Zimbabwe Elections 2008 Watch: Food For Votes

Come every election time, we hear a lot of talk of a desperate government using food to buy votes in order to win elections. The next elections on 29 March are not an exception. President Robert Mugabe's' ruling Zanu PF party is once again being accused by the MDC of using grain as a political tool to bribe voters.

Zimbabwe is currently experiencing severe food shortages. And because of the current economic problems, the country is also facing another drought despite the good rainfall this season.

But given the current food shortages that the country is experiencing, any responsible government will import food to feed it's people. There is nothing wrong with that! Which is what the government is doing.

The government has been importing food to supplement what ever little they have and it's not like they have just started now. Most of the imported food goes to the rural people, the same people who suffer most from droughts and current economic problems. The same people who vote for the ruling Zanu PF party. Si is it helping people and buying votes at the same time?

The past elections have shown that the urban majority don't vote. This is where the opposition parties get most of their votes, so probably that's why they don't win elections. It would make sense for the ruling party to buy votes in urban areas in order to tap into some of the opposition supporters' base isn't it!
After all some of these opposition party leaders are not even known to the rural people, even Morgan Tsvangirayi lost in his rural home area in the last presidential elections.

There have been a lot of these stories on how the government is is using different tactics to get people to vote for them. Some have even talked of devices which monitor who people are voting for, and all these vote buying stories. Well most of it with no evidence at all.
It is important for people to concentrate on real bread and butter issues. People will in most cases put their vote where they can trust, unless otherwise.

Should the people starve because any food aid to them now will be perceived as vote buying. Some people would rather see the ordinary person suffer to prove their point. Which in this case is change in government.

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Zimbabwe Football: Dynamos Fc vs Highlanders Again

Still the best in Zimbabwe Football!

In the latest clash between the two giants of Zimbabwean football, Dynamos FC won 1-0at Gwanzura Stadium to complete a 2-1 aggregated win over Highlanders in the 2008Charity Shield Trophy.

Nestle Zimbabwe sponsored the competition to a record $190 billion this season. Both Dynamos and Highlanders were guaranteed $12.5 billion each in appearance fees. Nestle Zimbabwe paid tournament expenses for both teams including flying Dynamos FC to Bulawayo for the first leg, and Highlanders to Harare for the second leg at Gwanzura Stadium.

Like everything else in the country, the Zimbabwe football situation has also been greatly affected by the state of the economy. The cheapest ticket for the Charity Shield game was $20 million (less than £1). Even though not much in foreign currency, I wonder how many people can afford such gate fees.
On the other hand, I think the day to day running of the teams in the Zimbabwean league is greatly affected by this lack of funding of the game and also the falling value of the Zimbabwean dollar against other major currencies.

A few weeks back Dynamos FC was struggling to raise US$30 000 for their Champions League game in Swaziland. Now there are reports that Highlanders FC is also struggling to raise US$40 000.00 for their trip to Mozambique for their game game against Ferraviario de Nampula in the CAF Confederation Cup.
Highlanders lead 3-0 from their 1st leg victory at Barbourfields two weeks ago. God knows how they will get finance for the next rounds, if they win in this round.

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Zimbabwe Elections 2008! What the candidates are saying.

Well, Dr Simba Makoni has been described as a "political prostitute" leaving Zanu PF party and standing as an independent candidate in the coming Zimbabwe elections.
Speaking to ZBC - News on the occasion of his 84th birthday, President Robert Mugabe said, Makoni's method of seeking the highest office in the land was "absolutely disgraceful" because he doesn't have a party.

"What has happened is absolutely disgraceful. I didn't think kuti Makoni after all the experience could behave like the way he did and in a naive way too yekungosadharara kuti ndinonzi Simba Makoni.
Haana kana party, asi vanhhu huyayi kwandiri mundide ndinoshamisa. I'm like a magnet, come to me and I'm there to lead you." NO! You go to the people and the people find you.

"So I have compared him to a prostitute. A prostitute could have stood also achiti ini ndine vangu varume varimu MDC vamwe varimu Zanu PF, hapana party isina varume vangu inini, saka neniwo ndoenda ku nomination. But you see a prostitute could have done better than Makoni because she has clients." President Robert Mugabe said.

There has been a lot of talk ever since Dr Simba Makoni announced that he will contest in the coming Zimbabwe presidential elections. There has been a lot of uncertainty, the announcement by Dr Simba Makoni seems to have confused some people. Do they trust him (Makoni) standing as an independent candidate. Does he have the support that he says he has? What are the chances of an independent being elected the next president of Zimbabwe?

There is no doubt that as a person Dr Makoni commands a lot of respect in Zimbabwe and also in the international community.
What is it that Zimbabweans expect from the next president?

The following are some of the real issues that should be addressed:

The country currently has one of the highest inflation rates in the world currently reported to be over 100 000 percent.

The general shortage of most basic commodities. Which is causing untold suffering to the people of Zimbabwe.

Shortages of foreign currency which is affecting the whole economy and the delivery of essential services.
High unemployment levels and poor Health service delivery.

Feel free to join the debate on what they are saying as we approach the Zimbabwe elections on 29 March. Post your comment to contribute.

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Private sector help patch-up potholes in Harare

The City of Harare Town Council has reported that it has received five vehicles from Victoria Foods, Cargo Carriers and Brown Engineering to speed up the patching-up of potholes in the city.

This is a welcome development given the current state of roads in Harare. See pothole of the year here Harare Pothole.

The city of Harare has been experiencing a lot of problems like all the other parts of the country. Financial problems due to general economic problems affecting the whole economy. Corruption which has become part of the day to day life in the country. These problems meant the council has not been able to perform it's operations.

Hopefully the town council will put it's house in order and improve it's service delivery to the residents of Harare.
We welcome the initiatives of Victoria Foods, Cargo Carriers and Brown Engineering in helping the city of Harare. More private sector companies should follow this initiative and help improve infrastructure in the communities in which they operate.

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The impact of Mobile phones in the townships.

How fast mobile technology is changing! Recently we had the iPhone from Apple and even my Nokia N95 looks old. Now as Google is set to unveil the Gphone, I just thought of looking back at some stories I used to hear in the townships of Zimbabwe about cellphones (nhare mbozha).

Most of my felow Zimbabweans would remember the cell phone crazy that gripped the country around 1997 or there about. There was a lot of noise from NetOne, Econet and those annoying adverts from Telecel.

Remember the days of the BIG Nokia phone (chidhinha)! The one you needed a hand bag to carry around. My uncle had one of those. Unfortunately I couldn't even afford that big phone at that time.
There was also another big and funny Motorolla handset, the one which once knocked out a thief in the Avenues Area in Harare. Of course it was a weapon as well as a mobile phone.
What about that orange cell phone (mango ruma wakadaro) from Telecel Zimbabwe. This was by far the most popular because it was very affordable. It was also an embarrasing mobile phone handset, one you would not show off to your friends.

Why people used to shout on top of their voices when talking on the mobiles, nobody had a clue. Some would even pretend to be talking on the phone only to be embarrased when the mobile phone start ringing.

There was also one Mr popular, he loved attention and most people I think know him. He used to move around with so many mobile phones. It was probably better or easier to use a carrier bag for all those phones.

There was also a story about this guy from Kenya, the one who used to drive nearly 400 killometres to a place where he would get mobile reception. Crazy stuff isn't it!

Now to the mobile phone thieves, I will never forget one Kukura Kurerwa Bus driver. He managed to embarass himself because of his untrusworthiness. Instead of giving back a dropped mobile he decided to hide it in his jersey on the dashboard. The next thing the phone was ringing in his jersey.
As for the woman who stole a mobile phone in the Kombi, it's embarassing even to explain what she did. The most embarassing thing is the place where she decided to hide the phone. I will leave it for you to guess.

Now for those people who want to be up to date with current events and show their appreciation of new technology by naming their kids after such events.
Thanks to mobile phones we now have names like Sim Card Chiluba; No Network Ndhlovu; Voicemail Banda; Samsung Lunga and Nokia Phiri only to name a few.

Sure mobile phones have had such an impact on ourlives. This was just a look on the lighter side. So, do you have any tales to tell on mobile phones. Your are free to add your views or mobile phone stories by leaving your comment.

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Zimbabwe Receives 50 Bus Kits from China

Like in the Tesco advert, "Every little helps". But wait till you read this!

"Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (ZUPCO) has just got delivery of fifty full bus kits worth US$1 million purchased from China".
The bus kits which include engines, gear boxes and rear axels would be fitted on the old DAF bus shells littered in ZUPCO's workshops.

Do you remember this is the same ZUPCO, which at one time had buses in every part of the country? So how did it come to this? What destroyed the company?

ZUPCO bought 15 bus engines, whilst the remainder (35) were bought by the government to alleviate transport problems facing the people of Zimbabwe.

Dr Ignatius Chombo, Minister of Local Government Public Works and National Housing told the Sunday Mail that negotiations between ZUPCO and Kimberly, a Chinese private company were at an advanced stage. The Chinese company will underwrite a US$18 million loan to procure 300 buses.

So, what is 50 buses in a country faced with such serious transport problems? A drop in the ocean and even our dear minister acknowledged.

So, why is it important to receive the bus kits this time? Could it be the same old trick? The government showing that it cares for the urban people, especially as the elections are just a few days away. The same people who have been living without water, without electricity. The same people who have raw sewage flowing in the streets.

Is this the same China which gave us those 'Zhing Zhong' buses? The ones which were struggling to get over the road humps in Glen View.

"You can fool people sometime, but you can't fool people all the time" Your opinion is welcome, feel free to leave you comment.

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latest Price Increases in Zimbabwe

"The National Incomes and Pricing Commission (NIPC) has approved a new set of prices for selected basic commodities as it moves to ensure products are readily available on the formal market".

New prices of selected basic commodities:

750ml bottle cooking oil $9.3 million
1 litre cooking oil $2.3 million
2kg Brown sugar $3.7 million
1kg white sugar $4 million
2kg white sugar $8 million
1kg Economy Beef $16.8 million
1kg Commercial Beef $21 million
1kg Super Grade Beef $25.2 million

Welcome to Zimbabwe,

One kilogram Pork $19.5 million
Chicken $15.9 million
Cell phone charges $300 000.00 per minute
300ml sparkling mineral drink $1.6 million
50kg bag Portland cement $93.2 million.

When the government introduced these price controls in Zimbabwe, they were meant to help the long suffering citizens of our land of milk and honey. Did they achieve anything near their intentions? Do price controls work? NO!
But somebody wants us to believe they work.

The truth is, the economic situation has been made worse by these price controls. Yet we blame everyone else but ourselves for our problems. There is a severe shortage of basic commodities in the country. The majority of the people are suffering whilst only a few enjoy all the milk and honey. Have they no shame! Not at all, they feed their souls with the suffering of other people. God have mercy!

Who benefits from the shortages? It's not everyone who is suffering. Life now depends on who you know; it depends on whether you are connected and to the right people.

But what will those who are not connected do?

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Who Benefits from Homelink Zimbabwe Services?

HomeLink Services helping Zimbabweans in the Diaspora! Who are you kidding?

Get out of Here!

A brain child of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. It was established more than three years ago, started as a money transfer system and has transformed into an investment vehicle for Zimbabweans in the Diaspora, so they want us to believe.

Homelink current products include the Homelink Housing Scheme and the Money Transfer Service.
These products are targeted at Zimbabweans in the Diaspora. For the Housing scheme, loans are disbursed in Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwean Dollars, whilst repayments are in foreign currency. So who is benefiting here? You get useless Zimbabwe dollars which can not buy anything, in exchange for your hard earned foreign currency. Why don't they give you building materials instead? They know they are ripping you off.

So, who has used homelink before? Who is currently using homelink? Does it have any success stories? You work hard for your money, so use it wisely.

Homelink private limited says it will broaden its product range as it seeks to harness more foreign currency inflows into the country from Zimbabweans living abroad.
Homelink is said to have identified the following products to be targeted at 3 million Zimbabweans living in the Diaspora.

Funeral Schemes

Export Home Products, I don't know if they mean Chibuku(scud). Because there are many of these home products already available in the Diaspora.

Insurance Schemes and Health Care Schemes.

"These products are meant to save the interests of Zimbabweans living outside the country, and also the country will benefit from foreign currency inflows".

The officials at Homelink want us to believe they are coming up with new products for Zimbabweans living in the Diaspora! In fact there are people already providing those services and products.

The problem with Homelink people is they think they can fool everyone. All they are interested in is getting your hard earned forex. Who can say they got a better deal from the Homelink Housing Scheme. People got loans in Zimbabwe Dollars which did not even cover the full costs of the building those houses, yet they are still repaying those loans in foreign currency.
Let’s face it; these guys are in it for their own benefit.

Latest exchange rates on homelink website:

Pound $58 743

Rand $4 451.86

USD $30 000.00

Pula $5 055.00

What Do You Think? Your Opinion is very important feel free to post your comment.

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Zimbabwe: $50 Million For Maternity Booking Fee in Harare!

Kids!

They bring joy to our lives.

We all love kids, this is shown by how we rejoice and celebrate when a baby is born.
Couples try all different things if for one reason they can't have children. Now for my fellow ZImbabweans back home, having kids is going to cost them a lot of money.

Harare City Council has just announced that with immediate effect, fees at all it's health institutions are going up by 100 percent.

The fees at all Harare City Council health institutions are also expected to go up again by 100 percent with effect from one April this year.
Consultation fees for both clinics and hospitals have increased to ZW$10 million.

Research has shown that population tends to increase more in poor communities. Poor people make more babies than rich communities. This is probably the same situation in Zimbabwe. There is poverty in most communities, there is no food, no drugs and there is poor or no service in hospitals and clinics.
Zimbabwe has got one of the highest rate of unemployment in the world. The working majority are all below the poverty datum line. Inflation rate is too high and embarasing to talk about.

I was also wondering whether this has got something to do with lack of other things to do out of work. Say entertainment,
Well most of the times there is no electricty in most suburbs in Zimbabwe, so people can not watch TV, thus they retire to bed early.
I have also head a lot of stories about Zimbabwe man's favourite drink chibuku 'scud'. Sorry I'm not going to talk about this now.

Maybe because of a lot of manual work to be done in these poor communities, maybe it's a motivation to have more babies!

Well, so why don't they use all these family planning methods around? Could it be the cost, or maybe lack of knowledge? Surely there must be traditional methods available.

Well for my fellow Zimbabweans back home, besides having to rely on community midwives. Surely how many of them will afford the $50 million maternity booking fees. As for foreigners living in Harare, well they have to pay $100 million.

Consultation fees for family health services costs $2 million. Something called Pap smear costs $10 million, Depo Provera costs $5 million and family planning pills now cost $1 million.

So, probably Zimbabwe is set for a population boom now. How many people will afford all these expenses when there is nothing to eat in the house. Well. after all there is nothing wrong in having babies.

So what do you think? Feel free to leave your comment.

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South Africa World Cup 2010: ZimSun gets FIFA approval to host guests

ZimSun Limited has been awarded the "FIFA Match Approval Status". The award gives the company the right to accomodate tourists during the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. The approved status is in recognition of the Zimbabwe Sun groups high hospitality standards that would see the soccer governing body recomending and advertising Zimbabwe Sun's Hotels to officials and visitors to the 2010 World Cup event.
The World Cup finals to be held in South Africa in 2010 provide an opportunity for business development in various sectors of the Zimbabwe economy. The approval of ZimSun by FIFA is a welcome development to the Hotel industry in Zimbabwe as visitors need re-assurance of their safety and the quality of service in Zimbabwe. This will generate the much needed foreign currency and help in the recovery of the economy.

Elephant Hills hotel, Kingdom Hotel and the Victoria Falls hotel received the award, corporate communications manager Ms Farai Mangwende said. The recognition would enable and help the group to market it's products to new markets as well as other remote parts of the world.

As part of the deal FIFA would, free of charge advertise ZimSun on it's websites to potential visitors to South Africa as the hotel has high quality accomodation and food services.

Zimbabwe has one of the best infrastructure in the region and well coordinated efforts from the government and industry would result in the country making the most of the increased visitors to the region.
There will be an increase in the number of tourists coming to the region prior to, during and after the World Cup. Different industries will benefit from the indirect spin offs from the staging of the event in the region.

General economic benefits will include, increased sales as a direct result of the World Cup especially in restaurants, hotels and other retailers.
The World Cup event also offers the country an opportunity to improve it's image. There has been a lot of negative publicity about the country, good preparation and coordination of efforts can help restore the country's image and help bring tourists back to the country.

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Zimbabwe Election 2008: Dr Simba Makoni to contest for President

Could this be the best news to come out of Zimbabwe this year. There might be light at the end of the tunnel after all.
There have been different views on the announcement by former Zimbabwe finance minister Dr Simba Makoni that he is going to contest in the coming presidential elections as an independent candidate. The reactions in the government paper The Herald, from various so called political analysts show how this news has shaken the ZANU PF party establishment. Whilst those in the opposition and other neutrals view this as the done of a new era in Zimbabwe politics.
"I share the same agony and anguish of all citizens over the extreme hardships that we all have endured over the past 10 years", Dr Makoni said at a press conference in Harare.

Surely the people of Zimbabwe have suffered for a very long time, with no end in sight. Simba Makoni may just be what Zimbabwe needs, he comands a lot of respect both locally and internationally. Dismissed from the cabinet for trying to do the job he was employed to do.

Probably one of the most respected from the so called leaders of tommorow that our dear leaders always talked about. Simba Makoni is said to have been disqualified from standing as a parliamentary candidate in his home area of Manicaland. Where he intended to stand against Patrick Chinamasa.
I guess probably he is meant to take up the top job in the land probably that's why he failed in his will to become a member of parliament.

There maybe some people who may not trust him in the first instance, after all he was a senior member in the ZANU PF party. However some say he is a brave and couragious man to be able to stand up against Mugabe from within the system. Whatever happens in the next few weeks, probably a change of leadership maybe what the country needs to turn around the economic situation.

Will he succeed where most have failed? Is the country ready to have an independent president and whether it will be a success time will tell? It's surely going to be a bumpy road ahead. Hopefully Zimbabwe as a country will be the winner.

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Very Poor Service from ZIMCARGO.COM

My troubles shipping goods to my family in Zimbabwe: I tried to come up with a proper title for my post, it seems I can not find one that can fully show my anger on the service provided by Crosswill Services.
I didn't think one day I will be writing such an article about a company that promised so much when I first talked to the company representative in November last year. And they were even recomended to me by a friend.
So why 'am I so much angry with them you may ask? It's all because they have not yet delivered my cargo which was supposed to be in Zimbabwe by Christmas.

This is the background to my story. I did send my cargo to Zimbabwe through Crosswill Services. My goods were collected on 13 November 2007 from my place in London. They wrote a confirmation letter together with the delivery note to me which I received this year in January, saying that when the goods arrive in Zimbabwe, I will be informed by telephone. They also state in the same letter that my relation in Zimbabwe will be kept informed of every movement of the goods until final collection.

As far as I know, nobody from Crosswill Services has ever contacted any of my family back in Zimbabwe. Besides their text mesage to say my cargo was in Durban South Africa at the begining of January 2008, I have had no communication from them.

When I phoned their offices, a woman in the offices promised to call me back after checking the where abouts of my goods, but never did. I guess she is still checking.

I also checked the website that they have on the letter they send to me. Then I realised the website they have is not their correct website, but that of another company also trading as zimcargo. So I wasted my time sending emails to the wrong people again.
I wrote an email again to another email address they have on the letter, but they also never bothered to reply. I'm still waiting for my goods to get to Zimbabwe, and it's nearly three months now.

I can not believe I paid £182.00 for such poor service.

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Zimbabwe road: Beware Potholes Ahead!!

So sad to imagine that you pay road tax, only for your car to end up in such a massive pothole, and lucky to be alive. Otherwise you can drown.

This shows how bad things are in the once sunshine city of Harare. So why do people have to pay rates and taxes to the governement if they have to put up with this?

My friend calls this, the pothole of the month. I have to admit this is probably the biggest pothole I have ever seen.

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