From a Kubatana subscriber:

Believe it or not, the challenge of mind-set change is  still a facade and far out cry in the post-independence Zimbabwe! Grotesque levels of corruption, poor health service delivery, hatred, policy shelving, duplicity of politicians, violence, citizens apathy and absence of rule of law continue to spell a bleak future for our country.

An alert from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights:

HIV/AIDS ACTIVIST ARRESTED AT COPAC CONFERENCE

POLICE on Monday 22 October arrested Douglas Muzanenhamo, a Zimbabwean Aids activist for distributing constitutional material at the ongoing Constitution Select Committee (COPAC)’s Second All Stakeholders conference.

The arrest took place after some delegates at the conference asked Muzanenhamo for copies of the Working Peoples Red Amendments to the COPAC Draft Constitution prepared by trade unionists, constitutional reform activists, women’s organisations, students and HIV/AIDS activists in October 2012 under the Working People’s Constitutional Convention.

Muzanenhamo was immediately taken into custody and the police intend to charge him with Inciting Public Violence.

In September 2012, Muzanenhamo filed a landmark case in the Supreme Court challenging the denial of anti-retroviral drugs to suspects in police cells. His case was based on the horrendous treatment he received when he was arrested in February 2011 and charged with treason together with 45 other human rights activists including University of Zimbabwe lecturer and ISO leader Munyaradzi Gwisai, where he was denied his medication.

Tawanda Zhuwarara, a senior lawyer with Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, who is representing Muzanenhamo, is working towards his release and making contingency arrangements to ensure that he is not denied his medication once again as happened in 2011.

Some excellent suggestions from Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA):

1. The government of Zimbabwe should take the responsibility and acknowledge the incapacitation inspired by the underfunding of local authorities and declare the water issue as a national crisis. This will definitely bring on board international partners who will assist the government of Zimbabwe to mobilize funds for water infrastructure, rehabilitation and provision. The government of Zimbabwe released only 18 million for the rehabilitation of water pipes in Harare but the figures coming in from council shows us that the local authority is in need of more than USD 200 million to deal with water alone.

2. Collaboration with residents Associations in forming community water groups responsible for water conservation initiatives and education will go a long way in saving the water we have in its small quantities.

3. Construction and funding of the Kunzvi Dam water project (the Zambezi river water project for Matabeleland) will go a long way in easing pressure on the current water sources we have.

An eight-track poetry album entitled All Protocols Observed was unpacked yesterday by Zimbabwe Poetry for Human Rights at a Food for Thought session hosted by US Embassy Public Affairs section.

Though you can dance to it the tracks on the album address some of the serious challenges affecting our country. From the accumulating dirty debt, to ravaging HIV/AIDS as well as politicians abusing their mandate to represent the people. The messages on the album are straight to the point as no one can dispute the fact that every problem in the country so far has been addressed with an “Operation” or a “Commission” of some sort as highlighted in track 5 of the album “Ma Opareshoni nema Komishoni”. Since Independence a lot commissions and operations have been set up to respond to something or other. From Operation Murambatsvina that demolished people’s houses because they were deemed illegal structures to Operation Zuva Rabuda/Sunrise, which resulted in the slashing of many zeroes on our local currency.

The album can be accessed from Zimbabwe Poetry for Human Rights free of charge and the group is encouraging people to share it so that it reaches a wide audience. Poetry is a powerful tool to provoke thought.

Many artists have been silenced in Zimbabwe for speaking out too loudly about the injustices faced by ordinary people. The work of Zimbabwe Poetry for Human Rights has not been easy as their recent performance in Kadoma was met with resistance when youths from ZANU-PF shut down the event and accused the group of spreading regime change messages.

Toindepi – Where are we headed? is a short sixteen minutes documentary directed by Tenford Chitanana. The film won the Documentary Short Film Award at the Silicon Valley African Film Festival held in California, USA. The documentary focuses on the day to day hardships faced by young people in Zimbabwe after Operation Murambatsvina left them homeless and jobless. The film is a reflection of the shattered dreams of many young people in Zimbabwe who are struggling to make their presence felt in a society where decision-making is done by the elite and powerful. Operation Murambatsvina took place in 2005 leaving many young people wallowing in poverty as their sources of income were destroyed resulting in many resorting to crime and prostitution for survival.

I was watching Hardtalk the other night. Stephen Sackur was interviewing William Ruto one of the presidential candidates in Kenya’s next election. Ruto and one other candidate are both currently facing charges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague regarding alleged fanning of election violence in 2008. The next Kenyan election is March 2013 and many people are anticipating that it will be very violent. Which got me thinking that Mugabe’s decision to call an election in March in Zimbabwe is fairly cunning. Comparisons are odious but the violence that rocked Kenya’s last election made Zimbabwe’s look pretty peaceful. All eyes will be on the Kenyan election which will mean Zanu PF will have a lot of room to exercise their creative interpretation of the polling process.