People queuing for water, and carts carrying firewood, are now an everyday sight in the town of Chitungwiza. Chitungwiza gets the bulk of its water supply from the City of Harare but with the recent erratic water supply experienced by the capital city, a negative and severe impact can now be felt by the residents of Chitungwiza. Clean water, which is a basic necessity for everyone, is now a luxury for some residents. People have had to resort to digging shallow wells after going for weeks, if not months, without running water.  Residents now fear that the cholera pandemic, which caused havoc in 2008, is set to come back if the city fathers of Chitungwiza take their time getting their act together to resolve their differences with the City of Harare. To ease the burden a bit, UNICEF in conjunction with some NGOs, managed to drill a few boreholes in the town but since the demand for water has risen sharply, only a few can access clean water from the water-points.

To make matters worse, the pathetic electricity supply from Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority has created a scenario, which leaves one wondering if Chitungwiza is a town or rural area. Residents now resort to using firewood. Others, who can afford it, use gas or paraffin. Customer satisfaction from ZESA is now a thing of the past as residents only get electricity supply during the night or for less than 8 hours per day. No explanation or apologies for the inconvenience caused is given and the only thank you residents get is disconnection for non-payment and tariff hikes. During the Zim dollar era Chitungwiza Town Council and ZESA used to hide behind the forex shortage to cover up for their service delivery shortcomings. However now that forex is in abundance, clear signs of incompetence and poor administration are evident.

I commute to work everyday and everyday I hear this statement “Rovera bhora mberi driver” coming from the commuter omnibus crew. After hearing this statement you have to prepare yourself for a Formula 1 kind of driving along Zimbabwe’s narrow pothole infested roads. 20 people who have lost their lives in another accident along Harare-Bulawayo road.  I read this sad story in the Herald and one of the passengers in the Chawasarira bus narrated how it all started and I quote,

“From Mbare, the bus was speeding and they were racing with the Lofombo bus. Conductor nemaloader vanga vachingoti rovera bhora mberi driver, vachimhanyisana. (The conductor and the loaders were urging the driver to speed.) As he was overtaking, I heard a sound of something bursting and the next thing I saw was blood in the bus,” she said.

It seems like some people are driven by the passion of making money at any cost. The reason why these two bus drivers in this story were over speeding is “targets”. Bus owners set a target of the amount money their workers are supposed to bring to the company at the end of each day. So in order to meet the target, bus drivers tend to over speed and reach the target and make extra money for themselves. Even at a time when the bus develops a mechanical fault you find out that there was little attention paid for servicing the bus leading to passengers putting their lives at risk. I remember at one time Mhunga Bus Company lost its operator’s license after a series of accidents but it didn’t take long for the same company to come back on the roads.

Although bad roads can contribute to these road accidents the main cause is still over speeding and negligence. Lately the small commuter omnibuses “kombis” have been given a new name “Go Faster” meaning it can take you to your destination in a short time. Of late this name has been translated to “Go Faster to Heaven” because of the rate at which these buses are killing people. As Zimbabweans should we continue to be silent and listen to the conductor edging his driver to go full throttle when we know we do something?  Should we allow bus operators to continue making profits at the expense of our lives? Isn’t it time we tell bus conductor that our lives cannot be compared to a soccer ball just waiting to be tossed around?

The first edition of Tedx was launched in Harare under the name Tedx Harare. This independently organised event was packed with interesting speakers, music performances and Tedtalk videos. The idea of TED started 25 years ago in USA to create spaces for idea sharing and discussions. And finally it has now reached Zimbabwe.

The speakers included some of Zimbabwe’s researchers, entrepreneurs and artists and they all lived up to expectations with inspirational and stimulating performances and presentations. The presentations created an environment where everything was just free from any political and religious agenda. Zimbabwe is awash with so much talent that it begs the question how and where we are getting it wrong as a country. Among the most inspirational presentations was the one done by researcher and academic Oswald Jumira. Oswald explored and shared ideas on how we can make technology work for the next generation and us. He talked on how technology creates challenges, which can be turned into opportunities and make our country move forward and compete in the global village. In the presentation he emphasized the need for government, companies and individuals to invest in technology since it strengthens the future of the next generation.

In one of the Tedtalk videos, Chimamanda Adichie explores the Danger of a Single Story. This Tedtalk got me thinking especially on the way news is reported in Zimbabwe by different newspapers and organisations in mainstream media. A good example of the danger of a single story is how election campaigning in Zimbabwe has caused a lot of stereotyping among citizens. One lesson to learn from this presentation is not to make early judgements on a particular situation or story and not to work on assumptions. This was a wonderful way of educating people about the single story perspective.

Live music performances during the breaks from Tina Watyoka added more life to the event. The other presenters who left the audiences with questions and inspirational answers included Max Soutter and Sarah Norman.

The next edition Tedx Harare is expected to be bigger with more speakers coming to share their ideas and innovative skills with the people of Zimbabwe.

The ongoing battle for the control and ownership of church assets between the two factions of the Anglican church in Zimbabwe continue with the faction belonging to Bishop Nobert  Kunonga claiming total control of church assets after a High Court ruling. The battles, which led to the arrest of church members belonging to Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa (ACPCA) faction led by Rt Revd Chad Nicholas Gandiyah began when Bishop Nobert Kunonga was sacked by the Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa (ACPCA) in 2008.

The recent court ruling gave custodianship of Anglican Church properties to excommunicated bishop Dr Nobert Kunonga, a move that will result in many Anglican parishioners continuing to worship in the open. Despite the fact that the excommunicated Bishop formed a rival church he still occupies many Anglican churches in the country while enjoying the backing of the police. A recent crackdown by Bishop Kunonga has resulted in churchgoers getting injured, arrested and priests getting evicted from their homes in Harare.

After getting tired of praying with one eye open and always on the run from the police, members of ACPCA in Chitungwiza have decided to put their funds together and have purchased a stand from the council. Only time will tell whether Bishop Kunonga will pay an unwelcome visit to this new site and kick these brave worshippers out of their tent.

Much noise has been made about Pastor Makandiwa’s latest innovative idea of getting linked to his followers. Pastor Emmanuel Makandiwa founder of United Families International (UFI) ministries popularly known as the “The Man of God” by his followers recently launched an airtime recharge card called Christian Spiritual Link. With this recharge card one can communicate directly to the prophet by calling him to get over-the-phone prophecies and spiritual messages. The airtime card can be found in denominations of $3 and $6. Having the gift of delivering people from the bondage of Satan, Pastor Emmanuel Makandiwa now commands a huge following to the extent that he can fill the 60 000 seater National Sports Stadium for a single service. With such a huge following almost everyone would be willing to have personal contact with the Pastor. Thumbs up to the genius minds behind the idea.

While this is an innovative business venture it also comes with its own irregularities. With its special functions accessing any cellphone network in the country the Spiritual Link recharge card has drawn attention from the Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) leading to an investigation over the legality of this recharge card. On the back of the card, the leading three cellphone service companies can offer recharge platform numbers arousing speculation that maybe this was a partnership deal with these companies. POTRAZ’s investigations to establish whether there was contravention of the Telecommunications Act comes at a time when some papers have suggested that Pastor Makandiwa has fled the country. Its now up to the authorities to determine whether there was any breach of the law but I believe the Spiritual Link is really going to propel Pastor Makandiwa to the prosperity that he preaches in his sermons.

After being chosen to represent Zimbabwe on Big Brother Africa Wendall Parson did not enjoy a fair share of media publicity like his fellow housemate Vimbai Mutinhiri. Barely 2 months ago The Sunday Mail published an article entitled “Who is Wendall?” Instead of supporting our Zimbabwean representative the paper went on to publish a racially charged article questioning Wendall’s citizenship.

Despite the racist reporting, the people of Zimbabwe went on to prove that our country is made up of people of different backgrounds. Since Wendall is white the Sunday Mail reporter just assumed he is foreign only to be proved wrong with positive response and support Wendall got from fellow Zimbabweans. The smear campaign and bad journalism actually propelled Wendall Parson to victory much to the surprise of the reporter. We have so many Zimbabweans who are flying our flag high representing the country in various activities regardless of race, colour or creed.