Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights recently launched a book entitled; “Zimbabwe’s Status of Compliance with Human Rights Instruments” at a ceremony attended my human activists, media, Members of Parliament, members of diplomatic corps and civic organisations.   The book gives an overview of how much and how far Zimbabwe as a nation has come in compliance with human rights instruments both domestic and international. The book was described as useful tool by academics, researchers and civil society organisations. The book is also supposed to help legislators identify gaps in human rights law and help educate citizens of Zimbabwe on human rights.

During the launch prominent lawyer Mrs Beatrice Mtetwa gave examples of some court case scenarios where human rights laws are not well interpreted in the courts of justice in Zimbabwe. She noted with great concern the lack of provisions on children’s rights in our constitution. In her examples she said children are being prejudiced especially in the cases of having access to legal documents like birth certificates and also the law not being clear on inheritance issues when parents get divorced and property sharing issues.  Mrs Mtetwa went on to share experiences of some court case involving women, by giving an example of a scenario where custody of children is given to the mother and guardianship of the children going in the father’s favour thereby denying the mother the rights to be the automatic guardian of the children.

During the launch the Speaker of Parliament and also guest of honor, Hon Lovemore Moyo gave a keynote address by thanking ZLHR for coming up with a publication, which focused on human rights. During his speech he noted that Zimbabwe has not done well in terms of compliance to human rights instruments both internationally and domestically and stressed that the issues of compliance should not be left to government only but should include civil society.

With the objective of obtaining information about the implementation of the Global Peace Agreement and to provide support to civil society organizations in disseminating information on the Inclusive Government to as many Zimbabweans as possible, the Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI) conducted a public opinion survey in Zimbabwe.

The survey, which was conducted in August 2010, had a sample size of 1000 people and it focused on the following issues:

- Performance of the Inclusive Government

- Media

- Inclusive Government’s policies and priorities

- Constitution-making

- Parties’ commitment to the Inclusive Government

- Macro and economic evaluations

- Performance of State Institutions

- Partisan Affiliation

In its efforts to restore the economy, results show that 48% of people interviewed think that the Inclusive Government is doing well in terms of restoring the economy. A lot of people felt that the economy had improved in the past twelve months and one in ten people think the economic condition had deteriorated.

But on free political activity, 35% had a negative view on the government’s performance.

In 2010 COPAC embarked on constitution making consultations around Zimbabwe and a lot of people acknowledge that they heard about COPAC but in terms of giving education to people on the constitution, people felt that COPAC failed dismally as 69% of people say they did not receive education on constitution making process.

From the observations, 51% of the respondents had a negative view about the trust they have in the security forces as protectors of human rights. 32% view the performance of the security forces in a positive light saying that they are executing their duties in a fairly good way.

The much publicized Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act has gained popularity especially among males, recording 32% people saying it’s a good policy.

Though a lot people can receive radio signal, in some parts of the country some people still can’t access a TV signal. With ZBC still exercising its monopoly on the airwaves and the continued bombardment of political messages from ZANU PF the survey showed a lot of bias towards one party in terms of fair play on campaigning material being played on radio.

To measure the response on political affiliation, MPOI asked: If you were to vote for a Parliamentary candidate of choice, which party will that candidate belong to?”  Since this issue is very sensitive most people in the survey were not comfortable to have their views shared in public. 24 % of people responded saying their vote is their secret and 17 percent did not want to comment. In this category MDC T commands 32 % and ZANU PF has 18 % though when asked who has real power it came out that the President still has a lot of power in the GPA

According to each sector touched on by the survey it shows an information gap where people who profess ignorance on issues related to the Inclusive Government also lack the freedom to express their views in public.

I believe the organ on National healing and reconciliation still has a long way to go in making its work known by people since only 11% of people interviewed think the organ is doing a good work as compared to 67% who are not sure.

After a long Christmas and New Year break most schools in Zimbabwe opened on the 11th of January 2011. A hike in school fees was reported in most schools especially private and some government schools. It is that time of the year when you hear stories of school children being turned away for non payment of fees.

When I was in school my former school head used to say this on the first day of classes: “If you did not pay your school fees go back home and tell your parents that we need that money now!!”

It sounded harsh to the ears of the parents, especially mine. But since it’s now an offense to turn away children for not paying school fees most school and college heads have come up with some enhanced community relations skills in order to keep their image clean. This has helped the school heads in terms of public relations. They have toned down the language so that when you hear it you won’t fume like how my parents used to do.

They now tell students to go back home and collect receipts as proof of payment.  It sounds diplomatic and very kind but after you’ve let it sink into your head for a while it’s still the same as hearing that your child has been turned away for not paying fees. When I heard my little cousin telling me that she was told to go back and collect receipts that’s when I realized that it’s now simply a matter of manipulating words to get the message across.

Just imagine if you had not paid school fees for your child where on earth are you going to get the receipts from?

When I was doing research on internet security and how social media has changed people’s lives,  I came across  an  article on Facebook and  some of the mistakes that people make when  creating their profiles.  I found myself to be one of the victims.  This article which was posted on www.itworld.com discussed some of the mistakes people make especially in terms of creating account privacy.

Social networking is fun and its now important in terms of information sharing but if you are not cautious it can be very dangerous. I found this article to be worthy sharing especially to those who wish to be on social networking platforms like  Facebook.

“Facebook is fun — until somebody gets fired, divorced, infected with malware, or worse. Don’t let these things happen to you.”

1.    Using your account strictly for promotional purposes People do this on Twitter all the time (and we secretly hate them for it). But if you only use Facebook to drive people to your site/article/my miserable life, you’ll find yourself being quietly unfriended as well as ignored. Make at least half your posts personal and your peeps will find the promos more palatable.

2.    Getting too personal Did we really need to hear the intimate details of your latest Jagermeister jag or see photos of your recent colonoscopy? We think not. And neither will your prospective employers

3.    Drunken commenting You’ve had a few pops, so you log onto Facebook and begin leaving comments on people’s photos and posts. They seem absolutely hilarious at the time, but in the cold hangover light of morning you just look like an ass

4.    Falling for the “I’m an old friend you haven’t seen in 20 years and I’m stranded in London could you please wire me money” scam

5.    Slagging on your boss, co-workers, friends, or significant others We all got gripes. But in the meatspace they tend to dissipate over time; on Facebook they’re forever, or as close to it as the digital world generally gets. They may fall harmlessly into the digisphere or they may come back to cause you a world of pain — there’s just no way to know.

6.    Being duped by malware. These are typically spread via outrageously titled wall posts like “Claim you share!!, You have won $10 000.

7.    Logging in from a free public WiFi hotspot. (Like the one at public center in Africa Unity Square garden) First, there’s the question whether that “Free Public WiFi” network really is a free hotspot generously provided for your use by some benevolent business establishment, or in reality an “evil twin” honeypot that’s out to capture your information. And even if the hotspot is legit, because Facebook uses an insecure sign on protocol, your user name and password could be stolen by anyone sniffing the WiFi network (or by using Firesheep, a program designed to specifically target log-in cookies for popular social networks).

8.    Friending people because their profile pictures are hot You get inundated with the most banal updates and/or spammy self promotion you can imagine. Worst case: They turn out to be bait for some scammer trying to socially engineer information out of you.

9.    Clicking ads inside Facebook Platform games. Because you really don’t know what information those Facegames are sharing with advertisers, despite what they may claim

10.    Accepting Facebook’s default privacy settings You can make your public profile almost negligible, thanks to Facebook’s enhanced privacy settings. But Facebook wants and needs you to share your data with the world for its ad model to work, so its default settings are still pretty generous with your information. Take my advice: Go as private as you can and let the others take the heat.

Newly elected MDC president Welshman Ncube on Tuesday declared that he is now the principal of the party and will soon be “drinking tea” beside President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in the inclusive government.

Although he said Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara will remain in his position in government, “unless the party chooses otherwise”, Ncube declared that as the leader of his party, he would deal with all issues to do with principals in the Global Political Agreement (GPA).

“Being Deputy Prime Minister does not necessarily mean that one remains a principal,” said Ncube.

“Principals are principals and they are the leaders of the parties. That means that the principals that we now have are (President) Mugabe, (PM) Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube.”

Ncube said as DPM, Mutambara will be carrying out functions related to the government while he (Ncube) would be in charge of party business.

These comments were made by Professor Welshan Ncube in NewsDay, January 11, 2011 but the question some of my fellow Zimbabweans who don’t understand politics just like me have is this:

Do we still need Professor Mutamabara in the Government of National Unity? Can someone please explain to us the role of the principal and that of Deputy Prime Minister since MDC M had Professor Mutambara as their principal in the GNU and after being voted out at the recent MDC congress what role does he still have in government?

Riots which have swept through Tunisia started when a young man set himself on fire after police had confiscated merchandise he was selling on the streets. The young man had a degree from university and he was jobless. He resorted to selling fruits and vegetables on the streets and had his stuff confiscated by police. Through frustration and anger the young man set himself on fire. That same week in December another jobless man electrocuted himself to death. Before he torched himself he shouted “no to misery, no to unemployment.” Unemployment in Tunisia has an official unemployment rate of around 14%, but it is believed to be much higher in some areas.

With Zimbabwe’s unemployment rate reportedly standing at over 90% at present, one wonders what would be the fate of young people in this country. Every year thousands of graduates are churned out from Zimbabwe’s tertiary institutes. Most of them are jobless and some have trekked down to South Africa hoping for the better. Right now we have university graduates who are on the streets selling airtime cards, and some have resorted to becoming commuter omnibus conductors.

After having a chat with one of my friends, who is a college graduate, he said he really missed “the high rate era.” Though he hated the high inflation era, at least the days he spent on Harare’s street corners as a money changer provided some food on the table. But now after dollarisation, he said, “life has become tough.”  Most youths have resorted to drug abuse so that they can forget that they are not working. I know some can deny this but it’s a fact. These youths may look calm but soon their patience will be stretched to the limits and we shouldn’t be surprised when Harare becomes another Tunisia.

Like a virus spreading this wave of youth uprisings will reach our country and door steps. Time will tell.