While waiting for election results is like waiting for a baby to be born. You don’t know whether it is going to be a girl or a boy, and you worry about its health.

There’s ululation when the baby arrives, and presents come from everywhere, so fighting over whether the child should have been a boy or girl doesn’t help anymore.

The Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) must deliver the baby.

What matters is to have responsibility for the upkeep of the child. In this case, to respect the outcome of the results and work together for the betterment of the nation. Together as One.

Zimbabweans,
your future is In your hands.

What is in your pocket right now?
How many bearers are in your wallet?
Why are you not having your favorite food?

Your future is in your hands!
How much do you have in your savings account?
How do you get home after work?

Your future is in your hands!
Is your fuel-gauge working or
is your tank running empty?

Your future is in your hands!
Zimbabwe is yours forever,
it’s You who make it shine.

Your future is in your hands!
Why are you not smiling?
What’s in your refrigerator?
Why are you so low and not active?
Why are your children not at school?
Why are you not paying your rentals, fees, bills in time?

Just wake up . . .
And go to the nearest polling station in your ward and
X Vote!

Well, at times I wonder what to do or who to listen to, and I wonder who is in charge.

Yesterday I was shocked to read from one of our local papers in Zimbabwe saying it is illegal to possess more than Zim$500m in cash (US$10). According to a new regulation published last month, anyone found with more than Zim$500m in cash will be guilty of “unlawful hoarding”.

Many schools and supermarkets do not want bills settled by cheque because of roaring inflation rates. In the five or so days cheques take to clear, traders stand to lose a significant amount of money. As I have noticed yesterday when I was phoning enquiring about the prices of bond paper, they are asking for cash payments and if it’s by cheque or transfers (RTGS) then the price will almost double.

The authorities want to encourage the use of cheques and cards. But power cuts mean it’s often impossible to settle bills by electronic transfer of funds, and not all ATMs are working.

I refer you to an excerpt from The Herald published and dated Tuesday 22, January 2008:

“People must be allowed to take all their money which is to their credit without hindrance or restrictions up to the limits stipulated. Arbitrary limits are unacceptable.”

So, where am I guilty of “unlawful hoarding”?

A couple of years ago, we used to enjoy shopping in Zimbabwe. Pushing a trolley and the other hand picking and selecting items from the shelves. I still remember reading one of the instructions neatly printed on the shelves “If you break consider it bought”. In other words if you break, you pay.

Groceries are no longer available from the shops or from the supermarkets where you expect to get meat, laundry stuff, dried and fresh foods. If you get into any of these supermarkets you find people doing hand shopping – not even enough to fill a hand shopping basket. Others will be checking or rather comparing prices of those few items found on the shelves of supermarkets with those displayed on the small tables and empty cardboard boxes of vendors just outside the front doors of the supermarket.

My friends prefer to call them speed markets because the vendors are always running away from the police. However, what is missing only from these speed markets are the trolleys because you can actually do most of your shopping in front of the supermarket. But prices will be chewing your pockets as the pricing will be based on your appearance. If you drive a car, put on spectacles, or look expensive the price will come up to your standard.

I think it’s high time that our city fathers in Harare, if they still exist, engage some clean up campaigns because our city is getting so dirty. Youths have got nothing to do other than drink beer, loiter at the street corners for prostitution and other illegal activities, drugs etc.

The youth should be involved in the clean up activities, which is one area they (city fathers or local government) can reduce the percentage of unemployment and restore order in the cities and small towns around Zimbabwe. Litter is everywhere, and its even worse with this rainy season.

Some years ago, we used to see tractors cutting down grass along the roads. Youths are crying for jobs out there, why not save that diesel you don’t have and employ these youths to cut the grass and keep Harare the Sun Shine City clean!

Why can’t we do what they are doing in Freetown, Sierra Leone where the last Saturday of every month has been declared “Cleaning Saturday” by the government.

Something really needs to be done about our education sector.

When I was young, I used to admire teachers and enjoyed going to school. I remember when I was in grades 5-7, when my class teacher would invite me and my two friends to go to their houses at 12:45pm everyday to prepare lunch for him and the roommates that he shared his place with. No girls were allowed at the male teachers’ houses.

Preparing food took just a couple of minutes as there were plenty of tinned foods, and some packets of rice, spaghetti, etc. They had an admirable life, wore nice suits, and had plenty of food and money. They were equipped and ready to teach.

All this was because they were highly paid.

This was a primary school in the rural areas. Teachers were known to be among the highest paid. They were well dressed and were smart with the spirit of teaching; coming to a classroom holding two sticks of chalk; enjoying teaching and offloading data from their own heads.

Nowadays, it’s the opposite. Teachers are known as beggars. They are vendors inside their classrooms, teaching whilst selling their products like biscuits, sweets, chewing gums, pencils, pens, books, etc. They spend more time selling than teaching, in order to supplement their salaries.

Our teachers groomed us from zero grade to be what we are today, lawyers, presidents, doctors, professors you name it. Now we’re casting them aside like debris, and throwing them out of the picture. More money should be invested in education. Teachers are the drivers of this sector. To revive education, we should start with teachers, awarding them quarterly pay increases and monthly allowances, to motivate them and for our children to benefit from their enthusiasm for teaching.