This morning I went to get my national ID so, eventually, I can register to vote, however this is easier said than done. Outside Market Square there are long lines of people, some had been there since 9 o’clock the night before, sleeping on cardboard boxes outside the office – just to get basic documentation!

The actual process only takes about 5 minutes per person; they take a picture, your fingerprints, and ask you to sign some papers, then you are done! Yet you still have to queue the entire day for those few simple processes. It seems an unfair waste of people’s time and energy.

Possibly the hardest is for people trying to get birth certificates. There are dozens of women with new born babies tied to their backs, standing in these horrendously long queues just to get a simple piece of paper for their babies. It is not so bad for families who can support and help each other, but single mothers really have it hard. Opposite me were two mothers, both with tiny babies, they had a friend with them to help, but to sit in that queue, on the dirty benches for hours on end with a child that young is unfair and insulting to the new mothers. If anyone should get privileges, it should be the mothers with their children, who are already suffering from post maternal stress, and need to rest, rather than stand in the cold for the whole day.

A comment from James, in Harare:

I feel the current exercise to register and inspect names is a project to hoodwink the outside. I also don’t trust ZEC and voters’ rolls that are run by Tobaiwa Mudede’s office becoz he is biased in favour of ZANU PF.

One of the books in my current reading list is The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign Aid Is Not Working by Robert Calderisi. Riveting stuff. Calderisi writes: “ ‘Continued rule for half a generation must turn a man into an autocrat,’ thought Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes and author of The Great Boer War (1901), ‘The old president (Paul Kruger) has said himself that when one gets a good ox to lead the team it is a pity to change him. If a good ox however is left to choose his own direction without guidance, he may draw his wagon into trouble.’ ” Calderisi, a former World Bank senior official who for many years worked in Africa, then adds his own voice: “One wishes that later African presidents could be described so indulgently.”

Dear Harare Westerners

I just got my “marching orders” from the Clerk of Parliament Mr. A. M. Zvoma who reminded me that my time is up as my term of office as Member of the House of Assembly for Harare West constituency will expire at midnight on 29 June 2013 when Parliament shall stand dissolved by operation of Section 63 of the Constitution which states that:

“63 Prorogation or dissolution

(2)Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the President may at any time dissolve Parliament.
(4)Parliament, unless sooner dissolved, shall last for five years, which period shall be deemed to commence on the day the person elected as President enters office in terms of section 28(5) after an election referred to in section 28(3)(a), and shall stand dissolved:”

It’s funny how 5 years fly so fast, it seems like yesterday when I was sworn in on 27 August 2008, to serve you Harare West. It is a privilege and honour that I enjoyed.

A message of appreciation from Hon Jessie Majome’s Facebook page should be a reminder to all those Zimbabwean legislators who have been thinking that it is by their birthright to be in Parliament. Such privileges have been abused by so many to an extent that they think that being a Member of Parliament or Senator is somehow related to chieftainship. Well as noted by Hon Majome after Parliament has been dissolved she will be jobless and it is the people who would bestow that privilege back on her so that she can have another term in office. The reality of being jobless to many MPs is still in the cloud, which is why some are still dreaming of an extension of the inclusive government. Its hard to leave an all expenses, paid hotel life and the unproductive time spent heckling in Parliament at the expense of the electorate and facing the daunting task of convincing these same people to grant you another opportunity to represent them again. The realities of being reduced to be another ordinary member of society will make some develop health complications as fear of rejection builds up.

Well suck it up and understand that what goes up really comes down and give others a chance in the next elections.

I laughed the other day when I read that the Zambian Home Affairs Edgar Lungu who reportedly acts as president when Sata is away said “We don’t care what rest of world thinks of us.”

He is quoted as having said “people saying the PF government is denting the country’s image to the outside world do not understand facts.”

What facts, I mused, recalling President Sata’s performance at the AU summit.

The Zambianwatchdog.com reports that “Mr. Lungu added that government is not bothered by the perception of outsiders as long as it has the support of the Zambian people.” The story attracted 160 reader responses.

One reader commented: “A time is certainly coming, probably very soon when they will care what the world says about them.”

The reader was obviously referring to elections and I couldn’t help but draw parallels with our Zimbabwean circumstances.

That’ll teach them!

Source: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/full-page-ad-for-turkish-democracy-in-action