Kubatana! Better days are coming … they’re called Saturday and Sunday. We’ve got a question for ZEC: were there no spoiled ballots in this election? Yes, people are muttering, why doesn’t MT ever have a Plan B other than going to court. Simba Makoni has said that assisted voting was used to intimidate voters. ZEC has said that nearly 305,000 voters were turned away during last week’s elections and 207,000 voters were “assisted” to cast their ballot. Zanu PF is up 61 seats from 2008 and MDC is down 51 seats from 2008. Pressure has continued to mount for South African President Jacob Zuma to back the call for an independent audit of last week’s elections in Zimbabwe. Sisonke Msimang writing for the Daily Maverick believes that: As currently practiced, African standards, certainly in respect to elections and democratic governance, basically suck. Aid to Africa must have a sell-by date, says Donald Kaberuka head of African Development Bank: conscious that strong economic numbers alone are not enough, he also stresses the importance of inclusive growth and among the keys to inclusive growth is the management of natural resources, which are a significant driver of economic prosperity. Note: a good reason why Zanu PF must use funds from diamonds to raise the standard of living of all Zimbabweans. Johannesburg, the commercial capital of South Africa, is home to far more dollar millionaires than any other city in Africa. Cairo and Lagos are runners up. Officials in Kenya investigating the massive airport fire that gutted the arrival hall at Nairobi’s main airport said Thursday that first responders looted electronics, a bank and an ATM during and after the blaze. Hundreds gathered in Nairobi yesterday to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Al-Qaeda attacks on the US embassy. There was singing, preaching and candle lighting as survivors recalled the tragedy that claimed 223 lives and injured thousands.Campaigners pressing Barclays to keep open cash transfer businesses to poorer countries have presented a petition to Downing Street signed by 25,500 people, including Olympic gold winner Mo Farah. (Perhaps the MDC should get a petition signed by his turned away voters and present that to the Big Boys?). South African jockey S’manga Khumalo who first saw a horse aged 14 won country’s biggest race last month after 116 consecutive years of white winners. And finally a Nigerian police officer gets the sack less than 24 hours after secretly filmed footage apparently showing him trying to extort money from a motorist went viral. Come on Zimbabwe, we can do it too, snap them to sack them.

It is interesting, disturbing in fact, that state media is goading complaints about the number of people turned away and also assisted to vote on July 31 as insignificant that even considered in a recount, will not tip the vote in favour if Tsvangirai. Thus by implication, Tsvangirai is being told he is pissing against the wind.

But then that’s missing the whole point. Yet with state media, missing the point is big business!

That this happened in the first place points to deeper flaws of the whole election and with complicity from people vested with public trust but became no different from a school teacher who rapes students.

If people could be turned away, it certainly becomes a violation of their constitutional right to exercise their franchise, if people could be assisted to vote under dubios circumstances, it raises questions about guided voting, all of which are serious breaches of SADC’s own Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections to which Zimbabwe is expected to adhere.

Even if the numbers will never catch up with the ridiculous percentage points claimed by Zanu PF, that this happened points to Zanu PF’s misplaced sense of triumph in that you cannot claim victory and prepare a shindig when everyone is crying foul.

Yet it again points to Zanu PF’s disregard for fair play (which would be naive in politics but is certainly desired!), but then one will recall the late John Makumbe saying Zanu PF did not want this new Constitution because it was too democratic for Zanu PF’s liking!

Even as the matter is taken to court as a mere “right thing to do” despite all evidence of it being a futile exercise considering the 2002 challenge was flushed down the loo, the whole idea is to put this on record that this whole election – not just the results – was a farce.

It’s not even about overturning Mugabe’s victory, but Zimbabwe being serious in ensuring people’s vote is not tampered with. As it is, all things point to that this is what exactly happened.

Programs Officer: Local NGO
Deadline: 19 August 2013

Purpose of the job
The Programs Officer is responsible for facilitating palliative care and related training for Home Based Care organizations. He or she is also responsible for providing support for the provision of quality care to people living with HIV and AIDS.

Overall responsibilities
- Plan for and conduct palliative care and related home based care training activities for partner organisations
- Participate in development and distribution of Palliative Care and Home Based Care IEC materials
- Prepare appropriate training materials
- Provide information whenever necessary, to trainers and caregivers
- Plan, coordinate and hold regular mentoring and support meetings with partners on HIV treatment, care and support
- Assist with the preparation of budgets for programme activities
- Conduct follow up visits and document
- Facilitate networking of project partners and sharing of information among stakeholders
- Represent the organization at provincial and district levels on matters relating to Palliative Care, Home Based Care and project activities
- Promote community awareness on Palliative Care, ART and Psychosocial Support for PLWHA
- Facilitate linkages and information sharing between organizations within the district
- Participate in developing monitoring tools for the projects
- Ensure maintenance of accurate records
- Present written reports to the Clinical and Technical manager at stipulated times
- Participate in activities to disseminate programme evaluation findings

Minimum qualifications and experience
Nursing Diploma/ Degree
Experience in Palliative Care is an added advantage
A minimum of five years’ experience in nursing
Experience in training and facilitation in home-based care issues
Highly innovative and a self starter
Experience in HIV and AIDS, home based care and community health care
Good written and verbal communication skills
Clean class four driver’s licence a must

To apply
If you are interested and meet the above requirements please send your application letter, detailed CV and copies of your certificates to the following: programs13 [at] hotmail [dot] com by no later than August 19, 2013.

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.