Zimbabwe government continues harassment of NGOs. The new year hasn’t brought a new attitude to the Zimbabwe government about human rights and freedom of expression, if the recent harassment of ZimRights is anything to go by. Read this statement from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR):

Police charge Machisa with publishing falsehoods as government steps up onslaught against NGOs

Zimbabwean police on Monday 14 January 2013 charged Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) Director, Okay Machisa with publishing falsehoods, fraud and forgery as authorities intensify the onslaught against non-governmental organisations.

Machisa will be a guest in the police cells of the coalition government of President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai after detectives at the Law and Order Section at Harare Central Police Station detained him at Rhodesville Police Station following the recording of a warned and cautioned statement from him.

The police charged Machisa with contravening Section 31 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for allegedly publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the State. The ZimRights director was also charged with committing fraud and forgery in contravention of Section 136 and 137 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act. Faith Mamutse, who is employed as a secretary at ZimRights was released after the police interrogated and recorded a statement from her.

Machisa, who is also the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition chairperson handed himself to the police on Monday morning, accompanied by his lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, who is a member of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR). The police also raided and searched the ZimRights head office in Harare, where Mtetwa and Gift Mtisi, another ZLHR member lawyer were present during the search.

Meanwhile, ZimRights programme manager Leo Chamahwinya and three others, who were arrested in a raid on the ZimRights offices last year, remain in police custody, with their bail appeal having been denied last week.

I am standing at the checkout at TM. My groceries waiting for someone else’s groceries to go through the till. And someone in the queue behind us is talking on his cell phone. As they will do. Loud and strong, as if they were in the privacy of their office. But we can all hear! The conversation is about that “den of iniquity”, the CMED, (he used to work there), where he has a ‘deal’ going on to get a part for a vehicle, which is hard to get, but through them he can get it at a ‘good’ price.

He continues that what is good for him is what counts. He used to work there, they used him, he deserves, and they are his contacts. What is more, every body does it anyways. He has got to – to survive. Compete in this world. Feed his family.

Corruption is a system. He knows this. If no one bought the stolen goods, they would not be stolen.

So next time you hit a pot hole (easily done since it has rained every day since Christmas,  and the storm drains have not been cleaned since…, so the water stays on the road), think of this man. It is his fault. He is a major player in the corruption system. Open and honest (enough to tell all of TM!). And it is the corruption system that ensures that CMED cannot service vehicles, which means than no one gets to the site to repair potholes.

In it’s simplest form.

In the larger form – by loudly, brazenly, with all the excuses in the world – he is the disease that is corruption. Perhaps not it’s only face, but as guilty as anyone else involved, and therefore he is the reason, the filth, the evilness, the scum, that keeps the potholes on our roads (and many other evils).

Well as the New Year begins not many people have a clear picture of what the year holds for them and I am one of them. Social and political problems of 2012 continue to haunt our faltering government of national unity (GNU) in 2013 but the big question is, is it gonna be referendum or elections or maybe pay increase for the civil servants?

The issue of a new constitution for Zimbabwe drags into 2013 unresolved and it could be a blessing in disguise for the legislators who are currently faced with end of term in office. Faced with fear of leaving office empty-handed some of the legislators are already demanding what’s due to them before the term expires. With an unimpressive record to show for the time they got elected into office some political parties have blocked conducting primary elections to avoid embarrassing the so-called “top brass”.

Such a move killed my hopes of aspiring to be a politician of some sort. Maybe next time when democracy is not just a bar talk.
 
Election manifestos full of development promises from both parties were washed down the drain as political entrepreneurship took center stage. As people continue to wallow in poverty the only hope they have is in the next ballot which will be held this year. On the New Year’s eve civil servants issued an ultimatum to the government to engage them in salary negotiations. Not much was yielded from last year’s negotiations with the government. Good timing indeed to bargain, maybe this year will be the year for the “servants” as parties in the GNU will be trying to please the electorate. A popular prophet saw gold for Zimbabwe in 2013 but the prediction also had death and turmoil. Whether you believe in prophecy or not let’s just sit back watch as the events of 2013 start to unfold.

Gender activist Betty Makoni describes how women face war in their homes and how she feels about leaving Zimbabwe because of persecution from the State:

The last thing any human rights defender wants to do is to leave her home, work and settle in a foreign country. This was my last option during my time of despair and persecution in 2008; only the man I shared my home with knew as I grabbed my handbag and sped out of the door to run for safety.

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Zanu-PF declared at its recent annual conference that latest technology gadgets and wireless telephone applications embraced globally are the work of detractors out to get Zanu-PF. In resolutions passed at the close of the 13 Zanu-PF annual people’s conference in Gweru at the weekend the party appears petrified by the spread of social media which has hooked the young generation.
– Daily News, Thursday December 13, Pg 5