Anti-rape underwear which delivers a 3,800 kilovolt shock to any would-be attacker has been created by a team of female engineering students. After disabling the assailant, the undergarment has been designed to automatically send a text message to police or family members containing the GPS location of the attempted crime. Read more here.

It has become a rather cruel irony that Zimbabweans now go hospital not to get medical relief but to meet their Maker.

Saturday 23 March 2013 made this patently clear.

Perhaps these are isolated cases, perhaps they are not, but the fact is that were we as litigious a society as America is, many of these hospitals would have gone bust by now, paying out millions to grieving families.

Two men were buried, one in Harare and one in Bulawayo on March 23. I don’t know if it was cruel coincidence to be hearing two identical stories about two unrelated people from the country’s two major cities. And these narratives emerged from two relatives of the deceased, relatives who themselves remain unaware of the tragedy they share as they are from two different towns in Bulawayo.

The sixty-something year old died in Harare after reportedly spending upwards of USD8,000 in hospital bills, with the relatives only to be told that the doctors had all the time been treating a wrong ailment. Obviously if that happens, you die and we always thought doctors know best.

Same story with the 40-something year old Bulawayo man: the doctors had been treating him for something totally different from what was eating him. The family was told after the poor man’s death that he had cancer of the liver – and you get to know this through the death certificate. Talk about cruelty of the highest order.

Perhaps these things are common in the rather abstract and esoteric field of medicine, but when they happen with some “frequency” it does get you thinking what kind of circumstances we are living in that families merely have to accept this and are expected to get on with their lives just like that.

You cannot sue these bungling buffoons and it reminds me of a man who had a wrong limb amputated in the US, but fortunately for him, lived to sue for millions! Surely there must be a way families can get justice for their deceased loved ones. But then I am yet to hear anyone in Zimbabwe who successfully sued for wrongful death!

Mentioning this name to anyone who is an avid follower of Zimbabwean news what quickly comes to mind is human rights. With an outstanding law practice background spanning almost thirty years Beatrice stood out to be one of the most fearless women Zimbabwe has ever produced. Even her profile on wikipedia portrays a history of activism complemented with multiple awards for her work. Today she finds herself being bundled into a prison van and wearing a green prison garb similar to those worn by female prisoners in Zimbabwe. Some of the women who wore this same uniform are now free after she successfully defended their rights in the courts of law.

Caught up in her line of work while trying to defends the rights of Prime Minister’s staff during a police raid has led her to appear before a local magistrate at a lower court answering charges of obstruction of justice after a High Court order for her release was ignored. Prison time weakens some and makes other come out strong and I believe Beatrice’s incarceration will make her strong.

I used to read about Beatrice Mtetwa in the papers and my first encounter with this fearless woman was when I found myself at the notorious law and order section at Harare Central Police station. It was in the middle of a grueling and nerve breaking moment when she arrived in the company of members of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights team and I could see hope and confidence coming back to the faces of my colleagues, both men and women. Even though she was not assigned to our case she managed to come in to where we were being grilled to check on us. It was a tense situation, which no man would want to be associated with at that time but Beatrice’s presence changed the tense atmosphere.

In Zimbabwe lawyers like Beatrice have managed to defend successfully the rights of the vulnerable and as the accused yesterday she had her rights fought for by fellow human rights defenders. And if you value the work she has been doing show your support by signing a petition to set her free.

It isn’t hard to see who looks happier.

If you’ve got Internet access please sign the Avaaz petition to protest human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa’s detention.

This inspired us:

Nhai iwe ‘Munhu’? Please can someone answer me. You tell me that there are now City of Harare, ministry of local government or ZRP guys who use the Willowvale Road  and they don’t have eyes to see that along that road, opposite ZESA, the drainage system is pathetic. You don’t need foreign currency but only a shovel.  You tell me to vote. For what? For someone to sit in the office and drive a Benz. Come on guys.