Last year there was uproar about the Zimbabwe Ministry of Education’s new policy of allowing expecting teenagers parental leave from school. This year the National Aids Council has proposed the introduction of condoms into schools as a way of fighting HIV/AIDS. This has also been met by a public outcry. Even organisations purporting to represent the best interests of young people are in denial about teenagers having sex.

Newsday quotes Programmes director for Justice for Children Trust, Caleb Mutandwa as saying: “I think for us as an organisation, seconding the placement of condoms in schools will be difficult to support. Most children in schools are young and the majority of those at secondary school are still below age, below the age of 16. What will they need them for?”

Youth Forum senior programmes officer Terrence Chimhavi also agreed, citing a lack of curricula designed to teach adolescents about contraceptives. He added, “Instead they should be taught about the disadvantages of engaging in sexual activities and be taught about how to abstain.”

The reasons why adolescents engage in sex are numerous and complex, but surely the most terrifying is economic. Intergenerational sex, where young girls have sex with older men for money, is a well-documented phenomenon. Several reports have concluded that consensual or forced sexual relations between vulnerable girls and older men – is driving much of the AIDS epidemic in southern Africa because many of the men are HIV-infected. According to UNAIDS, four out of five new infections in Zimbabwe in the 15-24 year old age group in 2005 were among girls. More specifically at risk of infection within the group are adolescents, as evidenced by the MOHCW (2000) study in which girls in the 15-19 years age group had an infection rate about five times that of males in the same age group.

It is no longer enough to say that good girls or boys don’t have sex before marriage.  Our traditional systems are collapsing, the high number of illegal abortions and the disturbing media reports of children who have been sexually assaulted by relatives should be adequate evidence of this. If we are to raise an HIV-free generation we have to look at the problem objectively, without being pious or self righteous. Our children need a sex-education curriculum that is unprejudiced and presents them with all their options, not just abstinence. They need greater access to reproductive services without being stigmatised by healthcare workers. Policy makers and non-governmental workers need to address the economic reasons young girls are having sex, and to stop living in denial. It is irresponsible to prescribe solutions that they personally do not practise.

In 1976 thousands of black school children in (Soweto) South Africa took to the streets to protest against inferior education and they demanded their right to be taught in their own language. This was a protest against an oppressive regime. Since its initiation by the Organization of African Unity, June 16 of every year is a day a day set aside to honour those who were killed and for the courage shown by the students who took part in the protests. This years commemorations are being held under the theme, “All Together for Urgent Action in Favour of – Street Children”

It’s almost thirty-five years down memory lane after the tragic events in South Africa and the African child still struggles to access basic education. The economic down turn being experienced in most African countries has resulted in more parents failing to send their children to school. Access to education is no longer a necessity but a luxury to those who can afford it. With unemployment rates at above 90% the Government of Zimbabwe introduced BEAM – the Basic Education Assistance Module to cater for children (especially orphans) from disadvantaged backgrounds at primary and secondary level but more funding is still needed to ensure that all the children at primary school can have access to free education.

The withdrawal of education grants has left students at higher institutes of learning in   a dire position. Students now live a pathetic life on campus and very few can afford two meals per day. When students try to have their voices heard most of them end up being threatened with expulsion or incarceration. Student bodies in African countries continue to be persecuted each and every time they try to show signs of discontent with government policies.

So for how long will the African child continue to cry before s/he can be heard?

From Pambazuka:

Whatever anyone’s feelings, one can only say that Zanu PF has changed Zimbabwe. And whatever anyone feels about land redistribution, it has changed Zimbabwe’s economy. In some far reaching, and unexpected ways.

They have destroyed cheap labour.

While trying to avoid any value judgement on this subject (i.e. is it good or bad?), can I just point out how, and what might need to be done to survive. While I know most ‘cheap labour’ cannot read any of this (it is not mass available), the ‘common people’ are whom I am addressing. The working class. Those people who make a living (or try to) by selling their physical power, their labour, their energy, their daily effort.

The message is, get skilled, or get more skills. The days of cheap labour, the days of a need for unskilled human energy, are over. Labour is no longer going to be cheap, and industry, society, the economy, can no longer afford it.

The only reason labour can be sold cheaply, is because food is cheap. And that is no longer the case. Since large scale commercial farming (itself built on cheap labour) is dead, food is no longer cheap. We can see a majority of food is imported, therefore, most food will now cost the same as it costs in Germany, China, Peru, Australia, the UK, North America, etc. and it is expensive there. Last time I was in Perth, West Australia (for my father’s 70th), chicken cost 8 times what it cost in Harare. And West Australia is a cheap food exporter. Most other food around the world is the same cost. In much the same way, my electricity bill is less than half of my friends summer (he lives in Scotland) bill there.

So, the days when you can feed yourself by being a maid or gardener, or factory floor sweeper, messenger, gate guard, or any ‘unskilled’ labour, are over. And the ability to pay schools fees, feed a whole family, get transport, ZESA, water…. is over.

The amount of jobs for maids, or messengers, will be the same here as they are in the UK, i.e. there are none. Only a small niche, of very wealthy people, can afford maids, or house keepers overseas. And then, they are called ‘butlers’, or some such rarefied term. A messenger boy in Australia (my father in Perth) provides his own car. They are skilled. They provide their own tools. They work all hours. They run themselves as a business.

Not simply, ‘been mowing a lawn for 16 years, so need a raise’. Labour will have to be sold for a very specific purpose. And it will have to compete with many other labourers, who are physically as strong, and therefore able to do the same job. What do you have that makes you stand out? That makes you a better employment prospect than the next person? Mowing the lawn, as an occupation, will be taken over by gardening services. And if you cannot mow 13 lawns in a day, you will lose to someone who can. Gardeners, and all that sort of work, will no longer be paid, just to be there.

You cannot expect to sell something, “because I need the money”. You will have to sell something that is valuable, that people need and want, that is better than what the next guy is selling. There is no surplus cash out there in the market for people to afford to be generous. And ‘assist’ because of YOUR condition. Their condition, and what they had to do to get the money, will make the money more valuable. So you have to offer something valuable to get it. You must be able to mow the lawn, sweep the floor, guard the gate, better than the next person.

As the cost of living goes up (because cheap food has been destroyed), the wage a cheap labourer needs to survive must go up. And in order to get a higher wage, more work, more output, more value, has to be seen by the employer. Because she is suffering the same constraints. Her income is not increasing! So employers will employ less labour, and there will be more competition for those, fewer, ‘cheap labour’ jobs out there.

So, my conclusion, my message, is get skilled or starve. Thanks to Zanu PF, this is what they have liberated us to.

And get involved in your governance. It is your life they are playing with.

Corruption is easier to define than bribery. Or, there are lot more definitions out there. Transparency International defines it “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain”.

Fairly simple. Someone has a position – which has ‘power’ to it – whether it is the check out clerk’s power to ring up your purchases, or make you stand and wait and wait and wait, or it is the passport officer, who “hasn’t got the right paper to make you a passport”, so you can choose between never travelling, or giving over some other paper.

Someone abuses that position – you must make a facilitation payment, or take them to dinner, or buy them a beer.

Bribery may be that facilitation payment (money), or anything else (gifts, information, kissing up, favours sexual or otherwise, a lift, a banana, whatever), given to someone (individual or group). Whatever is given, so long as it is not ‘official’ – so it varies with whoever gives it, it does not get receipted, and/or it is not openly asked for as part of the fee. In this respect, a tip to a waiter or barman is a bribe.

Be that as it may, it is one part of this blog investigation. Bribery may or may not be illegal. It may or may not be standard procedure. It may or may not be expected. One of the things we are curious to find is the who, what, where, when, why, of bribery. This blog investigation is not intended to be judgmental. It is simply intended to get the information out there, so people, be they visitors or local people, know how to act? How much to tip/bribe? When to do it? What is vulgar and not vulgar? When is it expected, and when is it insulting?

From Wikipedia:
Bribery, a form of corruption, is an act implying money or gift given that alters the behaviour of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black’s Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or other person in charge of a public legal duty.

Or;
The bribe is the gift bestowed to influence the recipient’s conduct. It may be any money, good, right in action, property, preferment, privilege, emolument, object of value, advantage, or merely a promise or undertaking to induce or influence the action, vote, or influence of a person in an official or public capacity.

So, it has aspects. Something is given. All agree. That something may be quite a number of things.

Behaviour is changed (influenced). Or intended to. All agree. You want the barman to notice you and get you a beer. You want the passport officer to give you travel documents. You want the attendant to fill your bike up with petrol. You want to get your property deeds in your name. You want people to vote for you. You need your ‘free’ anti-retrovirals.

Bribery is a crime. Not all agree. But this is fine. We are not going to look at that. We just want to know what happens. How it happens. Why it happens. We want the information out there for all to see. We want examples.

For example, I was run down by a woman who drove through a red light many years ago. My bicycle went under the car, and I smashed her windscreen. With my face. I spent five days in a coma. My mother came form Australia to ‘look after’ her brain damaged son in Zimbabwe.

One activity involved going to the police for report filling, fines, bureaucracy, paper work and those exciting activities (i.e. who was responsible to pay for the brain scan, which seems to have found something). While waiting in the Police officers office, we listened to him lament (it was 1200) about his lunch that was ordered, and how would he pick it up, would we be finished so he could get it before it got cold, etc.? All good questions.

When the husband of the (obviously guilty) driver appeared, it did not go missing on him. He offered to ‘sort out’ the officer’s meal. Things went well for him then. The charge was not ‘driving with undue care’ which carried an obligatory 3 day jail sentence! They paid for treatment, dental work and a new bicycle, but no jail time.

From the examples, we want to know where the bribery happens the most. In medicine (hospitals, doctors and nurses, drugs), with the traffic police, Ministry of housing, Registrar general and travel documents, customs, local government, drivers licences, Emergency taxis and public transport, the courts, prisons, criminal police investigations, political offences, the diamond industry, or where?

We want to know “how much?” Tipping, as it is common, and most see it as legal, is easy. Ten to fifteen percent of the bill. But, how much do you ‘tip’ a ‘street kid’ (anyone of any age or sex, that inhabits the street) who offers to assist you in cheating the city of it’s parking fees? How much do you pay to ‘avoid’ a speeding ticket, after you have, in fact, been driving above the speed limit? What is the ‘fine’ with and without receipt, for not having break down triangles? How much do you pay to expedite a hospital bed? If the bed is supposed to be free, what is 10 to 15 percent?

How much is your vote worth? People offered to vote for me if I would buy them a beer. Now this is quite insulting, considering that many people (over 15 000, but the actual number is definitely unknown) died so that the ‘seller’ had the right to vote. And he was willing to sell it for a beer (maybe $1.00). And how was I to know (voting is secret) whether he voted for me anyway?

Perhaps that is why I lost the last election?

Here’s an excellent editorial from Wilf Mbanga at The Zimbabwean. Do you really think its worth voting for the MDC in the next election? I don’t.

Playground for torturers

We heard with shocked disbelief how MPs from the two formations of the MDC were brow-beaten into supporting the borrowing of money from the Chinese to pay for a Zanu (PF) project.

Like Heroes Acre, the Mazowe Spy Centre, is not a national institution. It is a Zanu (PF) project. No-one from the two MDCs, or any of their supporters, will benefit from it in any way.

Students at the centre will be taught to spy on and torture MDC supporters.

We believe that the ratification of the Chinese loan to pay for a Zanu (PF) training camp, while mortgaging our national resources from Chiadzwa for many years to come, was a terrible blunder by the Members of Parliament in whom the people of Zimbabwe had reposed their confidence.

The excuse given by the MDC that they “had to vote in support of the loan because we are now in government” is simply absurd. The nation expects our MPs to think for themselves and not behave like sheep.

Our MPs should have revolted on this issue. Zimbabwe does not need such an expensive spy centre at a time when there are other pressing priorities. The revenue from Chiadzwa should be used to develop our country and pay the civil servants who are grossly underpaid.

Zimbabwe cannot even service its existing debt – which is a millstone around the necks of future generations. And now they sign up for even more debt, to build a luxurious playground for the torturers of MDC supporters!

We are disappointed that the MPs of both MDCs have failed to rise to the occasion, not only in this case, but also in using their numerical superiority over the past two years to push progressive legislation through Parliament.

It is ridiculous that the legislature should continue to be sent into recess or recalled at the whim of the minority party – Zanu (PF). Our MPs have even allowed Zanu (PF) to set the agenda.

The same goes for the constitution-writing process. It appears Zanu (PF) has the upper hand. What we have seen and heard from COPAC does not inspire confidence or give us any reason for optimism.