What inspires your writing?
Day to day life, the ordinary and mundane, flashes of imagination in which lies the possibility to peer behind the veil. People. Cities. Other writers.

Have you always been a writer? How did it all begin?
It’s almost impossible to pinpoint the exact point at which I became a writer. Was it my apprenticeship in my high school newspaper, could it have been a proto manuscript written when I was sixteen, perhaps it was when I first read Dostoevsky in my early 20s and decided to have a go. The true answer probably lies in a constellation that joins all these dots.

Have you found it limiting living abroad but writing about Zimbabwe?
No.

Which local or international novelist do you recommend to read right now?
NoViolet Bulawayo, the author of We Need New Names.

What are you currently working on?
A new manuscript called The Maestro, The Magistrate, & The Mathematician.

Your brief thoughts on Zimbabwe’s contemporary literary scene – alive and well or “alive but dead”?
We have a few good writers I can point to, Bryony Rheam, Petina Gappah, Irene Sabatini, Brian Chikwava. You’ll notice most of the people on this list are female. If you look at Zimbabwean literature today, and thinking of other writers still in the shadows but emerging, Novuyo Tshuma, Barbara Mhangami, Melissa Tandiwe Myambo, etc, it becomes even more evident that male writers such as myself are at the periphery while the female writers occupy centre stage, and this is through pure merit alone.

When you aren’t reading or writing, what are you doing?
Dealing with real life, paying bills, stressing about one thing or the other, worrying the world is coming to an end, you know – the usual stuff.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Being dropped by my publisher, which showed me the weaknesses in my own work, but more importantly helped me to realise that self-belief was important, and ultimately, for all the romantic myths we spin about writing, it is just business.

What is your favourite journey?
Wtf?

Would you call the Hairdresser of Harare political in any way?
It is political in the sense that everyday human life is lived within politically defined parameters. Where you may or may not go, who you may or may not marry, what you may or may not smoke, the things you can or cannot say – all these things are embedded within a political framework. The Hairdresser of Harare is political only in the sense that all literature is political.

Got any personal anecdotes from visits to your barber!
I wear dreadlocks, in case you haven’t noticed. A visit to the barber is quite out of the question! (whoops … interviewer)

What do you miss most about home?
The people.

Sadza, rice and chicken or “fast food”?
You can never go wrong with sadza.

Last Friday a group of us got together to have a drink and speak about our week, and the election. Just for the fun of it we composed a small and unsophisticated questionnaire which people gamely filled out. Here’s our favourite:

Wondering why all people in Matebeleland are not obsessed with Gukurahundi is like saying that there is no understanding an African who does not hate whites for human abuses committed during the colonial era. Duh! People move on and deal with pragmatic matters even if the issues retain historical importance. – Kubatana subscriber

Youth Program Manager: VSO Zimbabwe
Deadline: 16 August 2013

VSO is an International development organisation that contributes towards addressing poverty and disadvantage through the placement of International skilled professional volunteers with national partners.

VSO Zimbabwe is seeking a highly motivated and ambitious development professional who will raise the profile of VSO Zimbabwe and take VSO’s country programme to the next level in terms of youth programming. You will play a leading role in the delivery of VSO Zimbabwe’s youth programming. You will possess experience in a similar programme management role and have a strong track record of successfully and consistently working with youths across the cultural in development programmes.

Key responsibilities
- Lead the design and implementation of the youth programme of the VSO country strategic plan.
- Identify funding opportunities through developing strong working relationships with donors and partners.
- Oversee the development and implementation of the youth programme in Zimbabwe and ensure that annual targets for delivery and quality standards are established and met.
- Conduct monthly and quarterly reviews with key stakeholders and implement learning continually building on the success of the youth programmes.
- Lead in the recruitment and training of the youth programme team to enable their own professional and personal development and maximise their performance team.
- Support VSO Zimbabwe’s youth programme team in the development, management and monitoring of programme budgets (including ensuring value for money) to maximise impact in line with VSO country strategic plan.
- Manage the recruitment, selection and training of national volunteers for the youth programme and support on-going engagement of national youth volunteers.
- Work closely with the programme support team to induct, orient and provide on-going support to volunteers.
- With support of the SMT members, be responsible for the duty of care and safety and security of all volunteers under the youth programme and staff and deal with any emergencies that might arises.
- Develop and establish new networks with key stakeholders (donors/other agencies/volunteers/partners etc) to strengthen programme impact and ensure that volunteer placements are viable, effective and rewarding and maximise volunteer learning.
- Lead the design and delivery of appropriate monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, determine the impact and ensure continuous development and learning takes place.

The essential requirements for this post are
- Experience of designing and evaluating youth programmes
- Strong leadership experience in strategic planning and programme delivery
- Ability to develop clear and realistic plans to deliver agreed objectives within deadlines, involving key stakeholders in the process
- Ability to manage budgets and undertake accounting procedures and good writing skills
- Excellent networking, negotiation and communication skills
- A minimum of a degree in Social Sciences or in a related field
- Technical expertise in the area of youth programming
- Able to travel and work long hours, including work away from the home base, both within the country and occasionally internationally
- Zimbabwean citizen
- Clean, valid driving license

To apply
The successful candidate will be offered local terms and conditions. Interested candidates are invited to submit their application letter, CV and contact details by email to the attention of the Country Director using the following email address: info.Zimbabwe [at] vsoint [dot] org
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted and invited for interviews.

My take is not on who won the 2013 election but rather the speed and efficiency ZEC discharged  its duties and short memories displayed by both AU and SADC. In 2008 announcing figures took ± 6weeks. In 2013 it was more complicated coz constituency figures had to determine senator seats as well as provincial and female representation, in under 4 days comprehensive results are given. I smell a rat! – Kubatana subscriber

A very useful perspective on the importance of voter registration – something that the MDC failed to take seriously:

MT, his leadership and 1 million people (an estimate but more later) are accountable to the nation for the trouncing by Zanu PF.

Prior to 2008, and over the last 5 years, fringe advisers to MT and his team have been telling him that this battle is about registered voters. But this advice was never taken seriously. My estimation (by taking many many small “straw polls”) has been that 30% of MDC supporters are not registered to vote – not for any draconian legislation but just because it is not easy, they are lazy and their leaders are not imploring them to register.

In the last few days I have increased my estimation. I am staggered by how many people are not registered. A 40-year old lawyer who had a beer group on a Friday evening of six mates – he is the only one registered. A father of senior school kids was wringing his hands today saying “now my kids will never get jobs” but he is not registered and therefore did not vote – for his kids! In a small NGO of 20 people 5 are not registered.

MT and his team have been told that voter registration should be on top of the agenda with SADC during the GNU days. That an extended mobile registration exercise should have taken place last year or even the year before (without the emotions of an election in sight) with SADC observing the process. This exercise should have been treated as more important than election day.

The MDC set up “voters clubs” through their ineffective structures and thought this was “job done”. Crazy, crazy, crazy. How is it possible that MT, Biti and others did not take voter registration seriously – they had 5 years to do it?

This did not escape Mugabe and his advisers. They would have seen the discrepancies between the census figures and the ward voters roll and licked their wrinkled lips. They have always had a “fast track” registration system for their supporters (and those people that the local leaders knew they could cower into voting).

Mugabe held a mockery of a voter a registration exercise just before these elections so the Observers could tick that box. But the process was deliberately slow (as we all knew it would be) and deliberately poorly advertised (as we all knew it would be). In any case it was too late to register the massive number that needed to be registered (and they knew this).

So in a nutshell MT has gone headlong into political suicide (and taken the nation with him) with 1 million of his supporters unable to vote. He had 5 years to address this. We will soon find out, when the numbers of this election come out, what a meaningful % this 1 million will be. Meanwhile MDC wring their hands and cry foul. They mislead their followers that Mugabe stole the election reinforcing the “learned helplessness – my vote does not count!”  This is highly irresponsible. He and his top team need to admit their basic, strategic blunder and they must make way for new leadership.

For sure Zanu PF got up to tricks but the voter registration battle had the overwhelming impact.

But Zimbabweans are stunned and talking, erroneously,  about the magic of the Zanu PF’s rigging machinery. Zanu PF did not have to!