The sight of vandalized street bins is now common in the streets of Harare. Blame might be placed on City workers for not efficiently emptying these on a regular basis. But then again the vandalized bins can be blamed on citizens who are just in a bad ‘habit’ of destroying property. The picture of a burnt bin is the most baffling and one wonders what was going through the mind of the person who burnt litter or threw a burning substance in the bin? What is also surprising is someone who throws litter in an already full bin. Many times people complain about the incompetence of our government but then again who are they to lay blame if the ordinary people in the streets are not able to take care of little properties such as bins entrusted to them for the betterment of the environment they live in.

If you’d like to get civic and human rights updates + information on internships, awards, conferences and NGO job vacancies, subscribe to our weekly e:zine. Email: join [at] kubatana [dot] net

Media intern: Local NGO
Deadline: 23 August 2013 (4:30pm)

A local Media NGO would like to call for applications for attachment/internship. The eligible candidates should be studying towards a qualification in Journalism and Media and any other related and relevant programme. To apply email your CV’s to: mediaintern.jurno [at] gmail [dot] com

Finance Intern: CRS Zimbabwe
Deadline: 27 August 2013

CRS Zimbabwe engages Interns as a corporate social responsibility to provide students with on the job practical training. The duration of the attachment varies depending on need and the tertiary calendar of the institutions but is usually for a year. CRS Zimbabwe intends to engage 1(one) intern for the period 1 September 2013 to 31 August 2014.

Duties and learning areas
-Process payments and receivables in liaison with the Payables and Receivables
-Accountants, including compiling the checklists and transfer instructions
-Ensure that all payables transactions comply with CRS policies and procedures, CRS MAP of authorities, local statutory regulations and Acts (withholding taxes), donor policies and regulations, and contractual obligations (terms and conditions of contracts)
-Apply donor policies and regulations, CRS policies and procedures, GAAP, internal control processes and systems for transactions being processed
-Ensure vouchers have adequate supporting documents, approvals and arithmetic accuracy
-Provide the gate keeping function for all documents and ensure that all requests are correctly approved as per the CP’s Map of Authorities, have adequate supporting documentation, are correctly coded and charged to existing and correct T0/ T2 combinations
-Compiling bank reconciliations on a monthly basis
-Canceling and filing all processed vouchers in line with CRS’s filing procedures
-Project accounting in liaison with the Project Accountant
-Any other duties as assigned by the Finance Manager or designate

Minimum Hiring Standards
-Students in Universities, colleges or professional institutions studying towards an Accounting qualification i.e. Bachelor of Accounting Degree, CIS, CIMA, ACCA, BBS, HND
-Motivation to work under pressure and during odd hours

To apply
The deadline for submission of applications to the Country Representative is Tuesday 27 August 2013. Full application plus letter from the institution, addressed to the Country Representative should be forwarded to: 95 Park Lane, Harare or P.O. Box CY 1111, Causeway, Harare or 33A Duncan Road, Suburbs Bulawayo or email: taurai.musakaruka [at] crs [dot] org

Just been reading posts about Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma apparently lamenting that Parliament will not be able to house all the 270 MPs – in the event that all of them attend!

This once again brings us back to what has always been said since independence that Zimbabwe cannot afford a huge government, and not only afford, but its population just does not require as many MPs, as many cabinet ministers, as many idiots masquerading as informed public servants when we all know that entry to parly has always been nothing but a road to never-before-imagined riches.

And now Zvoma is publicly admitting that the country has too many MPs.

Yet we know from past experience that many MPs ignored sittings anyway, which means space will always be there!

It would be laughable were the circumstances different.

NGOs and political parties complained when the delimitation exercise created more constituencies, and as usual, the criticism was that the created constituencies were designed to give Zanu PF unfair advantage as these had been created in imaginary Zanu PF strongholds.

Now that they have been elected, they realise they cannot all fit into the once august house.

Of course we are aghast!

During the last parliament, MPs spent more time whining about their allowances, demanding all sorts of absurd perks bent on fleecing an already wafer-thin fiscus, now with the new crop (or crap depending on which side you butter your bread) of MPs belonging to an outfit that has not hidden its insatiable hunger for the filthy lucre, it is not remiss to say the country can expect more of that hemorrhaging of its parlous resources in the name of national duty.

I am disgusted by the inconsiderate and divisive decisions that are being made to write off bills with ZESA and City of Harare. This is a very inhumane way of luring people to the dangerous trap of laziness and destroys good citizenship. Besides the economic dangers of forcing such a brainless policy in our local councils, here I will speak of the logical reasoning that is devoid of our authorities in writing off bills for residence.

The job of the government is to uplift the people and creating laziness and unfair treatment of its citizens is not part of it. My mother is unemployed but one thing that I know about her is that everyone in the house will only eat a decent meal after she has paid all her dues to the service providers. And this is how she is supposed to be acknowledged for her effort to stay within the confines of this country’s laws? So what is the government going to do with all these law abiding citizens that have been making sure that their bills have been paid in time? Are they trying to insinuate a point that these service providing institutions should not be respected and the new way of dealing with them is absconding bill payments because some political parties can take care of the bills? Are the good citizens going to feel as part of this system when the bad ones start bragging about how rewarding it is to be a free rider in this country?

Personally I take this initiative of scrapping off bills as an anti-people strategy which is only aimed at creating division and anger among people. Those remaining uncorrupted citizens are now quickly turned into the fast laned life of doing nothing but at the same time expecting much. I cannot stand to take in the fact that my parent has worked so hard to contribute to the well being of our societies and only to be belittled like this.

Government policies should be justifiable on a moral and fair basis and by any measure in the sight of a reasonable mind, writing off bills is just a way of rewarding criminals and persecuting good citizenship.