The South African Reserve bank has issued a new series of banknotes that personify South Africa’s former president Nelson Mandela. The new notes feature the image of former president Nelson Mandela on the front of the notes and, on the reverse side, images of South Africa’s Big Five – rhino, elephant, lion, buffalo and leopard. The denominations of the notes are 10, 20, 50 100 and 200.

Barack and Mitt rivals for the US presidency will never get to stay in the White House together but in Kenya they will live together. A young mother in Kenya has named her newborn twins Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Some have claimed the mum wants to bask in two-minutes of glory. Some speculate that Mitt will be bullied all his life. What are you views on this?

The Zimbabwe Market Fair 2012 held in Harare brought together women and young entrepreneurs from all over Zimbabwe. High quality locally made Zimbabwe products were on display. I managed to interact with these three talented groups of women.

1. The Zubo Trust
Zubo hails from Binga, and does Tonga basketry, which they fuse with contemporary stuff to come up with designs for handbags, cell phone cases, cosmetic bags, fruit baskets etc. Available at the Binga Craft Centre or the Craft Designer on 0713 877 949.

2. Gracious Women Institute
These women brought in a unique kind of art to the fair. The seed craft are from Bulawayo. Grace Kamanga who runs the institute also offers training in the following areas: straw art, vase making and flower arrangement. Contact them on 0772 896 798.

3. Stitch in Time Fashions
Ruth Mlambo, an entrepreneur based in Harare’s Hatcliffe Extension, is into fabric design and colouring using the Batik method. Her designs capture Zimbabwean arts and culture. Contact Ruth on 0775 643 709.

Buy one get one for free! 40 per cent discount on all purchases! Get a free product for every purchase! This is how retailers lure customers especially towards the festive season. The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation is offering such unbelievable promotions to advertisers that you’d think they’ve turned into a shop ready for Christmas. They are giving massive 40% discounts and free radio slots for every TV slot purchased. This is more to do with the pressure of the competition from the launch of two new radio stations in Zimbabwe than anything else. And to try and keep existing customers and lure new ones, ZBC plays its promotional adverts more than it plays adverts by advertisers! Imagine the heat the ZBC would experience if real life independent public media got licensed in Zimbabwe.

Research has shown that the most common password used is the word ‘password’ itself and the numbers 123456. The list also has iloveyou, football, sunshine and jesus. According to the list the top ten passwords are as follows:

1. password
2, 123456
3. 12345678
4. abc123
5. qwerty
6. monkey
7. letmein
8. dragon
9. 111111
10. baseball

The Sunshine Zimbabwe Project is a division of Silver Linings Trust offering vocational training and employment for adults and adolescents with special needs aged 18 years and above. The youths are trained in gardening, cooking, craft work, and ICT’s among other projects. Products, which they make for resale, include jam, craft and bead work, sunshine bags and other accessories made from recycled materials. The pictures shared in this blog are from a recent Open Day held by the Sunshine Zimbabwe Project at their offices in Borrowdale.