While getting food with my other this weekend I spotted some policemen patrolling the Pomona food court area and I commented how much safer I felt seeing the familiar neon green vest over khakis milling about.

“Ah! They’re useless.’ He said. ‘But their presence will scare people into behaving.”

His cynicism was well founded. He had been robbed the previous weekend. His roommate had been asleep, while the thieves pried the front door open. By the looks of the place the next day, it seemed as though they had taken their time. They took every valuable thing they could find including the kettle. I suppose they were humanist robbers, because they were decent enough to leave the radio, and return his roommates passport, which had been in the same bag as a laptop and several hundred dollars. Being an avid fan of CSI Miami, my other hoped a Zimbabwean version of Horatio would show up (sunglasses optional), to dust for prints, check for DNA and solve the crime.  He didn’t. Instead a crack team of barely interested CID officers came. They dusted for prints and filed a report as a formality, and succeeded in scaring him into considering buying a gun.

A few nights after the robbery, the police set up a road block a hundred metres away from my other’s flat. He stopped to jokingly shout at them for being too late to stop the robbery at his place. They laughed, but in the conversation he had with them, they complained about a lack of respect from the public. People did not want to stop at roadblocks.

Telling me about it later he remarked, ‘It’s their own fault; they should stop asking for bribes and just do their jobs. At least the roadblock will scare the robbers from coming back for some time, so we can make the house more secure.’

My purse, along with my Zimbabwean National ID card, driver’s license and some money was stolen on a night out a few months ago. Dutifully, I went to my nearest police station to report it. The officer in charge wrote down the details of what had happened in a big book. He then wrote a reference number on a torn slip of paper. When I went to the Central Vehicle Registry to get a replacement driver’s license, the woman at the window rudely told me that my reference number was not sufficient, and they needed an actual form.  When I went back to the police station to request it, I was informed that they didn’t have it, but whichever officer I was talking to could find it, provided I gave him $5 or $10 for his trouble.  I didn’t want to pay a bribe; I’d stop occasionally to find out if the forms had come. Finally I gave up.

The police have stopped me on several occasions, and when they find nothing wrong with my car, they usually ask for my driver’s license. At some roadblocks, they’ve asked for my ID number then called CVR to verify. At others they’ve taken my details and given me a ticket to be paid later. This morning I encountered one where a police officer demanded I make payment immediately.

He was an arrogant, swaggering sort of policeman, anozvinzwa shuga. Having done a cursory inspection of my car, he asked for my license. I gave him a certified copy of my passport and told him what happened at the CVR. He delivered a condescending monologue on police procedure, and what he understood of the law.

‘That’s great’, I replied,’ but in my case that’s not what happened.’

‘Saka todii?’ he asked.

I told him the law said that I had seven days to present my license or pay a fine at nearest police station and that since I had neither a license nor money on my person he should write me a ticket. He replied that I was lying. I lost my temper and shouted at him. He said that if I wanted to leave I would have to pay $20.

The men in my life, my other included, have always accused me of being volatile, particularly when I’m angry. My brothers always say ‘Zvako zve marights ako zvicha kurovesa’ when they have to get me out of trouble.

When I shoved my purse in the officer’s face to shown him it was empty, he said, Imi amai, regai kuita naro. Kana tichida tino gona kuimpounda mota yenyu. Asi murikuda kusungwa?’ (Look lady stop arguing. We can impound your vehicle if we want to. Are you trying to get arrested?)

I got even angrier and told him that I pay taxes and therefore do not pay bribes, and of course shouted some more:

‘You’re a police officer; your job is to help the public!’

‘Handina basa naizvozvo amai, fonerai munhu auye nemari.’ (I don’t care about any of that; call someone to bring the money for you).

Thankfully, he walked away, and I had enough presence of mind not get out of my car and really lay into him.

Finding that I was not going to pay, and had made myself somewhat comfortable at the roadblock, the police eventually let me go. I think most times people do pay the bribe because they are in a hurry to get where they are going. Not everyone is angry enough to sit in simmering protest at a roadblock. But imagine if we did, and we stopped letting misinformed police officers break the laws they are supposed to uphold.

A different officer finally came to my car and heard me out. He even helped me get the form I needed to take to the CVR. As I drove away he said, ‘Musaore moyo amai, mapurisa ese haana kufanana.’ (Don’t be bitter, not all police officers are the same.)

The Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti, held a press conference this week announcing the dates for public consultative meetings to be held around the country by his ministry. Presentations and comments from these will inform the rationale in formulating the 2012 budget strategy.

He announced that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning would be using a different fiscal position for the 2012 budget. Factors informing his ministry’s decision to implement a different strategy included the 2010 Global economic crisis which was entering a second round this year and the need for a budget which better served the needs of the Zimbabwe people.

During his address the minister stated that only 33% of government expenditure went towards meeting the needs of the Zimbabwean people. The remaining 67% was consumed in providing wages for the civil service, which currently numbers at 235 000 people.

The minister lamented the lack of a common vision for Zimbabwe among politicians in the inclusive government. ‘There is a Kwashiorkor of common vision,’ he said. Other issues he mentioned were the slow pace of reforms, and the slow pace of implementation of resolutions made by even the smallest governmental unit.

The 2012 budget will focus on the following:
Job creation
Macro-economic growth and stability
Maintaining inflation levels and interest rates
A planned special emphasis on the education sector

The ministry will hold public consultative meetings with all relevant stakeholders including specialised bodies and organisations from all sectors of the economy, including retailers, bankers and government and donor entities. The meetings have intentionally been scheduled to begin in Southwest Zimbabwe, a region which, historically, has been neglected by the fiscal authority.

The 2012 Budget Strategy paper will be unveiled in parliament on Tuesday 4 October.

From Pambazuka:

Peter Wuteh Vakunta seems convinced that with his book ‘Defeating dictators: Fighting Tyranny in Africa and Around the World’, George B. N. Ayittey has written ‘a blueprint for oppositional militancy, a veritable modus operandi for undoing dictators in the contemporary world’. He thinks it is a must read for every student of African politics.

All too often, opposition parties that set out to liberate their countries from tyranny wind up selling out, fighting among themselves and sowing seeds of discord. Some opposition leaders are themselves closet dictators, exhibiting the same dictatorial tendencies they so loudly denounce in the dictators they are eager to replace. Ayittey sounds a note of admonition to Africa’s opposition political parties: ‘No single individual or group by itself can effect political change. It takes a united opposition or alliance of democratic forces’.

The prime objective of any bona fide opposition group or groups should be to get rid of the dictatorial regime. Once this task has been accomplished, the opposition can then establish a level political playing field. All other issues such as who the new president should be, what the new flag or national currency should look like are distractions; they are irrelevant and secondary. These issues are divisive and nothing delights a despotic leader more than a divided opposition. The opposition has to be conscious of the fact that the dictator may infiltrate their ranks by planting moles among them with the intention of destroying the opposition. Such moles, Ayittey suggests, ‘need to be tracked down and squashed’. A smart strategy would be to identify the props of the despotic regime and sever them methodically, one at a time.

Last but not least, to defeat a tyrant in an election, a coalition of opposition parties must field only one presidential candidate. Once a coalition of opposition forces has been cobbled together, the second imperative should be to lay down the rules of combat. The first rule is to know the enemy – the type of dictator (civilian or military), how he operates, his strengths and weaknesses. Then, it is incumbent on the oppositional coalition to devise effective counter-strategies and modalities for defeating the despotic leader. Most importantly, the language of the opposition must be devoid of zealotry, incensed ideology, ethnocentrism and elitism.

Read the full article here

While standing in queues at either Fourth Street or by Copacabana I’ve often wondered what combi ranks are like in other countries. I was in Cape Town a few days ago, and had occasion to use the combis there.  I was surprised to find that the combi rank was not in some out of the way place, out of view of tourists and visitors to the city, but rather on the roof of a train station, right next to a busy main road. I was even more surprised to find that rather than the pushing and shoving that makes the Zimbabwean combi experience unpleasant, people stood in short orderly queues waiting for their combi to come. No pushing or shoving or shouting or being pulled by whindis. We still have a lot to learn.

Congratulations to Beatrice Mtetwa has been awarded the Inamori Ethics Prize for her defence of human rights and press freedom. Speaking at the ceremony in Cleveland Ohio, she said:

“I am optimistic that democracy and the rule of law will be restored in Zimbabwe, I abhor injustice and I fight it wherever I see it. I am driven to defend people who are struggling for their basic human rights. … I am optimistic that the rule of law will be restored in Zimbabwe in my lifetime.”

You can read her interview with Kubatana here.