Photo credit: New York Times

“I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” – Nelson Mandela

Today the world mourns the death of an anti-apartheid icon and former president of South Africa. A man who tirelessly dedicated his life to the struggle so that the nation of South Africa could be liberated from racial oppression. Nelson ‘Madiba’ Mandela the first black president of South Africa is now at peace. The man who was once considered by the apartheid government to be the number one terrorist in South Africa in the 1950s has left behind a legacy of peace.

Mandela fought for a democratic, non-racial South Africa where both black and white people could live in harmony. After spending 27 years in prison, in part on Robben Island, Mandela served a five-year presidential term and then he retired from politics when the world was still expecting a lot from him.

Many African liberation icons have failed to emulate this feat. Mandela’s death comes at time when the African continent is not at peace as many people have lost lives through civil wars.

Mandela lived a lifetime of struggle which inspired a generation of activists and his has been an inspiration to all who are oppressed.

Source: poetfire

As the countdown to year-end begins lest we forget the bumpy road we traveled throughout the year in 2013.

We are now in December, it’s summer, and the heat is unbearable but political tensions have cooled down. There’s been a lot to write home about but very little to be proud of. The year ends under a dark cloud of poor service delivery. We spend most of the day without electricity while condemned to consume unsafe rations of water from local authorities.

In 2013 we saw the sailing in of a new constitution but questions still remain unanswered on whether to decentralize or to go the devolution path. The year was full of drama especially coming from the August House as some of the elected legislators were caught with their hands in the cookie jar of the Community Development Fund. This didn’t come as a surprise as their intentions were clear from the first day that they took office. And for their efforts spent on heckling and trading insults in Parliament, they were rewarded with hefty ‘sitting allowances’; very expensive cars and some even demanded residential stands as exit packages.

It was a competition to break the world record in flying hours as political parties in the inclusive government globetrotted to drum up support for their different causes at the expense of the ordinary taxpayer.

As the political game turned out to be nasty in 2013 we were subjected to hurling of insults and obscenities. Fellow countrymen and women especially from the Civil Society were accused of unpatriotic behavior and prison became a second home for human rights defenders.

We endured threats of election every day during the life span of the inclusive government and by grace the year 2013 brought an end to these threats. In politics its either you win or lose and the most difficult part is moving on. Up to now the debate on “credible” or “free and fair” rages on but a few still have the energy to engage.

A new government took office but the challenges have remained the same.

The announcement of the national budget was postponed owing to the liquidity crunch and as if that was not enough to kick start a new five-year term in office we got a taste of another Operation Murambatsvina some urban dwellers bracing for government’s clamp down on the so-called illegal structures.

Above, how the New Yorker chose to depict Mandela.

And below, From Africa Is A Country.

Songs for Mandela

This is the South African edition of our selection of Songs for Nelson Mandela. Last night we posted the international edition and many of our readers asked if we’d forgotten about the many South African musicians who’d written music about him. We didn’t. Here is a selection of South African music about Madiba or in tribute to him. It’s a bumper playlist, and in no particular order. Of course, we couldn’t include everything from the vast and varied music inspired by Mandela and the liberation struggle. Enjoy and feel free to post your own favourites in the comments. More

This morning, I attended a seminar at which Zimbabwe’s Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr Samuel Undenge, said that information in the public interest should be available to the public, across every area of government.

This statement in itself is refreshing, given Zimbabwe’s tendency to make even public information inaccessible to people (take the recent examples of polling stations and local government election results). And his comments came at a discussion on ZimAsset, which explicitly lists ICT and e-Governance (including getting the Registrar General’s office online by this month!) as one of its goals.

This afternoon, my experience showed just how far Zimbabwe has to go to honour this pledge, if indeed government is sincere in offering it.

The City of Harare 2014 Budget is currently under review, and the proposed tariffs for 2014 are available for public inspection. The idea is that, since it’s residents who will have to pay the fees, residents should be able to inspect the fees before they are finalized, and also should be able to register any complaints about them. Residents have one month to do this, and this year the complaints submission phase ends at close of business on 11 December 2013. (If you’re a super keen outraged resident type, find more details about how to do this on the tariff document.)

So this afternoon, I went to my district office and asked to see the income and expenditure budget. “You want to see it here?” The receptionist asked me. Yes, I told her, and she handed me a 37 page document. She could not photocopy it for me, and I was not allowed to take it away to make a copy of it and return it. So instead, I took a picture of each page, and pasted these into a PDF document.

This is a ridiculously inefficient way to do things. The City of Harare 2014 Budget is available on their website. Why not make the tariff schedule available there too? And, what about a completely radical suggestion – Make the documents spreadsheet friendly and easily computer readable, so that people can actually analyse the data more easily, not just consume it. The way it stands, you can’t even readily tell if the tariffs they are referring to are monthly, quarterly, annual, or what.

Even more worryingly, the tariff schedule is a tiny fraction of what someone would need to know to assess concerns with the city budget. It lists what will be charged for city services – but not how many people might consume them, or how often. And it tells you nothing about expenditure. Even the budget speech, which is publicly available, is vague on detail particularly when it comes to expenditure.

When I phoned the city council to try and get more information, it was not readily available. I was referred to the health department, if I wanted more detail on the health licensing fees, and I was told to go to Cleveland House in person to ask any questions about advertising charges (the woman at Town House told me their phones don’t work). If I wanted more detail on the actual budget estimates for income and expenditure, I could come to the Chamber Secretary’s office, again in person, in the hopes that maybe they could help me.

In Section 288, the Urban Councils Act requires a city’s Finance Committee to “draw up and present for the approval of the council estimates in such detail as the council may require of the income and expenditure on revenue and capital accounts of the council for the next succeeding financial year.”

The same section also states that “Copies of the estimates approved in terms of subsection (1) shall be available for purchase by any person at such charge as may be fixed by the council: Provided that the charge fixed by the council shall not exceed such amount, if any, as may be prescribed.”

I find it hard to believe that the 2014 Budget Speech, which is available on the City of Harare website, represents the “council estimates in such detail as the council may require.” The document is readable, but it’s not detailed. Someone applying for a bank loan or developing a business plan would provide more detail on where their income would be coming from and how it would be spent.

So why does the City of Harare not treat its residents (read its revenue base) with the same respect?

Imagine if our Cde President and First Lady got funky, like this.