The Kubatana team went for what we call a “cold one” (beer) on Friday night to support Comrade Fatso’s Get Up, Stand Up concert . . . here again we share his views and hear his frustration as we wait, and wait.

The only run off we want is for Mugabe to run off. Is this an election or an erection because everything seems to be standing still? These are the words on Harare’s lips and in its text messages. Our joy is agony. So close but yet so far. We are tired. We can’t take this anymore. Everyone I talk to wants the old man to go. If he doesn’t they will. Some say they will take to the streets. Others will leave the country. Everyone has a plan in Zimbabwe. Most of us plan to be here. But many will leave if Bob doesn’t.

Elections have become hello and goodbye. They have become our speech. ‘Results’ and ‘delay’ take on a new meaning. ‘Zviri sei’ which normally means ‘How are things’ has come to mean ‘What is the latest in the elections’. But the response is always the same. ‘Zvaka dhakwa’. ‘Things are drunk’. Drunk with emptiness in our kachasu society. Drunk with more of the same if we don’t win freedom this time. If there is a run off many more than those in the first round will run to vote out Mugabe. If Mugabe stays in power through rigging and violence many Zimbabweans will just run off.

We held our Get Up! Stand Up! Concert at the Book Cafe. It was a concert for a free people. With music and poetry MAGAMBA!, our cultural activist network, hopes to inspire and incite people to believe in their dreams and to struggle for them at this history-making moment. The crowd danced and toyi toyi’d. We sung freedom. We created a window into the freedom we fight for. My band, Chabvondoka, played music that is food for us during these question-marked times. We will need much food in the next few days and weeks. Food for the soul and for the body as we walk this potholed street called freedom. This street-light dark street that we walk down one step at a time, seeing only a metre ahead of us. But we walk still.

This is Comrade Fatso’s Daily Blog during the Zimbabwe Election period.
See www.comradefatso.vox.com

For Daily Election Blogs by other MAGAMBA! poets and activists see
www.myspace.com/magamba

We are grateful to Zimbabwean poet John Eppel for sharing his poem Waiting with us. As politicians play their games of power, Zimbabwean artists pick up their pens.

I count the falling frangipani leaves.
Early April, the nights are growing cold;
the scent of wood smoke sours as neighbours burn
their household rubbish; every now and then
a discarded aerosol can explodes
triggering memories of another time,
another place, another war.

So quickly do they change from fluid green
to yellowish, to desiccated brown;
and yet, the drop, the clatter, ages takes;
takes ages: either way. In terminal
cymes some flowers remain, as white as wax,
mingling the bitter sweets of paradise
with odours of anxiety.

Like sharpening blades on steel the plovers cry
as homeless people wander near their nests
waiting for news, waiting for results. Who
will it be? These falling leaves remind me
that the day has come and gone for ballots
to be counted, results announced, and I’m
afraid that change will never come.

I’m reminded of a saying that goes something like . . . politics loves a vacuum; if you don’t fill it with hope, it will be filled with fear. And this is exactly what’s happening in Zimbabwe.

The MDC’s early election victory claim has fizzled out and we’re left with witnessing a strengthening Mugabe response to the recent election. The MDC failed to capitalise on their momentum, and now it appears that its they that are on the back foot, not Mugabe.

Mugabe controls public media in Zimbabwe – both television and radio, as well as the daily newspaper. This is what people watch, listen to and read. And whilst we’re all entirely cynical of the state’s propaganda, our spirits wane as we watch Zanu PF re-grouping and using this delay in the announcement of election results to their advantage.

Of course this delay does nothing to enhance the esteem of Zanu PF in the eyes of anyone watching, nor does it give anybody any faith in the veracity of the election process, but then again Mugabe has never been one to care what anyone thinks about him or his actions.

In the light of this I’m still wondering HOW the MDC intends on communicating their side of the story to Zimbabweans who don’t get to watch or listen to international news broadcasts.

I’m wondering what the MDC is going to actually do to insist on their election victory being acknowledged as legitimate by Mugabe.

Perhaps it’s happened very occasionally but in general, a dictator doesn’t relinquish power through a democratic election. Now more than ever the MDC has to link its electoral success with people power.

There can be many forms of this.

For starters lets see the MDC’s victorious Members of Parliament and Senators gather together in a peaceful protest demanding the immediate announcement of the presidential election results. Lets see this peaceful protest strengthened by the participation of members of the legal community to draw attention to the subversion of the electoral process by Zanu PF.

Lets see Morgan Tsvangirai lead this protest.

Well, it may be a new Zimbabwe, but the cash queues are still with us. I’ve just come from CABS, where even the Gold Class queue was stretching out the door and onto the street. A large silver Pajero pulled up to the kerb, and out lept a young man who opened the car door for Zanu PF National Chairman John Nkomo. People in the queue looked at one another, looked at him, and slowly let him move to the front. It doesn’t matter who governs Zimbabwe next. Whoever it is will treat us exactly as we allow ourselves to be treated. We won’t see anything improve until we start to demand more. Creating the Zimbabwe we want is going to take a lot of hard work, as we learn to break a lot of bad habits – and start holding ourselves and one another accountable to a new standard of behaviour.

In addition to inviting email contributions, we also asked our many SMS subscribers what a new Zimbabwe looks like to them. Read some of their ideas below, and text your dreams for a new Zimbabwe to +263912452201

• I desire everything to be in order – no corruption
• Want stable currency and return to real money – not bearer cheques
• First essential is freedom of expression and assembly so we can tell government what the people want and don’t want.
• To quickly remove POSA and AIPPA.
• Freedom of expression & association. Observation of human rights. Impartial judiciary, economic emancipation etc
• Transparency, health and education delivery, a new constitution, non-partisan police and army, accountable leadership and good economy
• We need fuel to be available in service stations, to access forex in the banks, free primary education, affordable health delivery system and cheap food for all
• Mainly I am concerned with return of the environment of happiness we used to have
• New Zimbabwe – new constitution by the people for the people.
• A new people driven constitution
• Good international relations then total globalization
• Well in free Zim fist we want e rule of law and availability of basic commodities inputs & jobs
• I wld want a new constitution that doesn’t give 2 much political power to an individual. There should be guaranteed freedoms 4 citizens.
• Changes(1)Re-currency(coins&notes)(2)Stop paying war vets(3)Reduce gvt ministries(4) promote industrial &agric investment
• Reduced tax
• Racial integration – equal opportunities 4 blacks and whites etc eg cricket team, sustainable labour laws, respect 4 property rights, free market, free media, just want more!
• We should never again leave power in the hands of one man.
• In a new zim we want freedom to exercise our rights end police brutality stop corruption ban all the fake police (neighbourhood police)
• Want affordable tertiary education and respect of the rights of students and all citizens. Accommodation of youth in decision making
• We want a small but efficient civil service real money foreign investment revival of industry revamp education health transport communication
• Truth and reconciliation commission. . . Clean the mess and corruption in councils and parastatals and c.i.o. . .
• They must be an independent electoral commission with a balanced composition of members headed by the united nations for fair decisions
• Fill up shops with goods. We don’t want black markets. Open up closed industries.
• We want a new constitution for the people by the people
• Free the airwaves, scrap aippa, posa & indigensation bill, give back tertiary students financial assistance
• In the new free Zim govt policies should be worker friendly iregardless of sectors. reduce income tax and stabilise economy and mend international relations.
• health and Education ministries given lion s share of e National Budget. Not Defence we a nt at war
• Want real change of everything, cabinet, parliament and state house. Morgan Tsvangirai deserves the seat People are tired of ZPF.
• Respect for rule of law and a justiciable bill of rights
• In a free Zim l want the new gvt to consider the welfare of civil servants & stable economy
• We want the new govt to free the airwaves.
• Pres M Tsvangirai and MDC should be left alone to form a cabinet & govt no links to corrupt zanu pf officials
• We need proper education for our children. Also to have money not bearer cheques with these shit useless billions. We want to use coins and proper notes.
• Mugabe and the crew should respect the will of the people enough is enough unless if they declare one party state then the electorate will know. We want those results to be announced we are part of sadc we should abide by the rules that govern that body period.
• Rule of law, job creation, health, removal of POSA and AIPPA, reasonable number of people in Parliament
• No political beatings, many newspapers, tv stations, cheap goods, electricity, clean water, hospitals and jobs

Life often confronts us with so many challenges that sometimes the things we want to achieve seem so elusive. A week before the moment that I believed would define the future of Zimbabwe, my heart was torn apart. A part of me was excited and hopeful that the time had come for citizens to decide on the future of Zimbabwe and this would be done accordingly. Another part of me, for fear of disappointment and in an attempt to prepare myself for whatever outcome of the elections, was not keen in being hopeful at all.

A couple of days now, Zimbabwe still awaits the announcement of the results of the presidential election. With all the anxiety that has been created by the slow announcement of results, I for one am not sure what to expect. There is so much speculation about the results. Some in anticipation of a new government are even talking of ‘The New Independence’ referring to the period after the March 29 2008 polls.

With the way our economy has gone down, I keep on asking myself, ‘who am I to hope and dream of a better Zimbabwe?’ In trying to think about our future as Zimbabweans, so many questions remain unanswered. At the end of the day I feel some things need intervention of a high power than ourselves. All I can say to brace myself for the results and the next five years of economic recovery of further melt down is, in God we trust.