daily little struggles

From an Email I recently received:

Dear friends and colleagues,

I regret to inform you that due to the current spate of ridiculously long and unpredictable power cuts, (with no light at the end of the tunnel as it were) we have had to postpone our student production of ANATOL at Reps Theatre Upstairs.

We hope to run it next week, from Wednesday 21 November to Saturday 24 November at 7pm. Tickets will still be available through the spotlight. Those of you who may have already purchased tickets may exchange them at the Spotlight for a different night. The price will remain at $1 000 000.

Thank you for your support and hope to see you sometime next week (electricity permitting)

Yours in light

XXX

From the News: Imported stuff ordered off shelves = 90% of stock

rom News24 (SA), 15 November: Imports ordered off Zim shelves

Chris Muronzi

Harare - The National Incomes and Pricing Commission (NIPC) has ordered retailers selling imported goods to clear existing stocks by next week and adopt a new pricing model based on the official exchange rate. (...)

Poachers kill three black rhinos in Zimbabwe

From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 9 November: Poachers kill three black rhinos in Zimbabwe

Harare - Poachers have shot dead three black rhinoceroses - a species listed as the most highly endangered large mammal on Earth - on a private conservancy, its owner said on Thursday. (...)

That is Zimbabwe! How to get a contract line

A typical Zimbabwean Story I have recently come across:

I have learned since yesterday that in order to change ownership of a net one line (011) the person willing to get my line will have to be vetted by Net One (long list of requirements: fill up a form of which you can hardly get a copy, last 3 months salary slips, your ID, your guarantor ID, bank statements, etc.) first.

You will therefore need to go there, explain that you want to obtain a contract line and what is the procedure. Do not mention my name or my number before you obtain your clearance. If you do so, they will just wait until I leave the country and give these numbers to people who are already on their waiting list and have already been cleared, because they do not have new contract lines to sell to the public. It has happened to a friend who bought a line, just to realize once the seller was gone that the line had been attributed to someone else by Net One!!!

Once you have been cleared / vetted, you will be put on an extremely long waiting list. Since now you have the clearance paper in your hand, you ask Net One: “if I find a friend, a colleague who is willing to give me her/ his number because she/he is leaving can I come and make the change of ownership?” It is at this point that we can go together to Net One and make the change of ownership.

From the News: stopping farm seizures?

From The Zimbabwe Independent, 3 November: Politburo shocks Mugabe, rejects further land grabs

Zanu PF’s decision-making body, the politburo, last week rejected a land reform report that proposed a further purging of the few remaining white farmers. (...). Politburo members argued that the eviction of more farmers would bring the economy to its knees because they were the ones providing the little supplies that were still trickling onto the market. They further argued that the report was driven by nothing other than racism since swathes of land were lying idle following the emotive fast-track land reform programme. ...

From Zim Online (SA), 7 November: Zanu PF leaders want farm seizures halted

Chinhoyi - Ruling Zanu PF party leaders in Mashonaland West province have asked the government to halt fresh farm seizures, saying the few white farmers still in the province must be allowed to "remain and continue farming." ....

From the News: Nigerian President criticises Mugabe

From SW Radio Africa, 6 November: Nigerian President blasts Mugabe

Nigerian President, Umaru Yar'Adua on Sunday condemned Robert Mugabe for disregarding the rule of law. Speaking at the third Germany/European Partnership with Africa in Wiesbaden, Germany, Yar'Adua blasted Mugabe for his heavy-handed treatment of the opposition and critics. Yar’Adua becomes the first African leader to openly criticise Mugabe in the lead up to the EU-AU Summit, which is scheduled for next month in Portugal. ....

From the News: Refugee dies of hunger on Cape Town street

From The Cape Argus, 3 November: Refugee dies of hunger on Cape Town street

By Clayton Barnes

Adonis Musati, a Zimbabwean asylum seeker and a familiar face to many at Cape Town's Home Affairs office, died on a pavement just metres from the Foreshore office on Friday. Musati, 24, is believed to have died of hunger. Bennett Hodi, the last to see Musati alive, said he came zigzagging across the road towards the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Friday morning and asked a construction worker for money to buy a loaf of bread. Hodi, a guard at a nearby construction site, said although none of the workers had money, a colleague decided to buy the bread as they could see Musati was hungry and weak. "He told us he hadn't eaten in two weeks," said Hodi. "We gave him the bread and he finished half a loaf in seconds. He then asked for water and swallowed a few sips before lying down under a tree on the island opposite the Convention Centre. A few minutes later we noticed he was lying on his back with his legs and arms stretched out.

Elections still in march?

Zimbabwe to hold elections in March '08 – minister

Harare - Zimbabwe will hold joint presidential and parliamentary elections as planned in March 2008, a government minister said on Friday, refuting press reports the poll would be pushed back to June.

correction

From SABC, 2 November: Mandela denies asking Mugabe to step down

... sorry.

No Toilet Paper is not true, but for what price!

Zim is not running out of toilet paper. It's just the question of who can afford it: 4 rolls 7.5 Mio

extra soft and strong!

This ambulance is not for you

Like in a proper totalitarian regime when the president drives past he does so in a stunning convoy of vehicles including ambulance, police, motorcyclists and lots of sirens and fancy lights. All cars in both directions have to stop on the side of the road immediately to let him pass. If you don't you get run over. The guys on the motorbikes are the "sweepers", they hit everything that would be in the president's way and sweep it off the road. So if now one of them crashes into someone or something and gets injured or dies, the presidents ambulance that would be right there won't stop! So it might happen that the president is on his way to moan for a friend or family member that has died when one of his "sweepers" dies in an accident, but he wouldn't even stop and neither tell his ambulance to do so.