The awarding of broadcasting radio licences to Zimpapers and Supa Mandiwanzira’s AB Communications’ Zi Radio is another step in limiting media space to private broadcasting companies.

In today’s Daily News it is reported that:

“The two radio stations are owned by companies with links to Zanu PF.

Zimpapers has for long been accused by civil society and the two MDC parties of being biased towards Zanu PF and for promoting hate speech through its various newspaper titles.

On the other hand AB Communications owner, Mandiwanzira is a known Zanu PF member. He was recently introduced at a Zanu PF rally in Nyanga North as a potential parliamentary candidate for the party in forthcoming elections.”

The African National Congress under the leadership of President Zuma today stamped its authority by suspending the ANC Youth League executive.

Julius Malema the most controversial African National Congress Youth League leader has been suspended from the party for five years for provoking divisions within the ruling party and bringing the organisation into disrepute.

Malema popularly know for his reckless statements especially with the one he made in the media advocating for regime change in Botswana had his other executive members also receiving suspensions. Julius and his team recently led marches in Johannesburg, South Africa under the disguise of economic freedom for the poor yet he is living a lavish lifestyle. Just after leading the economic freedom marches Malema flew to Mauritius to attend a friend’s wedding leaving his supporters wondering whether the marches were for a real cause or just a way of diverting attention from hearings which were on going during that time.

Malema’s political career has been marred with allegations of corruption involving the awarding of tenders worth millions of rands.

The suspension of the ANC Youth League executive should be an example to other political parties in the region on how to discipline unruly party members.

Article 21 section 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Right states that; ” The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.”  This is of one of the international instruments used as the basis for the conduct of free and fair elections in a country. The major challenge with many countries is on how to guarantee the conduct of free and fair elections and to ensure equal suffrage.

The Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI) and The Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) foundation co-hosted a conference in Harare under the theme ” Pathway to Popular Legitimacy”. The purpose of the conference was to engage and promote reflective dialogue amongst Zimbabweans. The conference touched on various issues covering content of road map to free and fair elections and its challenges and opportunities and legislative reforms and imperatives of security sector reform.

In his presentation Mr Dieudonne N Tshiyoyo the Programme Manager of Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA) highlighted that under the three phases of an electoral process, which are Pre-Election, Voting and Post-Election, the constitution of the country should guarantee a free and fair election. Freedom of movement, speech and assembly are some of the characteristics of free and fair elections. An Electoral Act and system that grants no special privileges to any political party or social group should to be put in place to ensure and guarantee the contact of a transparent free and fair election.

In the Zimbabwean context the Zimbabwe Election Support Network notes that the Global Peace Agreement signed by the three political parties in the country provided an opportunity for legislative reforms on laws like the Electoral Act, AIPPA and POSA thereby presenting an opportunity for the conduct of fair and free elections in the country. The role of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission came under the spotlight especially on the ballot stuffing issue.

Some of the issues raised emanated from the challenges, which were faced by voters in the previous elections conducted in the country. The voter’s roll and the presence of police officers to assist voters in the polling stations during elections came under the spotlight and the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) highlighted that some of these issues are a result of the provisions of the law. Under some of the best practices being followed in other countries an independent electoral body is given the mandate to maintain the voters roll. Currently in Zimbabwe the Registrar General is in charge of the voters roll, registration of births and deaths and according to a survey conducted by ZESN, the voters roll was reported to be in shambles with some deceased people still appearing on the voters roll. This has prompted some civic organisations to lobby for an independent body like ZEC to be in charge of the voter’s roll.

The crowding out of private media from the limited media space and repressive media laws has also reduced the role the media in the conduct of free and fair elections. The current Zimbabwean situation has seen the media being used as an instrument to promote hate speech, individual interests within parties and criminalisation of some sections of society. Some of the remedies discussed include that the constitution should guarantee media freedom and access to information, the establishment of an independent broadcasting authority and harmonised media regulation through self regulatory mechanisms.

Recently Zimbabwe has been experiencing a wave of high temperatures and many people have been questioning if the change in temperatures is an effect of global warming. The month of October saw temperatures soaring and has been recorded as the hottest month in a period of fifty years. This situation is not only being experienced in Zimbabwe only but also in neighbouring countries. Other parts of the world are even experiencing severe catastrophes like floods and drought – luckily here its just the heat.  What really caught my attention about this subject recently when I was reading an article in the Herald is the fact that the Meteorological Services Department director acknowledged the change in temperatures but played it down to just a passing phase with nothing to do with global warming. I am not a weather expect but the weatherman’s forecast leaves a lot of questions to be asked especially on the part that the high temperatures are extraordinary.  We are in summer and traditionally most areas in this country should have recorded their first rains but still the weather service department has not been giving satisfactory forecasts.  Maybe our weather department needs to put those little planes back in the skies and do cloud seeding. Its also a matter of looking at both sides because our Met office needs to move along with new advancements in technologies when they do their work.

The change in rainy season patterns and cold winters experienced this year clearly show that something is really happening to the weather. Though small in effect as compared to the gases produced from the first world countries this country has experienced its fair share of deforestation due to the unavailability of electricity from ZESA.

Those who are experiencing the real global warming also started by calling it a passing phase just like what our own weathermen are calling it. If global warming is affecting other countries what makes our official from Meteorological Services Department think that Zimbabwe is not going to be affected?

For some time people in various cities in Zimbabwe have faces the realities of poor service delivery and mismanagement by local authorities and some of these challenges have gone unreported due to lack of reporting channels. Most people used to prefer the traditional media channels like radio, TV and newspapers to report poor service delivery cases. But these methods have got their own challenges like poor coverage resulting in few cases being reported.  For example its not every time we report a burst pipe in our neighborhood and the problem is automatically covered in the press and we get immediate attention of the council to come and repair it.

Recently I went to buy lunch at a local restaurant and I came across this funny flier. At first I thought it was one of those being distributed by companies advertising their products in town.  So as I read through I got so much interested with the “For Free” part. It’s very rare in Zimbabwe to hear something being offered for free. So I read the whole leaflet and unlike the rest of the fliers I have been given in town this one I didn’t throw into the rubbish bin because I wanted to check the website address on the flier.

So I logged on to www.pupurafakazazim.com.

These are two Shona and Ndebele words joined together to read Pupura and Fakaza. This is an organisation created to provide a platform for us citizens of Zimbabwe to report our social service delivery problems in our cities. For one to send a report you just sent a text message typing your problem and location to a number on the flier. And this text message is for free.  The organisation compiles the text messages and forwards them to the relevant authorities.  If you want to check the reports you just log on to the organisation’s website address and select the category you want to view. Since the website uses a programme powered by USHAHIDI there is a provision to see a map of the area from which the problem was reported. This kind of a service lets make our local authorities accountable by reporting and informing about our concerns in the areas we live. Hopefully this service will spread to other towns so that it doesn’t only serve residents of Harare.

Zimbabwe, Africa and the rest of the World’s marginalised population are set to benefit from a great initiative launched by the United Nations which is meant to connect poor citizens to the Internet by 2015.

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