In recent months there has been a continent-wide spike in reports of the abduction, shooting, imprisonment and harassment of journalists during the course of their duties across Africa, and it raises serious questions about commitments all these countries ostensibly made when they appanded their names to the Windhoek Declaration, for example in ensuring the safety of journalists and freedom of the press.

From Burkina Faso, that notorious land infamously known for the 1998 gruesome killing and burning of journalist Norbet Zongo, to our neighbor Zambia where “ailing” Michael Sata is exhibiting Robert Mugabe’s hyper-sensitivity to criticism, to our very own where one journalist answered a knock at the door of his home only to be brutally assaulted by enigmatic characters who are still at large.

In the Gambia, government has moved to restrict internet freedom, while in Gabon, government shut down newspapers critical to the State, and one wonders why it is that while others are celebrating the promise of online platforms and privately owned newspapers as the present and future of freedom of information and unfettered news production, some behemoths imagine they will succeed in stopping a revolution whose time has come, to borrow a phrase.

And indeed Zimbabwean journalists have said they fear for their lives during these coming elections, with one senior journalist actually advising junior colleagues that they should move in packs wherever they are assigned as there is safety in numbers.

Such advice is indeed very useful, knowing the treatment journalists have received even outside election periods.

But numbers of people armed with pens and notebooks are no match to numbers armed with sjamboks and cudgels!

And many of the countries who have seen a rise in the harassment of journalists, are typically having elections this year or in 2014, and they are the same regimes that are keen to see the legitimating of their governments by other countries be it the AU, the same AU that has made commitments to press freedom, or international community, but still do everything in their power to invite adverse reports by literally giving the press a beating.

And then these people get someone commenting that Africa is a dangerous place to work as a journalist, yes, viewing the continent through that prism of it being one huge homogenous space, and scream exaggeration!

But then, not everything has to make sense. It is okay when it only suits the mandarins in charge of “regulating” media space, and one will recall the “promise” made by Mahoso that private TV players will be licenced in 2103, only to have the same people condemning the appearance of 1st TV. What tosh!

Reflecting on the treatment on journalists in Zimbabwe, I recalled an incident reported a few years ago where a reporter from a privately-owned newspaper was assaulted by war veterans or Zanu PF activists (but then what’s the difference?) while “colleagues” from the State media witnessed it with unbridled glee and wondered if there is any hope for Zimbabwe’s media landscape to be a safe working space from 31 July to and beyond, but then this ain’t no time for pessism.

Zimbabwe’s CSOs have over the past 13 years or more been saddled with the Herculean task of highlighting government excesses and brazen breaches of democratic processes.

The long road has however inevitably inspired cynics to question their (CSOs) relevance if not to continue getting funding and blowing the moolah because poverty weary Zimbabweans have rightly looked up CSOs to lead or even catalyse the birth of a new nation, and as this logic goes, if it has taken them forever despite all the money they splash, they must be getting it wrong somewhere!

It is unfortunate therefore that the quest, like that of Zimbabweans and political parties yearning for a fresh beginning after a virtual one-party domination of political space has dragged for so long, and like Tsvangirai’s own for whom his delayed anointing has only given “the masses” ample time to scrunitise him more closely and ultimately doubting his capacity and competence. Time is such an ass.

Along the long way however, like typical fanatics who double their efforts and lose sight of their goal, the CSOs find themselves in a quandary of what happens after July 31 in the much awaited event that Zanu PF becomes history.

That is one of many thought-provoking questions raised yesterday by McDonald Lewanika, Crisis Coalition Director at a Food for Thought session at the US Embassy Public Affairs Section.

Because the CSOs have for long been criticized by the former ruling party as “running dogs of imperialism” who have turned social activism virtually into a million dollar industry, how they shape Zimbabwe’s post-Mugabe discourse has become a legitimate point to ponder, and for Lewanika, the fact that CSOs have morphed from their original ideal as “speaking truth to power” to unwittingly becoming more driven by the perks that accrue from that activism, it is a reality that their relevance becomes compromised.

However, as Lewanika pointed out, the success of CSOs in their agenda to hold State actors accountable and champion democratic transitions can in fact lead to their decline, which can be imagined as a post-Mugabe Zimbabwe.

And the same has been raised since the chaos began here concerning the media who stood vigilante in the “speak truth to power” discourse. What happens to them after Mugabe goes, and this is apparently asked in light of what is seen as skewed coverage that favours one political party.

One thing that Lewanika raised that made that self-criticism of a movement he is part of some kind of daring honesty was the issue of activists who have become no different from the State actors they criticize, for example telling Mugabe off for refusing to quit when the CSOs activists themselves are afflicted by the same delusions of seeing themselves as permanent faces of the revolution.

That some CSOs virtually have “life presidents” has been an irony lost to the anti-Mugabe crusaders and it cannot be dismissed that this has made their relevance questionable, what with characters like Jonathan Moyo ever on the ready with unsavory epithets.

As Lewanika put it, bureaucratisation has been the death of some CSOs because now the focus is on positions and the perks that come with those positions, and some activists could in fact be positioning themselves for co-option into the “new MDC-T government” after July 31!

But that can never be reason to change generals during the war, as Lewanika put it!

The struggle continues and July 31 high noon beckons.

You go to bed and wake up and find that Zanu PF have moved through your suburb. Their posters, in all different sizes, are Everywhere. They’re clearly out to make a splash while flashing their cash around. Why such a paper display of strength in urban areas this time round? Maybe to dispel notions of rigging they’ll have all these posters ‘prove’ that they campaigned hard so it makes sense that they racked up award winning votes. Meanwhile its a pretty sad sight seeing all these young Zimbabweans decked out in their bright new free election regalia vigorously putting up posters and handing out fliers. Get some cash today for doling out party propaganda and tomorrow you’re still jobless.

Nice.

As far as most big news broadcasters are concerned, there is only one story worth reporting on at the moment – there is a royal baby! Nelson Mandela could die or Denmark could finally break off Europe and sink into the sea, but these are irrelevant stories since there is a new 3rd in line for the throne.

It is understandable that people need distractions from the normal doom and gloom news broadcasts, but media does have a tendency to overdo, and overcommercialise these events – and they really have gone all out this time. You can download an app that tracks the hourly progress of the baby, or read a book on the history of the diapers used by the royal family (because I’ve always wanted to know what type of diaper queen Elizabeth crapped in!)

Although a “guess the royal baby’s name” app would be more light-hearted entertainment than “guess how many people died in Syria today”, the hype does tend to eclipse far more life changing stories that still need to be reported, since the revolution in Brazil isn’t going to go on hold … while everyone dotes over the fact that it’s a boy!

David Coltart has complained about ZEC assuming the role of the Constitutional Court, something that sets it own precedence as we approach what many have written off as a poll that will have a disputed outcome – again.

Coltart was commenting on the special vote where ZEC says those who failed to vote will be allowed to vote on the 31st despite the Electoral Act saying those who applied for the special vote cannot vote if they missed that first opportunity.

The problem with these latest developments is that as long as there are disagreements on what course to follow, this only becomes yet another pointer of ZEC’s own poor preparedness for the poll, something which has been the major talking point ever since that Jealousy Mawarire fellow sprang from the wilderness like a locust eating and honey sucking savior.

The concerns Coltart raises are yet another example of how legal processes have merely become symbolic in this country where the rule of law has been an area of bitter contestation because one political party simply chooses to ignore what does not favour it.

In a functioning democracy, there is no doubt that disgruntled political parties would take their case to the courts, but here they know too damn well that they will be pissing in the wind. So what do they do? They go ahead and participate under protest! What a big joke.

Zimbabwe desperately needs all sorts of reforms, from not-so-bright judges, to not-so-bright military men to even death-wishing kombi drivers!

And the fact that the results of the special vote are still to be announced is telling enough and portends more chaos for the 31 July vote.

A curious response was given by ZEC spokesperson Shupikai Mashereni on being asked about the veracity of the special voter numbers given by Patrick Chinamasa who is “however, not the authority mandated to make such official announcements,” Newsday helpfully pointed out.

Said Mashereni: “You think the minister could have lied about those numbers? He is a minister.”

Well?