Essay on Zimbabwe – Personal Story.

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Let me share my Zim story with you. When my mother fell pregnant at the age of 19, the first thing she did was buy life assurance. She didn’t want her only son to suffer in case something happened to her. So she went to Old Mutual and got the best life assurance package they had. I sometimes see those adverts in the morning and think of it. Pay such and such at 20 and get R3 million if something happens.
My mother never thought that she would only live to 29. She passed away so suddenly. There was a big fight for custody and perhaps even because of that life assurance policy. When it was all over we were well into the post 2000 Zimbabwe. That funeral policy ended up being worth less than the amount of taxi fare it cost to travel to the bank. My mother worked all those years for nothing. Think about that for a second if you are a person who pays life assurance today. Politics can mess up your bank balance and wipe away a lifetime of sweat and tears. That’s how I was personally affected my the Mugabe era. When I, like millions of others ran away to try to pursue my dreams elsewhere I had nothing. I struggled to pay for my fees at Wits. I was homeless for years and watched my peers graduate and buy cars while I stood selling earphones at the University library steps. I left Zim back then because I had nothing,I wanted to be somebody and have something like the boys in my classes at CBC. I left Zim coz of the poverty I was tired of breathing everyday. I left Zim because I wanted to be a doctor so badly but I didn’t have a chance in Zim (my marks were good but not good enough) at the one medical school that was present at the time. Only 200 could make it in and there was no graduate entry program… When my father died he was a plumber for the National railway services NRZ. He was a foreman and he was damn good at what he did. One of my uncles (his cousin) loved to mock him for being a handy man but he loved that job and the dignity it offered him to provide for his family. When he passed away he died a pauper. He was making less that R500 a month when the government chose to pay. I will never forget how we had a big fight the day when he told me he could not afford to pay the application fee to Wits. I am ashamed of that day because I blamed him for something beyond his control. I am ashamed of that day because I was ungrateful and I ignored how much he had sacrificed to get me to even qualifying to apply at Wits. My father did his best to give me the best education, he gave me an education he could never afford. I went to Marist Brothers in Dete, and I was always one of the people who had to explain my fees situation. My trunk was never full and Kudzai Mucheriwa is my witness. But my Dad did the best he could. I even went to CBC in Bulawayo and my step mother hated it, she complained daily. I will never forget what my father said to her, “if we have to eat amacimbi daily till he finishes school, we will eat amacimbi daily” He would do piece jobs for pennies in the many months that government did not pay. My father died still walking to work coz he could not afford to catch a taxi. From Northend to the NRZ close to the factories, in Bulawayo. If you know that area imagine a qualified technical graduate, top of his class, a man who once managed city of Bulawayo water systems , a foreman for years. Walking to work. Under Mugabe my father watched his dreams and efforts to create something of value for his family melt away. He tried to get into another country like so many others did to escape that suffocating poverty but it caught up with him… I tell you those true personal stories to preface this next sentence. I hate Robert Mugabe. I haven’t shared how one of my grandmothers told me horror stories about some of what happened to her friends and family during Gugurahundi. She used to cringe when she saw that mass murderer on TV speaking as if he was God’s gift to Africa and Zimbabwe. I hate Robert Mugabe. I hate him so much I have obsessed over him, studying him, studying his rise to power and how he was able to destroy so many lives. How could one man do this. It was at that point that I realised he was NEVER ACTING ALONE. I know that he did not do what he did alone. He had some people co starring with him in this movie of Evil that we have all been watching since 1979. Joshua Nkomo warned people back then not to vote for an Idi Amin. He meant Mugabe, he had seen enough to make the conclusion, they say character is prologue. So today I want to caution against dancing in the streets for the next Idi Amin whose governmental and leadership CV is as horrific as that of Mugabe, the number one disciple of Mugabe for 41 years. The co- star of the Robert Mugabe show. Mr Emmerson (Crocodile by reputation) Mnangagwa. If I hate Mugabe, I must also hate this man, there is no Mugabe without Mnangagwa. Two sides of the proverbial coin.
I am a trained Debater, since 2005 when Mr Musambasi gave me a chance.
I am not talking manga manga stuff, here is some of the highlights of my CV as a Debater 1. National Zimbabwean champion 2. National South African University champion 3. African Best Debater in 2012 and again in 2015. 4. SADC Best Debater I say this not to brag or to make it seem like my thoughts are better than yours. I only say this to you today so you understand how my mind works. These years of debate training has made me a very analytic type of person and I look at the world through that frame of mind. It has made me follow the advice of Bob Marley very carefully, you remember what he said, “Don’t let them fool you, don’t let them school you, you got a mind of your own”. I follow that advice daily. But over and above that, I was the top history student at Marist Brothers Secondary school in Dete (pbag 13)for two years in a row form 3 and 4. I loved how Mr Masuku taught the subject. I have been studying history none stop ever since and I think one day I will study it via correspondence just to get the degree. Having said that those two aspects of my past history, specifically my passion for debating and my passion for history. Those things make me acutely aware of how we got to this point as Zimbabweans. Of how Mugabe was able to do all these things. While he was the leader of the band many people played in that band to help make his greatest hits. One of those people was none other than Emmerson (Crocodile by Cv) Mnangagwa. Let’s go through them carefully 1. When there was voter intimidation in 1980 elections in the rural areas Mnangagwa was involved in that. This is what led Nkomo to warn people that Mugabe was an Idi Amin. His side kick was Mnangagwa, by his own admission. 2. When Gugurahundi happened, the tribal consolidation of power by Mugabe. It was Mnangagwa the crocodile who was overseeing the 5th Brigades work as Chairperson of the Joint command. More than 20 000 innocent civilians were killed by these two men for being Ndebele and nothing more. If Mugabe has blood on his hands, Mnangagwa has blood on his hands and feet because he was right in the middle of that. 3. People talk about rigging of elections by Mugabe, well guess who was in charge of the ZANU campaign nationally when that rigging happened. None other than Mnangagwa. 4. In the last 7 years Mnangagwa has shown how ruthless he can be. When he was Minister of Defence he took on his long time rivals for power. The Mujuru family. They had to be eliminated, so what did he do. He went back to his murderous ways. Him and Mugabe orchestrated the death of Josiah Tongogara after all. He went first for the most feared man in the country by reputation. That man was the husband of Joice Mujuru. Rex Nhongo. General Solomon Mujuru who had run the army for more than a decade. Mnangagwa had that man assassinated. His style is unmistakable, same as when they got Tongogara. Always some accident that just doesn’t add up. Thats also how they almost killed Tsvangirayi, they failed and got his wife instead, remember how Mugabe said the accident was a hand of God. Which thug do you think was behind that assassination attempt. The man of the moment himself Emmerson (My nickname is not a joke I earned it the old fashioned way) Mnangagwa. Then he went for Joice with the help of an unwitting political novice Grace Mugabe. Recall how Grace started saying Mujuru was a whore and she was trying to kill her husband. Mnangagwa was part of that whole game. Joice Mujuru pointed out that these were crazy allegations, by a stupid woman however she did not make it. She was kicked out of Zanu Pf and the Vice Presidency on 9 December 2014. The very next day on 10 December the Crocodile collected his reward. He was appointed one step closer to his dream of being President. He was appointed to Vice President as illegitimately as she was kicked out. Now he says Mugabe must not use Zanu as his personal property, he never said that when Joice was wrongfully kicked out. In fact there are so many videos of him saying thats what happens in the party, you get kicked out, and you must accept. Only this year does he realise how wrong it was to say that. Only now that its happening to him does he want to save Zimbabwe from Mugabe dynasty. The Crocodile Mnangagwa is the first born political son of Mugabe who wants to be just like his political father. For this zealous 1st disciple to ascend to the presidency is the continuation of a Mugabe dynasty. Like father like son. How is he saving us from a dynasty? He is the dynasty of Mugabeism. You know one of the things that Jesus hated the most, hypocrites. Those pharisees and sadducees. Mnangagwa is a Pharisee, Chiwenga is a Pharisee. Everything that Mugabe did to Mnangagwa in 2017 he did to Mujuru in 2014. Where was Chiwenga then to protect the revolution. Where was Chiwenga then to drive out criminals around Mugabe. Where was Chiwenga then to address the economics and social crimes. Chiwenga was nowhere because this has never been about those stated objectives. He was nowhere because he was loyal to a different horse. He was loyal to the man who got rid of his military rival Rex Nhongo….
So having said all of this we have to truly consider if this is a #Freshstart for Zimbabwe?
1. Those who believe Mugabe should be punished for crimes against humanity and stand trial, I agree with you. If you believe that then you must believe the same for the number one henchman Mnangagwa. We can not have a fresh start without a full account from Mugabe and Mnangagwa about what they did, who they did it with, why they did it. Until those people in those “AFFECTED” areas are made whole. Until they receive justice and closure. It was not a moment of madness as Mugabe and Mnangagwa have said on record, it was a intentional, calculated mass execution on ethnic grounds of innocent civilians. To put it in perspective 30 000 lives were lost in the fight for independence, and just three years after getting it more than 20 000 people never lived to see it because Mugabe and Mnangagwa had to tribal settle a score with Mzilikazi and Lobengula. 2. For those who believe that Mugabe must account for all the farms that ended up belonging to his wife and not the people. Mnangagwa must account for the same corruption, he owns many farms too, and so do many military generals. The economic and social crimes that they see all of a sudden, both Lacoste faction and the G40 faction committed those crimes against the dowry of Chimurenga that is not theirs to self appropriate. Mnangagwa must explain what happened to the 15 billion. Is this what he used to pay the army for its loyalty. Those are blood diamonds for sure. 3. For those who say Mugabe has been rigging elections, has been suppressing rights of the people to movement, to free speech, to fair trail. To all those people I say you are absolutely right. Mugabe did all those things, and he did them with Mnangagwa. Who helped Mugabe arrest journalists and activists, where is Dzamara. Mnangagwa must tell us where they buried him. NB- When I use my debate training to think what is the root cause of the disease that has been afflicting Zimbabwe. My diagnosis is as follows: The root cause of all problems in Zimbabwe is not really a man. It is actually a system of Military dictatorship. Mugabe was the public face of a militarily controlled state. ZANLA has been running Zimbabwe and continues to do so today. All of the things that Mugabe did to the people of Zimbabwe he did because the army was doing them with him. Gugurahundi, intimidation, rigging elections. Those were the symptoms of the affliction. The trick was to keep people thinking that they were in a democracy even while the army was making sure only it could choose who ran Zimbabwe. Mnangagwa is the new public face of ZANLA. There is no national army in ZImbabwe, there is a liberation army that still meddles in ZANU internal party matters. They proved that last week on Wednesday. The army does not trust Grace to take care of them, or to preserve their way of doing things. This is the real reason they want her out, not because they care about the economy, not because they care about social issues, or civil rights. I am hearing people saying that this is a renewal of the ZANU PF, that its a fresh start, its change and we need change. I used to have a six pack, now I have a cooler box belly, yes I changed but my doctor is worried coz that change is killing me. I did not change for the better. I hate Mugabe so much I do not want another Mugabe. Mnangagwa is another Mugabe. This whole thing reminds me of when a snake shed its skin, a green mamba , a python. They shed the skin because it has become old and useless. They scrap their bodies on bark and boulders, to remove this old skin that can no longer stay awake all day, this skin that builds slanting statues. They shed the skin because it forgot whose body it was attached to and chose its wife over its blood brothers. The green mamba shed its skin because the new skin is tired of waiting for its turn to sleep in the state house sheets, to be the boss. The python sheds its skin to prepare for a new era of suffocating unwitting animals and humans who step into its way. When a snake sheds its skin. It is not a new snake. It is the same snake. Still poisonous, still a vicious killer. Still something that you must crush with your feet as the bible said. The Zanu Pf is not changing and renewing, it is simply shedding its old skin.
Mnangagwa is another Mugabe.
I am not scared to say these things, I have always been a bit of a wild child who doesn’t know when to keep quiet. My uncle Mandla says I once stopped a church service to ask a Pastor to preach in English because my mother could not understand him. My Headmaster’s colleagues and teachers will tell you how much headaches I gave them because I was always speaking up, as a teenager I spoke up for stupid things. I remember I once argued with a great man , Mr Freeburn my headmaster about why we were not allowed to wear caps at school. He kicked me out of that form meeting. I don’t know when to shut up my friends would tell me. Back then I was just loud mouthed by nature and because I was a naughty kid. Now I am saying this because I believe it needs to be said. What more can they take from me, this Military dictatorship. I have some half brothers and sisters (African dads have a trash record) but I was raised as an only child.I was my mothers only child. I have already lost the two great loves of my life, my mother and my father. They died chasing smoke because Mugabe and Mnangagwa were ruining the country. So if the army wants to come for me, go ahead. I will never apologise on ZBC for this, you will have to kill me. Nothing I have said here is a lie. Not a single iota. Nkomo once advised us not to vote for Idi Amin, he was talking about Mugabe, and many people ignored him because they were caught in the moment and they ignored the signs. The signs are all over the place in respect to this man Mnangagwa. He is another Mugabe. The problem in Zimbabwe is that it is a Military Dictatorship. You don’t solve a Military Dictatorship by imposing a Military Dictatorship. To truly change Zimbabwe we must implement electoral reforms that will allow for a civilian multi party democracy. Hokoyo mwana wevhu NYOKA INYOKA Mnangagwa musuro wenyoka hombe. Chenjera kutambidza nyoka mumba mako

Free African Slaves Now! March Against Slavery.

Africans For Peace together with African Diaspora Forum are calling on all citizens and concerned parties and individuals to join in our march against the slavery that is taking place in Libya. We cannot sit down and allow our African brothers and sisters to be sold on our watch. The continent of Africa has endured so much pain because of the activities that took place here in the past. Our history was disrupted by slavery; therefore we are not going to allow this to happen again.  

March Details:

Date: 12 December 2017 (Tuesday)

Time: 10:00am

Assembling Point: Burgers Park, Pretoria.

Be there and make an African voice heard. It all starts with you. Liberate the mind and get rid of the chains.

The future of Planning in Africa and Developing Countries.

Since the dawn of 2007 urbanisation has took its toll on urban areas in which the number of people living in cities amounts to six billion out of the total world population. In 2050 it is estimated that 1.23 billion of this people will be in the city in which 60% of people in Africa will be city dwellers. Urbanisation is the greater challenge for planning in the world particularly Africa in which most of its countries are still developing. This however poses both an opportunity and challenge to African cites including the future of the city shapers.

This paper briefly discusses the future of planning in Africa under in the augmenting advent of urbanisation. It will denote the opportunities and challenges as a result of urbanisation including how the resolution of issues such as basic service provision such as water, health care, public transport, and housing infrastructure inadequacies and backlogs; including poverty alleviation, unemployment and pollution affect the future of planning as a profession especially in South Africa.

South Africa like any other developing countries in Africa is experiencing the negative impacts of urbanisation which results in housing backlog of 1.5 million. Housing provision issue is appreciating   exponentially at the rate of 178 000 units per year, according to Wilkinson 2014.  As a result there has been an increase in the number of informal settlements and dwellings (1.9 million) in cities, according to the census 2011. In Gauteng there is about 1.6 million people living in these informal settlements the resultant of rural urban migration and external migration in search of greener pastures. Additionally, urbanisation results in high unemployment rates (26.6% in South Africa, according to stats SA 2016), especially in urban areas in which cities like Gauteng experienced 23.6 % unemployment rates, according to Fin 24 in 2013. This in turn stimulates poverty levels which in turn leads to pressures to the existing health, water, energy (electricity), housing infrastructure (buildings) provision. Additionally, the previously disadvantaged in informal settlements are severely affected by these issues because of their illegitimacy.

To resolve these issues particularly in South Africa, a number of alternative solutions were explored egocentric to the provision of public transport, housing development and provision in order to tackle the problems in almost one solution. Using public transport to facilitate economic development, employment, housing provision to the poor and to reticth the fragmented city which was inherited from apartheid the Corridors of Freedom were introduced in 2013 to link people to employment opportunities and minimise travel costs to work through the development of integrated public transport nodal development bus rapid transport system. Additionally, this infrastructure will attract business investment along the corridors including the development of commercial office parks and low cost housing provision amongst others, at the second phasing of this programme. The results however, indicate private investment attraction at some bus stations such as the Rosebank and Sandton as being destination stations as compared to others which are gateway stations within the city of Johannesburg.

Subsidiary, the other negative result include the displacement of the poor as to make way for development to the city outskirts through the new township establishments known as mega cities exacerbating the apartheid spatial segregation patterns.

This mega city concept has however gained momentum in the resolution of the housing backlogs in the city as the second phasing of the corridors is put on hold due to its complex process such as land ownership in which appropriate land expropriation bill was enacted in parliament to facilitate the required land sales for the greater public good. Mega cities however, as mentioned above are often by the urban periphery where land is cheap and affordable for large scale housing developments.  However, these new cities are far from job opportunities, public transport as they will be newly established, services such as health care and schools.  In Brazil, mega cities such as Rio de Jenairo were in decline in 2005 accommodating only six billion people to the nearby mega city Sau Paulo (42km west of Rio) of 873 square km, 57 percent of which (500 square km), were populated between 1930 and 1962, in 2002. However, it also started declining to 10.8 million people due to crime, transport and land affordability and development issues for the poor back to the inner city.

Additionally South Africa with its volatile nature of the historical emancipation, constitutes the state with potential resistance to relocate to attract people to live in these megacities or going back to their former dwellings if proper mechanisms and incentives are not in place. These includes, the public transport linkages to employment areas such as the inner city, false promises and the development/infill of deserted buildings in the inner city which are potential breeding grounds for reoccupation by the former informal dwellers.

In conclusion, the future of planning in Africa is under pressure to respond to the ever rapid changing environment in urban areas not forgetting that in rural area challenges such as rural depopulation or decline resulting in potential “ghost areas” there are no strategies to keep people in rural areas or attract them to live there in their retirement age. Depending on the results and implementation of the resolutions strategies and initiatives of both urban and rural problems, the planning as a profession is losing its momentum. Already, not much is achieved cities are still facing housing shortages, infrastructure development and high traffic congestion, including pollution and poor basic services such as water, energy and sanitation as well as a urban sprawl. These solutions such as the mega cities exacerbate these issues especially urban sprawl and further spatial fragmentation. These can be attributed to structural challenges such as poor professional personnel and conflict of interests between officials due to lack of coordination as well as lack of commitment to complete projects such as the corridors of freedom before the initiation of other programmes in this case the mega projects. Additionally, planning operates in a very dynamic context and it struggles to keep up with the ever changing environment considering policy formulation and implementation takes time due to the procedure involved. So the nature of planning being both a procedural, political and science makes it cumbersome to implement policy as the solution to a problem is not a one size fits all, context has to be taken into consideration including the limited power planning holds, power is in politics to provide funding for projects. Often times, politicians are objective oriented and planners are at their back and call of their orders to realise their political aspirations resulting in poor planning.

African Urbanisation: Opportunities and challenges: https://www.jica.go.jp/english/news/field/2011/20111128_01.html, 28.11.11

Osava. M, 2005: The Emptying of Brazil’s Megacities:  http://www.globalexchange.org/news/emptying-brazil%E2%80%99s-mega-cities, November.

Stassen. W, 2015: Gauteng’s mine dumps brimming with radioactive uranium, https://www.health-e.org.za/2015/10/15/gautengs-mine-dumps-brimming-with-radioactive-uranium/, in environmental Health.

Johannesburg Development Agency, http://www.jda.org.za/latest-news/news-2013/121-september/1388-corridors-of-freedom-to-change-city, 2013.

Freire. M, 2006: Urban planning: Challenges in developing countries, International congress on Human Development in Madrid.

Is South Africa really a Xenophobic nation?

Following the recent reports and the whole controversy around xenophobia, South Africa has a history of xenophobia, with violence which has left many foreigners either dead or injured, and many foreign migrants have been displaced, seeking refuge at police stations and churches. The South African government and the police have also been criticised for their disinclination to deal with the xenophobic attacks, insisting that the situation has been stabilized and is under control. Xenophobia is a serious crisis and as a country we need to stand in solidarity and put an end to these violent attacks and discrimination.

As a young South African, I am totally against Xenophobia, and I strongly believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, and we as Africans do not live in isolation, and we share one identity and one human race, therefore we cannot allow xenophobia to happen. The Preamble of our Constitution clearly states that we, the people of South Africa, recognise the injustices of our past, honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land; respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity. South Africa comes from a very oppressive past, such as apartheid, and therefore xenophobia reflects the country’s history of isolation from Africa, a product of apartheid which continues to reinforce a dangerous “us and them” attitude.

We are one, and we shouldn’t let the prejudice against our fellow Africans lead us to hatred and resentment.

The causes of xenophobia is that, the people who attack foreigners, are against them because they are of the opinion that these foreign migrants steal their jobs, they blame them for the high levels of crime, drugs and prostitution. However, I think that that this is deeper than xenophobia, it is more than the hatred and fear but a genuine dislike, that somehow foreign nationals are behind some of the crimes committed, such drugs, human trafficking and prostitution, but I don’t think that this is the time to point fingers, and we cannot shy away from the fact that there are high levels of crime in South Africa, but the question of who is involved, is something we cannot be certain of, both fellow South Africans and foreign nationals may well enough be involved,  as there is always two sides to every story.

Xenophobia is sometimes taken out of context, to a certain extent I do understand why the people of South Africa are angry about the high numbers of foreign migrants entering our country, majority of the African foreign migrants enter South Africa illegally, and most of these migrants undocumented. Therefore I do not think South Africa is a xenophobic nation, it’s just people tend to take the law into their own hands over the perceived criminality committed by foreign migrants, and when that happens it looks like xenophobic attacks, where else people from the community simply take the justice I their own hands. The media has also made it look like South Africans hate foreigners but in fact, South Africa has opened their arms to the people of other country. The police however must investigate all criminal activities and anyone, and not just foreign nationals, who are guilty of any criminal activity, must be dealt by the law. The necessary rules apply for entering any country in the world, and I think that South African laws aren’t strict enough that is why we sitting with a lot of illegal immigrants. There are laws which regulate how to enter the country, which I personally think will at least end some of the issues in our country.

However in the meantime we need to educate our fellow South Africans about our duty as a nation to love all who live in our country, and have more training and dialogues with community members to try and identify the challenges faced and work to develop strategies to actively address them, thereby allowing communities to feel heard and play a proactive role in seeking solutions. We as South Africans should stand against Xenophobia and unite and protect our fellow Africans in the spirit of Ubuntu for a united African continent.