When some people say Zimbabwe is a lawless country, buffoons imagine it to mean warlords roaming the streets a la Siad Barre’s Mogadishu. Because white farmers are no longer being killed on farms, oh well, you see we are a law abiding lot. My ass! You only need the very bad example of belligerent and fictitious veterans of the liberation struggle and how they have been left by the law enforcement agents to run riot and threaten the life and limb of poor Tendai Biti.

Surely if anyone besieged any brazenly incompetent Zanu PF minister’s office we all know they would get the baton stick and tear smoke treatment and as many a dare devil activist knows – including lawyers by the way – blissless nights await them at Matapi and Khami. Hey, these scoundrels are threatening the life of an elected government official. It could still be disgruntled small-scale farmers bum-rushing the offices of the unelected Joseph Made rightfully demanding that the GMB pays them seasons-old debts! He would still get protection. You see, thence the law ain’t choosy, only the colours. Talk about a blind ass!

But then I feel silly saying it because everyone knows this. That’s where the lawlessness comes in. If there was respect for the rule of law, the hooliganism of these broke-ass louts would have been dealt with already. The rather eerie thing for me is that it usually takes one moron who has given up on looking for a job but firmly believes Biti is “refusing with our money” to throw a fist, a Molotov, a brick at the FinMin before everybody wakes up to the actions of these lawless and dangerous elements. Only then will Zanu PF start disowning them.

The irony is that each time some whacky outfits come out claiming mayhem in the name of Zanu PF, Secretary for Administration Didymus Mutasa, spokesperson Rugare Gumbo are ever as quick as an MDC supporter escaping Zanu PF midnight marauders that these Chipangano clones are not from the Zanu PF family of law-abiding Zimbabweans. But not when the vets physically accost a government minister! (Not vets as in veterinarians, someone said the behaviour of the veterans borders on the illiterate, so you have to juxtapose that with an illiterate veterinarian before you confuse the two “vets”! ) So what happened to the special protection unit for ministers if there ever was such a thing?

And I can already imagine them frothing in the mouth reading this – and their response to this blog? “We will beat the crap out of this guy.” I am laughing already.

Make a difference at a local level . . . help reduce the growing litter problem in Zimbabwe and make a bit of money at the same time!

Plastix Incorporated is a plastic manufacturing company that does recycling and manufacturing of finished products. They are based at 72 Lytton Road, Workington in Harare. Plastix was formed in 2009.

The advantages of recycling plastic in Zimbabwe
Using waste plastic that is collected in Zimbabwe means do not have to import recycled plastic from South Africa as raw material. So it means we have stopped the dumping of yet another product. Basically when you are importing recycled plastic from South Africa, you are importing another nation’s trash. But you have done nothing about your own trash.

Getting practical
A lot of things can be done. We have so many things that need attention in our communities. So per street as women what can you do? You have so many plastic things in the home – put them in one bag. Then every week, or at the end of every month, the hundred houses in your street put the bags on the corner. We come and pick the bags up and we pay money to that street. Are you not then able to patch potholes properly?

Tell us more
There is a home for this plastic! That home is Plastix, where we buy used plastic and recycle that plastic to make bin liners. Let’s take schools as one example. We have heard complaints like ‘We don’t have books, children are sharing books’. If mothers start talking to their children at home, telling the children that if they put every little empty packet of maputi in a recycle bin rather than just throw it on the ground then they will be fundraising for their school. Each child by the end of the year, if you give it a time frame for a year, that school would have raised funds to buy books for the children. Or they can fix those windowpanes that they were waiting for the government to do. Who is the government? The government is us! We have not thought about who is the government. We are the government. Mary is the government. Mary is the City Council. Why are we complaining? We need to change our frame of mind.

Action: Contact Mary at Plastix and work with her to recycle waste plastic products.
Email: sales [at] plastixinc [dot] net
Cell: (+263) 0772 399 453 / 0773 226 611 / 0712 667 888

Alternatively, take your waste plastic to the Zimbabwe Sunshine Project, 6 Borrowdale Lane, so that they can earn money from your rubbish to support their vocational training programmes for disabled young adults.

Can you imagine the jostling within the traffic section of Zimbabwe’s police force to get roadblock duty? Cash on tap, with cash on tap.

Zimbabwe’s police commissioner Augustine Chihuri is being urged to publicly declare how much money is being collected by police officers at the many roadblocks across the country. The Coalition Against Corruption (CAC) last week handed over a letter and petition to the police’s general headquarters in Harare, in an effort to promote transparency and accountability in the police force. More

Shoko Festival 2012 is live and kicking and Radio Active is audio blogging direct from the festival.

Get there now through 23 September.

And check out what Freedom of Expression means to ordinary Zimbabweans at the Festival here: http://soundcloud.com/tswarelo-mothobe

Only in Zimbabwe … how much shit from this incompetent government will we continue to tolerate?

Bulawayo City Council has come up with a system that will see all residents flushing their toilets simultaneously to prevent sewer blockages caused by the water-shedding programme.

“The public is advised that there is a need to schedule a flush exercise of the reticulation system in all areas that do not use septic tanks,” council spokesperson Nesisa Mpofu said yesterday.

“This is due to the recent water shedding programme by council, which has seen a reduced amount of water entering the sewerage system.

“All residents of Bulawayo are invited and expected to participate in this exercise.

“Every household is requested to flush their toilets systematically at 7.30pm the very day after the 72hours of water shedding.

“This is done to prevent any sewer blockages as we anticipate longer periods without water in the reticulation system.

“Please note that this is in addition to the normal flushing that will occur during the day.”

She appealed to residents to conserve water in order to minimise the impact of the shedding exercise.

Industrial and the central business district are exempt from the water-shedding programme.

Bulawayo is facing severe water shortages after two main supply dams were decommissioned.

So, Minister Kasukuwere just woke up and realised that there are 144 colonial-era laws that “stifle the easy empowerment of our people.” Easy empowerment of course being the catch. He says he will be taking up the matter with Cabinet to have these laws amended or repealed. How noble. Of course this is the same chap whose same political party has used the very same colonial-era laws to suppress political activism and dance and stomp on civil liberties. But obviously the irony is lost as these crusaders have made political careers out of brazen double standards. This is yet another reason why sober-minded and progressive Zimbabweans must dispense with the Kasukuweres in the coming polls. Why? Because the same colonial era laws he is choosing not to complain about  are being used to deny you the right to support the political party of your choice. Nothing worse than tolerating a hypocrite doubling as a cretin!

But then, Zanu PF has insulted people’s intelligence for so long the party thinks it can get away with anything.