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ARE YOU CONSCIOUS THAT THE end is nigh? We are seeing so much civic action in the streets and on social networks.

#ThisFlag

Information Communication Technology Minister Supa Mandiwanzira was on Monday involved in a nasty brawl with activist, Evan Mawarire, a cleric fronting what has become known as #thisflag campaign.

Mawarire had appeared on Mandiwanzira’s ZiFM Stereo radio station with Zanu PF activist, Tafadzwa Musarara in a heated debate over the social media campaign to force government to “listen to the people’s voice”.

The cleric told NewsDay that he had been waylaid by Mandiwanzira, as he made his way out of the studio.

“Mandiwanzira was waiting for me outside the studio and began shouting at me. He called me all sorts of names and accused me of seeking to subvert the government. He was yelling and cursing, accusing me of abusing Cabinet ministers and seeking to make white people happy in order to destroy Zimbabwe. He said I must be taught a ‘lesson’.

 “I will remove you on Twitter. I will dismiss you,” the minister is heard angrily shouting at Mawarire in what appears to be in a corridor at ZiFM Stereo.

On his Twitter account, Mandiwanzira said: “Shocked that lying pastor brags on radio that he does work for government ministries and turns around to say ‘murikudya mega (you are enjoying on your own to the exclusion of everyone)’.

Snapped from http://tinyurl.com/z97hxa6 .

#MPsFloorBasking

Human trafficking has been a menace in many countries and on many innocent lives. We have been having many Zimbabweans being gobbled by crocodiles crossing Limpopo with some crumpled by lions trying to cross to Botswana.

The government has failed to provide for the citizens hence this predicament we find ourselves in. Young women have been raped by human traffickers trying to leave the country for a better living, some have been stuck oversees and recently in Kuwait.

Government has not done enough on its promises and mandate. Shame on our leaders. Zimbabwe has over 3 million people living outside Zimbabwe and it doesn’t even shake this status quo. You can read about it here http://tinyurl.com/jbpzapn .

#DembareFansChasePolice

You may underestimate the meaning of the police running faster than dogs. Anger can be expressed anywhere anyhow. The fans show us what Zimbabweans are feeling.

The celebration of beating a police officer after losing to a totally different ally is a reflection that Zimbabweans are highly frustrated and can vent their anger on anything. The police epitomize the state, the people are ready to rise, and they are just waiting for a stimulus.

You can watch the police race for their lives on the below link, I heard people laugh but this is a insignia that the end is nigh.

More can be found here http://urlmin.com/4r6md .

#MDCDemoInBulawayo

HE MDC-T has taken Home Affairs Minister Ignatius Chombo and Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri to court challenging the police's decision to bar its planned demonstration in Bulawayo.The demonstration had been set for May 28 starting at the Bulawayo City Hall car park at 10AM and ending at King Lobengula's Kraal along Masotsha Ndlovu Avenue at 2PM.The MDC-T, through its lawyers TJ Mabhikwa and Partners, yesterday filed an urgent chamber application at the Bulawayo High Court seeking an order interdicting the police from interfering with its planned protest.

In his founding affidavit, James Sithole, the party's organising secretary for Bulawayo province, claimed that the planned protest dubbed, "March against poverty and corruption", sought to bring to the fore the MDC-T's position on the declining socio-economic and political conditions in the country through a "peaceful demonstration."

"Top of the priority of the issues of the planned peaceful protest is the rampant and alarming levels of corruption wherein $15 billon reportedly mysteriously went missing from the government coffers, escalating poverty, acute cash shortages and poor service delivery among other pressing issues while the government is seemingly taking a lackadaisical approach in tackling these issues," said Sithole.
- See more at:  http://tinyurl.com/htm3zkm .

#AMillionManMarch by Zanu youths

THE Zanu PF youth league’s proposed one million men march in solidarity with President Robert Mugabe is reportedly in limbo due to financial difficulties and “internal sabotage”, as factionalism continues to gnaw into the ruling party’s backbone. While officials tried to put a brave face, it has emerged the factional fights within the party are hampering organisers’ efforts to fundraise for the demonstration tentatively set for the first week of May.

“They have run into problems because most party bigwigs approached by the youths across the provinces for finance have snubbed them. It is not a small job to transport 100 000 people from each province, accommodate them and provide food. The youths have set themselves up for failure,” a Zanu PF politburo member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

The youth league’s Manicaland branch has publicly indicated its “displeasure” at senior leaders’ unwillingness to fund the event. http://tinyurl.com/zh9upxx  

MAY BE YOU TOO ARE SURPRISED ON HOW MDGs FAILED!  The majority of Zimbabweans are failing to access quality health and education services because they have been omitted from the government’s list of priorities.
A significant portion of the population is living on less than US$1,25 per day in spite of the technical growth recorded since 2009, when the country ditched its own currency to adopt a multi-currency  regime.

Unemployment has been on the rise as well, as companies continue to close shop, unable to deal with the harsh economic environment.
Having been condemned to poverty, the majority of the population is pre-occupied with keeping body and soul together.

The trail of poverty ravaging Zimbabwe’s communities is not in keeping with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), put forth by the United Nations in 2000.
The MDGs provided a roadmap, with measurable targets, to reduce poverty, across the world. This roadmap eluded Zimbabwe for the past 15 years.

The MDGs envisaged the reduction in poverty and hunger; achieving universal education; promoting gender equality; reducing child and maternal deaths; combating HIV and Aids, malaria and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability and developing global partnerships.

In terms of development, the MDGs are the most broadly supported, comprehensive, and specific in terms of their poverty reduction targets.
The goals represented much more than countries’ commitments to achieve them.
For people living in poverty, reaching the MDGs offered the means to a better life, a life with access to adequate food and income, to basic education and health services, to clean water and sanitation, as well as empowerment for women.

Although Zimbabwe boasts of one of the highest rates of literacy across Africa, the country failed to achieve universal primary education during the target period and from the way things stand that goal will remain a pipe dream.
Increased yearly school dropouts, of between 250 000 to 300 000 children, bears testimony to this as the country’s poverty rates rise.
There is also widespread collapse of the moral fabric which is forcing children to join the oldest profession as sex workers simply to sustain their livelihoods.

According to a recent Zimbabwe Youth Council report published in conjunction with the United Nations Children’s Fund entitled: Eliminating Harmful Social and Cultural Practices Affecting Children: Our Collective Responsibility, the country now has cartels that are recruiting young girls into prostitution.

Global statistics show that over one billion people still live in poverty, hundreds of thousands of women die each year during pregnancy and childbirth and while school enrolment has gone up, the quality of teaching is poor in many countries.
Gender inequalities still exist as women are still fighting hard for their rights, and rising youth unemployment and increasing armed conflict must be addressed as part of the next set of goals.

Ministries in Zimbabwe have often decried the low budget allocations which have constrained their operations over the years.
Platform for Youth Development director, Claris Madhuku, highlighted that there were mixed reasons why Zimbabwe had failed to achieve any of the MDGs.
“One of the major reasons is the capacity of the government to prioritise and focus coupled with lack of appreciation, if not ignorance on the importance of focussing on such noble thematic issues on MDGs. The success of the programme meant that the budget was supposed to permit these programmes,” Madhuku said.

New global development targets have since been set for the post 2015 period.
These are being referred to as Sustainable Development Goals.

And with the country having missed many of the targets of the eight MDGs one wonders how much of the sustainable development goals will it achieve.

NOW WE TURN TO SDGS

Zimbabweans should spearhead the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly last year.

The SDGs are a global initiative that builds on the eight Millennium Development Goals established in 2000. As we already move into mid-year, a lot has happened in the country. Poverty is rife, droughts are ravaging communities, there is enough political bickering to send the country into a war, there is a serious cash crisis, and above all, unwillingness by leaders to shun corruption.

The SDGs can only be realised if there is harmony between public and private sectors, a stable economy and clean clear policies.

The country is in turmoil, the ruling party which is the government, is struggling to fulfil its election promises. One wonders if we were sincere in signing the SDGs or it was just one of the ways to remain relevant in the international landscape. Zimbabwe has signed may conventions and declarations which have remained a dream in many Zimbabweans. Will SDGs see light of day or it’s another political pill to swallow and go to bed.

WE WERE SHOCKED at the height of adolescent pregnancy amongst rural girls in Zimbabwe when Bheki caught up with Nokuthula* in Maphisa who is an adolescent expecting mother.

She was 17 years when she got pregnant. As she narrates her ordeal, she smiles a bit as she brushes her protruding stomach. She is expecting to deliver in a month but she already looks too heavy to wait that long.

 I learnt that she travelled over 60 kilometres to come to the District Hospital. The roads to the hospital are in a sorry state. I asked her if she understands that her pregnancy, though a celebrated thing can be danger to her life as she is young. Her response was chilling, she did not.

The area of Maphisa has many young mothers and it has become normal. The dangers of cervical cancer, broken cervix, even death are not a scare to them. Nokuthula* tells me that behaviour change facilitators have spoken with her but it made little difference as some of them were old and have children who are pregnant too.

The issue of adolescent pregnancy has been a challenge to nurses in the hospital and midwives as most cases end up needing specialist doctors hence referring them to Bulawayo. Something has to be done with the shift of HIV prevalence now higher in the teenage age as opposed to previous years.

The adolescents are now sexually active, what can be done? There have been debates on introduction of condoms in schools, introduction of contraceptives for the youths. These have been vehemently denied by many corners of society but with the impending risks of not doing so, a new way has to be chattered lest we bury more from the denial.

You can email us at: linkundla@gmail.com 

Author : LINKUNDLA

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