Couldn’t agree more with Ashton Bumhira who sent us this story and photograph:

The problem of litter can be addressed through the provision of accessible bins to communities and education is an important tool in raising a sense of community ownership and responsibility. But people have to desist from vandalizing the infrastructure for litter management.

People who are aware of the dangers of litter often make more of an effort to always put their trash in the correct place. Every Zimbabwean has to spread the word to those they see littering, and teach them to dispose of garbage the right way. It is very important for the City authorities to quickly remove litter as this helps to keep it from growing into an unmanageable dump site.

It is a myth that litter control is not important. I strongly believe that litter control may not be the most dramatic, or exciting of the many problems that threaten the quality of our environment, but it is a problem which affects everyone in the community. Litter destroys the beauty of a community. People come from all over the world to see the beauty of our countryside, towns and cities. When litter mars their enjoyment, Zimbabwe loses valuable tourist dollars.

“Litterbugs” can be found among people of every age, sex, race and ethnic origin, at every level of society and in all geographic locations. The control and eradication of littering calls for the broader participation of people from diverse backgrounds – captains of industries, churches, schools and the community at large. Recently at the officially launch of the Bin It Zimbabwe Program Minister Nhema said that the problem of litter has led to the outbreak of various waste and water-borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid and dysentery. Litter is a breeding ground for fire and disease and it is a breeding ground for rats and disease-causing bacteria. Litter needs to be controlled, and it requires Your participation.

 

Photo by Ashton Bumhira

Zimbabwe is currently undergoing a 30-day mobile voter registration exercise, in preparation for elections to be held later this year.

We’ve taken the schedule of dates and locations for the mobile voter registration exercise and put them onto a map to make it easier for Zimbabweans to know where to register to vote.

You can pan and zoom on the map to get to your area, then click on it to pull up the list of where and when the mobile voter registration teams will be in your area. If there will be more than one location in your ward, the teams will be at the first location on the list on the first dates listed, the second location on the second dates, etc.

This still picture of the map below gives you a teaser. To make use of it, view it full screen.

View map full screen

To find out more about voter registration, visit the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission website

If your area is not on the map or there are no centres listed for your ward let us know. Also, we want to hear about your voter registration experience! Have you already registered to vote? Have you gone to a registration centre this month? Email info [at] kubatana [dot] net and let us know.

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

Nelson Mandela said, “And later when we felt that we now have quite a solid support among the masses, we then decided to select 6 laws which we felt were most oppressive. We would define these laws and deliberately go to jail and not pay fines in order to focus attention on the repressive policies of the (apartheid) government”.

Mandela and his colleagues intelligently and consciously engaged in strategic non-violent civil disobedience.

Here is a man, at the height of political repression of the blacks by the apartheid regime when everyone was pondering whether to weigh a fully-fledged war against the government; he stood strong and wise and opted for a non-violent civil disobedience strategy. This is the profound level of wisdom and temperance, which unfortunately has been misconstrued by some of our impatient political ‘pundits’ in Zimbabwe as being too lenient. This is a clear attempt to brainwash and keep everyone in check and under the authorities feet. These politicians know that if Zimbabwe becomes very politically conscious of what Mandela did, the same things that he did may be applied against their corruption and evil and torturous politicking. These are men who have seen how Mubarak was deserted by his own security people, doing what Henry David Thoreau suggested, “If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law”.

Mandela has brought this lesson to Africa that it is the duty of the people to give a moral check, in the most non-violent ways possible, to the actions of a government.

“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
Martin Luther King Jr.