Hivos Southern Africa in partnership with the Royal Norwegian Embassy (RNE) recently launched a booklet titled "Spotlight on the Culture Frame: Stories from the Ground," a culmination of eight years of supporting the arts sector in Zimbabwe.
After many years of grant funding to the cultural sector in Zimbabwe, in 2007, Hivos and the Norwegian Embassy decided to combine their various experiences, capacities, expertise, and resources to support the sector in a project called ‘Culture Frame’.
The objective of their collaboration was to strengthen the cultural sector in Zimbabwe, with emphasis on access to culture and improved spaces for cultural and free expression.
Sixteen arts and culture organisations accessed grants through the Culture Frame for periods ranging from two to eight years. The Culture Frame was one of the very few funds available in Zimbabwe which allowed for both institutional and programme support for the arts sector.
"Spotlight on the Culture Frame: Stories from the Ground" documents lessons learned and experience gained by both the donors and the implementing partners as a result of this collaboration.
In his foreword, Norwegian ambassador Bard Hopland writes how the booklet is evidence of the rich cultural life Zimbabwe has to offer: "Freedom of expression is the foundation on which all other democratic freedoms rest. Freedom of expression can take many forms. Through supporting the culture sector in Zimbabwe, we hope that we have helped to expand the space for freedom of expression and thereby strengthened fundamental human right. The right to practice one's culture freely and without fear of discrimination or persecution is essential to the development of a free and democratic society".
To this, Hivos Southern Africa Director Tanja Lubbers adds: “In the context of Zimbabwe, as in any other countries where Hivos has supported the arts and culture, every effort has been taken to respect the cultural values, traditions and beliefs of the local people”.
The booklet details how the arts contributed to the expansion of breeding grounds that fomented and nurtured ideas for allowing new voices to be heard. Hundreds of emerging artists and arts practitioners capitalised on platforms like festivals and exhibitions to establish networks that served to improve the cultural infrastructure and the livelihoods of artists.
Examples of the fourteen stories in the booklet include those of youths in poor and marginalised communities using hip hop, spoken word, rap music, paintings, dance and social media to express themselves and amplify their voices. The booklet also tells stories of how community theatre mobilised citizens around specific issues pertinent to their lives.
Despite its successes, the Culture Frame project ended in December 2015. The booklet highlights lessons that can be learnt and experiences that can be drawn on by such collaborative efforts in supporting the arts and culture sector.
This ridiculous proliferation of political parties has made us more of followers than originals. We have embraced political mediocrity to a level that sees us strangling ourselves as we gasp for air.
Yet another party has been registered in Zimbabwe.
Why a fledgling political party has to be “registered” by another political party remains a mystery to me.
Be that as it may, Dr Joice Mujuru, a Zanu-PF cadre who reportedly interrupted her primary school education as a little girl to join the liberation war and who distinguished herself in battle so much that she remained in cabinet for the rest of her days in Zanu-Pf, has formed her own party, Zimbabwe People First.
Dr Mujuru went as high as being Robert Mugabe’s Vice President for 10 years until she was waylaid by a cross-border trader who had managed to squeeze through layers and layers of presidential security to bed Mugabe in an infidelity romp that culminated in a marriage outrageously solemnized by the Catholic Archbishop of Harare.
After being pushed out of Zanu-PF, the only political party she has known all her life, Mujuru established her own party last week.
And that, my friends, is a bit of a problem.
Mujuru, who persevered until she earned an academic doctorate degree in 2014, has held no other allegiance except to Robert Mugabe and to Zanu-Pf all her life.
After benefitting from the system and accumulating a sizeable amount of pennies along the way, she now has to learn to bear allegiance to herself and to her own party.
Will “they” let her?
The political landscape is littered with tens and tens of political dinosaurs who formed political parties that crumbled but whose founding leaders still claim to lead a political party. At inception, founding party leaders virtually own a party. No one who formed and led a political party in Zimbabwe has ever stepped aside to let someone else take over to lead the party unless they are dead.
So another political dinosaur has been added to the ever growing list. Reports say people are defecting from Mugabe, Biti, Mangoma, the MDC formations and from elsewhere to join Mujuru’s party.
Mujuru should not, however, beat her chest in gleeful self-congratulations because of the number of people reportedly rushing to join her party.
She must be reminded that she was, until less than two years ago, part of the machinery that castrated the political will of the people of Zimbabwe. She too became victim to the same.
For decades while she was part of Zanu-Pf, people were murdered, elections rigged, treasury raided and one of the saddest chapters in our history occurred in the slaughter of thousands of fellow citizens to suppress divergent thought.
I am troubled that Mujuru would still be in Zanu-Pf, defending Mugabe and sloganeering, had she not been humiliated out of there.
Unlike other political parties in the country, Mujuru arrives on the scene with a ready-made following. She did not have to look for supporters; supporters from all other political parties, including Zanu-Pf, were looking for her and that is both unusual and scary.
Unusual because a political party must, at least, sell itself first to impress and attract followers; scary because she is being mobbed by old Zanu-Pf faithfuls who already seem ready to fight for positions in the new party.
The danger here is that we are going to have the same old Zanu-Pf people under a new name.
And, as always, the termites are already at work! Even law suits have already started against her party! Next will be treason charges, a fatal car accident here and there, planted Zanu-Pf spies being discovered, accusations of dictatorship…yet there is already talk of a grand coalition like we have seen and heard thousands of times before.
Mujuru must not rush or be pushed into coalitions.
She and her party must stand alone at this point and make an effort to establish their political philosophy, aims and doctrine. This must be hammered into the people to make a clear distinction between itself and other political parties.
They must have an upper hand in substance and content, something all other political parties have failed to impress on people.
They must shore up their base so that when uniting with other parties, they have an undeniable focus known by the people. All these other political parties do not want to join anyone; they want to be joined. Most bring nothing to the table. Besides, they have tried it among themselves and failed countless times.
Opposition parties hate each other more than they hate Zanu-Pf so Mujuru’s party must take its time and try to be a people’s party before trying to be all things to all parties.
The people of Zimbabwe are weary and honestly wish for a true liberator. They are hungry for freedom and would like an opportunity to be left alone to care for their families without being dragged to meaningless rallies to watch fat cats getting fatter while they are starving and while their children cannot even go to school.
The arrival of a political party comes with both high expectations and false promises, raising the hopes of Zimbabweans who are so keen to move forward but always get thwarted by bickering politicians.
Mujuru must not over-estimate her presence or popularity.
We are aware that she did not walk away from Mugabe and Zanu-Pf but that they humiliated her out of both the party and cabinet. Otherwise she would still be in Zanu-Pf.
We are aware that they have been partners in crime for more than 30 years, supporting and protecting each other. This makes it almost impossible for either half to ill-treat the other in real terms without risking one side or both divulging dangerous, decades-old secrets.
“He (Mugabe) keeps files on everybody,” Mujuru told the Sunday Times (UK) last week. I just wonder how far Mujuru will go with this if it becomes a real threat to Mugabe.
For now though, she should remember all the things they used to do together.
She must start there and apologise to the very same people whose support she now seeks to stay relevant in Zimbabwean politics.
She could apologise for her own presence in government during the Gukurahundi genocide instead of trying to pass herself as clean by saying her life-long tenure in Zanu-Pf was just “a marriage of convenience”.
It is difficult to believe that having been in cabinet since 1980 and having been Mugabe’s Vice president for ten years until last year, Mujuru knew nothing about electoral fraud.
“I never saw the rigging… I am sure it was a very small clique that was doing it,” she said. Insulting people’s intelligence like this is a sure way to lose credibility.
Many people have already been tempted to believe that the arrival of Mujuru’s political party in Zimbabwe is the answer; that it is the awakening of silence.
Zimbabweans seriously seek the purity of Mujuru’s intentions.
Mugabe, Zanu-PF, war veterans, Mnangagwa, Joice Mujuru and the people they surround themselves with all ghoulishly remind us of the song Hotel California…”We are all just prisoners here of our own device…You can check out any time you like but you can never leave”.
Former Vice President Joice Mujuru on Tuesday appeared in public for the first time since her expulsion from Zanu PF last year and told a news conference that she was ready to deliver political change in Zimbabwe.
Addressing a news conference in Harare, Mrs. Mujuru, who is leading the newly-formed Zimbabwe People First party on an interim basis, said she was ready to get Zimbabwe out of its social, economic and political problems.
The former vice president said a coalition to unseat President Robert Mugabe’s government was necessary. However, she noted that negotiations with other opposition parties were yet to start.
Mrs. Mujuru’s remarks confirmed earlier assertions by former Prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change party who told reporters last month that the coalition talks were yet to begin.
She also called for key democratic reforms to be implemented ahead of the 2018 polls to ensure that the elections do not breed a pre-determined outcome. She, however, fell short of saying the 2013 polls were rigged by President Mugabe and his Zanu PF party, adding that policies that scare away investors such as the black economic empowerment law should be reviewed.
The former vice president said she would work flat out to ensure that Zimbabwe rejoins the Commonwealth.
Former Vice President Joice Mujuru making a point Tuesday when she publicly announced that she is ready to tackle Zanu PF. (PhotoL Mavis Gama)
Zimbabwe pulled out of the Commonwealth in 2002 after it was accused of election rigging and rights violations.
Mrs. Mujuru further said a steering committee has been set up to spearhead People First’s inaugural elective congress that would be held on a date yet to advised.
The former vice president, who was accused of corruption and plotting to assassinate Mr. Mugabe, said her hands were clean hence the police have not arrested her.
Asked by one journalist of her relationship with Mr. Mugabe following her expulsion from both Zanu PF and government, Mrs. Mujuru said her business is to focus on key national developmental issues than to talk about other people.
She added that if Mr. Mugabe, who turned 92 last month was to come face to face with her, she doubted if the nonagenarian leader would recall what he said when he called her a witch.
Upon getting out of the hotel where she addressed journalists, Mrs. Mujuru was surprised to see hundreds of her supporters singing outside.
Mrs. Mujuru then told her loyalists that she would work hard to uplift their standard of living and called for an end to politically-motivated violence in Zimbabwe.
One of her supporters, Nester Chikowore of Harare’s Budiriro high-density suburb said she was happy that the former vice president had formally joined opposition politics.
Chikowore hoped that Mrs. Mujuru – as a woman- would advance the interests of women if she is elected president in 2018. She, however, urged Mrs. Mujuru to form a coalition with other opposition parties in order to increase the opposition’s chances of winning elections in 2018.
Another youth, Christelle Kanoshambira, who supports Mrs. Mujuru said she also expects her leader to push for the creation of jobs if she becomes president one day.
Diplomats and other notable political figures such as Didymas Mutasa, Rugare Gumbo, Ibbo Mandaza, Dzikamai Mavhaire, Bright Matonga, Sylvester Nguni, Retired Major Kudzai Mbudzi, and Pearson Mungofa attended Mrs. Mujuru’s press conference.
A powerful former ally of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has launched a party to challenge his 35-year rule. Joice Mujuru said the Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) party had been formed because “Zimbabwe is a broken country”.
Ms Mujuru was Mr Mugabe’s second-in-command until he sacked her in 2014 after accusing her of plotting to oust and kill him.
“I’m neither a witch nor an assassin,” Ms Mujuru said, at the party’s launch in the capital, Harare.
She is the most senior former Zanu-PF leader to form an opposition party, and is tipped to be its presidential candidate in the 2018 election. Her supporters ululated as she entered the hall to announce ZPF’s launch, reports the BBC’s Nomsa Maseko from the scene.
Ms Mujuru, 60, was flanked by other former Zanu-PF heavyweights, including Didymus Mutasa and Rugare Gumbo.
She hailed the formation of ZPF as historic, and said it would fight the “scourge of corruption” in Zimbabwe.
“Some revolutionaries are busy pulling Zimbabwe down,” Ms Mujuru said.
Our correspondent says she was a Zanu-PF member for more than 30 years, and will it find difficult to convince voters that she represents a new era.
But, encouragingly for Ms Mujuru, her supporters turned up at the launch to give their backing, she adds.
Zanu-PF has nominated Mr Mugabe, who turned 92 last month, for re-election in 2018.
However, because of his advancing age, a battle to succeed him is raging in Zanu-PF between Mr Mugabe’s wife, Grace, and Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was appointed to the post following Ms Mujuru’s expulsion, correspondents say.
Mrs Mugabe led the campaign to oust Ms Mujuru, who was seen to harbour ambitions to succeed Mr Mugabe as Zanu-PF leader and president.
Leroy Ndlovu relates a tale from the unforgettable era of Zimbabwe 2008, involving the traffic police.
Peugeot 504 Station Wagon: ‘The Old Gal’ – constant target for traffic police
The old gal was just out of the garage. Old Mdawini, the one-eyed mechanic, had been looking after her as long as I could remember, and for a long time I believed all mechanics had to have one eye if they were good at their work. He had changed the brake pads and tuned up the engine until it was as silent as a Peugeot 504 station wagon could get in 2008. She had seen her fair share of Christmases, but she had been loyal.
Two brothers cruising
Throwback! Music on cassette
That being done she was ready to get back to work. My father reared chickens at home and sold them at a shop in town. The Peugeot was the only vehicle we had for delivering chickens to the shop. My brother, being sensible enough to have a drivers’ licence (which I still don’t have to this day), was in the driver’s seat and I rode shotgun as we drove to the shop bright and early on a Monday morning. We were still a couple of years from seeing MP3 FM modulators, so we nodded our heads to Tupac’s Until The End of Time on cassette, cruising along Old Esigodini road without a care in the world.
Police ahead
As we hit the curve at the Ascot Race Course, men and women in reflective green suddenly appeared in the road and we both sighed. It was the police, and we were in an old car. Even in our wildest dreams we couldn’t hope to get past without being stopped. The officer who stopped us reminded me of the cat in Alice in Wonderland. He was smiling ear to ear like he had just won the lottery. Understandably so, the civil service hadn’t exactly been glamorous for a long time, and we knew how the police were making ends meet of late. My brother and I chuckled at how hungry he looked despite his best efforts to look cheerful.
Makadii maboss? (how are you gents?)
My brother responded in Ndebele.
Siyaphila bra. (we are well, brother)
Faultfinding
He was asked for a driver’s licence. It was inspected and returned. We went through the routine checks; handbrake, brakes, tail-lights, brake lights, indicators – everything was in good working order. In a different world he might have grinned and wished us a good day. But not here; not in our beautiful homeland. The hungry looking officer went around the car twice. Taking in every single detail. Finally, he stopped in front of the car and I knew when his impossible grin got even wider that we were in trouble.
He strolled over to the driver’s window and said, “The numbers on your licence plate are not clear.”
We paid our ‘fine’ and drove away wondering if we had actually done anything wrong.
Police corruption rampant
It was only the beginning of course. Over the last few years this practice has become so common that we don’t even bat an eyelid when it happens. We accept it as a norm and go about our daily business. That day we got away with paying twenty rand, which I’m sure translated to a lot of bearer cheques; but as the years have gone by it has gotten worse. Recently an officer of the law was caught with a fake receipt book and eight hundred dollars in his pocket at a ‘Road Block.’
Eight hundred dollars! If I could make that kind of money in a day!
We could joke and say that civil servants don’t get paid much, and that the cops have to do what they can to survive; but who will take responsibility for this monster that has grown unabated these last few years?
Who polices the police?
***
Leroy Ndlovu is a passionate writer and actor. He appeared in Qiniso The Movie and various other projects with Ya-sibo? Media. He is currently working on his first book.
