The Parliament of Zimbabwe is attempting to make changes to the Electoral Act (Chapter 2:13). The Electoral Amendment Bill, 2011, currently before Parliament seeks to make several changes to the existing law with a view to promoting free and fair elections. Dr Alex Magaisa last week presented a lecture on the analysis of the Electoral Amendment Bill. This event was organised by Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN).

Alex, who is a lecturer at the University of Kent in the Law School, broke the Bill into simple and edible modules for all to understand. Often these bills come in many pages, filled with legal terminology that will not be easily understood by the majority of citizens. Among other things, Dr Magaisa emphasised the need to remove deceased or absent voters from the voters roll. A report published earlier this year by SAIRR indicated that persons listed on the voters roll are questionable as some of them their ages go over 109 and many were all born surprisingly on the same day.

Dr Magaisa said that in the Bill there was a provision for a mechanism to allow for the removal of the dead, and those absent from the country. It does so by allowing the relatives of the deceased, or absent voter to require the Registrar’s Office to remove the persons upon proof. He said however that people need incentives to go forth and report.

For example in Mozambique they ran a campaign in which relatives that managed to inform the Electoral authorities of their deceased were given state assisted burials. Dr Magaisa put forward his own suggestion, which he deemed to be more practical in the Zimbabwean context. He said that the Registrar’s Office has records of deceased persons since it is a prerequisite for a burial order to be produced before one is buried.

In his words, “There should be a process of inter office exchange of information, so that upon notification of death to the Registrar General’s Office this information should be passed on to the Commission which will then effect the removal of the person”.

This is one of the many issues that need to be addressed to ensure credible elections in Zimbabwe.

It’s very often you hear people, especially the youth in Zimbabwe, speaking in what seems to be borrowed accents. A scenario that many people might have encountered is in public transport, say in a commuter omnibus, when a girl’s phone rings and she picks up an accent and everyone turns their heads to try and match the face with the accent. Also ladies who call into radio stations tend to speak in a borrowed accent, which the DJ finds it hard to hear what is exactly being said. So they try by all means to keep the conversation short.

A food for thought session facilitated by DefZee, an online youth group, at the U.S. Embassy’s Public Affairs Auditorium discussed the topic, “Faking it- this generation’s new religion”. The panel that shared their views on the issue included local musicians Stunner, Cindy and Ten Diamond. The musicians seemed to have different views but listening closely it seemed like they thought in a similar way.

The musicians were asked to respond to this whole faking it religion and whether they were faking it. Ten Diamond said that people have been faking it for ages and it was not something only to be associated with the youth of today. He admitted that the media has a great role to play in influencing the youth. Therefore in his view Zimbabwean youth are not faking because of the environment they are living in which is dominated by the western media. In his own right as an artist, he sings hip-hop, a music genre from America. However, he contextualises his lyrics to suit the Zimbabwean environment.

Stunner admitted that people are faking it 90%. He said that youths fake for a reason and in so doing some find themselves living different lives at home, on stage, with friends or at church. Personally Stunner maintains that he is not doing any faking because he is not trying to live anyone’s lifestyle but his own. For example in his hit song ‘Team Hombe’, he sings ‘andisi mhene zvangu asi ndiri bho‘ (I am not filthy rich but am cool). He explained that he doesn’t have much money to live the flamboyant lifestyle but with what he has it’s enough for him and he is cool with it.

Cindy, the only female artist on the panel and who had the opportunity to perform at this year’s Big Brother Amplified show, is hurt by those who fake it. To her the youth living in Zimbabwe are not faking as much as those Zimbabweans living in the diaspora. She gave an account of a number of her friends who are Zimbabwean and living in the diaspora but when asked of their nationality they claim to be Malawians or South Africans. She also discussed some of the diaspora which upon returning to Zimbabwe cannot speak Shona or Ndebele. To her, these people fake it by leaving and denying their roots. In her words, ‘faking it is denouncing who you are and embracing who you are not’.  Cindy said she wrote a song, ‘Zimbo swag‘ to celebrate the style, intelligence and resources Zimbabwean youths have.

All the artists on this panel were asked why they use fake names or dress in certain ways on stage. Aren’t they faking it? They responded that they are in the music business to sell and therefore they dress to sell. They give themselves fake names for easy identification, and easy recall on the listener’s part. So the next time you see Rocqui on stage with his torn jeans and shabby hair he’s not faking, he is merely trying sell his music. You can be a salad, murasta, muninja but are you faking it?

This is a story from the newsletter, Legal Monitor of July 25, 2011, published by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights:

A 52-year-old man is in trouble after allegedly telling a ZANU PF workmate that President Robert Mugabe’s death was imminent.

Zebedia Mpofu, a general hand labourer at a private security firm, allegedly mocked his workmate, informing him that a soft drink and packet of biscuits he was having for lunch came courtesy of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. He is being charged under the harsh Section 33 (1) (a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23 as read with Section 33 (2) (a) of the same Act for allegedly undermining the authority or insulting the President.

According to the State outline, Mpofu was at work in October last year when he went to Gilbert Matarutse’s office. Matarutse, a security officer known to be a ZANU PF supporter, was having his lunch at the time.

“The accused shouted to Gilbert through the window, saying that the biscuits and the cascade he was having were brought by MDC-T through its leader Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai,” reads the State outline. “He went further to say that President Mugabe had ruined the country and that he was going to be dead by December 2010 then Morgan Tsvangirai would take over as President of Zimbabwe.”

Statements recorded from other workmates acting as witnesses all deny hearing Mpofu utter the alleged words. Mpofu joins dozens of other Zimbabweans, from politicians to ordinary villagers, who are in court charged under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act on politically-related issues.

This story coincides with a statement issued by ZLHR programmes manager for International Litigation, Lobby and Advocacy Project, Dzimbabwe Chimbga at last week’s Food for Thought session at the US embassy’s Public Affairs Section. In his lecture presentation on democracy, Chimbga highlighted that there was an alarming increase in cases of people being arrested for insulting the President. “One of the most fascinating things at ZLHR is that everyday we are getting a case of a person being charged with the law of insulting the President. If you say anything critical, especially mentioning governance and in particular the current president you are likely to spend a night in jail,” said Chimbga.

United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Dr Charles Ray failed to address a group of youths after Zanu (PF) hooligans besieged the Kwekwe Theatre, the venue of the meeting carrying placards denouncing the envoy. The Midlands Youth Dialogue, organised by a non-governmental organisation, Zimbabwe Organisation for the Youth in Politics (ZOYP), is a platform where youths from across the political divide can engage and deliberate on issues that affect Zimbabwean youths.

It is high Zimbabwean youth desist from violence of any sort that is politically inclined. Many youths are unemployed even the educated ones with degrees, but never has there been a day that they have took this to streets to call for jobs. Rather as youths we tend to divert our efforts to political fights and cause violence on behalf of our political leaders whom we follow. We forget that they have had their share of life and this is our share too and we should enjoy it together in unity and not spoil it by being violent.

It makes no sense in reality to be given beer and some cash to sustain you for a day so you can go and cause violence and yet for the remaining days you go with nothing. We don’t need to be used by those in power If they need to fight let them do so. Rather as youths we should focus more on pressing developmental issues.

As youth we should spend time working on realising our own dreams come to being and be torchbearers of the kind of future we hope to see in Zimbabwe. Being violent for whatever reason does not help us in any way, it leads to loss of life and focus.

Visiting this year’s Processed Products Fair at the Harare show grounds rekindled some experiences I had in my late grandmother’s hut (kitchen). A small hut located in Chivi, warm and filled with love. The last time I was there was when I was still in primary school just before she passed on. The meals were not my favourite at that time. I always wanted to have some rice rather than any of those dried vegetables.

Back then I used to think that eating traditional foods like ‘sadza nemfushwa’ (sadza with dried vegetables) was a sign of poverty and that the food coffers were running dry. Only now do I understand the nutritional richness of these foods I once despised. Traditional meals contain the nutrients that we need whether one is living with the HIV virus or not. Many families in Zimbabwe are operating on shoestring budgets, opting to process their own traditional foods and eating these in the home, helping to cushion strained financial budgets.

The Processed Products Fair organised by a network of nine NGOs comes in handy in this day and age where most of the people of our generation do not know how to cook delicious traditional recipes. At the fair you can see the raw agricultural products, the processed product together with the recipe and, you’re allowed to taste! And if the food tickles your taste buds you can buy the raw products on sale and try cooking for the rest of the family at home.

For an effective and efficient health service delivery to exist in any country, the human resources in the health sector need to be trained, skilled and motivated. In Zimbabwe in our endeavour to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, proper human resource management has to be done in the health sector for us to reduce child mortality, improve maternal health and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC-Zimbabwe), through the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has made a donation of IT equipment and a generator to the Nurses Council of Zimbabwe to help them implement a national human resources information system (HRIS).

Speaking at the official handover ceremony, US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Charles Ray, pointed out the importance of an HRIS, “A strong human resources information system helps health care leaders answer the key policy questions affecting health service, such as workforce planning, training, qualifications, service delivery and retention”. The Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr Henry Madzorera, added that an electronic information system would enable the regulation of nurses in the health sector.

Over the years the brain drain has adversely impacted Zimbabwe, and the health sector is one of the most affected sectors. Zimbabwe has lost professional nurses and doctors in search for greener pastures in neighbouring countries and abroad.

The International Organisation of Migration (IOM) under the programme, Temporary Return of Health Professionals to Zimbabwe, aim to bring back health professionals to Zimbabwe to work in the health sector in their area of specialization or as lecturers at local universities. Such projects are good initiatives as they enable knowledge sharing and address existing gaps within the health sector. However, for such programmes to function to their full potential and realise their set goals and objectives, good information systems are required. Thus the setting up of an HRIS will be a valuable collaboration between the Ministry of Health and civil society.