaration of Rights in the Constitution. They claim that Kufa has no legal right to complain that neither Mugabe nor Tsvangirai complied with the provisions of the Constitution when the appointments were made. Only parliament can do that, they claim. Parliament does indeed have the power to impeach the President for breaches of the Constitution. However, such impeachment requires a two-thirds majority of parliament in favour to succeed. Accordingly, if the contention of Tomana, Tsvangirai and Mugabe is correct, Tsvangirai and Mugabe are free to ignore the provisions of the constitution so long as two-thirds of the members of parliament or more do not object to these violations.

Read more about the case, its arguments, merits and challenges here.

We were recently sent this photograph of the Bling Bus, which has been ferrying the Zimafia – Zimbabwe’s Worst Eleven team around South Africa during the World Cup.

According to the Zimafia website:

The star players in the ZIMafia team comprise Zimbabwe’s illegitimate and unelected Joint Operations Command (JOC) – a group of military and strategic commanders who maintain the oppressive structure set up by Ian Smith’s racist government 30 years ago under a State of Emergency.

This Nation-Beating (literally) team are the ‘real’ rulers of Zimbabwe, the ones who have sworn never to give up power, and the ones who have committed the worst crimes. All are experts in abduction, intimidation, torture and political murder.

Now they are in control of a multi-billion dollar diamond strike with which they are  personally enriching themselves while purchasing arms and ammunition to use against the electorate, or each other – or any other force that challenges their right to loot in perpetuity.

Read more about their recent campaign in South Africa here