The ‘war’ between kombi drivers and police officers has been going on for so long and because there is nobody to police the police, the ordinary citizens are suffering. Over the recent years police have been using forceful means to deal with public transport drivers in the country. From smashing of windscreens to Hollywood movie style chases this has been the order of the day. These forceful means have fallen short as citizens are harmed or lose their lives. There are reports of incidents of police smashing windscreens and injuring passengers. I have witnessed such incidents. Just when we thought this was bad enough the kombi operator-police war has yielded the unbearable – death. As kombi drivers try to escape from police officers they do so at full speed and in so doing go against road rules and place the life of other motorists and pedestrians at risk. In the past two months two people lost their lives in such scenarios at the Copacabana rank alone. The most recent was of an old lady who was dragged under a kombi for more than 100 metres leading to her death. The kombi was running away from a police officer.

Death is something never prepared for, but for anyone to die in this manner is more painful than the word painful itself. Even if the driver gets a life sentence or a death penalty the root cause of the problem will not have been addressed. For kombi operators and the police officers it’s now  ‘a mice sees cat game’ at the risk of passengers, pedestrians and other motorists. On one hand, the mice don’t care how they will run away from the cat, as long as they don’t get caught. On the other hand, the cat will use all the powers vested in him to chase the mice. But then again at the centre of all this fight, is a mother on her way to work, a boy on his way to school, an old lady on her way to her rural home crossing the street unaware that a mouse is on the run and that their life might end. For how long will we watch lives being lost at the hands of this cat-mice fight?

A short film written and directed by Zimbabwean Eunice Chiweshe Goldstein – Nhamo – has been nominated for the 2013 Best Short Film at the Africa Movie Academy Awards. Nominees were announced in Malawi at an event graced by the Malawian President, Joyce Banda. The awards founded in 2005 will be held in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. Last year the award for the Best Short Film went to Braids On Bald Head from Nigeria. In 2012 a Zimbabwean, Kudzai Sevenzo was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her role as Nyarai in Playing Warriors.

Anti-rape underwear which delivers a 3,800 kilovolt shock to any would-be attacker has been created by a team of female engineering students. After disabling the assailant, the undergarment has been designed to automatically send a text message to police or family members containing the GPS location of the attempted crime. Read more here.

It hard for me to imagine how my life would be like without the gadget I carry in my pocket, my cellphone. On April 3rd, the mobile phone celebrated its 40th anniversary. That is to say the day the first call was made from a mobile phone by a Motorola employee. Thus transforming the world of communication. One of the first mobile handsets which I remember well and was used by many, is the Nokia 5110. Do you remember your first handset? Mine was a Nokia 3110.

In just less than a week The Herald has reported incidents of mothers losing their newly born babies to strangers. I’m not going to dwell into the emotional feeling of losing a baby, cause I just don’t want to take my mind there. It’s torture, unbearable. The first story which was carried during the Easter holiday was of a woman who lost her one week old baby to two female strangers at Parirenyatwa hospital after she had just been discharged. When I read the comments to the story knives were out for the mother who left her newborn in the hands of strangers whilst she went to look for food for 30 minutes. The two reasons that came to my mind as I read this story were that the baby was stolen for either ritual purposes or for the baby thief to keep as theirs. I ruled out ritual purposes slightly as I remembered an Ndebele drama I watched in my childhood days.

In this drama a woman made her South African based husband believe that she was expecting. When the time for the husband’s visit to the country was nearing, she visited a local clinic where she joined a queue with expecting mothers and some with their babies. She got friendly with one of the mothers who had a newborn and offered to hold the baby while the mother went to ladies, and that was it, she stole the baby. This drama series was not much different from the second case reported by The Herald, where the unsuspecting mother was lured into somehow ‘trusting’ the baby thief. The baby thief was said to have been looking pregnant and was seeking accommodation.

Police dealing with these cases rely heavily on the public to assist and come forward with information. If you see someone saying they have been blessed with a baby and yet you don’t recall seeing them pregnant, that is a cause for concern. Without the assistance of the public, such cases can be hard to deal with.

If dudes are expected to have a lot of sex
But ladies are expected to stay virgins until marriage
But homosexuality is bad
I’m really confused who dudes are supposed to be having all that sex with
-    Salmiakki Vodka

Definition of manhood

What is the definition of manhood?
Is it a six-pack, gelled hair and biceps?
Is it umpteen hours spent in a gym?
Is it rash driving and drunken brawls?
Is it hair peeping out of an unbuttoned shirt?
The definition of manhood is
not the inches in your pants.
But the space between your ears.
How you think is how manly you are.
The true test of you manhood is
how you treat a woman.
All women. Any woman. Every woman.
If you do not respect a woman
you are only half a man
-    The Times of India