There’s a level of totalitarianism that pinches my nerves that is clearly visible in Zimbabwe. The people are always stuffed under the heavy hand of the despot either in the guise of ‘home grown solutions’ or ‘catching up with international standards’. Whenever the government wants to suck money out of us they do it to catch up with international trends.

Good examples are the introduction of toll gates, increasing toll fees, debates about urban tolls, spot fines, increasing import taxes and levies, new police and ministers’ vehicles, etc. International standards are unceremoniously dumped whenever issues of accountability and good governance are brought up and replaced by ‘home grown remedies’, which in most cases have only looked well crafted on paper but void in implementation.

They work these things like magicians in our eyes; most of the time we fail to connect the two dots in the line in the use of the terms from the start of the con plan to steal money from us to the point where we want the result and details of expenditure. A good but sad example is the toll fees which were forcibly introduced on our roads to catch up with regional and international trends and without fail, every motorist is paying but the amount of potholes on our highways by far do not reflect the tremendous amounts of money that is being collected in toll fees everyday.

Interestingly the government is still working ‘flat out’ to craft ‘home grown solutions’ that will insure that the system is water tight and any corruption be brought to book. Others who have tried to question the accountability of the government and police over toll fees and spot fines have been labeled western puppets whose agenda is to serve their western masters and to push for a regime change in our country. Anyone who asks questions about the diamond revenues (including the former Finance Minister, Biti), Zupco unfair operations, civil service inflated wage bills and unfair distributions of farming, energy, water and security resources etc, has been placed in this neocolonialists puppet bracket.

Amnesty Switzerland’s campaign drawing attention to human rights abuse: it’s not happening here but it is happening now.

More images here

A subscriber sent us this picture of a City of Harare sign they spotted at the open space opposite Coca Cola in Graniteside between Seke Rd and Dieppe Ave. Whilst I’m all for no littering, I’m not sure you can tell people where they can’t pray?

Meanwhile, “litterbugs” may face community service, The Herald tells us. Hopefully this includes preventing the wholesale dumping which is taking over Harare’s open spaces, and ensuring effective waste management and collection practises across Zimbabwe.

Walking the dogs yesterday, I could see in the distance a massive cloud of smoke. It looked like it was coming from the direction of the Pomona dump, and I wondered how big the fire must be, and what it must be like for residents closer to the dump, if the thick smoke was so distinct and heavy on the horizon even from 9 kilometres away.

Bev Reeler’s blog shares the experience of one Harare resident also far away – but clearly downwind from the fire.

And this report from a subscriber tells what it’s like for someone maybe 3 or 4ks away:

8am – Monday 21 October

Just to alert Kubatana that there was a massive toxic burn taking place at the dump on Alpes Road over the weekend. The burn started on Sunday morning and has not relented yet.  The fire was so great that the smoke from it blocked out the sun.  We are over on Bryden Road, and the smoke has reached us.  It causes headaches and dizziness.

Thanks to this subscriber, here are some relevant contacts for the City of Harare to get in touch with about this fire, and also for similar issues in future:

• Mr D Chibanda who is charge of dumping – wmanagement@gmail.com
• City of Harare Waste Management – 04-752637
• Dr Mungofa from Health Services – hcchd@africaonline.co.zw
• Environmental Management Agency – 04-705671-3

October 20th 2013

Today Harare is covered in a choking pall of black toxic smoke
a thick fog seeping through every nook and cranny
the dry heat and hot winds of the last weeks has turned the city dump into a burning inferno

The scanty resources and inadequate management of our city ‘fathers’
unable to halt the fire and it’s the searing fumes

Today we sit sweltering inside (an unheard-of event on a Sunday)
watching thick smoke -  through closed windows (also an unheard-of event)
settling in waves across the vlei – the neighbouring almost invisible
and we are over 7 km from the fire as the bird flies

Today we breathe our own burning waste
the inevitable consequence of the consumerism we comfortably choose
to ignore – once we have placed it in bins and had it taken away

October 21st 2013

the fire still rages this morning
some respite earlier when the wind changed,
but it is back …
burning, choking, eye watering toxic fumes

our little bit of self-made poisonous addition to the fires in New South Wales

“The Youth Development Fund is a revolving facility and as such the youth are expected to pay back the loans so that others can use same,” Zimbabwe’s Minister of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment said on Twitter.

“How and where is this revolving fund being distributed? Is this not a campaign gimmick? Who has benefited?” Tinashe Nyaruwanga asked the Minister.

The Minister replied that the Youth Fund is administered by CABS Stanbic Allied IDBZ and CBZ and will soon publish the total amounts.

Asked how one accesses the Fund, the Minister said “please contact Mr Sigobodhla on 04-707741 with your business proposal.”