I’ve just come back from a great night of theatre, thanks to the creativity and dedication of Rooftop Promotions.

Written by Stephen Chifunyise, Farai and Chipo in Love tells the story of two first-year university students and the pressure that love, sex, university life, the Zimbabwean economy and the job market bring to bear on their relationship. Add a wayward “Sekuru” with only one thing on his mind, and you’ve got the recipe for a drama that both delights and makes you cringe.

The cast of three, directed by Daves Guzha, draw the audience in and bring the material to life with great pace, energy and credibility. It’s a “play with a message,” but not one which is so heavy-handed or moralistic that it becomes tedious.

My greatest critique would be the poor turn out. The audience straggled in late, and maxed out at about 15 people by 7:10. So do yourself, and the production a favour. Bring your friends, bring your family, and get there!

Farai and Chipo in Love

Dates: 11 – 15 July
Time: 7pm
Cost: $5
Venue: Old Mutual Theatre, Alliance Francaise, 328 Herbert Chitepo Ave, Harare

For more information phone 0774-434245 or 0774-694373.

As Zimbabwe gets ready for elections 31 July, and special voting this weekend, our SMS subscribers have been sharing their thoughts and observations about the electoral environment. Here is some of their feedback:

• Hatisi kufara ne zviri kuitika kuno kuBudiriro uye nhau dziri kubuda mudzi nhepfenyuro dzino taura zvisizvo pamusoro pa Costa Machingauta. (We are not please about what is going on in Budiriro and the way the media (radio) is bringing out the issue of Costa Machingauta)
• Police officers are all wearing Zanu-pf regalia. What does that mean?
• It’s now time up!  People should stand up for their rights! Mazimbabwe hatisadya uroi nokunyara! (Zimbabweans we no longer want to evil against each other) Lets’ vote wisely!
• We want free and fair election 2 make some developments 2 our country. new plans 2 be beautiful Zimbabwe

In Harare? Wondering where to vote 31 July?
Use our clickable map of provisional polling stations for Zimbabwe 2013 Election.

Our country has for a long time now been a manufacturing pot for the redefinition of kleptocracy and dictatorship. All the extremes of bad and evil governance have been crafted in our backyard and I pray that in this information age such insanity should be well exposed and put to an end. All Zimbabweans should now appreciate that our independence in 1980 was just a transfer of colonial power from Smith’s dictatorship to a tougher and homegrown type of repression. Our election in 2 weeks time should be a show of protest and the right machine gun to bring this gluttonous oligarchy in Zimbabwe to an end.

The other day, I listened to a kombi driver chat with a female cop and perhaps like everywhere, their banter ended up touching on the coming elections.

“I hear you will be voting earlier than everyone,” the driver said. “Yes,” the cop answered not hiding the excitement of the privilege.

Then the guy complained that he wasn’t going to vote because he had failed to register after being frustrated by the long queues.

Ah yes, the queues were frustrating, the cop agreed.

I sniggered imagining the cop was relishing the moment that a few voters would mean she had her work cut out – literally.

A few voters will certainly mean cops are not kept busy manning long winding queues, but the exchange between the cop and the kombi driver was a conversation that has gained common currency in the run up to the poll, where the question “did you register” has become the favourite topic like the British asking each other about the weather!

And with the MDC-T’s estimates that more than 300,000 people in Harare failed to register, such conversations do give a picture of the magnitude of the very flawed voter registration process.

While the figure offered by the MDC-T might look wild, word on the street does point to worse if read with the disgruntlement that prevails in other parts of the country where old women of Malawian origin for example with metal ID they got before independence were told to bring their birth certificates!

It’s not funny but Zanu PF Svengalis manipulating the electoral processes imagine they will have the last laugh.

The tantrums of First Ladies are actually an indication of gender powerlessness. They  have no record of their own, no power of their own, they are just there because their husbands are up there. Many try to convert executive idleness into a full time job by intruding into all kinds of public spaces to remind us that they are there. That’s why some of them assume they are leaders of other women  in a kind of delusionary division of labour with their husbands who command the whole country. They are paranoid around female members of the government. – From a 2004 installment by the late Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem.