The constitution making process is underway and it is up to you and me to make sure it addresses issues that are going to benefit generations to come. So when the COPAC people come your way be sure to express your views without fear and tell it like it is.

To all the women in this country I have a few tips I got from the Deputy Minister of Justice herself. And by the way men can also take part in asking for these things because all of us are part of the solution. She says if women asked for these 12 things to be included in the constitution then we are sure to make a difference in the Zimbabwe.

So listen up and get ideas on how to change things around in this country.

1. We must ask for a constitution that has an equality clause
2. We want equal citizenship to men
3. The constitution should make sure that women have the right to the security of her person. That sexually based violence should not be tolerated. We must have zero tolerance for any type of violence
4. In the new constitution women must not be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or the colour of their skin or anything else for that matter. No discrimination of any sort
5. We must have a constitution that subjugates customary law to human rights
6. Women should have economical, social, cultural and environmental rights
7. The constitution must have a clause that addresses a gender sensitive electoral judiciary system and a quarter of the decision-making bodies
8. Rights of children because children directly affect women and children are directly affected by women
9. There should be a gender and equal opportunities commission
10. Whatever treaties and human rights protocols that we have signed up to should be applied straight into law
11. Public finance provision must include gender budgeting

So there you have it. You know what the elders say “Okulumi ‘ndlebe ngowakho-akuruma nzeve ndewako” (forewarned is forearmed).

I tell you I have tried, tested and proven that what Jesus said is true. He was not telling a lie, he was truly speaking from experience and for the first time I sympathize and empathize with the Lord Jesus Christ. The past week I have been sent out to do a survey on vendors. When I was given locations to do the research I marked Mount Pleasant as one place that was going to be a one-stop shop for me. Mount Pleasant is like home to me although I don’t stay there anymore. Stay with me now and let me explain. I was sent to ask routine questions on vendor experiences and when I saw the questions I felt that my former home location would be the place of a great harvest of information. It is hard to speak to a perfect stranger and start explaining yourself to them. So when I went to Mount Pleasant I was very confident I would get pretty good answers. You see in my mind I was thinking I have bought tomatoes and veggies in this place for well over four years and it wont be so difficult to ask my a.b.c. Questions. Well I was wrong. The minute I said to the ladies at the msika could I please ask these simple questions on how you operate it was as if I had opened a can of worms that was waiting to burst. The ladies started shouting at the top of their voices “… if you don’t pay money we are not saying a word to you, does this thing have money, we don’t do things for mahara here.” As a woman on a mission I tried to reason with them. I asked that if I was to return to work and tell them that there are some ladies who want money how much would they want. Wait a minute – this a classical answer from one of the ladies “… how much do you want to pay us, coz kusina mari ha pana zva tiri ku taura.” My simple reaction to this was to ask again how much they would want to be paid. At that time I felt exactly the way Jesus felt when he went to Nazareth and was asked if he was not the son of the simple carpenter and why he had come with such a project of calling souls to the Kingdom of Heaven and what benefit he was to them. The words he spoke gave me the strength to leave that place and go to a location that appreciated what I was doing just like he went to the next town and performed even greater miracles. I went on and spoke to more people than the few ladies I found in Mount Pleasant. A prophet is appreciated anywhere else but his hometown.

On Saturday I went to Miss Tourism. I went there for two reasons.  One – to watch the pageant live because I have only ever watched it on television. I must say I was impressed with the décor, the lighting and the sound was up to the note. Except for the time sho! The programme started around nine and that did not go too well with me. Fortunately I had a great bunch of people around me so the time sort of moved fast. Two  – I did not pay for the ticket, it was given. Call it bragging or whatever but it helps to know people in high places. If I had not been given the ticket I was probably going to wait at home and hope against hope that ZESA stayed on and our broadcaster shows us the live happenings. So I dolled up and headed for the Harare International Conference Centre. The girls on stage disappointed me with the outrageous answers they gave the judges. You see I had hoped that somehow it was going to be different with me watching live that these girls were going to answer meaningfully. My thought was maybe the television gives us what is not so true but I heard it all with my own ears. One girl was asked what she thinks about domestic violence and I quote “domestic violence should be fought agenest because it causes other people not to have self confidence”. I cringed at that statement. Who does not know what is involved in domestic violence especially in our country. She should have spoken on how it separates families and that it should attract a heavy fine on the perpetuators, and how it is still happening in this day and age and how our mothers are still telling us “that there is no house without smoke so we should deal with it, that’s how men show their love”. Anyway that’s a topic for another day. The lady representing Masvingo was asked if you were asked to give a tour of your hometown where would you take me and why. She said I would take you to Heroes Acre or something that disturbing. I had come to a point of thinking that the statement beauty without brains is getting old and over sung. Clearly I am wrong.

Somebody said to me “clever girl you are paid to teach yourself” and I was too modest at that time to say yes. So today I would like to actually agree because that’s the plain truth. I went out there interviewing artists asking those questions that I had no answers to myself and some that I did. I was really trying to find out what the people in my industry think and what their intentions are concerning the industry I so love. I educated myself all right. I learnt so much that I would otherwise not have learnt in the music industry. The arts industry in Zimbabwe right now does not teach half of what I have learnt at Kubatana. This experience has not only changed me as an artist but as a person as well. I am not the same person I was three months ago I can tell you that much. This person also said “so you are now a double agent” meaning I was now on the other side of the mic not being interviewed, but actually doing the interviewing. Yes I have had the chance to live double lives thanks to Kubatana. As a result of these three months it’s up up and away for me. I have realised there is much in life that can be done and that this is not the end of the road for me but the beginning of a journey. Who could have thought that I would have the guts to write my mind on paper and be content with it being read by anybody, anywhere? One thing that amazes me about these three months is that I have just developed this sponge attitude, to absorb and learn so much from the interviews I did, the office work and the day-to-day happenings around me. I have grown to appreciate the little bit of information I get and wonder how it affects me and what part I need to play to change things or to enhance a situation. By the way this is not a goodbye note but a hello note to a completely different me. So hello everybody!

I am not a comfort zone person so I am not going to sit back and just enjoy or act as if I don’t see anything wrong. Actually I am taking advice from Dewa Mavinga who said Zimbabweans need to stand up and say something. So here I am standing up. I would like the Minister of Transport to view me as an adviser and heavens knows we need a lot of us in this country. Who in this beautiful country advised what’s his name to buy a fleet of cars when the City of Harare lies in ruins? However my advice goes to the Transport Minister, not to the guy who has nice cars. I mean he doesn’t have his sole hope of going back home with a windi in a combi. I have left my 5 Rands, 50 cents or 3 trillion in over three combis in the last few weeks and I have had enough. Things were going well when the windis did not mind us, the people, having just the 17 notes of the 60 notes that make up 3 trillion. But yo after this high rate craze not only do the windis want the full 3 trillion; they don’t even have any form of change. Now my Minister take a listen; unless you have a plan to solve this dollar for two business, I have a solution. Why don’t you and your Ministry introduce a ticket system? Have people buy a week worth of transport tickets then the combi people can collect their money every end of day or month. That way I am just getting in and out of the combi hastle free. I don’t have to follow a perfect stranger so that we can split a dollar which never happens. I end up leaving the whole dollar with the other person because I cannot parade the streets of Harare when I am late for work. What pains me the most is that when you go to the windis asking for reimbursement they have conveniently forgotten you. I will not stand for this daylight robbery, so Minister do something. Hey whatever the pros and cons of this advice, you can deal with them until you have thought of a better idea. I have just suggested something you haven’t thought about.

Who could have thought that the average Jill and James, at the bottom of the pyramid, would be somehow be the hope to a nation’s economic plague? But this is the case, according to the Food for Thought discussion forum that I attended last Tuesday. The presenter said if we start to acknowledge that the poor people are central to building up our economy, Zimbabwe could be well up on its economic feet in no time at all. What we have to do is try to get the vast majority buying goods at a very, very low cost. By so doing one can build a market that caters for people that would still buy bread at ten cents instead of a dollar. And you will make more money than the person selling bread for a dollar. The essence of his presentation was that goods that are normally very expensive are meant to be bought by the few at the top of the pyramid. If those same goods were available to some of us at the bottom, we would feel a sense of belonging, and thus trust and a relationship are built between the retailer and the customer. This in turn becomes the chance for a businessman to make billions at the bottom of the pyramid. However he did talk about the disadvantages of this business move. It means that the common person is often exposed to substandard goods.