The other view…..

i have lived outside zimbabwe for more than 10 years and try as I may I still feel loads of interest to be a part of what is going on daily. It is the place where I lived adventured into hills, pools and Forrest’s without care. It is a place I made lasting friendships and learnt to fight for something, anything. It is the place where I learnt to read and write and the little that got me accepted in a foreign land as a worker. So yes, it is home.

i have heard loads of news fake, good, bad sad and outright untrue but have wished some to be true. I have heard of the death of the president many times in the years I have been out here, I will not voluntarily say how it made me feel each time. Such is how hatred and anger does even to a decent person.

when the news of a coup brewing started being whispered I was already primed for such a development. Mind you I am a supporter of coups. ( that didn’t come out right). I suppose when they a bloody they are bad for everyone but saying coups are bad is denial of a very easy way of dealing with very cruel men. Mugabe was going nowhere. It shows even now he does not want with the thing. Haadi nechinhu. Kafuni lento.

so in November a coup happened in Zimbabwe. Mugabe was resigned. ( grammatically wrong but yes he was resigned). It’s not that I am complaining, any removal of Mugabe was cause for a braai if not full party. The demagogue had grown too long a pair of horns. Mugabe had to go for many had already wished him to go even negwamwari.

the details of the coup will be known later, many years later but for now, Zimbabwe is again in bad hands. Zimbabwe is not being sorted. The incumbent regime is struggling for acceptance and legitimacy. It isn’t something that they would go around showing need for. Signs are there for all to see. The regime knows of criminals but will do nothing about it. They are arresting some people who it might turn out to be staged. One has so much against him that even a village court would convict him but he flatly roams the streets in boast. Fixing zimbabwe requires turning against all corruption and that requires prosecuting. At least two fat ones have avoided any charge.

zimbabwe can not be fixed if all the rumours of Mugabe wealth amassing is not dealt with. The nation will need answers on what he did and what he didn’t. During his tenure despite the nation suffering allegedly due to sanctions, due to sanctions him and his cronies became wealthiest. That a president earning $1200 ends up richer than the country is suspicious even to me.

If there is anyone who should be charged, persecuted or prosecuted for criminal abuse of office it is Robert Gabriel matibili Mugabe. Overnight his son in law whose qualifications remain questionable became operations manager of the national airline. His daughter, a holder of a Chinese first degree jumped a queue of eminent scholars, administrators, professionals, experienced to land at least 2 top appointments in no time. He could commandeer the plane to anywhere. He used state assets for party business.

Until the regular violence that Mugabe endorsed every election time is dealt with Zimbabwe is not fixed and is not being fixed. People were wantonly murdered for political view and choice something the constitution clearly confirms as theirs. A president who earned $1200 gets richer than presidents who earn n$400000! Add that for me, miracle money or what? Mugabe was in Malaysia or Singapore or Dubai for medical reasons like monthly yet now he is out of the office he is healed and making noise.

The current regime has not improved anything than so called absence of police roadblocks. We have elections in less than 6 months no attempt has been made to reform. We still are where we were this time last year. The current president is definitely behaving as if he is someone else’s spokesman. He goes around telling anyone who listens, that he will hold free and fair elections yet at home he does nothing to implement. He still behaves like he is Mugabe’s deputy. He has acting President syndrome, he dares not act.

For us to believe her, she must convince us and for her to convince us she must believe it herself.

She claims that her husband is the cleanest in the world. And she is not talking about kusageza. She means he is not corrupt and he is not corruptable. She must be dreaming. I am sure starting to think she does not know her husband, like maybe he does his deals without her knowing. Or maybe seeing the beautiful sunset that his life is fast becoming she thinks to lay a foundation for ignorance; good move!

The man claims he earns us$14000 per year. His sons spend more than that per month. He dresses in some black and white shoe I hear is probably more expensive than some twice resold Japanese imported car. He holidays in the Far East. He eats in expensive kingly Asian restaurants in far away countries where some of us can only dream of.

The man is a chancellor of at least 6 universities, one of which fairly conferred a 6 week PhD on his wife, the genius who bit the London university at English till they gave her a mandarin degree instead of o level English. Doctor amai believes doctor ababa is not corrupt, he is as clean as a whistle.

The same man who the now unaccounted for Cuban pathologist, told those of us who chose to stay awake that day, that the man turned up uninvited where Rex Nhongo’s charred body was being post-mortemed. And he is clean.

He is in obvious panic mode, trying to force one idiot, sorry one ED to say he was not poisoned. Why is he as angry as he was at the airport if he is not the one who……? That ED is surely a Lacoste, lizard son of a ghecko,friend of the alligator. If he was the croc himself he would have torn than matoto carrying jongwe into pieces long kudala. Still the oldman is clean.

He has thousands of my relatives’ blood on his hands, chose to call it a moment of madness. And he is clean. You know when I have soiled your pants before I will watch what I say on the subject. She doesn’t get it that she has no moral platform to talk about extra marital issues even in reverse order.

She forgets people sing about taking back children to their lineage. She forgets that the same mr perfect seduced her as a very down marengenya typist like it is good to fish in your typing pool. She forgets she was married. She forgets he was married.Zvifebe are now cleanest people in the world.

And  the land audit will never happen. Why? Because the guy in charge is afraid he is guilty. The corrupt cleanest man in the world. Or is it cleanest corrupt man in the world.

Come on Grace dear, the old man should be in jail kudala. He has no clue what clean is. Clean is for him to get of that seat of power. He has caused so much peacetime deaths and violence. The only less cleaner thing I can think of is  a turd

A

i can not remember any time in my adulthood when I did not own a don williams compilation. And I don’t know if I will ever have no don williams music in my collection.

2017 Father’s Day my daughter bought me two cd’s……one bob Marley and one don williams. What a perfect gift from a daughter who knows me all too well. (Thank you my little girl)

little did I know that one day in 2017 I would sit to type farewell words to a legend, a champion of the box guitar and equally melodious country voice. A few years ago I attended his gig in Bournemouth, an event I thoroughly enjoyed. Don performed all the time perched on a stool. Yet he had a way of getting all to at least sway.

Why am I writing so many weeks after he passed on?  Because I have been waiting just waiting hoping that somehow I would end up with news saying it was all a hoax. So far it would appear it is not, and it took me 2 days to hear about it because I was on holiday in the highlands. Who still keeps up with world news when there is “nessy” to catch.

Gentleman, imaginary friend, guitar hero, voice of uncommon lyrics, superman of country music and perfected of the art of melody, may his dear soul rest in eternal peace. The path is the same the beginning is the same. It is the end of our stories which is written different. Rest in peace my legend.

Kwanzi first lady! Mother of the nation Doctor Amai.  Iwe mazita kupfekerana.

You can call her whoever you will call her don’t call her my mum. Yes Grace is what my mum was called too, but lets end it there. this story of ice cream closely followed by this degree in violence thesis in joburg shocks me beyond.

I still cant get this. So a woman walks into hotel room where her liter of idiots is making fun of Zimbabwean loot and and poor zimbos and she shamboks them to hell. She is then attacked by a daring 20 year old model. she loses her sense of dignity, in the presence of her body guards pushes them aside and slushes the poor attacker with an electric cord? the girl decides to report and she doesn’t.

Or I still don’t get it! She gets into this room. Finds her sons with friends. she decides this particular girl is state enemy. enemy of Zimbabwe. as a defender of her nation she attacks the threat saving her nation from this dangerous one girl terrorist? otherwise how does one justify this? Whatever international law says it cant say that…….That a president’s wife is diplomatic immunity when she attacks a child for ……….

I still do not get it. so would that imply she beat the poor south African girl on behalf of Zimbabweans? Maybe just maybe, someone out there will pay attention next time this thing calls itself their mother. even just a slap on someone else’s child is taking things too far. yet a whole bunch of corrupt old men sit and agree that a dictator’s violent wife goes on to bash someone and get away with it just like that?

I thought south Africans would want to know why their country has let down one of their own. ignore the blood of their own in protection of what? In honour of what? for the sake of what? Malema

It is one thing to just mourn about a failed economy and pretend all will be fixed one day. It is another when one considers what that means in real terms. You see, life, to any individual can easily be viewed as, me, my household and my neighbour. When problems visit just those within that view, such are the problems I can perceive. Anything in the papers or in any media is just but remote news. This is why you hear those who say zvangu zvaita betraying that egoistic sense of individual triumph . I don’t care how anyone else is as long as I and that which is mine are ok.

The Zimbabwean economy sits painfully on my mind. I have seen it grow from pre independence changeover , through the hard times of importing even a toothpaste tube from Botswana to the short stable days and to the disaster that it has become. People would go to Botswana and later South Africa just to buy even soap, wrist watches and jeans for resell at home. Even a simple colour TV or the old vcr were things that you would only dream of if someone went down south and bought you and all this with very strictly controlled forex. All would be bought through a holiday allowance.

When I was a student I remember a certain canvas shoe that was called Chinese shoes which one could only buy from Botswana. Even rice, there is a time when such were luxuries open only to those who could import it somehow. My first vcr, I bought it from a pawn shop in Jeppe street in joburg. All these were days presided over by the same, more or less failed politicians presiding over our economy even now. Anywhere enough of the suffering Of the rich and affording.

My real beef with the ailing economy is imagining the extreme of our society. It is easy for the teachers, because when they are not paid, or are paid what they are not happy with they mobilise under their unions and voice out. The same with many other employees of living relatively secure under unionist wings.  My heart though goes out to those who work for non paying companies like nrz. Their works have not been paid for some months and my question is what happens to an employee who dies owed such money. Does the company prioritise and pays out or that just waits the day they will decide to pay?

Realities also take us to the welfare section of the nation. If a country can not pay its employees, even ending up with a minister who unilaterally announces end of bonuses, what more of the blind and lame who live on government grants and welfare allowances? 

I found doctor Tsitsi Choruma’s essay on disabled people very interesting but more so the heading, “the forgotten tribe”. The tribe in this case, the forgotten tribe are the disabled. One unverified claim puts Zimbabwe’s blind people at 100 000. I can not dispute that. Most of these would most certainly be on state benefits. And sadly, most of these are suffering and one wonders what chance they have in a country where priority is the politician in general, but ruling party politicians in particular.

It is left to NGOs and various other donors to do something,yet even they have the same mentality as the politicians. Of the millions donated to an agency, considering the luxury life of NGO directors I would be surprised if more than 30% actually gets through to the disabled or disadvantaged. It does remind one of the biblical Christ quotation, “if they can do such to a green tree, what more can they do to a dry one”.

The problem is that the economy is measured by parameters that consider able bodied and economically active people. It takes into considerations activities of those whose consumption and participation can fit into the GDP, INFLATION,CONSUMER INDEX bla bla bla equations yet the reality of suffering, going without a meal, begging and dying without treatment just don’t have a way into economic equations.

Well well, this is lighter than the wearing down effects of an election loss. This is meant for a good laugh to those who will find it funny. It’s not meant to be a joke. It is the reality of life; things that men do. Things that women do. Things done by their children too.

A story, which I believe is not true, did rounds in the Zimbabwean community in UK.  It’s said there was a man who attended one of the many zimbo parties. He met other zimbo a and befriended one guy he did not know before. Drink after drink (read as dhiringi) and  the stranger convinced my man, call him Spox to put up at his house which was just down the street. Well that’s very common is it not?

So my man Spox is a well mannered men. He will not sleep 120 miles away without informing mother, thats his wife. Let’s call her Mrs Spox. So spox calls Mrs Spox but because of the many videos and photos he has been taking the battery dies as soon as Mrs Spox says hello. Spox asks his new friend if he can use his phone to call the Mrs. Of cause Mr new friend is a good friend and gives him. So he enters the Mrs Spox’s number digit by digit and , heh? He is surprised. He cancels and enters again. Yes that’s his wife’s number, he is very sure and he calls and yes she answers. He looks again and there she is listed in Mr new friend as Hure rekuPortsmouth. (The prostitute of Portsmouth). Well the sleep over died immediately and the rest is history.

I personally have listed people in funny names too. Some friend of mine would be shocked to find she is listed in my contact list as Yabu. Besides Kiki and Fafi who are actually the names I call these guys I have no other nicknames for people. Everybody else is listed exactly how I call him or her.

I was surprised when I saw the contacts of one friend of mine. She listed me as chimbwamupengo, (rabid dog). When I asked her she just burst laughing. In writing this I asked a few friends to share some of their contact names. One cruel friend of mine says he listed an ever borrowing friend of his as shuro. Is it rabbit or hare? This he says because he used to be boastful when things were more silver lined for him. So shuro empasises his current poor position as in Shona, shuro means a rabbit or a hair, but colloquially refers to one with nothing.

Most names actually reflect secrecy. Many women list the people who they don’t want their partners to know they talk to with false names. The same goes for men. I don’t want to say it’s always the case but if you see someone listed as mdhara Susan, by your man, think. Or sekuru Lizzie? Mbuya Rosie or uncle James . The key thing is if all other names have no description why should this particular one have a description attached to it. I am not an expert so don’t fight because of my claim.

But then imagine this one, he says he has an ex- boyfriend he still speaks to. She lists him as Mai Chikomba. Hahaha please don’t look for Mai Chikomba on your partner’s phone. But there it says. The other says his small house lives in Southampton. Aika, who says they don’t know what a small house is? Maybe, but should I waste time explaining that? Anywhere , his smallhouse lives in Southampton and he lists her as M27 the motorway he uses to get to her house. Yet one lists her boyfriend as sister B…….well she is right because he is a nursing sister but hahahaha the full name would be sister Bothwell. 

My other friend is now married and even when she wasn’t married we were never in a relationship. Her husband though came into a relationship where his new girlfriend had this guy she called a friend. Obviously he was not comfortable with that. I avoid calling her now but I asked if she has listed anyone in some particular false name. She laughed and said, “yes you are listed in my phone as princess”. (Princess being my daughter).

Some at work says list his exwife as madam dragon. My cousin lists his wife by her name, and lists someone as chiDanger. He refused to tell me who that is. My teen daughter must think she has the snoopiest father ever. Once in a while I do ask her to show me her texts, her contacts and the like. I am not going to have terrible things define my daughter’s life. I have not found anything to worry me yet but some of the names she has are cryptic. No one ever calls their children that. 

One who someone met at tuku’s gig is listed as tuku.

well so after a gruelling few weeks of verbal sparring the battle is over. The UK election has come and gone and today we wake up to the same prime minister minus his piggy back type deputy, whose only positive is eloquence. We wake up to the labour sadness of having lost dismally but the good news of absolute thrashing of the promising UKIP. This has been an election of interest in its start, it’s progress and its end.

There we had the Tories driving their campaign on the basis of the debatable claim that they nursed the economy to health. They campaigned that they want to be given a chance to complete the work, to creat new jobs, jobs which personally I think is more statistical than realistic. So we wake up this morning to find the majority of people of Britain, or is it the majority of constituencies have chosen to believe the Tory promise. Well, they sold their product, we bought it. If it is an empty box, we have to live with it for 5 more years.

Labour. The sad thing is that the one person I thought deserves to be an MP even ahead of the incumbent who won again, lost in his first go at the chance. I would urge him not to lose heart, but I can not because on his behalf I am totally gutted myself. Labour lost and I think my friend Jeremy,who had so much belief in labour is in tears. The defeat of labour by the Tories was probably visible in the campaign where many many people just showed they were not going to see reason. However one thing that Jeremy got right is that he said, ” Jim-man, these polls are rubbish do not follow them. There will not be any hung parliament”. Don’t tell him but Jerry was right on this one. And Eddie, the man who I expected to shock me and be the prime minister, has resigned as leader of labour and I just wish there is someone out there who will take up this great party to be strong again. I still think he did very well, but the press just wanted him to lose.

I thought Nick started very well. He is an incredible orator, a brilliant personality but. Who ever advised to do a radio slot on Thursdays helped kill his politics. He however lost the election when he decided on a very self defeating line of campaign. The lib dems accepted the misleading polls from you gob and the like. Based on that they then conceded their political universality by declaring themselves a minor party interested only in a coalition. You don’t do that in politics, or in any contest based sector. Even in football, a vicar coached Sunday pub team faced with playing arsenal will still play to win. That the party failed to live by. How does anyone who does not expect their vote? And the result? 8 seats, how pathetic! But honestly, it is a waste of some very able politicians. And now Nicky has resigned.

My biggest shock was UKIP. Honestly speaking I didn’t like them to win, but I didn’t expect them to do this bad.1 seat for a party whose leader has the positive arrogance of Nigel is just unimaginable. Yet it did. But earlier I referred to an equivocation of the electoral majority. Is it majority in the electors as individuals or the majority of constituencies? I have noticed it is constituencies because in terms of number of people who voted ukip they are more than those who voted libdems. Yet ukip has 1 seat and libdems have 8. One MP for Nigel’s ukip. And Nigel has resigned.

Scotland has chosen to be national. Not that they have chosen to be independent, but to be national. Labour is very wounded there. Tories? Who is that, one Scotsman might as well ask. The eloquence, the charm and sexy smile and the attractive female voice Scottish accent added to her intelligence just helped Nicola to create a near one party state north of the kingdom. I mean that girl is just brilliant, I hate to say that. Imagine, she has made her party so popular that it has convinced people to vote for a twenty year old student. How crazy is that!

Well I am an African, a Zimbabwean and Malawian living in the United Kingdom. I just can not help tout remember home. Home is where publicity pollsters can not predict results. It can just anger some overzealous youth and be banished or burnt. The poll must say vaMugabe chete…….ah maybe ndaakunyepa manje!

I am a Zimbabwean. Following a big poll like this the first week is full of rubbish. The whole week the losers will be busy telling everyone how they were cheated by the winner. Some will be far fetched claims like, I will never forget Biti’s claim of mutating ballot paper brought by Chinese with the help of Israeli firm nikuv. Hahaha. But kunyepa here? Yes. 

Even a party which fails to field more than one candidate in my country and a party that year after year wins nothing, holds on to the same inept leadership. Morgan has never resigned. Welshman is still leader. Biti duped some people into losing the luxury of being MPs even promising to fight it through and they have no livelihood and he is still their leader. ZAPU lost many many times, and president DD still presides.

And finally, I am sorry to my man who lost at his first attempt at being MP. Sorry to the many labour candidates who lost their bids for Westminster. Finally congratulations to the mayor of London Boris who I believe is going to Westminster as MP now. A radio counts him as one of the popster style MPs and now is it time Boris is a minister of something?

Britain is many times richer than Zimbabwe. I was watching as David Cameron was being taken to the queen. He and his wife rode in what looks like a jaguar. There was also a cheap looking van following his car. And the solo rider leading the car.possible fuel bill there, say £30 if I have to be generous. And suppose the same trip is travelled by he who I will not state by name? At least 8 cars, a helicopter, bikers and …………..talk of spending that money which one doesn’t have.

we humans keep count of time from when we are born to when it all ends, when the individual’s curtain is drawn. When they say une makore mangani they do not mean how many clouds do you own. As in uleminyaka emingaki, they simply mean how old art thou. So, james, how old art thou?

James was born fifty years ago in circumstances that time has kind of muddled. A number of things have kind of clouded over the years but yes he was born and celebrates his birthday on St George’s day. James has been fortunate to have shared his birthday with some truly wanderful people. I shared a birthday with my sister, MHDSRIP, and I shared a birthday with a niece who I have unintentionally lost contact with. All the same happy birthday to her. I also share my birthday with everyone who celebrate their birthday today. Happy birth day all.

I am happy because of so many things. These include the fact that by statistics I am well above the date at which Zimbabweans are expected to have died, on average anywhere. Zimbabwe’s average life expectancy, though doubtful, is well below 50.I have been involved in many many things that could have taken my life long back. Many of my friends and relatives are gone and being a Christian, I just hope God has plans for me. I am grateful for his grace and celebrate his wishes for me to be where I am today.

When I was 2 years old, my father passed away. The circumstances were such that, following trends of similar, I could have easily died then too. So in case someone thinks these things are about being clever and careful, I couldn’t be either at that lifeless age. So it was just the grace of God that intervened and got me this far along the story of Mother Earth.

When I was 8 a boy I knew climbed a fruit tree that everyone else would climb. I am sure it wasn’t even the first time he had done so. And that was his last climb. He fell, cracked his skull and died. Considering all boys climbed trees for fruit, it could have been me.

I lived my youth,my teen years and young adulthood through a very dangerous time when hiv aids had been created,manufactured or discovered. The discription depends on what you want to believe of the many conspiracy theories. What ever you believe, I grew up at a time when very little was known about the dangers and risk of the disease. I was together with everyone in danger and with no special effort, I have lived well beyond many friends. I am shocked and my heart skips a bit as I recall the days and the things that could have befallen me.

In my lifetime I have been held hostage by political malcontents, the type that could have slit my throat and smiled out a scud induced stench. (Scud= local brew). I have heard of horrendous stories following similar abductions. Yet without being innocent and without being special I lived to tell my story.

I have been in car crashes. All were bad ones. I am sure there have been three of my own. I have a story of selected sparing, where I was too lazy to run for a lift to chitungwiza one morning. The driver had no patience to wait for my pace and sped off. A few minutes later we caught up with his flaming car and dead bodies. What ever one thinks I am just grateful to tell the story of my life in a way that highlights the near misses and the moment I was spared. It is stupid to those who live by luck. I don’t, I live by blind faith, believing in a God I don’t see.

Yet too I am a simple man. I don’t have a lot yet I have enough for me and my only daughter. I have done well academically, managing two qualifications in a lifetime. Not a very normal way but that’s how I have chosen to model myself. I am not bad in what I do. While I owe the world both socially and financially, I have not cheated anyone of their dues. I have not had something from someone unfairly and that’s a legacy I am proud of. I was born with absolutely nothing, like all humans, and built myself to that which I have.

I have friends, mostly met through study, work or through church. I have made many in my lifetime. Remembering the Tafaras in my childhood in gweru those many moons ago. There came the WEbster,the late Ezekiel, Siniwa,Never,TAvei,Simba, Timothy, Elliot, JAmes, Farai,Mavis (late), morelight, Emilia, Geasy,Jeremy,Kuda, Jane, right up to those I still befriend today. With or without favourites among them I am happy for those that have run the course this far with me and hope we together run whatever remains of our God given grace to live.

on hearing Africa announce the formation of the organisation of African unity just over 50 years ago, a western political publican is said to have remarked,”since when have Africans been organised.” It is strange that this somehow feels insulting and true at the same time. It is like an insulting fact, if you see what I mean. More like how an ugly person will feel when someone says to them,”futseki kushata.” It is true yet it is insulting. Got it?

How can it not be true when you look at it squarely, even the leaders noticed the truth in that and decided to change their name to another misnomer again. African Union? On this one they are not alone as I believe even the self styled mighty EU is not quite a unity. Uhm, then Union is not just in the word. One would humbly hope it is in actions, for all to see and exclaim, those are united people.

The problems Africa goes through are so embarrassing and silly that one would think it is a nation or nations on auto rule. Auto rule in the sense of a free falling policy making, a bobbing economy, a one man military defence centered on the ruling elite and a shop full of poverty. The leaders are mean to their citizens and have laws enacted against even squinting at their pictures which are in every office as a reminder of who is in charge.I find it difficult to criticise that concept because kana dzoro rambuya, mai Charles ritori pa mapondo nemapenny ese.

The problem with the African Union is not money, well they have no money anywhere, but…. Their real problem is they are devoid of principles. They are a total come together of selfish men taking turns to show off suits and ties all in most cases acquired from the very nations or economies they love to hate. I will count their short comings .

They do not stand for the truth when the nearest challenge is the embarrassment of their colleague. I am almost certain that Robert Mugabe did not attend the inaugural meeting of the OAU those many years ago. Maybe it’s trivial, but when the zimbabwe state press went home with a misfact that he was a founding father, non of them would dare challenge it. In case there is someone thinking so what? Yes exactly my point. The truth is the first rain of integrity. Unless you stand for the truth no matter how small, you have not yet reached that quality which makes man worth his socks.

I am also of a very low opinion of the AU because of their lack of commitment to specific African problems. I still have to hear an African leader, an African nation, saying anything about the xenophobic attacks and unprovoked murders happening in South Africa. It is interesting to note that the people being slashed and roasted are not just Zimbabweans, or Mozambicans who happen in some cases to be related to South Africans. The victims are from wider Africa. A victim, formerly a shop owner is reported saying, ” I would rather go back and die in my country…..” He was from Somalia. There are Kenyans, there are Malawians, Nigerians, Senegalese, Zambians and many other African nationals. And the so called African father’s say anything? 

Another problem that drains my tears is the story of Africans drowning in the Mediterranean waters trying to flee their homes for Europe. We are talking of Libyans,Egyptians, Algeria and some sub Saharan African nations perishing in the waters at the mercy of nothing.we always hear them dying in hundreds. Last time 400+ died while the African Union was in sessionary talk shows in Ethiopia. Recently and I mean maybe last week 200 were feared dead. Surprisingly Europe seems more concerned. Obviously they do not want the burden that comes with the dying of these people. Yet African Union a come together of their national father’s has not even a single moment of their business to discuss the dying of their children.

Africa is so fragmented that even talking of the possibility of United States of Africa is as much a dream as someone wishing they could wake up one day to find they have wings. The national leaders pick their friends according to who they can benefit from. There are some who are so poor that they make zimbabwe top shopping destination. Others are so rich that looking at zim they almost always refuse anything to do with the. 

The current chairperson of the au is one well read Robert Mugabe. The man has no clue running his own country, which he has severely polarised and also impoverished. If chairmanship was like state presidency I would warn everyone who cares to know to runaway and hide. The guy is just a political light weight whose ace is violence of cannibalist level. 

i have never been so interested in the ongoing run up to elections in the UK like I have this time around. Of cause I know how I will vote and who exactly will have my vote. I have known the person for many years and if everyone had Basingstoke in mind then they would all vote for this candidate from a massive party. Don’t say I didn’t tip you, it’s not the ruling party.

In my close following of the UK election I have not lost the fact of life that lingers in my looks and in my accent. That I am an African. That I come from Southern Africa. That I come from zimbabwe. That more than a decade later I am still a registered voter in my city of Bulawayo. No I have not forgotten that the freedom to campaign, be campaigned to, vote freely is a freedom that I would not have in my own country. It is in my country where my alternative choice from the ruling party is seen as treason. Not just by an illiterate activist but the real police force, or the candidate themselves.

Obviously this is a developed country, developed in many ways more than my own country but certainly developed in terms of democracy. There are no jingles giving one party unfair inclination. There is no chimurenga slogans shouted out on TV and a minute by minute reminder of blood and bullets and the return of AK wielding sons of the soil. There are not shirts,( to my chagrin). There are no people toy toying singing menacingly like the gang that wanted to force us to shout zanupf slogans way back for no reason than that we met them on a rural road.

I am actually digressing from my real point. My point is the expectation of delivery that is held of anyone including a party that all can say with confidence that it will never rule. That delivery expectation is based on a detailed scrutiny of promises, manifestos and honest discussions. There are no promises of ” ndokuunzirai devoopmendi”, no there is not. There is no chance of a grade 2’drop out making it to parliament because would he jump the hurdle of explaining his role and the budget of his promise?

Look, I have always held this that be it in Africa,Asia or Europe, the fact is an MP is a legislator, a law maker and not a development agent. Any MP who wows his voters by saying he will bring development is talking a secondary part of his job and is lying. Lying because MPs do not get a budget allocation for driving constitutional development and therefore can not sustain a promise of development. If we could grill these members of parliament I bet they have no clue how much the road he is promising would need. Right now we have a Twitter regular and aspiring MP For tsholotsho cde Jonathan.  As soon as an election loomed Jonathan suddenly announced he would build a stadium for the local soccer team. Interesting. If we were to ask how much money is needed I am sure he would go into an abusive tirade that I renown him for.

Then it turns out, though he does not know the budget of the stadium he has found the funding. Hurray! he wants a few elephants shot and the money indirectly raised, to be used for the stadium project. To his credit, this is a last minute plan and coming up with even a plan of that level is genius of Jonathan .

My point is in the UK election that I say I have been following with interest, the parties can not claim to make financial sticks and carrot without saying how they will raise funding for the. Saying we will creat 2 million jobs must be followed by how it will make this possible. Claiming that one will build more schools, should be substantiated by how the proposed many schools will be funded. 

This is where we would be found wanting. We would lose all the muhlupheki ndubos of our politics because they would struggle to be that open and honest. Imagine what chinos would promise the people of buhera, ” ndokuvakirayi zvipatara nemaclinic” then some clever villager, “Mari yacho ichibvepi uye iri mariyi cde?” Chinos, ” unobvunzaani ane chipatara, ma youth Batai benzi re chinja iro!”

We certainly need to be mature in politics so that our legislators are clever people who can create real reasonable legislation and not sleep in sessions. We should vote in people who will see the need to complement the constitution with laws and not the current crop from both ZANU and mdc who just sit in parliament for a chance of cheap gvt issued cars. People who when parliament is in session they keep track of our laws and create an environment that befits all our nation’ s business.

Imagine the grade 2 drop out listening to the minister of finance introducing a change of policy or introducing financial legislation. Even if he was born on a pile of encyclopaedia he would have no clue. The policies pass unchallenged and in their defective form remnant of chinamasa’ ineptitude they sail through and we as a nation are stuffed. 

In the meantime Mugabe comes and addresses the parliament. Instead of challenging or consolidating his speech with legislative and policy content, the MPs we have fall into one another praising the newly found religious icon of their party. Instead of being any better the opposition ones will be singing a refrain that only discordant their ruling party in lyrics but in tune in terms of uselessness.

I wish one day we will have elections and a democracy that is devoid of violence, a one sided taxpayer funded media, a tool like police force, an army that doubles as an official campaign force, a ruling party that does not view anything of the state as its own. Well I will dream on and on and on and on………..