An old woman asked me the other day: “What is happening my son? When is the old bugger going?” I almost lost my step, but quickly recovered as it occurred to me that this was one election whole generations had not seen in a long time. But to have an old woman who has since retired from her vending outside the local pub and is looking after a brood of grandchildren asking about the hottest news story at the moment meant “the old bugger” had indeed stepped on the toes (some say hearts) of people who in the past would not have been bothered about the politics of this House of Stones.

Then I remembered the women who had been battered by riot police as they marched across the country taking the regime to task about issues ranging from starving children to sanitary ware to a new constitution. Some of these valiant women had indeed met their death as they marched for a better Zimbabwe, and it got me thinking. This old woman concerned about post-election Zimbabwe, and evidently concerned about her own future and that of her grandchildren, could easily be one of those many women who in the recent past took to the streets to have their voices heard. But by the belligerence we have seen and heard with the pugnacious veterans of the 70s bush war declaring once again they will not allow imperialists to take over the country, the poor old granny could just find herself on the receiving end of booted feet, clenched fists and spiked cudgels.

And for what? For daring to demand their inalienable right to choose the political leaders they want. Does this man ever sleep? If he does, we can only guess what he dreams about. But the granny proffers a clue about what SHE dreams about. She still has hope for a better Zimbabwe.

Ohh! That incorrigible Chronicle! “Charamba warns MDC” – ‘don’t announce results before end of elections.’ And the Charamba fellow is still referred to as “the Secretary of Information and Publicity”! In whose government we dare to ask? Popular sentiment as manifested in the ballot itself shows to all and sundry that Charamba does not speak for anybody but Bob the former president. Many here are dreaming of a Zimbabwe without a straitjacketed civil servant whose loyalties have been fettered by the liberation war motif, and have already said they will not be stopped from celebrating the dawn of new era.

It is that kind of speechifying that only emboldens the people who inevitably imagine their vote for better life and a new beginning is not being taken seriously and take to the streets to reclaim “people power.” Remember the Orange Revolution that shook these types? No wonder some opposition political parties elsewhere in Africa have gone on the vengeance once they assumed power. It is because of these so-called civil servants who make every effort to go against the grain and attempt to defy the will of the people. But alas to no avail. These are the same people who cry wolf when they are arraigned before the law courts and made to account for the wealth they accumulated during the aggrandisement years when they formed government.

Zimbabweans are ready to see the fossilisation of the men and women who took up arms during the war years. And this not because the neo-Zimbos are sell-outs, but simply because they want to get rid of the neo-colonialists who since 1980 have emerged in the form of Charamba and the regime he has attempted loyally serve all this time – until now!

It’s either the guy just has an ear for good music or this is simply his deliberate idea of bringing “protest music” to the public domain. Others however, despite enjoying the music, still think this guy is plain stupid. This is a council owned “beer garden” as these places were called during the Federation years and are still thus called where men and women gather to take in huge quaffs of opaque beer. They do this under beautiful shady trees where a cool breeze defies the harsh African sun and they breathe good clean air and experience nature’s beauty – gratis.

Blaring from the speakers of a public address system with the din reaching more than 5 five neighbourhood streets is music which is likely to earn the man spinning the discs a thorough beating from the thought police. He plays Hugh Masekela where he exhorts by name African despots – including our very own – to cede power and retire peacefully; he plays Mbongeni Ngema’s Freedom Is Coming Tomorrow, from the Sarafina soundtrack; he plays Thomas Mapfumo’s Jojo; he plays that Oliver Mutukudzi classic Bvuma. And I am like, “What the %*$#? This is Sunday where those who voted and those who didn’t are at the pub imagining they are whiling away minutes expecting the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to begin the announcement of Saturday’s polls and here is a guy nailing his colours to the mast giving patrons – and whole neighbourhoods – his thoughts about the current affairs.

Who can blame him? Imbibers enjoy the beer and music despite their circumstances, and for them hope lies in both the music and deep in their hearts that a better Zimbabwe is nigh. If Chinx could sing about whites, if Manyika could sing about whites, if Toilet Tambaoga could sing about Blair, why can’t Zimbos who can’t sing listen to the music of their choice?

“There are two things worth aiming for: good music and a clean conscience” Paul Hindemith, 1895-1963, German composer

Are anarchists born or created by circumstances in which they find themselves? African politics would seem to point to the latter. Self made anarchists you would say! We have in Zimbabwe a whole nation reeling under hardships with everyone including the mighty World Bank saying this is something that has never been seen outside a war zone. Interesting then the fires of a war zone are apparently being stoked as the nation awaits the outcome of March 29 polls, with the people’s party Zanu PF leading at the last count.

Someone asked an important question that has always lingered in the country’s political discourse: do rural folks honestly “adore” Zanu PF? And this was asked in the aftermath of the party of blood (bloody party if you fancy) registering mad votes in rural areas where the likes of Joice Mujuru, Bright Matonga etc claimed ridiculously huge votes. The profits of the Farm Mechanisation Programme perhaps?

But one has to take the pulse in the urban streets since the 29th of March – the people have had it, and if they are not pushed to anarchy and wild orgies of protests then it remains in the domain of the esoteric as one attempts to decipher why Zimbabweans will never rise and claim their right to a better life.

“There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” appears to have been said with African elections in mind – and Zimbabwe is no exception! With each election, there must be beatings, torture, and political rape as Zanu PF activists violently “prove” their loyalty to the party whose leader has in the past declared he was prepared to beat the daylights out of anyone who dared challenge him.

The March 29 elections have been no exception according to human rights activists with heads being bashed solely on the accusation that the victims of that political rage are anti-Zanu PF. But there are signs of defiance in the high density streets as some young – and not so young – opposition activists are literally daring the devil by loudly and proudly wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the image of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

This has been a cardinal sin since 2000 with Zanu PF supporters taking it upon themselves to “reorient” compatriots who had been wooed by the opposition – and beat these people up they did. Remember the Hunzvi-inspired re-education camps where opposition supporters where abducted and had to endure hours of torture just to convince them Zanu PF was the party of the future. Today however, hordes of MDC (Tsvangirai) supporters can be seen wearing the t-shirts that boldly pronounce their allegiance as a sure sign of defiance.

It is a statement that they have had enough and are apparently ready to take the punches from any bellicose political thug. Young men can be seen putting up Tsvangirai posters in broad daylight, while in the past this was done at night when the owls started hooting for fear of being spotted by rats who would then inform the Zanu PF “beatmasters.”

These heavies would then descend on the home of the MDC daredevil, smash the windows of his home, drag him from his bed and dispense a sound beating. “How dare you support a party that wants to return the country to British rule?” they charge without any sign they are just pulling your leg. But then, they pull your genitals, flagellate your back, and make you wish you were never born. Never mind that the attackers also live in a land where they have to contend with abject poverty, bellies full of flatulence (because there is nothing in there you see!) which they incredibly blame on anyone other than the bespectacled Grandmaster himself.

Someone mentioned that the open defiance being seen in the run up to March 29 could be because Zanu PF’s erstwhile violent types in urban areas could be sensing a thrashing at the polls and would have nowhere to hide once the Bespectacled One is given one hard kick in the political butt. So imagine today you beat up a neighbour because he is wearing an MDC t-shirt or chanting a pro-Morgan Tsvangirai slogan, and tomorrow the same Tsvangirai is your president! Interesting Dr. Watson, interesting!

But then, politics is one weird sport where foot soldiers behave as if they are under some hypnotic spell and will engage in all sorts of behaviour that defies logic. So while the politicians battle it out trading barbs, their supporters decide to clobber each other because of t-shirts.

I read with interest the other day about a young man in Epworth who got so pissed off for some reason and vented his anger by pulling down a Mugabe poster. You can already imagine his fate! The cops were – in the fashion of a rapid response team – soon onto him like flies to sh*t. Throwing him behind bars for a month, the court said the unfortunate man’s behaviour could insight violence, thus jailing him for a month was an attempt to maintain political stability ahead of the polls! Great, just great. Imagine if he had decided to burn a t-shirt bearing the face of the bespectacled Grandmaster!

Reports about opposition MDC posters being pulled down across the country by Zanu PF activists remain unpunished, and one has to wonder rather aloud if such behaviour is not likely to insight violence. Shouldn’t these chaps be thrown into the cells to “maintain political stability?” But then this is Zimbabwe where the rule of law exists in different forms for different folks! I ain’t telling which t-shirt I am wearing as I write this, but be assured it is emblazoned with a face screaming for food on the table.

And that is the face of every Zimbabwean.

There is palpable excitement in the streets of Bulawayo after Simba Makoni held his first rally here on March 1. When the former finance minister first announced he was throwing his hat in the political ring, public sentiment was that this man was a Zanu PF plant, a creation of the feared Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). But when the Zanu PF hate-speech machinery went into overdrive, public sentiment appeared to shift with doubting Toms revising their previous positions and opinions about the man who looks set to change Zimbabwe’s post-independence political history.

He has undoubtedly become Mugabe’s closest challenger, and that he has failed to impress Tsvangirai who has also verbally assaulted him with all sorts of epithets after Mugabe said very unflattering things about the man he previously entrusted with the keys to the famous briefcase carried to parliament by ministers of finance to present the national budget.

Bulawayo has traditionally voted MDC since 2000, but ever since the 2005 split, the once powerful political opposition has paled in popularity with disgruntled former supporters feeling the struggle for a better Zimbabwe has been sacrificed at the altar of self-aggrandisement. It is with great interest then to attempt to look through the crystal ball and indulge in some clairvoyance and interrogate and dissect how the voting patterns will be influenced by the coming of Makoni into the presidential race.

Voters here have been apathetic since the drubbing of the MDC in 2000 and 2002, but it is increasingly appearing this is about to change just a few days before the poll. But one also meets lay analysts in the “invisible press” where the public sphere has become a platform where all sorts of theories and philosophies fly fast and furious. I eavesdropped the other day on some chaps at a funeral wake exchanging their insights about the entrance of Makoni into the presidential race and the Bulawayo rally.

The sentiment was this chap is a creation of the aged and senile Robert Mugabe who wants to split the vote by stealing the ballot from Tsvangirai. It is interesting each time the battle for State House is discussed Mutambara is never mentioned, not because he withdrew from the race to make way for Makoni as he claims, but because he has never been recognised as kosher challenger to the presidency by many here. The guys at the wake were convinced Makoni was a CIO plot/creation and for them Tsvangirai remained the only credible challenger to Mugabe.

They said Makoni was a greenhorn in the lonely and mean streets of the old dirty game and was not about to be taken seriously. They questioned why Dumiso Dabengwa who they accept as a “home boy” was with Mugabe a few days before his grand appearance to present Makoni to the people at the March 1 rally. Because these analysts are potential voters for whom like everybody else information is indeed power for them to decide who to vote for, it raises the issue of claims of vote rigging from the opposition, i.e., Makoni, Tsvangirai and the other fellow who everyone seems to be ignoring in the March 2008 discourse. This is because while public sentiment appears to be the mass unpopularity of Mugabe, his claim that he won the crucial poll when everything else points to his first ever electoral humiliation will only be met with curious if not violent reactions.

This therefore begs the issue of not only vote rigging, but importantly votes being split after the so-called democratic forces refused to approach the polls from a united front. But the fact that Makoni has already said he is not aligned to anyone, and Dabengwa having said they are not seeking regime change but leadership change, it means there never was going to be any united challenge to Mugabe as these men have said they are Zanu PF. It would apparently point to the age old frustration among many voters and analysts alike that the opposition will never win the presidency, and if Makoni wins, this will certainly confirm that! After all, they have already said they have not formed a break away party, but rather seek to reform the party after the old guard dug in their heels about making way for fresh blood and therefore steering the country to its former glory as Southern Africa’s second largest economy.

This would then put a man like Tsvangirai in a fix if the reception Makoni has received so far countrywide is anything to go by. Whether Mutambara is a shrewd politician by his many switches and paving the way for Makoni is for history to judge, but then the question among the people has been why he would give way to an avowed Zanu PF “cadre” and take every opportunity to cast one would be a genuine partner in the struggle for Zimbabwe in very bad light?

Therein lies in the confusion that has plagued voters a few weeks before the poll where loyalties have not been decided thus likely to give the ballot to anyone other than Tsvangirai. If men sitting around a fire at a funeral wake can discuss critical issues and cloud them with conspiracies, it would point to opposition politicians having only themselves to blame when the country is further plunged into a voracious vortex once Mugabe wins the ballot by hook or by crook.