Take Mandela to Soweto

There is a reason why June 16 is a national holiday in South Afrika. It was the day on which Hastings Ndlovu and Hector Pieterson lost their lives. It was the day on which more than 400 young people gave their lives to the cause for freedom in South Africa.

It was the day on which the Soweto Uprising began.

It was the day which saw the beginning of sustained agitation that eventually led to the release of Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela, a man whom the whole world is gathered in South Africa to bury. A truly great man.

When Mandela was unjustifiably incarcerated for 27 years he was physically removed from the struggle. The security around him was so tight that we heard little from him in those years. Not even a picture of him is known to have been smuggled out of jail in those 27 years.

Yet in all those 27 years we never stopped hearing about Mandela. Few weeks passed without his name being in the news. People put their lives on line in his name. The streets kept the temperature high for the Boer regime.

Those streets were mainly the streets of Soweto. Day in day out the people of Soweto were in the news. Along with their actions the name Nelson Mandela was regularly mentioned. And of course that of his then wife Winnie Mandela.

Today Mandela's body is being taken in procession around Pretoria not once, not twice but three times.  What about Soweto?

I find it unfair that the people who stood with Mandela throughout his incarceration are now being asked to catch buses and trains all the way to Pretoria to bid him farewell, while those who supported his jailers are being given very comfortable ringside seats.

Why not give the people of Soweto a chance to say their farewells to Mandela, in their own streets. Those are the streets where they stood with him throughout his jailing. Those are the streets, that made him the man he is today.

Gono is gone. Phew!!!

Gono is going. Phew!!!

I will always stand by my opinion that Gono was totally out of his depth running a monetary system despite his bombastic talk of him being 'Your Governor'.

When Gono assumed office, the country had a reasonably strong and stable currency. At the time he left Zimbabwe had no currency of its own and had gone through period of record, currency devaluation driven hyperinflation that has never ever been experienced anywhere in the world since recorded history began. Most likely will never ever be experienced anywhere else in the world.

'Your Governor' was such a failure that he ended up scrounging in areas that had absolutely nothing to do with his job for some credit. He started buying tractors, scotch carts, cooking oil, chains, hoes and who knows what else to try and get some credit any way he could.

As a mark of his incompetence he started importing things like steel for scotch carts, and cooking oil, leading to a massive externalisation of funds and further collapse of the currency which he had the job to shore up.

The importations also led to the massive under utilisation of local manufacturing capacity, leading to eventual collapse of many of the industries like Ziscosteel, Olivine, Willowvale Motor Industries. These are still struggling to find their feet again after this knockout punch from Gono.

The only thing he succeeded in doing is fleece the forex funds of private entities, and run up a massive debt for the RBZ. Maybe there is no link between this running up of a massive debt for the state bank and him getting super rich in the process, but I am sure people do not need to be too imaginative to come up with any number of plausible theories to establish a link.

I know very well of the excuse that he had no choice because of pressure from politicians. Gono was employed to advise politicians correctly, not for him to be advised incorrectly by politicians. Therefore that excuse is a damning admission that he was unable to do his job.

I also know of the excuse that the country was under sanctions by some Western countries. Well the very same country did not implode monetarily while under stricter sanctions by the entire world.

Gono is also leaving behind a massive legal black hole for the government which he created by simply taking money from people's accounts without their consent.

In his heyday Gono had the mentality of a village headman. He considered his word to be the law (Zvandataura ndizvozvo!). He forgot that in this day and age the law is written down and no matter who you are, you have to start by understanding what is written down. Munhu nzwisisa zvakanyorwa mumutemo usati wapaparika.

That is why large organisations always have a legal department. Their job is to carefully scrutinise actions and decisions to make sure they are within the written law. I would expect the RBZ had such a department.

The basic foundation of the law is the constitution and that clearly says you do not expropriate someone's private property. Money in whatever form is private property. You do not take it without the owners' agreement.

The RBZ under Gono did it. As several court rulings have already shown, that was a massive mistake. It has saddled the state with potentially ruinous debt. It also drove out thousands of investors, local and foreign, out of the country.

I personally invested thousands of American dollars in Zimbabwe, which I had earned outside the country. That was around 2003. In less than five years I walked out of the country with basically the clothes on my back to look for a job again.

An uncle got his pension after having been a teacher for 43 years. When he got it, the pension could have bought him a truckload of cement. In less than three months, the very same amount could not but half a loaf of bread. And it was still in the bank.

Thousands of teachers, soldiers, policemen, civil servants and other workers who retired during the Gono era faced similar circumstances. I have met tens of them, all of them patriotic Zimbabweans, who faced the ignominy of having entire decades of saving and planning laid to waste by Gono's ignorant monetary policies.

That is the kind of bitter memory that Gono leaves behind. A very bad taste in the mouth. I do not regret him going. I do regret him ever having been governor.

I am an atheist, but this is the one time, that I will hope that some higher authority will hold Gono to account.

Zambia does not owe Zimbabwe a debt of gratitude

Recently I came across an article moaning about Zimbabwe having to buy maize from Zambia. The article mentioned that Zimbabwe used to export maize and other goods to Zambia.

The article blamed Zambia for not being more sympathetic to Zimbabwe, as well as claiming that Zimbabwe exports to Zambia were destroyed by sanctions.

Let us tell the whole truth not just part of it. Zambia has never ever sanctioned Zimbabwe in any way.

Zimbabwe's exports to the region were ruined by poor policies and idiosycrantic monetary controls during Gono's heydays as 'Your Governor'.

I lived in Malawi from 2000 to 2002. When I first went there supermarket shelves were jam-packed from wall to wall with Zimbabwean goods.

After a few doses of Gono's policies, the last time I visited Malawi around 2005 the shelves were now jam packed with South African goods.

The situation is likely to have been the same for Zambia.

Even now we have a distinct geographic advantage, in terms of access to markets. Harare is less than 600km from both Blantrye and Lusaka. Gauteng is more than 1800km from both.

It is about $3000 cheaper to transport goods from Harare to both cities than it is to transport goods from Gauteng.

The only reason why Gauteng is the preferred source of goods by countries to the North of us is corrupt, ignorant and pompous behaviour by our officials, including senior ministers. It takes a week for a truck with goods sourced in Zimbabwe to get the papers processed at Chirundu.

The same truck with goods sourced in Gauteng takes less than a day to have exit papers processed at Beitbridge and maybe another day or two transit Zimbabwe and get into Zambia.

If they use the Botswana route it takes 30 minutes to have exit papers processed at Martins Drift. The route is longer than via Zimbabwe but hundreds of trucks still prefer it because of the quick processing. The only delay is because there is no bridge at Kazungula and they sometimes have to wait weeks when one of the ferries is broken down.

The smaller 8 ton trucks which don't have to queue at the ferry almost exclusively use the Kazungula route. Guess what, most of them are driven or owned by Zimbabweans. Even for us Zimbabweans it is simply far much less hassle to avoid the corrupt and pompous Zimbabwean officials.

Pomposity, corruption and ignorance of trade and commerce dynamics, is costing Zimbabwe billions in trade opportunities.

That is a fact.

The people to blame for that are government officials, and their management which means ministers and The President.

Lastly on the issue of low maize production in Zimbabwe. That is incorrectly attributed to the restoration of land ownership to black Zimbabweans.

In their drive to higlight their insulting insinuation that we blacks need whites to grow food for us, most analysists leave out to mention that the restoration of land to its correct owners, was also accompanied by price controls, movement restrictions of produce and other not so clever policies that completely wiped out maize production as a commercial agricultural activity.

Even small scale farmers who used to produce 70% of Zimbabwe's commercial maize before land reform, abandoned the crop, because of bad policies, producing only enough to feed their families.

The only reason anyone would plant bumper maize crop between about 2005 and 2009 was for charity, not for business. Maize production has since not recovered from those ruinous policies.

The bottom line is that Zambia does not owe Zimbabwe anything. It is up to our officials to come up with intelligent well researched policies to take the country forward.

Stumbling around doing things such as being told by a school dropout (less educated than themselves) that pure refined diesel flows out of a solid rock does not amount to intelligent policies.

Luck does not also amount intelligent policies either. The current ruling party were lucky that they faced an opposition led by an even more ignorant leader. Luck, eventually runs out, so one should never count on it being there forever.

Religions in overdrive to curtail freedom of expression

Religious people have got all sorts of epithets for those who belong to different religions or who simply choose not to be religious like me.

Pagans! Infidels! Apostates! Sinners! The condemned! Heathens! All these are among some of the choice invective persistently spewed from pulpits and podiums week in week out. It shows that the religious have obsolutely no qualms insulting or even threatening those who do not hold the same views as themselves.

Author Salman Rushdie had to live much of his life under protection after he penned a book mildly critical of Islam. The history of Christianity is littered with burnings are the stake, beheadings and other forms of murder of those who dared disagree with the demagogues of the time.

Recently, during the attack at Westgate Mall in Kenya, people were specifically targeted and cruelly butchered for not belonging to a specific religion.

The world is overflowing with art and drawings depicting us the non-religious being fried by a red man with horns, hoofed feet, a pointed tail and a three pronged pitchfork. Even more depict us in all sorts of inglorious situations, often associating us with evil.

Yet there is absolutely no single fact that links atheism to evil. If anything non-religious people are often the most prepared to accept others. They are often humanist who value people for simply being human not according to what views they hold, or background they come from.

Just this week one of my favourite cartoonists, Zapiro was taken to task for 'insulting' the Hindu religion. I fail to understand how his cartoon, which was merely criticical of India bullying South Africa in the cricket sphere, could have been deemed to be insulting to Hinduism.

Anyone with the slightest knowledge of geography and current affairs will associate Hinduism with India. So what better way is there of symbolising India than using a Hindu symbol. To me that does not in any way amount to any sort of afront or insult to Hinduism.

There is absolutely no reason, to try and impinge on Zapiro's freedom of expression over it.

The question I want to ask religious people is, if you have the right to mock and insult us non-religious people, why can't you afford us the right to do exactly the same back to you. If you have the right to express yourself any way you want, surely you should have no trouble understanding the simple common sense that others have got exactly the same right as well.

If you have got the right to be critical of things not associated with you, others have got the same right to be critical of things not associated with them, which might mean you.

Insulting!

If the Kenyans give themselves as much dignity and pride as a goat tied to the roof of a matatu, they are very welcome to go ahead and have their head of state and deputy tossed around by the ICC.

According to these new colonial lords of all African rulers, they have decided to allow Uhuru Kenyata not to appear before them as and when they wish. The same applies to Ruto.

I would like to ask Kenyatta and Ruto, is the Kenya constitution subordinate to the ICC?

What if a situation arises when Kenya needs to move quickly to protect its president. For example consider what happened on September 11, 2001. The USA had to move Dubya from bunker to bunker quickly and in secret until they understood what was going on.

Crises do not announce themselves. Al Shahaab did not announce their intention to attack Westgate. What if war is declared upon Kenya or a situation requiring declaration of war arises while the President of Kenya as at the ICC on one of those supposedly few, but deliberately vague and unspecified occasions that some non-Kenyans want him to be there.

The bottom line is that Kenya has to ask the ICC for permission to protect its interests. I personally find that idea insulting not just for Kenya but for any African country.

Yes some leaders are warm to it, because it gives them a tool to beat political rivals with. That tool is a double edged sword. One day it will bounce back and cut with the other side.

If Uhuru considers the votes of Kenyans to be as worthless as chicken droppings, fine he can go ahead and do the biding of anyone other than the Kenyan constitution and people.

If he has as much pride as I have, he would not set foot in Europe even if they promised him a 100 tonnes of gold.

Yes Africa needs justice. But not at the price of its dignity. I am not an advocate of impunity by African leaders. Let us not forget that African leaders are acting the way they do largely because they learnt from and inherited the bad ruling habits and impunity of colonial masters. An impunity which is still intact to this day.

Let us start by dealing decisively with those past infractions. As long as we leave those infractions unpunished we are promoting the idea, that there is different kinds of justice for different groups of people.

Take for example the notion that Wouter Basson suggests that there is nothing wrong with what he did during apartheid and he should be left alone to practise as a heart surgeon. The crimes against humanity committed by him and his apartheid masters, and in other places like Rhodesia, are largely considered forgiveable because they are perpetrated by whites.

Even today, white kids with mothers milk still smelling on their noses are allowed to drone bomb villagers in non-white countries with total impunity. Other youngsters such as the grandchildren of Elizabeth Windsor-Mountbatten are allowed to prove their manhood by going to take potshots at the same villagers.

If people cannot see the racial double standard, then they are too blind to see an elephant standing in the doorway.

If the ICC would put Germany on trial for the genocide of the Herero and Nama in Namibia. If the ICC would put 'Dr Death' Wouter Basson on trial for experimenting on blacks with lethal chemicals. If the ICC would put CIA operatives, and their commanders, busy lobbying Hellfire missiles at Pakistani and Yemeni villagers, while nonchalantly seeping coffee and cold drinks and tweaking at joysticks from the cowardly comfort and safety of bunkers, then I would consider it a court worthy of being called a court of justice.

These people are just lazy cowards not willing to do the donkey work or take the risk of making sure that they get the right terrorist and spare the innocent. Yet the ICC allows them to enjoy unprecedented impunity.

The idea of international justice is good. However if that justice is as selective as the ICC makes it, then it is not justice at all. A system that allows those with military power to allocate themselves impunity is not a system of justice. Not by a polar bear's chances in the Gobi.

Not only does the ICC system allow those with great military power to allocate themselves, their allies and their sponsored stooges (such as the Syrian rebels and current Libyan rulers) impunity at will. It also allows them to manipulate the due process.

Often the actions of the ICC are in sync with the pronouncements of Western foreign ministers and media. That surely cannot just be by mere coincidence.

I wish I had the money to put a 10km high speaker on top of 10km high Mt Everest and loudly inform the ICC exactly what I think of their mothers' private parts.

Open Letter to Zimbabwean Cabinet and MPs

Comrades, first I would like to extend hearty congratulations to those of you who have made it into cabinet.

At the same time I hope you realise the enormous burden of expectation and aspirations of an entire people this places upon you. Millions of people who would like to see their lives improve look up to you to make the right decisions for the country.

They sincerely wish that your actions will not be driven by self interest, but the interests of a nation that we are all proud of. It is needless for me to repeat to you that for this nation to be where it is today is today, enormous suffering was endured and thousands of lives were lost.

It would be a great betrayal of those who went through this suffering and even lost their lives, if we as Zimbabweans fail to keep the interests of the nation at the forefront of our thoughts. Given the pinnacle of responsibility that you are perched upon, it is incumbent upon you to lead by example in keeping the interests of the country at the forefront of your thoughts and actions.

Our country needs you, to support particularly its economy through your day to day purchasing habits. Government and people in running it are the biggest spenders in any country. It is therefore critical for government, and individuals within it, to make strenuous effort to support local economic activity.

The money that government has, is acquired through taxation of individuals and utilisation of resources that are meant to benefit everyone.

You might disagree, but I do not think it is proper to tax Zimbabweans in order to employ chiefly Germans and Chinese. It for this reason that I implore you to please, please seriously consider my proposal to acquire government vehicles, including top of the range luxury models, from local assembly plants.

The advice I am trying to give includes your spouses as well since they spent quite a substantial amount of money originating from our taxes.

I implore you to be at the forefront of supporting economic activity within Zimbabwe. Remember every time you import goods you are exporting a number of things. First you are exporting the labour needed to make those goods. Second you are exporting the economic activity in the chain of production of those goods right from procurement of raw material to finished product. You will be exporting government revenue, because that comes from taxing economic activity.

You will also be denying local people the opportunity to improve their skills and knowhow in the making of those goods. In other words, you will be exporting your skills base too. You should therefore not be surprised when professionals leave to try and utilise their skills elsewhere, resulting in massive brain drain. In the end the skills of people upon whom the government has spent a fortune to educate do not benefit the country to the maximum.

I know that you will be under a lot of peer pressure to import a lot of trinkets, and luxuries so that you appear prestigious.

Take for example Mr Chiyangwa. We all know about his imported shoes and cars. However at the end of the day, when he wanted votes, he had to come back to the people of Chinhoyi, not Italians, Germans, the British or Americans, upon whom he has lavished lots of spending power.

The same applies to all of you. Do not forget that it is the local people, who put you where you are and make you what we are. We may be poor. You may even believe that we do not wear underwear like one of the contestants in the recent election said. But, the big but, is that we are the people who make Zimbabwe what it is and by extension who make you what you are - officials in the Government of Zimbabwe.

So may I please beg you, support us. Support us in your purchasing habits. Buy your clothes and other trinkets from manufacturers in this country, so that we can have jobs.

Please ndapota, ngiyakucela.

Stale Cabinet

At the time when some in the cabinet announced by President Mugabe today were first appointed ministers, I was still herding cows barefoot in the dusty plains of Manyene.

Bill Gates was a college dropout tinkering with an operating system called PC-DOS unwanted by the world's biggest computer maker, IBM. HP were yet to make laser printers let alone become the biggest desktop computer vendor in the world. Apple were yet to start selling the now famous MacIntosh computer brand. The iPad and iPhone could not even have been imagined by the engineers of the time.

At that time I never imagined a life beyond digging for roots (fifi and magwiredembo), and consider myself an expert at then seemingly all important life skills like setting traps (kuteya misungo, mariva nezvikirimbani) and making homestead tools like cooking sticks and yoke sticks.

My life has since moved on. I don't know when I last wielded an adze (mbezo). A day spent without touching a keyboard is an abnormal day in my life.

The world has also moved on. Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher are dead. The John Majors, Tony Blairs, Bill Clintons and a whole clan of Bushes have stepped into and out of the limelight. Prestroika happened and Mikhail Goberchev went with it. The Russian drunkard, Boris Yeltsin also came and went. After all of them Putin even had the time to perform a now-you-see-me, now-you-don't and now-you-see-me-again trick.

However not so for the Zimbabwe cabinet. Sometime in 1980 I attended St Nicholas school at Mahusekwa for 1 term of my turbulent life. Everything about the school and the place has long since been forgotten. However there is one enduring memory. Enerst Kadungure and Sydney Sekeremayi came to address a meeting at Mahusekwa township and us school children were let off early to attend the meeting.

One was wearing a cream safari suit and the other a light blue safari suit. I sat fascinated as they chanted slogans (Pamberi neZanu!) and literally promised to bring heaven down to us. I was a grade 5 pupil then.

Right now I have just spotted another grey hair on my head (those things are becoming too numerous to pluck out). And Sydney Sekeremayi has just been appointed a minster again!

They say if you breathe the same pocket of air for a long time, it will become stale and you will die from lack of oxygen.

What happens if you appoint the same people into a country's cabinet again and again?

Open Letter to President Mugabe

Your Excellency firstly, I would like to congratulate you on your resounding and thunderous victory in the recent elections. I hope it demonstrates the appreciation and trust that we the majority of Zimbabwean people, place in your leadership.

However, Your Excellency, I believe there are a few issues that you need to pay attention to charting the way forward. As a country we need to avoid the mistakes of the past.

Primarily, Your Excellency, I would like to advise you against including people in government who serve no purpose apart from trying to get rich as quickly as they can.

Mr President, I am not against people getting rich. In fact I would love all Zimbabweans to be as rich as possible. However if you allow a handful of people to get rich by skimming off, whether legally or illegally, money meant to provide services for the entire country, you will be allowing the impoverishment of the rest of us the people.

People should get rich from productive endeavours which expand the national pool of wealth rather than consumptive money grabs from national coffers which diminish the services available to all of us.

In a family of twenty has a pool of twenty bags of maize. If two members grab five bags for themselves, then the rest will be left with half a bag each and will quickly go hungry. Very soon the family will be at each other's throats fighting for the little that is there.

However if those members actually works to produce five more bags each and give one bag to the pool (pay their taxes) they will be richer at the same time the family more secure with 22 bags in the granary. If eight other members can do the same then the family will have ten rich people and a bigger pool of thirty bags in the granary.

Your Excellency, I am of the opinion that some of your appointees have mostly been grabbing from the national pool rather than contributing to it. Vari kungonokora mudura renyika, pane kuti varime zvavo.

Mr President, it is my considered and adamantly held opinion, that you need to focus on providing better services to the people of Zimbabwe. This will help you safeguard your legacy. Remember your legacy lies with the way the people perceive your leadership not the way party colleagues appreciate being rewarded with positions.

I know there is always pressure from those who have been by your side for a long time to be rewarded with positions. Your Excellency, I do not envy you the task, but I beg you try and convince them that the best reward, is through serving the people of Zimbabwe better, and being rewarded with their loyalty.

Your Excellency, be cognisant that since your colleagues have better access to you, they have ample chance to influence you to pursue their interests to the detriment of those of the people. Sir, you are the only one in a position to judge how to best balance all these interests, but never allow those of the people to come at the tail-end.

Mr President, I also beg you not to reward with positions people who lack expertise and knowhow and will hinder progress. May I make the humble suggestion that you appoint people who are competent in the areas they are required to manage. Above all Your Excellency, do not shirk to swing a very big boot against those who do not perform. Chuck them out.

Your Excellency, you success in creating a better country is the success of all of us Zimbabweans. I would like extend you my best wishes, knowing that your success will by my success as well, as a proud Zimbabwean.

Why the US won't lift sanctions

The US government has come out in the open at last and made it clear that reforms carried out do not count for anything in terms of the sanctions they have in place against Zimbabwe.

If anyone ever believed that sanctions would be removed after free fair and credible elections, they were fooling themselves.

The main instrument sanctioning Zimbabwe is the Zimbabwe Democracy and Recovery Act of 2001 (ZIDERA). The full text of the act is found at the links http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-107s494enr/pdf/BILLS-107s494enr.pdf and http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/107/s494/text.

The provisions of the act are very clear, the Zimbabwe government is to be sanctioned from accessing international finance as follows

the Secretary of the Treasury shall instruct the United States executive director to each international financial institution to oppose and vote against--
(1) any extension by the respective institution of any loan, credit, or guarantee to the Government of Zimbabwe; or
(2) any cancellation or reduction of indebtedness owed by the Government of Zimbabwe to the United States or any international financial institution.

It is clear from the above that the provisions of ZIDERA are targeted at the Government of Zimbabwe, not a few individuals as claimed by some.

Throwing in the names of a few individuals is just a public relations exercise. Kufuridzira kwegonzo rakaruma.

The Act goes on to outline that the sanctions can only be lifted after

...determination made by the President that the following conditions are satisfied:
(1) RESTORATION OF THE RULE OF LAW- The rule of law has been restored in Zimbabwe, including respect for ownership and title to property...

In short, the spirit of ZIDERA is that, until Zimbabwe gives back white farmers their farms, sanctions won't go. Alternatively the Zimbabwe government should find money to pay 'fair' compensation.

I find it difficult to swallow the idea that poor peasants should be taxed to pay off rich farmers who got rich from abusing them in the first place based on race. The peasants also got poor from being dispossessed of their assets.

Besides the land being taken, many had their cattle, the main item of wealth at the time, taken as well. Some were violently forced to labour for the settlers against their will. So the fair compensation option is unlikely to take off unless of course the source of the problem, the British acknowledge their responsibility and provide compensation for everyone who has suffered.

It is a fact that Zimbabwe's colonization problem started with a royal charter granted by British monarch to some of her subjects. That charter gave them the protection of the British empire while they abused and exploited the natives. Indeed when the natives tried to resist colonization, it was the British imperial army which was send to put down the rebellion in Mashonaland.

Of course a lot of other nice language about democracy, human rights, rule of law and so on is thrown into ZIDERA. All these other conditions are subjective conditions which can be adjudged to be met at any moment.

Look at Egypt. A thousand people have died during political violence but there is no EGYPDERA in the works. In fact, more guns for the generals doing the shooting are in the pipeline. Yet we have the Americans calling what is a straightforward coup of then elected president, a 'restoration of democracy'.

The bottom line is the the West are not going to help you make their kith and kin, and themselves, poorer. If one thinks seriously about it, is the West and going to abandon land and mineral claims so that one can hand it over to the Chinese? They will go kicking, screaming and scratching all the way.

And the ill-feeling towards land reform is going to last probably a generation or two. Look at us, our forefathers were dispossessed of the land four to five generations ago, but look at how emotional about it we still are. So Zimbabwe should work on the worst case scenario that sanctions will stay for some years more.

Of course the MDC provided a finger for those imposing sanctions to hide behind. Supposedly it is upon their word, and that of ZESN, that the sanctions are being maintained. Personally I don't believe that even if the MDC had sung ballads in praise of the recent elections, it would have made any difference.

The key issue is return of land. Of course any Zimbabwean in their right mind will not agree to a return to the colonial status quo.

Success requires hard work

Success requires hard work.

I can show you a piece of land and call it yours. If you then proceed to fall asleep, you might grow a beard longer than Rip Van Winkle's but you won't have any tall crops on that land.

Possession of assets, does not amount to economic success. You need people with the correct knowledge, skills and work ethic to produce from the assets. You might think that you can always employ people with skills, but believe me the politics of the workplace very quickly militate against the personal motivation the skilled people might have.

You end up paying high salaries for little output. As the initial success of the biggest technology companies shows (Microsoft and Apple for example) it is always worthwhile for the main owner to be an expert in the field of endeavour.

For business highly technical business to be successful the owners also need to have excellent technical knowledge. Owners with little knowledge are often no more than sources of harmful interference, and wasteful expense.

Government policies of the post independence era have firmly shifted ownership of assets into our hands, and a good knowledge base into our heads. It is up to us individual Zimbabweans to polish this rough product into its final lustrous glory. It is up to us to be honest, diligent and humble as we work for the success of our country.

We need to remember that the success we seek is not for purposes of showing off, but for uplifting our communities as well. There is no use in you having ten expensive cars in your garage when the road to your real home, not the fake one in town, is rendered unusable by gullies. Zimbabweans, we need to uplift our communities.

For an economy to be successful it also needs a market. For any country the biggest internal market is the state. If the state is taking its custom and purchasing power and exporting it like we have been doing for a number of years, local ownership of resources is entirely meaningless.

We used to have Dahmer employing locals. Now we don't because we decided to export our purchasing power for buses. We used to have Quest Motors and Willowvale Motor Industries. Now they are stuttering because we have exported our purchasing power for vehicles. The government was first to that with importation of luxury vehicles. The public soon followed with their ravenous appetite for Japanese throwaway rubbish.

Indeed during Gideon Gono's time at came to a point where we were printing money to finance foreign purchases for things as basic as chains and scotch-carts. That is what led to hyperinflation.

Yes sanctions are there and they took a bite of our industrial capacity, but sanctions are not what leads to hyperinflation. Otherwise the Cuban and Iranian currencies, also under Western sanctions, would have tanked a long time ago.

At the end of the day we should not be surprised at the low employment levels in our economy and the high success rate of the economies we are importing from. We are giving them work to do even where we could be doing the work ourselves.

One can only but marvel at how one of the smallest towns in South Africa, Musina,  has boomed because of the purchasing power of Zimbabweans. I have watched the town grow threefold in half a decade with my own eyes.

The governance culture needs to be one of serving the people not one of exercising authority over the people. We need to minimize red-tape at every possible opportunity to allow commerce to flow faster and the country better yields. There is nothing to be gained from making people wait for long times, doing nothing. Rather serve them quickly so that they can use their time for other productive ventures.

For the human resources and skills to run these enterprises we need to strengthen our local education institutions. However our local students have been having to prostitute themselves for sustenance while money is disproportionately poured into the foreign education of the children of high ranking officials and the well connected.

Yet all that counts for little because the proudly one hundred percent Zimbabwean educated people like me, still outperform most foreign educated people even in the countries where they were educated. Suffice to say the foreign education is not about quality but about prestige and bragging rights.

If quality was the main issue, it is right here on home soil. We are the ones destroying what we have through neglect. We are like a man watering another man's livestock neglecting his own.

We need to focus on our country and that should start in the highest echelons of government.

Kudos to ZEC

I I would like to congratulate the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission on a job very well done.

Your system was so well organised and run that when a party official tried to tamper with the voting process you very easily caught him out.

Do not be disheartened by the attacks of permanent detractors and sore losers. Some of the permanent detractors cannot even run elections half as organised and transparent is the ones you ran.

Ms Rita Makarau and your team, please keep it up. You make proud Zimbabweans like me even more proud.

Please pass on my thanks to the multitudes of civil servants (teachers, police officers and others) who, I am proud to say, did an extremely professional job, and conducted themselves with immense dignity and poise. This is despite that they were working in probably the hottest political cauldron on this planet. I do not need to add, it shows that they have a diligent and hardworking culture.

I know you faced a tremendous amount of unsubtle pressure from enormously powerful international players to do everything possible to discredit a result they didn't want. However I am proud to say that you held your nerve and fulfilled your duty towards the Zimbabwean people immaculately, and impartially.

If it was up to me the expertise and integrity of individual members of the ZEC team would become very highly recommended in helping organize and observe elections throughout the region and Africa. You are indeed international quality experts at running elections.

Thank you very much.

The MDC should concede graciously

The MDC has refused to concede defeat, even where allies like Lovemore Madhuku have advised that normally you do not contest such margins of defeat. This is a clear indication that there is little, if any, chance that their challenge will make any difference to the material outcome of the election.

If you were to believe what the MDC are saying in public, they were cheated and they want a rerun. It puzzles me as to why they would want a rerun while momentum is clearly with Zanu-PF. Chances are that in any election to be held with then next one to two years, Zanu-PF would win by an even bigger margin. Candidates who survived by the skin of their teeth like the Honourable Tendai Biti, MP would definitely loose.

I think the MDC know very well that they were beaten fair and square. The hue and cry they are raising is primarily to provide cover for their foreign backers to maintain sanctions.The second motive might be to try and give themselves more leverage, in a future government, than they deserve based on their weak electoral showing. I would not be surprised if they are aiming for a couple of places in cabinet, or at the very least, for a face saving post for citizen Tsvangirai.

On the sanctions issue, anybody who has read ZIDERA will know very well that the real reason for them is to try and punish those who threaten the wealth that certain groups of individuals acquired through violent and racist colonial subjugation. They have got absolutely nothing to do with democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe.

Indeed if the issue was democracy, certain generals who deposed an elected president would have been quickly sanctioned as well. Instead they are being showered with billions of dollars worth of weaponry as well as being lavished with money. Despite, their actions threatening the stability of an entire region. Contrast that with a leader who has diligently held elections on time every time being called a dictator.

The MDC's current predicament shows the danger of being funded by foreign interests. You end up being made to look like a fool trying to pursue entirely divergent and contradictory interests. Like a man trying to chase two hares running in opposite directions.

The foreign interests backing the MDC are primarily driven by the desire to own and control natural resources which occur within the natural geographical sphere of influence of the Zimbabwe people.

At the same time the people of Zimbabwe want to fully exercise their natural right to benefit from those resources. To maximize this benefit they need to have ownership of the resources.

The MDC ends up like a man trying to explain the benefits of eating meat to a goat, on behalf of a hyena. 'You see if the hyena eats meat, it will be very fat and strong and protect you from other hyenas.' The catch will be that the hyena has to eat you first.

If a man has got to take ownership of what is yours, use it to make money, then employ you, why not just start by you employing him?

More than a week after the elections, the MDC have failed to come up with the evidence to challenge the result in court. Yet they still refuse to magnanimously concede defeat and allow the country to move on. They are also providing cover for people who want to harm Zimbabwe using sanctions, to continue doing.

Western governments have said they are not going to lift sanctions because the MDC and ZESN claim the elections were not fair. Yet these are groups that a paid and sponsored by the very same governments. Obviously the groups are not using any sort of objectivity, but are trying to produce the best possible outcome for their paymasters.

I do not think Zimbabwe should be held to ransom by such groups. I hope they realise that the possible backlash from Zimbabweans will mean even less support for them. We do not exactly adore having hardships invited upon us.

Why I think the Zimbabwe election was credible

The United States, Britain and Australia have called for an election re-run becuase of 'anomalies' in the voters roll, and they claim a large number of urban voters were 'barred' from voting.

If the voters roll is their main concern, then should never recognize elections in any other country in the region. Zimbabwe has the highest coverage of citizen registration in the region. Its voters roll though not perfect, has therefore the fairest representation of citizenry than any other country in the region.

Other countries including South Africa have got millions of people without even basic documents like a birth-certificate. If the voters' roll were to be the basis for judging the credibility of elections then those countries should be holding permanent reruns.

As for voters claimed to have been barred from voting, nobody has been able to tabulate tell us exactly, how why the voters were turned away. Nobody also is also telling us whether or not those voters eventually voted at other polling stations. The figures that are being bandied about are unsubstantiated thumbsucks like 'almost a million', 'maybe as much as 750 000'.

Mind you being turned away from a polling station does not amount to being barred from voting. Most people are simply referred to a polling station in the correct ward.

Take for example if you are a voter living in Highfield's Egypt Lines. You might turn up at Highfield High One School to vote. In past elections Highfield High One use to be in Highfield constituency and Egypt Lines (just across the road from it) in Glen Norah constituency. You would then be referred to Mukai High School about a kilometre (5 minutes walking distance) down the road. That does not amount to being barred from voting.

This is quite common in urban areas because of the higher population density and closer proximity of polling stations in different wards and constituencies as opposed to sparsely populated rural areas. People make a beeline for the polling station that is physically nearest to them.

So there is absolutely no anomaly in higher numbers of urban voters being referred to other polling stations. That does not amount to being barred from voting.

Anyway, what is the beef about? The MDC won in those urban areas didn't they?

If these countries are not going to lift sanctions against Zimbabwe it has got nothing to do with the credibility of Zimbabwe's elections. They are definitely far much more credible then the actions of the bunch of generals in Egypt to whom they are sending billions of dollars worth of weapons and money. And the situation in Zimbabwe is definitely far much more peaceful.

The only reason they are going to keep the sanctions is because they do not want to aid Nationalist, Afro-Centric and Pan-Africanist policies of Mugabe in any way. In the long run those policies are going to make the former colonialists, the wealth they now possess and whose claim to it is only on the basis of past colonial thuggery.

People often quote the results of the 2008 presidential election as evidence that the MDC was much more popular than Zanu-PF. That is not true. The MDC was neck and neck with Zanu-PF in the parliamentary election. They both had 46% of the vote, with Zanu-PF even slightly ahead.

That Tsvangirai was far ahead of Mugabe was in no small part due a secret campaign codenamed 'bhora musango' (shoot off target) by some Zanu-PF candidates to direct the presidential vote elsewhere. That is why Tsvangirai had 48% and Mugabe at 43% was 3% below his party's popular vote.

This time around the Zanu-PF slogan was 'bhora mugedhi' (shoot right between the goalposts!). Zanu-PF was now pulling as a unit. If Tsvangirai failed to beat Mugabe when some Zanu-PF members were campaign against their leader, how can people expect him to beat Mugabe now, when everyone in Zanu-PF had been whipped into line.

Besides, the arrogance with which he treated breakaway factions of his own party was a clear indication to Zanu-PF members who may have wished to work with him, that they better stick with the devil they know. No meaningful effort was ever made by Tsvangirai to reach out to these disgruntled Zanu-PF members and the MDC completely ignored the 'bhora musango' phenomenon.

How can people expect a party that fails to seize such opportunities to win.

Tsvangirai's loss was always coming

SADC and the African Union should stop entertaining dissatisfied minor political parties from member countries. Otherwise before you know it Renamo's Alfonso Dlakama will be demanding to meet SADC and the AU. If she were politically immature, Helen Zille might also demand to meet SADC and the AU.

These organisations should also be mindful that the most noisome of these minor parties are the products neo-colonial experiments by former colonial masters, not genuine people driven movements. Who doesn't know that RENAMO was founded by Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa to destabilize Mozambique for supporting people driven liberation movements like the ANC, ZAPU and ZANU. Who doesn't know that the MDC was financed to the hilt by former colonial masters to try and starve off the definite loss of wealth and control of the economy, that is going to come with policies like indigenisation, restoration of land and resources to the colonially dispossessed black people.

Such organisations seem to have inherited the sense of entitlement and priviledge that was the hallmark of colonial behaviour. RENAMO have been threatening to go to war because they feel they are entitled to win elections in Mozambique. Similarly the MDC seem to think that they are entitled to win elections in Zimbabwe.

In 2008 there was an evenly split election in Zimbabwe which needed a coalition. According to reports, Zanu-PF was the first to approach the MDC to form a coalition. Largely because Tsvangirai had already skipped the country and was refusing to return to negotiate, Zimbabwe had to approach the country hosting him to facilitate negotiation, with the blessing of SADC.

An agreement was signed which was supposed to subsist for two years. Subsequently a number of afterthought demands, which were not part of the original Global Political Agreement, were made. Already it is an anomaly that SADC took these afterthought demands and treated them as if they were part of the original agreement.

SADC is a voluntary group of equal countries. None among them is the headboy of the group, upon whom there is a duty to foist instructions upon others. None, also, should  allow themselves to be the conduit through which former colonial masters can continue to try and assert dominance over former colonies.

Remember the SADC grouping was born out of mainly the former Frontline States, which were at the forefront of dismantling that last bastion of colonialism, apartheid South Africa. The founder nations of this group, among which is Zimbabwe, fiercely and jealously guard against restoration of colonial edifices in what ever form.

The MDC claims that they were cheated. Yet nobody is able to specify where and how the cheating happened. When asked to provide evidence of rigging at a news conference, all Morgan Tsvangirai could say was that he didn't believe the MDC could loose Manicaland because they were so strong there in the past. By the same logic Zanu-PF could claim rigging stating that they don't believe they could loose any election in Zimbabwe because they used to have 117 out of 120 seats in the past.

Based on the facts available now, not speculation and conjecture, it is the MDC which tried to tamper with the voting process. Their elections director Komichi has a pending case right now resulting from special vote ballots which had been tampered with and marked in favour of Tsvangirai. That case did not even arise from Zanu-PF complaints. The MDC were caught out by ZEC on their own.

The entire MDC political doctrine was based on mere hatred of one man. 'Let's get rid of Mugabe' that is all their message was about. In you asked them 'Then what?' there would be no clear answers. There was no clear vision of what they wanted to achieve for Zimbabweans. They had no core principles and values.

They effectively reduced themselves to a single use tool, like a hypodermic needle. If it works, fine, but you throw it away. If it doesn't work you still throw it away. They know they are a cannula which failed to find the vein and are on their way to the disposables bin.

Unlike Kenya, Zimbabwe's politics are not ethnicity based. They do not have an ethnic support base like Raila Odinga in Kenya which might have given them a chance to remain relevant. For one to remain relevant in Zimbabwe, one needs core principles and values in resonance with those of the people.

Coupled with the tendency of their leader to try and please whoever he is facing for the moment, the MDC's message has been confused and confusing. One moment Tsvangirai would be championing gay rights on BBC, the next he would saying he doesn't really support them.

I would also like to politely ask the MDC and their backers, to stop insulting the intelligence of Zimbabweans. They knew about Tsvangirai's weaknesses. They wrote about it in diplomatic cables. Thanks to Wikileaks we know about it. They witnessed the drama surrounding his womanising. They watched as Tsvangirai prevaricated and mumbled incoherent messages on major issues such as land reform and gay rights.

Yet if you go by the claims of unfairness now, it is clear they believe that every Zimbabwean is so dumb and stupid that they would ALL still vote for Tsvangirai despite these glaring faults. That is an insult upon the intelligence of a people who are the most educated in sub-Saharan Africa.

Would the Labour party go to election with a leader who had impregnated a young woman. A leader who would have tried to marry another, changed his mind and jumped into the arms of a third woman, all within six months. On top of it, all these women would be the daughters of prominent Tory peers. The leader would also have cavorted with a sexy French woman in the Bahamas, who would also be claiming she was promised marriage.

If going to election with such a leader would not work in the UK, why would the British government think it would work in Zimbabwe. That is unless they hold a condescendingly insulting view of the intelligence of the black people of Zimbabwe.

Going by some claims the MDC took Zimbabweans for granted so much that one official is said to have boasted that even if Tsvangirai was caught committing murder, he would still win elections in Zimbabwe.

I would also ask the MDC's backers stop making all Zimbabweans pay for their misjudgement of Tsvangirai's character. They should accept Tsvangirai's obvious loss, and stop dishing out negative twaddle about Zimbabwe over it.

The MDC have always been a bunch of disparate opportunists either without, or with ultimately divergent core values. They were only united by their common belief that Mugabe was the only obstacle to their intentions. They forgot that the people of Zimbabwe themselves are the ones favouring the values Mugabe stands for.

Their defeat at free and fair election, unencumbered by economic sabotage, was always a given.

Zimbabwe Elections 2013: My Take.

A lot of people are talking as if I am responsible for the MDC's loss (if that's what is happening because I don't know the results). Yet I did not even vote.

A relative has warned me not to go to my rural home anymore. A friend says Zanu-PF should give me a diamond mine or make me the director of a parastatal. Another friend has told me 'wakadyiswa neZanu.' Yet I am not even a Zanu-PF supporter.

On the other hand, even if the MDC had won by 120%, it would not have changed my opinion that they are a bunch of dubious opportunists not worthy of the boots they were trying to fill. That is an opinion that I have held from the time they were formed.

Right now they are making a lot of claims about having been cheated. I am inclined to think it is part of a strategy to try and negotiate their way into government posts so as to stay in the money.

As usual the claims of cheating are speculative and not substantiated by hard evidence. Take for example the claim that there are people with the same name but different IDs registered at the same address.

For most Zimbabweans the 'address' is the village of origin. Take any Zimbabwean ID card and check, it is there. If you happen to have cousins, nephews and uncles also called Tapiwa (and we do have a tendency to name children after relatives) then it is quiet possible to have 3 or moreTapiwa Chimutis whose address is Chimuti Village. A lot of Zimbabaweans also use the houses of relatives as addresses because they are lodgers.

We have not even talked about totem based surnames like Moyo or Ncube. Get the Zimbabwe telephone directory and check how many pages those surnames covers. Unless your parents were to choose a rather exotic name like Welshman, you are likely to share a first name and surname with hundreds of other Ncubes.

Also remember that we Zimbabweans for reasons other than voting, sometimes register multiple times. When I was in primary school (1970s) I had three birth-certificates. I know of a cousin who once had 4 IDs until she was caught, triggering a big investigation at the registrar general's office. That was maybe 20 years ago. It is us ordinary people who duplicate IDs as we cheat and bribe our way through life, not politicians.

I am not ruling out tampering with the voters roll. But I wouldn't hold a press conference until I have done thorough and competent investigative work. I wouldn't hold a press a conference because I have seen two Thabani Moyos from Moyo Village. Or even two Thabani Moyos living in the same house in Harare. It could be grandfather and grandson.

As for voters turned away. Every party had polling agents at polling stations. Surely it was a simple matter to count the number of people turned away at each polling station and add the numbers to come up with a definitive figure, rather than to speculate on an overall figure that no one has any way of checking.

The MDC only have themselves to blame for wasting a good opportunity to get into power.

It is simply foolish to let people who grew up among the high rises of New York and Los Angeles, people who have never seen a tsombori, gwiredembo or dug for a fifi, to be your guiding light when you are seeking the votes of people who grew up doing these things.

I remember sometime ago I wrote that I will not take political advise, on Zimbabwe, from someone who has never been part of proceedings at a village court. Well the MDC did exactly that, borrow strategies and plans from New Yorkers almost word for word. They borrowed everything including the half-hearted attempt to champion gay rights. Now they are surprised that they are not winning elections in Zimbabwe. Hint, their strategy would have won them elections in Washington DC.

To me the election does not make much of a difference because the structural deficiencies of our governance system have always been unlikely to be addressed by either party.

First and foremost is the failure to collect revenue. The tax system has virtually collapsed with high income individuals in the informal sector largely untaxed.

Second is the excessive consumption of the executive. We have an excessively large executive branch, that is consuming far beyond the means of the economy. (http://punungwe.blogspot.com/2012/11/how-zimbabwes-economy-can-recover.html)

The MDC and Zanu-PF have been concentrating on throwing insults at each other and I never heard them addressing these tough but critical issues. Both parties focused on their traditional matakadyakare issues.

The Baba Jukwa Conundrum

In have just been reading an article about the so called Baba Jukwa on News24.

Two things caught my eye.
1. The writing style changes from day to day, which means it is a team of people not one person.
2. The Baba Jukwa team does seem to have inside information on what goes on at Zanu-PF meetings and what is discussed in private by Zanu-PF people.
3. The Baba Jukwa team seems to have access to the private cellphone numbers of Zanu-PF people.

Apparently Zanu-PF people are suspecting each other and scared. They think someone among them is secretly passing on information to Baba Jukwa.

For me what's going on is very easy to figure out. Think Edward Snowden. Think carefully about what he has leaked.

1. The Americans (NSA, CIA) can listen in on any phone conversation they want. Their laws prevent them from listening in on conversation by people on American soil, not anywhere else.
2. The Americans (CIA) are very good at planting bugs such that they even had bugs in EU offices and had bugs in an EU fax that was supposed to be secure.
3. The CIA have special antennas and listening devices.

Once you understand the import of these facts then the Baba Jukwa conundrum is solved. The Americans have got Zanu-PF offices, probably Zimbabwe government offices, cellphone airwaves and maybe even landlines thoroughly bugged.

This explains how the so called Baba Jukwa got the private cellphone numbers. Probably from American intelligence. It also means whatever Zanu-PF officials are discussing on the cellphones, in their offices and maybe even in their homes is being listened in to. That explains why Baba Jukwa always seems to have early knowledge of these discussions.

Why publish it on the internet. It's psychological warfare. It is meant to plant mistrust and uncertainty among the Zanu-PF officials.

That the Americans have an undue interest on the goings on in Zimbabwe is well known. Recently their ambassador was busy writing letters to senior civil servants in Zimbabwe.

Snowden has a lot for the Russians

Edward Snowden, the man stuck in Russia after releasing some very damaging American secrets is a brave man indeed. Very few people in the world, including Americans, would dare take on the powerful American secret intelligence establishment on matters of principle.

I definitely do believe that Snowden's convictions about freedom, liberty and justice are spot on. However I think he may have escaped the jaws of a Mississippi alligator but he is now in the grip of a Zambezi hippo.

Russia seems to be totally disinterested in Snowden's fate and destination. According to Vladmir Putin, he is a squeeling piglet with no wool. After thinking about Snowden's potential intelligence value to Russians, I think Putin is being disingenuous. He actually know that the Russians have got a woolly mammoth in the hands and there is a lot of wool to be sheared.

From Snowden, the Russians can get information about people he worked with. They are likely to glean information about some of those people's vulnerabilities as well. In other words they are going to find out from Snowden who in the American system they can get drunk.

Everyone seems to think that pressure from Americans is getting most countries to rethink their offers of asylum for snowden. I find it hard to believe that countries like Ecuador are changing their minds because of Joe Biden ranting and raving at them.

I am more inclined to think that it a few well placed bites to the ear by the Russians are achieving that. 'Guys leave him for us.'

Snowden is likely to know some people whose work is so secret that not even their wives know what they do. Imagine the kind of intelligence bonanza it would be for the Russians, to be able to identify even just one or two of such people and their roles. I am sure Snowden can give them much more than one or two names to work with. Information from Snowden is likely to give the Russians a few tiny holes through which they can try and worm deeper into the American intelligence establishment.

As an example take one of the events that turned Snowden against the system he worked for. The CIA got an 'innocent' banker drunk, had him arrested for drunk driving then rescued him to earn his gratitude. The CIA wouldn't have bothered to get the man drunk unless they knew who he worked for and what kind of information he had access to. For them to know that it just didn't happen. They did some other intelligence work upfront. Snowden is a fountain of such upfront intelligence at which the Russians can thirstily drink.

Whether he likes or not Snowden is in a very tight spot and he is going to need big favours to get out of it. The Russians can do him such favours. I don't believe even for a moment that they are going to do it just for the sake of embarrassing the Americans with leaks. They are going to do him a favour because they want to debrief him thoroughly.

Snowden's value for the Russians does not come from poking, prodding and embarrassing the Americans with releases of their secrets. Snowden's value comes from the insight he can give the Russians into the inner workings of some of the most top secret American spying organisations. He has been with both the CIA and NSA.

Snowden effectively has nowhere to go and is already on Russian soil. So time is on the side of the Russians. I think they are going to let him stew a bit and when he is tender enough, they are going to have their meal.

MY PETITION TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF ZIMBABWE

This day I regret that I am a poor man. If I had money like Mutumwa Mawere, I would have made the following submission to the constitutional court of Zimbabwe.


MY PETITION TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF ZIMBABWE IN OPPOSITION TO THE GOVERNMENT OF ZIMBABWE'S APPLICATION TO HAVE THE ELECTION DEADLINE POSTPONED.

 1.
 a) My name is Jupiter Charles Punungwe
 b) I am Zimbabwean citizen identification number 63-0000000-X-18
 c) I am currently working outside the country but I reside at 1278 Tynwald South, Harare. I also alternatively reside at Farm no 1025, Hampshire, Chikomba District
 d) I am not a member of any political party. I make this submission as a private citizen interested in making sure that the tenets of democracy are upheld in Zimbabwe.
 e) I am proud to be Zimbabwean, I am proud to have been Zimbabwean every second of my life. I will proudly remain a Zimbabwean to the day I die.

 2.
 a) You worships, you are the supreme legal authority in Zimbabwe.
 b) You have in your hands the sovereign authority of the people of Zimbabwe which you exercise without fear, favour or interference from any parties.
 c) On Zimbabwean soil, state parties have to obey and respect your judgments, even though such states may deem themselves more powerful than Zimbabwe.
 d) I have absolute faith that your decisions are always in the best interests of Zimbabwe.
 e) I have absolute faith in your impartiality in upholding the laws of Zimbabwe.
 f) Furthermore I submit it to you that the constitution that gives you your authority, is the very same that defines the democratic nature of Zimbabwe.

 3.
 a) I submit it to you that the cornerstone of democracy is that elections must be held on time without fail.
 b) I implore you not stop the democratic clock, simply because a group of individuals are not confident of winning.
 c) I implore you not to stop the democratic clock until some individuals are convinced that the deck is stacked sufficiently in their favour.
 d) I implore you not to stop the democratic clock for reason of appeasing external parties some of who have vested interests and interfering in Zimbabwe's governance.

 4.
 a) Your worships, I also beg you be cognisant of the fact that, the current coalition government was supposed to have concluded its business by the 14th of September 2010.
 b) If you wish to consider that the GNU was sworn in on 13 February 2009, then at the very latest the GNU should have concluded it's reform business by 12 February 2011.
 c) Your worships, it is therefore my considered submission to you that if there were any urgent and critical reforms that warrant the halting of our democratic clock, the respective parties in the GNU have had more than enough time to push for those that they deemed critical.
 d) It is also my considered submission to you that reforms have indeed taken place.
 e)  I recognise that fact that yourselves as the Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe, are constituted by a constitution that was adopted after a referendum. The referendum extensively reformed Zimbabwe's electoral systems.
 f) I submit to you the conduct of that referendum as evidence that indeed reforms have taken place.

 5.
 a) Your worships, any system, including a system of laws is subject to constant improvement.
 b) Our democratic right as the people of Zimbabwe to periodically choose our representatives, should not be subordinate to these incremental reforms.
 c) Your worships I submit to you Zimbabwe has clearly defined ways in which various servants of the state including security officials and judges are appointed. People with the relevant authority to make the appointments do so when they are in office not before.
 d) Your worships may I bring it to your attention that many other democratic systems including the United States work the very same way Zimbabwe is doing it. When a democratic president is in office, they tend to appoint liberal judges. When a republican is in office, they tend to appoint conservative officials including judges.
 e) Your worships, it is therefore only fair to expect that anyone who is not happy with past appointments in whatever sector of Zimbabwe's government and judiciary, should win office first and make their own changes going forward.

 6.
 a) Your worships, may I also establish the fact that not all Zimbabweans are represented by the political parties wishing to delay the elections.
 b) However elections are the vehicle which afford Zimbabweans to determine their political representation for the next democratic cycle.
 c) That the current cycle is about to expire means that none of the political parties can claim to have a solid mandate, but that they must all go back to the electorate to renew, extend or maybe loose the mandate as the electorate may desire.
 d) Your worships I beg you to be cognisant of the fact elections give every Zimbabwean the right to express themselves if they so wish, irrespective of political affiliation or lack thereof.
 e) By insisting that elections take place on time, you will be upholding the right of every Zimbabwean as defined by the constitution of Zimbabwe, not just some of particular political affiliations.
 f) By upholding the democratic rights of all Zimbabweans, you will not be in any way interfering with the rights of some who express the wish to delay elections.
 g) Your worships, submit it to you that political disagreement among some Zimbabweans, is not a sufficiently strong reason to delay the democratic process.

 7.
 a) Your worships as you may be aware one of the demanded reforms is media reforms.
 b) Morgan Tsvangirai leading this media 'reform' drive was recently quoted as threatening media that is not sympathetic to him and his party that 'muchadya izvozvo' a clear threat made in the Shona language.
 c) Making such threats against the media clearly suggests that calls for media reform are not sincere.
 d) Your worship there is a distinct possibility that these calls are merely meant to delay processes or simply be a spanner in the works.

 8.
 a) Your worships, I submit that there is no need to delay the democratic process
 b) I submit that there are no special circumstances to warrant a delay of the elections.
 c) External state parties including the African Union and SADC have made it clear that the decision amend your previous ruling is yours alone.
 d) Even if these external parties had attempted to instruct otherwise, they do not hold any authority over yourselves. You are the constitutional court of the sovereign nation of Zimbabwe.
 e) Your worships I submit that the paramount consideration is Zimbabwe's democratic needs. I submit that right now, the most important need is that of upholding the democratic precedent that has been religiously maintained for the past three decades.
 f) I submit that it will be extremely harmful to Zimbabwe's future if we allow the precedent that elections can be delayed for the sake of a few unhappy individuals. In future such minded people may seek to delay elections by several years negating the entire practice of democracy.
g) Your worships the purpose of elections is to determine Zimbabwe's political representation from this point forward. It would be unfair to allow those who may have enjoyed political representation in the past to tinker with future political representation outside the democratic electoral framework.
h) Your worships I submit it to you that elections must take place first, to determine the valid political mandates from this point forward, before we tinker with any other reforms.

Elections must be held on time in Zimbabwe

Ladies and Gentlemen, there is not a single day that Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe without an electoral mandate from the people of Zimbabwe.

All those howling in protest please cite the facts, not the conspiracy theories, to prove me wrong. Yes there have been numerous allegations, claims, theories and claimed conspiracies of how Zanu-PF rigs elections, but not a single one of these has ever been proved.

In fact I have no recollection of even one instance, when clear coherent facts were ever presented to make a convincing case. Whatever allegations are made, they fall apart the moment they are subjected to detailed examination.

So in reality most of the allegations are a little more than losers' sour grapes.

One allegation often cited is that Mugabe did not win 2008. This is often accompanied by the unfounded claim that Tsvangirai was the winner. On the contrary, there was no clear winner in March 2008, necessitating either a coalition or a rerun. Tsvangirai did not understand the position and thought he had won outright. He hadn't.

He later chickened out of the rerun, leaving Mugabe to claim the mandate unchallenged. Recognizing the deep divisions among the people, and the disputed conditions of the rerun, Mugabe still went into coalition with Tsvangirai.

So the truth is that Tsvangirai is the one who doesn't have an electoral mandate for anything but is occupying his position purely by negotiation. In fact he is named prime minister specifically as part of an agreement that was supposed to expire three years ago.

He is the one who, if anyone can claim so, was imposed on Zimbabweans by SADC which is one of the reasons he keeps running to them to try and prolong his stay in office and the consequent access to a luxurious lifestyle. That is also the reason he doesn't care for a proper electoral mandate because he does not have one, and does not have the confidence that he can obtain one.

He doesn't want the agreement that put him in power to expire until he has the best possible chance of winning. That is why he is basing the next election on demands for ever-shifting 'reforms'.

Elections must be held before his current mandate expires on July 31, as determined by the Constitutional court of Zimbabwe. If that date passes, believe me the backers of Mugabe's opponents will quickly turn around and say you do not have a mandate anymore so we are not going to recognize you.

He would be a fool to allow himself to be delayed beyond that date. Once that happens, his detractors will have him exactly where they want him - without a mandate. Psychological warfare tactics are being used to manipulate him into that position.

One the one hand we have clear and irrefutable constitutional provisions and requirements. On the other we have very vague 'reforms' that are being made to sound like an absolute necessity. Needless to say the vagueness of these reforms allows them to be panel-beaten and modified along the way to suit the agenda of the moment.

Moreover these reforms are not really meant to improve democracy in Zimbabwe but are being pushed to try and give a single particular party the best possible advantage. 'Reforms' are only deemed necessary only if they are believed to help the MDC-T, end of story.

I have got one question. Do 'reforms' supersede the Zimbabwe Constitution? Anyway, what are these reforms? Can anyone outline them in point form? If the point list made in 2009 and the one in place now were to be put side by side, will they be the same?

Mugabe's opponents are not sure that their proteges will get power through the vote. So to circumvent the people, delay elections beyond the current electoral mandate, then simply recognize anyone you want, because no one has a mandate anymore. Once they recognize whoever they want, simply give them money to prop them up. It happened in Libya.

The greatest strategic imperative in Zimbabwe right now is to preserve peace and stability. The preservation of stability will allow the people to gradually re-grow the economy. As long as the key resources are in their hands and control the people will reap maximum long term benefit, as opposed to the short term benefits of quickly handing over resources to others.

The greatest threat to stability is foreign sponsored destabilization as happened in Libya and is happening in Syria. Therefore a careful and clever foreign policy is necessary to starve off such nefarious sponsorship of destabilization.

When one looks at Libya and Syria, it is clear that the destabilization, euphemistically called 'international intervention', is not meant to help the countries but rather induce them to self-destruct. It is classical divide and rule.

In the case of Zimbabwe what counts in her favour is that you cannot militarily destabilize Zimbabwe without destroying the South African economy. Zimbabwe sits right on top of South Africa's transport routes to key markets and sources of raw materials in the north.

Any instability in Zimbabwe will rub off on South Africa itself with its potpourri of 11 major ethnicities some highly suspicious of each other. If things start going wrong, South Africans can easily start fighting along tribal and racial lines. There are indications that some, particularly hardcore Afrikaner racists, are chomping at the bit to set up separate states. Already they have enclaves, Orania and Kleinfontein.

Whether we like it or not, Zanu-PF have their hands on the most important levers of power. Prying off their fingers has to be carefully and intelligently managed, not just for Zimbabwe's sake but for the sake of the region.

Look at what is happening in Syria. What was claimed would be a quick deposition of Assad by Western favoured rebels is turning into a regional conflict, whose outcome nobody knows. However the destruction wrought upon Syrian infrastructure will take decades to overcome.

America's drone policy is racist

Suppose a CIA informant has this girl he is going out with. Then this guy from the next village also bonks the girl and the informant finds out. Of course he won't be happy.

Most human beings will seek ways to avenge such slights of their honour. These include

1. Shouting and screaming at the rival.
2. Looking for a suitable weapon to inflict bodily harm on the rival
3. Go tell big brother to deal with the rival.

In the past 'big brother' could only be some stocky guy, or a can of acid. Nowadays big brother can have drones. Mind you big brother doesn't even need to know the root motive of why he is being asked to use his drones. He can simply be told what is needed to get him to go along with the plan.

The aggrieved guy now has the option to tell that so and so from the next village is the worst of the bad Taliban - send him a Hellfire.

Will the CIA be any wiser to the real motive. Chances are that they won't even have a clue. Firstly the did not grow up within the culture hence they won't be able to pick up the tell tale signs of a jealous infused individual.

Mind you we are talking about a society where people kill and maim for honour, just like that. Women are routinely maimed with acid and some are shot for merely going to school.

Secondly there is no record of interactions, like a folder of salacious draft messages, that keeps growing with messages that never get send. That is how David Petraeus used to communicate with his lover. Most interactions are verbal and are literally speaking - gone with the wind.

Eventually the casual intimate liaison of the then CIA director ended up sending threatening messages to a perceived rival. Imagine if she could have got away with sending a Hellfire armed Reaper. Informants in remote areas, whose information is difficult if not impossible to verify, can get away with sending Hellfires to love rivals as we speak right now.

In the Petraeus case there is a trail of salacious emails to give us an insight into what happened. Out in the field, there is no luxury of such records to reveal the details of motives.

America just finds itself with more and more people hating them.

In my opinion, America's drone policy is simply criminal. According to a recent NBC report (http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/05/18781930-exclusive-cia-didnt-always-know-who-it-was-killing-in-drone-strikes-classified-documents-show?) they admit to not knowing a quarter of who they are killing. Their claims to know the other three quarters are also tenuous.

America's drone policy is no different from bombing an entire Bronx apartment building simply because a drug dealer is living there. Of course they would never attempt that in the the Bronx.

The only reason they do it elsewhere is because they consider the lives of us third world people to be cheap and useless. So if they kill ten of us in the hope of getting maybe one person they want, it doesn't matter to them. We are nothing but useless collateral damage.

This is exactly the same mentality that has been the driving force behind slavery and colonialism for centuries. The mentality that the lives of other races are cheap and expendable in the quest to improve the lot of the 'chosen race'. This mentality is the foundation upon which racism is built.

Even though America's president is black, America's drone policy is racist. It treats the lives of non-Westerners as cheap and expendable.

I am willing to bet my bottom dollar, that they will never ever replicate the policy in regions with significant white populations. If Ayman al Zawahiri were to go and hide in a Swiss hamlet, a Welsh borough or a French villa, they would never drone bomb it. However if he were to hide in a Thai muban, chances are they would drone bomb it.

I am not justifying the actions and philosophy of the cave dwelling fundamentalists who would like to see every woman in the world covered from head to toe.

All I am pointing out, is that two wrongs do not make a right.

The rural vs urban debate in Zimbabwe : An extension of the land question.

If one watches American movies, or even everyday news, hardly a day passes without hearing about homeless people. These are people without a roof over their head, who sleep in the streets and have got no other option. Most of them are not insane people either.

If you live in Zimbabwe, a person who sleeps in the street is either insane or a street kid. Most of the later would have run away from abusive homes.

Yet the USA is the richest country in the world, and Zimbabwe is one of the poorest. Why is that? Why  do Zimbabweans not end up living on the streets, homeless, despite the famed economic hardships in the country.

I believe a key part of the answer is a culture that is land based. We Zimbabweans believe in owning a piece of land somewhere (musha) which one can use for, at a minimum, subsistence living. Vanhu vane misha yavo.

If you have access to land you can always build a roof for yourself. You use your own time to mould your own bricks, cut your own grass, cut your own poles and build a hut. Thus the poorest you can ever be if you have land, is not be homeless sleeping on the streets but have a grass thatched hut over your head.

Yet recently we had the prime minister calling for people to be removed from the rural areas and be relocated to towns so they could look for jobs.

Prime Minister Tsvangirai does not understand the core problem around people being poor peasants. The people in so called communal areas (which were created as, and are still operating as, native reserves) are poor peasants because they do not have legally recognised ownership of the land they live on.

Their tenure on that land is not economically actionable. Apart from utilizing the land for living on and growing subsistence crops, they cannot use the land as an economic asset.

Let me put it this way, a man living on 6 hectares in Musana communal lands cannot go to a bank to get a loan for building say pig sties or a commercial chicken hatchery. Yet he has enough land to run those kind of operations.

On the other hand a man living in Kuwadzana on 250 square metres can go to any bank and get a loan using his house as collateral. But even if he gets the loan, where is he going to get the space to build a commercial hatchery and commercial pigsties.

What Tsvangirai is effectively saying is take a man who has six hectares, and therefore a chance of employing himself and probably one or two other people, and put him on 250 sqaure metres or in a lodger's room where he has absolutely no chance of employing anyone, but is one hundred percent dependent on being employed himself.

Don't forget that the man in Musana still has the option to compete for same job with the man in Kuwadzana, if he so chooses.

If they both find jobs, the man in Musana has got somewhere to invest his income. If both are working pensionable jobs, at retirement time, the man in Musana will have some cows plus a pension while the Kuwadzana man only has a pension.

The man in Musana can grow much of his own food, using his pension for other things. The man in Kuwadzana has to buy most of his food.

What people often mistake for poverty in rural areas is a lack of infrastructure. That lack of infrastructure is due to negligence by government. Colonial governments neglected the rural areas where blacks live because of racism. Today's government is failing to develop the rural areas mainly because of mismanagement and corruption. However some of it is due to the mentally colonised belief that rural areas should only be poor.

The cornerstone of land reform should have been to give people from the former native reserves, legal economically utilizable tenure on the land they live on.

Yes equitable re-distribution of land to de-racialise land ownership patterns is also important, but that on its own without reform of the tenure system is not sufficient to economically uplift people's lives.

Indeed white farms have been taken mostly to recreate the tenureless land occupation of the former native reserves. I do not know if the people implementing this type of land reform are at all aware that, in the first place, tenureless occupation was specifically designed to disempower the natives.

What is needed now is to give not only the people resettlement areas, but even those in the old native reserves, legal tenure on the land. Ipai vanhu kumamisha ma title deeds kuti vakwanisewo kutsvaga mari dzekuita maprojects anopihwa mari kuma bhanga pamisha yavo.

Of course there are risks, because if somebody mismanages a project they could loose their home. However there are many ways of mitigating or working around those risks. For example instead of getting a loan an the whole homestead, people could officially subdivide and get a loan on a portion. That way even if the project fails one will still have a roof over their head.

The prime minister was talking of  taking people off the land and putting them into towns where they could end up on the streets.

Can he not see that by taking a man from where he has a chance to utilize 6 hectares, to a place where he has to first look for lodgings and then maybe get a job, you are actually drastically narrowing his economic options not expanding them.

Instead of giving your citizen a loan on six hectares, you want to invite someone and give them loans, while you force your citizens to look for jobs from those you are giving loans. That is exactly what is going to happen, if people are pulled out of resettlement areas so that 'commercial' farmers can be brought back.

The countries that Tsvangirai is trying to emulate, the Western countries, have got homeless people. That is people who live on the streets with not even a roof over their head. Yet in Zimbabwe it is difficult to find anyone who sleeps in the open because they have absolutely no other choice.

People who own land in those countries are considered rich. The ranchers in the United States and the Lords in Britain are all classes whose esteemed status is historically rooted in tenured land ownership.

The biggest problem with Zimbabwe's economy right now is politicians using their position to take money that is meant to provide services for people, and spending it on luxury lifestyles for themselves, their families and their cronies.

Politicians are also using their influence to help people avoid paying monies that are due to the state. This sometimes goes to the extend of aiding and abating tax evasion. Recently I came across a man who claimed that he doesn't pay toll fees because he claims he is related to a well known Zanu-PF politician.

Rural areas are poor because money meant for infrastructure development is being misused. The key to uplifting lives in Zimbabwe lies in upgrading the infrastructure and tenure system in rural areas, not moving people to towns so they can look for jobs.

When I was nearly struck by lightning

When I was about 9 years old a granary was struck by lightning 10 metres from the kitchen hut where my family was sitting. The granary had a roof of iron sheeting, a steel window frame, and there was a metal wire tying a loose roof sheet to the wall, looping through the windowframe.

The building was unscathed save a large chunk of brickwork that had been gouged out just below the window frame. The wall below the gouging had been burnt dry by the heat of the lightning. It was as if no rain had touched that part of the building. As per traditional belief my grandfather duly consulted a n'anga.

The n'anga 'traced' the 'route' of the lightning from about 200 metres away, from close to the boundary fence of the homestead. He duly found two sets of 'lightning eggs' one just behind the granary and another under a mutukutu tree about a hundred metres in the direction where he claimed the lightning 'ran' from.

He claimed the lightning had been targeting people in the kitchen huts but through the power of our strong ancestors it had been diverted and instead it had crashed into the granary. According to the n'anga the gouging was from the crash and the dry wall was because the lightning was carrying fire which it intended to use to burn the people if it had caught them.

According to the n'anga, the lightning had been hiding along the boundary fence for a long time waiting for an opportune moment to strike. He said someone malicious towards the family had left it there. He didn't exactly pinpoint anyone, but the family discussions soon rounded upon a local villager who, reputation had it, had gone to Manicaland and came back with lightning.

"Akamboinda kuChipinge ka uya!" was considered proof that the man had powers to manufacture lightning.

Us youngsters we were not allowed to see such scary things as lightning eggs, but I did manage to be naughty enough to sneak a peek. The eggs were white, not brownish like chicken eggs, and were slightly smaller than chicken eggs. But I could see they were real eggs. They were definitely not scary and, at that tender age, I had serious hopes that they would be cooked for consumption.

I was very, very disappointed when the n'anga performed some rituals with them and then took them away, together with my grandfather, to throw them away without giving me a chance of eating them.

The n'anga latter claimed that some of the eggs had hatched, and the chicks of the lightning were hiding somewhere near the homestead. He warned that the chicks would come back to strike again. He hadn't had enough time to hunt for them, but he was prepared to come back and finish them off. To bring him back he hinted that he wanted several cows. He ominously warned that if he wasn't allowed to find the remaining lightning chicks soon, the family would be wiped out.

Of course the entire family was in awe of the n'anga's explanation. For weeks afterwards the discussion centred on whether the lightning, came running, galloping of flying. "Mheni inouya ichiita chamurambamhuru" was a common claim. Some claimed that since the n'anga said the lightning had travelled along or near the ground from the boundary fence, it must have run or galloped along the ground and left behind footprints only the n'anga had powers to see.

My grandfather, much to the chagrin of some family members, baulked at parting with so many cows, so the n'anga was never brought back. He was accused of wanting to have the family wiped out by lightning (munoda kutipedzesa nemheni Sekuru aJupi) just for the sake of keeping his cows. (Mombe idzodzo dzakakosha kudarika vanhu here?)

This happened several years before independence and to this day our homestead has never been struck by lightning again. I wonder where the chicks went.

With the understanding of electricity that I now have, of course it is easy to figure out what happened. The lightning discharge must have struck the metal roof of the granary. It travelled through the wire to the window frame. Below the windowframe there was no metal to travel through. Met with a higher coefficient of resistance it heated up the brick material causing sudden expansion, hence the gouging in the wall. It still managed to travel to earth through the wall but as it heated the wall causing the water to evaporate.

What is the fight in Syria really about?

What is the fight in Syria really about? Is it about freedom and democracy?

Bashar is not a democrat, far from it. Neither is Shaikh Khalifa, nor that other king whose country beheads underage girls. They are the chief sponsors of the fighting in Syria.

Of course these two would not be so emboldened without American blessings, or at the very least American indecisiveness. It looks like the Americans are playing Russian roulette with terrorism in Syria.

They were worried that the jihadist al-Nusra front was too pre-eminent in the Iraqi opposition. Now they are telling their client states to supply more weapons to the 'moderate' rebels. There are hoping to lure the people who had joined the jihadi side back to the moderate side.

The foolishness of this policy is patently obvious. The jihadi fighters could join the moderates get weapons and either simply walk back to the jihadi side with the weapons, or simply apply their jihadi policies on the ground with those weapons.

The same mistake that was made in Najibullah's Afghanistan and Somalia is about to be made again. Here is how. As the fight heats up and individual commanders on the ground struggle to stamp their authority, they will morph into warlords. As warlordism takes hold, loyalties are far much more likely to be cemented along clan lines.

Overall loyalty to a particular cause will then be determined by contingency and survivalist necessities of the moment. Once such a fluid state has been reached it will be years or even generations before any central body is able to stamp its authority again.

Also overall loyalty of a group is likely to be determined by the deep personal convictions of individuals in the groups involved. I do not know what the deep personal convictions of Syrian rebel leaders are. Neither should the Americans fool themselves into thinking they do. Did they know the deep personal convictions of Osama when they were sponsoring him against the Soviets.

To cite an even more recent example, did they know he deep personal convictions of Tamerlan Tsarnaev when they were mentoring him to an adult in the USA. In the case of Tamerlan, despite being warned by the Russians they couldn't pick it up that he was dangerous.

I don't blame the FBI for that failure, some people are simply good at bluffing especially if they know what those to be bluffed are looking for. It is as easy as putting on the make-up that you know a suitor wants to see.

To me the strategy to democratise Syria is very simple. Force an election even with Asad in power. He belongs to a minority, he is bound to loose. Even if he manages to retain a fingerhold, that grip would soon slip away in a few years after another round of elections.

The big advantage of such a strategy is that central authority would hold, containing many threats. The transition would be gradual allowing population groups to adjust. Of course external powers seeking to influence the outcome may not get the outcomes they are hoping for.

The Americans should also be wary of another risk, falling for the small brother syndrome. The small brother will start fights he can't possibly win knowing that big brother has got the brawn. American allies will take chances relying on American influence and power.

It happened in Libya. The French pushed for a fight. It was the Americans who provided the backbone for that fight. It was also them who took the hardest blows thrown back. They lost ambassador Stephens.

In Syria it is the Saudis and the Qatari who are pushing for a fight. They cannot provide the military solution by themselves but they are hopping to drag the Americans into fighting for their interests. Their reasons are essentially sectarian, they are Sunnis and Assad belongs to a Shiite sect.

The Russians, at this point, may have finally figured out that the demonisation of Syria has got nothing to do with human rights but might have everything to do with rolling back their influence. If they can't see that, they will never be able to see anything even if you give them glasses the size of Siberia.

Syria, has become nothing but a proxy battlefield. The main battle seems to be on Sunni vs Shia muslim lines. It has drawn in the regional powers of both sects. It has also drawn in the world powers with a resolutely pro-Assad Russia on the one side and the indecisive Americans on the other.