By Luke Tamborinyoka
Now that the hubbub and furore over Fadzai Mahere's submission at a recent UN summit in Geneva, Switzerland has substantially died down, it is now time for a sober, frank and honest reflection on whether all that shrill noise was really worth it.
Indeed, an honest discussion on patriotism is befitting, especially after Parliament some 48 hours ago passed the notorious so-called Patriotic Act.
Champion Mahere, the CCC spokesperson, recently attended a UN summit in Geneva where she laid out a few home truths about the ruling elite in Harare that has shrunk democratic space in the country and has brazenly trampled on citizen rights while stealing the country's vast mineral wealth.
The regime in Harare responded with its usual vitriol, wheeling out all sorts of "analysts" who all accused Fadzi of being unpatriotic. They said it was indecorous for a citizen to go out of the country and attack her motherland. They said the Patriotic Bill must expeditiously be passed to deal with the likes of Fadzi, who they self-servingly branded "unpatriotic."
What arrant nonsense!
By Dr Phillan Zamchiya: "Today, the Zimbabwe President has proclaimed the 23rd of August 2023 as the date for the General Election. Remember Dear Reader that on 19 May our article argued that "Zimbabwe's General Election must be held between the 20th and the 26th of August 2023. However, we should continuously endeavor to understand the nature of this complex state and its politics for meticulous and informed planning."
By Eddie Cross
I am not a South African, so I venture into their space with trepidation as I know how sensitive these things are. But I am an African and a keen observer of events that affect all of us who live in the south of the continent. Last week I made a few observations based on South African history, today I want to look forward a bit.
My impressions of the state of South Africa are mixed. The first is the very visible gap between the rich and the poor. When I first visited Europe in the 60’s my impression was that there were no poor people, certainly it looked like that to me.
Then I travelled to India and saw real poverty with millions living on the streets and rural poverty that seemed endless. Much worse than in Africa.
In South Africa the shacks that are found in every City and Town are cheek by jowl with mansions, the only change is the vast areas of RDP housing. The new black elite in their luxury cars, false nails and eyelashes and their own mansions behind high walls.
The better living standards for the average black South Africa is most evident in the former homelands where they obviously think they have better long term security for property and are investing there, rather than in Town.
But it is also clear that South Africa is now a fully integrated society. I watched black and white school kids in what was formerly a white only community, playing Rugby.
But the overwhelming opinion of almost everyone I spoke to was of pessimism about the future of the country, the most common view expressed the me was “we are going the same way as Zimbabwe”.
As a Zimbabwean who has been in the turmoil of the past 50 years I can say with confidence, you have a long way to go before you replicate Zimbabwe. We are in a real mess and only now are we starting the long way back to the road into the future.
By Tinomudaishe Chinyoka
My late sister (RIP) and I used to fight, like many siblings do. Mostly the verbal sort: the physical bit happened only once, then the entire family held me down and gave me a good hiding because (lesson learnt, even though she was wrong and she started it), we do not hit women.
After that, it was all verbal. Still, my sister would end up crying, because I could throw some nasty words, while she was not good at it. Or so she thought. Truth is, her words stung, still sting decades later, but I was just good at hiding the effect of their venom.
By a large margin, one of the most painful things she used to say to me was “uri chinyi iwe pachidzva chehuku.”
When you have not lived in the rural areas, when you do not know the rarity of chicken as a sadza accompaniment, and when you do not realise the reverence with which chidzva/drumstick is held in the “dishing” process, you cannot get how painful that simple statement can be. Who are you in the grand scheme of things, with an implied answer that you really are nothing. At all.
Tendai Chabvuta: "The question that concerns most Zimbabweans about this matter of the release of convicted rapists under the amnesty provision is moral, legalistic, and political. What message is the Government sending when it releases such people into communities without conducting public consultations on such a critical public policy issue? Is it arrogance or ignorance on their part?"
By Luke Tamborinyoka
Today is Africa Day; that great day when we revel about our beloved continent and its people. As a football fan, I am proud that last year, two great African sons Sadio Mane and Mohammed Salah who had dazzled the world with their sublime football skills in the English Premiership, showcased their talent when their Liverpool team clashed with Real Madrid in the European Champions League Final 72 hours after Africa Day.
And at the Men’s Football World Cup Finals in November in Qatar last year, Rwanda’s Salima Mukaransanga was among the first ever three female referees to officiate at the most-watched global football fiesta.
Salima, Africa’s girl child, was officiating at the global football showcase, far away from Kampala or rural Uganda where she probably grew engaging in child play games (mahumbwe).
That an African girl child would blow the whistle at world football’s grand bonanza was unthinkable only a few years ago.
This year’s Africa Day comes in the wake of a growing optimism around the globe about our beloved continent, never mind the negative reality that those of us who slug it out on Africa’s soil have to endure every day.
Yet we all love our Africa. We were born here, we grew up here. And we will die here, never mind that we continue to receive the body bags of patriotic sons and daughters who have died elsewhere in search of greener pastures which their countries failed to afford them by dint of the misgovernance and corruption by the political elite and the oligarchs connected to them.
They too wanted to live and die here but it was not to be.
By Tendai Ruben Mbofana
In spite of what we have gone through in our history – there is absolutely nothing to justify how we failed in governing ourselves...as that is exactly what it is.
It does not make any sense why a continent that has been ‘independent’ for the last 50 years, on average, can still be crying over colonialism and even slavery.
We have everything that we can ever need to advance and develop our countries and citizens’ lives – if only there was the political will.
By Eddie Cross
I do not get away very often but right now I am in the Eastern Cape which is my wife’s home base. We have not been here for 7 years and the changes and challengers are very visible. We tend to forget that not long ago this was a country being governed by the Nationalist Party and was trying to implement the most comprehensive form of racial segregation in world history.
We also tend to forget that this is a big country, with a very violent history. The Zulu kingdoms and their impact on the smaller tribal groups in southern Africa. The Afrikaners trekking away from the hated English control of the Cape after they had conquered it by the slaughter of the indigenous Khoi Khoi people.
The Treks fighting their way to dominance on the highveld then seeking their continued Independence from the British in the Boer War when a handful of young men on horseback held 500 000 British soldiers at bay. The British then created the first Concentration Camps and crushed the rebellion by starving the Boers into submission.
Granted Independence by the Empire, the white South African population, funded by the natural wealth of South Africa, built up the most modern and advanced economy in Africa.
Faced with the problem of the growing sophistication of the indigenous black population, the Afrikaner intellectuals who had formed the first Communist Party outside of Russia and who now dominated the Afrikaner people, conceived of the idea of Apartheid, separate development.
Tinomudaishe Chinyoka: "When magistrates and judges sit to balance the need to ensure that an arrested person comes to court to face their accuser and his right to liberty, they consider first that the person has a constitutional right to bail, which can only be taken away if, for example, there are reasons to believe that he will run away from the jurisdiction or temper with the evidence or intimidate witnesses."
