Water, Power, Police
Here are a few burning issues being shared with Kubatana by members of the Zimbabwean public . . .
Water
Hi, I would like to bring to your attention the health time bomb that most Zimbabweans have been exposed to and I am appealing that your organization could make Zimbabweas aware of the danger of consuming poorly treated water a problem caused by Zanu PF misrule. I hope that your organization can help by informing the general public that they should try and take responsibility for their health by ensuring that their water is first purified before consuming it. I would also like to appeal to you to mobilise Zimbabweans to bombard their MPs and senators and parliament by means of email, phone calls, sms’s, personal meetings and letters demanding that they starting implementing the Zambezi pipeline project and the Kunzwi dam project these are the only projects that will long term solutions to the critical clean water crisis,they should be focusing on solving this health crisis instead of fighting over cars. The cholera epidemic was just the tip of the iceberg worse things are still to come. The provision of clean water by a government is a basic human right. - Maryanne
Power
What is the true situation with Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) bills? Here in Mutare we received household bills of up to US$300.00. I don’t always have access to the press but I hear ZESA was directed to slash these astronomical figures by a certain percentage. Is this the true position right now? Efforts to contact ZESA have proved fruitless as one is put on continuous “hold”. - Iris
Police
My experience occurred on 3 May 2009 at 3pm at Christmas Pass roadblock in Mutare in the hands of a police officer with a name I saw on a ticket reading like Sada. I was driving my recently imported Toyota car with temporary card board number plates being issued these days. I had tried by all means to buy ordinary plates but failed since ZIMRA in Harare is said to have no plates. At the road block when the police officer saw my car with this temporary number plate he immediately took it and ordered my car to be parked out of road saying it had been impounded by police and it is only them who will drive it to police camp. I asked the reason for that and they said the number plate was supposed to be written the route which I was supposed to use and hence was not allowed to move from Masvingo to Mutare. I explained that I was informed that these numbers allowed me to travel in all parts of Zimbabwe but not outside the country but the police officer refused and said it is only him who can explain the law. I asked one police officer who was not manning the roadblock and he said there was nothing like that since temporal number plates are allowed in all parts of the country of Zimbabwe. He ordered me to reason with him maybe he wanted me to pay money to him. I said I was not prepared to pay the money as a UN staff and if I had the case I would pay a legal ticket. I even phoned CID Masvingo who had cleared the car and they told me that there was no case but were supposed to give me back my car. I went back to the police officer and tried to reason with him asking him if he could write a ticket of whichever amount so that I can pay but refused. I requested to take him to Police camp to verify if the car was stolen but he refused saying he will do it at his own time since he was knocking off at 10pm. I informed him that I had little children in the car and was going to Masvingo and would end up driving at night which is unsafe but he refused. During the negotiations he was giving me gestures that he wanted me to pay bribe money but I refused. I waited for an hour and was later given back my number plates warning me not to argue with police. I left the road block at 4pm and had to travel during the night to Masvingo risking cattle and all problems of night driving. I was emotionally disturbed and had to drive to Masvingo in this state together with whole family risking my family’s life. I am still disappointed about this event and should there be a way of making this police person be put to book I will pursue it. His name I am sure is Sada and purports to be coming from Mt Darwin at Dotito.
- Ephraim