Spotted on a seriously-ready-for-adventure looking Land Rover.
More than a little jealous all around.

Bulawayo Agenda: Public Accountability Forum

Date: Thursday 12 September
Time: 1500hrs-1900hrs
Venue: Small City Hall, Bulawayo
Theme: Promises from the new government, expectations from the citizens: How do we move forward?

Discussants:

• ZANU PF (TBA)
• MDC-T (TBA)
• ZCTU (TBA)
• Dr Eric Bloc (Economist)
• Residents Association Rep
• Bulawayo City Council Rep
• Ministry of Local Govt Rep

Moderator: Dumisani Nkomo

Bulawayo Agenda will be hosting a meeting in Bulawayo this week. This marks the beginning of the Public Accountability Platform (PAP) program, which seeks to provide platforms where the citizens shall hold the elected and non-elected public officials to account.

The first platform shall focus on the prolonged state of uncertainty, caused by disputed polls, which has affected service delivery and the economy. PAPs will see various stakeholders coming together to share ideas. These include, but not limited to, local authorities, government, civic society, residents’ associations, political analysts and economist.

Need to shake things up? Try something different. Like the driving range at East 24 on Samora Machel. $6 gets you 90 balls, 5 tees and your selection of golf clubs required. Spend an hour in the shade, have a laugh and clear your head. No experience required. (Trust me!)

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) released the results of the local government contests of Zimbabwe’s 31 July Harmonised Election on 15 August.

As SW Radio Africa reports,

According to figures released by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), candidates representing Robert Mugabe’s party now dominate the country’s rural and urban councils, having won 1,493 out of a total 1,958 wards. The MDC-T won 442.

Since 15 August, we have been trying, unsuccessfully, to get these results from ZEC, so that we may share them with the public.

Presumably, official election results are public information. They tell the public useful things like:

• Who is your councilor
• How many people voted for which candidate

When we’ve asked them to share the results, ZEC has told us that they’re too long to publish in the press (too expensive). They’ve also failed to publish them on their website, and whilst they have said they could email them to us, they have yet to respond to numerous email and telephone requests to do so.

Meanwhile, there are council run offs scheduled for 11 September, in 3 wards where the two top candidates got the same number of votes.

If the council elections are important enough to be held, and there are resources for three run offs, surely ZEC could also share the results from the other 1,955 wards? Maybe many Zimbabweans don’t care who their Councillor is. But for those who do, and who want to engage in a democratic, participatory process to hold their elected officials to account, the first step is to know who that is.

As part of Zimbabwe’s new Disneyland in Africa initiative, Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi says:

“We want to create a free zone with a banking centre where even people who do not necessarily live in Zimbabwe can open bank accounts.”

Never mind Zimbabwe’s recent history of economic instability and confidence challenging measures like freezing and seizing assets in foreign currency.

I can just imagine the conversation:

- Where do you bank?
- Disneyland, Zimbabwe
- Hmmm. How’s that working for you?

Zimbabwean / Dutch musician Rina Mushonga has composed a beautiful and moving tribute to her friend and music shero, Chiwoniso Maraire, who died last month.

You can access the song online at Sound Cloud here or email products [at] kubatana [dot] net with Sister in the subject line, and we will email it to you (4.2MB).

You can watch Rina singing Sister and talking about her friendship with Chiwoniso here

And, if you like this song, get more of Rina’s music like her new EP via iTunes and visit her website