In the next elections Zimbabweans need to choose a President with the following leadership qualities.

Throughout history successful nations have been those whose heads of state have excellent leadership qualities that are focused towards the best interests of the nation. The President’s performance is often a measure by which we all judge the performance of a country because the President plays a vital role in the life of the country. Being a successful President means being a leader, but what, exactly,
are the characteristics of leadership that result in a successful president, what are the leadership qualities that are needed for good and effective presidential leadership? It is such presidential leadership qualities that Zimbabwe needs in its President for it to develop into the Zimbabwe full of splendour that its citizens long for. Presidential leadership is an intangible that most of us intuitively believe matters in making a country successful and unfortunately usually when we go and vote we do so without making an inquiry on the topics that would afford voters an opportunity to take the full measure of the candidate as a leader. That is how he/she engages followers, listens, treats allies and adversaries, perseveres, and responds to the unexpected and the urgent. In the next elections whenever that is, Zimbabweans need to choose a President with the leadership qualities listed below. I list these Presidential qualities with trepidation, because I am not a politician and many might have the opinion that, that fact alone disqualifies me from airing my views concerning Presidential leadership qualities but that will not stop me from listing them anyway.

1. Zimbabwe needs a President who can empathise with the plight of ordinary Zimbabweans and is able to successfully work towards improving the lives of all Zimbabweans. Great Presidents have always been those who are in touch with the ordinary men and women on the ground such that they have a deep connection with the needs, anxieties and dreams of the people. I do not believe that any man can lead a nation successfully who does not act under the impulse of a profound sympathy with those whom he leads, a sympathy which is insight founded from an understanding of the people you are leading, an insight which is of the heart rather than of the intellect. Presidential success largely depends on the consent of the governed which means that Presidents without a national consensus for major policies touching people's everyday lives are politicians not serving the interest of the people and are therefore courting defeat. Successful Presidents are those that have earned credibility among the people they govern and that credibility and trust is earned by keeping in touch with the ordinary countrymen that they lead. Public opinion is something that a President should listen to and respect but not to the extend that it dictates his/her every move or to the extend that he/she puts aside what he/she believes in and focuses on adjusting what he does and says to what’s acceptable to public opinion at that moment. Every president would like to be loved by everyone in the country, but presidents who sacrifice convictions to a quest for popular affection are not likely to be regarded as great Presidents. The President should be a person who believes in the ability of Presidential leadership to change public opinion, he should be flexible, pragmatic and capable of compromise but also firm, decisive and principled.

2. Zimbabwe needs a President who possesses a strategic vision about an ideal Zimbabwe and has a set of overarching goals with explicit and consistent viewpoints that are grounded in specifics. Every successful President in the world had a clear and comprehensible grand idea of where he wished to lead the nation in its quest for a better future. They are concerned with big issues and big challenges, and seek to explain their vision in a way that allows people to understand their circumstances and develop confidence in their vision as well as confidence in the set goals and policies. Great Presidents the world over have been likened to the commanders of ships at sea who must have a helm to grasp, a course to steer and a port to seek. The helm to grasp represents the vision that the President has for the country, the course to steer represent the positive goals that the President wants to achieve so that the nation can experience his vision and the port to seek represent the development and growth in the nation that is going to be a result of the President's vision and goals. Not only should a President have a noble vision but he/she should be able to lead people towards the achievement of the goals related to that vision. The President should be able to stand firm and consistent in support of his/her vision and give attention to details of the content of policies and an ability to assess their feasibility so as to be able to set the terms of policy discourse. As much as consistency of vision is important in a President it shouldn't make him/her rigid, he/she should be willing to change strategy in moments of crisis, vision can remain the same while the strategies continue to be modified. The costs of vision-free Presidential leadership include internally inconsistent programs that are unachievable, policies that have unintended consequences and therefore fail in the implementation stage, and sheer drift like a rolling stone that gathers no moss.

3. Zimbabwe needs a President with an excellent organisational capacity and perceptiveness about people which bears heavily on the quality of the President's appointments and his ability to mold his people into an effective team. An awareness of gaps in his/her own knowledge and concerns should enter the President's criteria when making his ministerial appointments. Proficiency at effective team building lies at the heart of every successful Presidency and it largely depends on how good he/she leads and motivates the ministers, as well as how strong-willed the members of the team he chooses are. Take note that a successful President behind the scenes should lead his/her ministers and what should be visible to the rest of the ordinary people should not be the President as a manager but the President as a leader of the people who has this grand vision for the country that they should eagerly help to fulfil. Managing has more to do with directing day-to-day tasks, whereas leading has more to do with casting a vision, goal setting, and motivation. The President must understand what his ministers are managing so that when he delegates work to the ministers he/should then know how to keep track of the delegated work. Team members are bound to have some disagreements sometimes and the President must be shrewd enough to see when infighting is unavoidable, even useful, and when it is destructive. Not to be underestimated is the need for the President to be surrounded by a strong team that is honest in giving solid, straightforward advice to the President, always telling him/her the truth as they see it and not simply what the President wants to hear. Karl Rove once said, "An effective President is one who can allow people to give advice that may not be in agreement with his views and values and opinions, and yet to feel secure in the knowledge that they are serving the president by doing so. Creating this environment for rigorous give and take, and minimizing leaks and the use of the press to pay back other members of the staff who said something with which you might disagree, is a difficult thing for a president to do, but a vital thing." Success of a President is guaranteed if he is able to ask were he is making a mistake and is given a truthful answer. Lastly the organisational capacity of the President is also judged by how well he/she has executive oversight and control over the fearfully complex systems and institutions in his care and his/her clear sense of priorities.

4. Zimbabwe needs a President with knowledge and wisdom about how to govern a country as well as the kind of strategic intelligence that cuts at the heart of a problem. A successful President usually possesses a formidable ability to absorb and process ideas and information and then sift through all the various information and come up with a well-thought out informed decision. A President's cognitive style that can be likened to an engineer's proclivity to reduce issues to what he/she perceives to be their component parts has been known to lead to the success of a President in coming up with effective decisions. The President's ability to listen to a diverse, rich and varied fare of advice from a broad circle and encouraging debate among the ministers with the different viewpoints is important in ensuring that he makes the right decision. The President should be comfortable in making decisions and his/her decisions should be unbiased. Of importance is an analytical mind in a President so that he/she does not substitute mere rationalisation for reasoned analysis. All great presidents are leaders of thought at times when certain ideas in the life of the nation had to be clarified. The President must be capable of thinking in contigencies and needs to be an optimist but one who has a built-in early-warning system so that his/her optimism does not blind him from spoting signs of trouble and facing unpleasant facts. The strategic intelligence of a President is shown by his/her ability to startle the country into constructive debate, and how to move people into thinking beyond short-run self-interest projects towards some longer term projects that impact positively on the general welfare of the country as a whole. The roots of a President's political philosophy needs to be grounded in an acceptable political ideology that respects the human rights of the people and a Christianity affiliation is necessary because most people don't want a non-believer President although certified historians and political scientists shy from such a value judgement, it is the truth. Successful Presidents are not mediocre-minded, the middle-of-the-road is not where you find them in their ruling ways because the middle-of-the-road is not the vital centre, it is the dead centre. Great Presidents the world over were not middle-roaders, they all took risks in pursuit of their ideals and they all provoked intense controversy at one time or the other. Such Presidents sought to positively change the nation's direction knowing very well that they are bound to alienate those who profit from the status quo but because they are not middle-roaders who are mediocre-minded they went ahead anyway. Of importance to the strategic intelligence of a President is his/her knowledge of local and international history concerning Presidency because history is a great teacher. History can offer no sure-fire solutions to current dilemmas and problems, but it can provide guidelines that Presidents can only ignore at their own peril. The modern world with its nuclear weapons, electronic communications, and national and international responsibilities compel presidents to think and act differently from their long ago predecessors in the history of Presidents but the elements of compelling leadership in history largely remain unchanged.

5. Zimbabwe needs a President who is an effective public communicator who has excellent political skills and an emotional intelligence that is above reproach. A President needs to be an effective public communicator so that the public is well-informed about his/her thoughts and what he is up to concerning the developments in the country. The media is the tool that the President should use extensively to communicate with the people but that is not to say the President should control the media so that it reports only what he/she wants it to report because doing so will be infringing on the human right freedom of expression of the press. The political skills of the President that enables him/her to use the powers of his office assertively, build and maintain public support, and establish a reputation among fellow policymakers as a skilled and determined political operator are a must for a President to be successful. To stress to you the importance of emotional intelligence let me start by saying, "Beware the presidential contender who lacks emotional intelligence because in its absence all else may turn to ashes." Emotional intelligence in a President is very important because it determines how the President will react to situations he/she comes across in that position of authority and his/her reaction will affect not only him but the whole nation. The emotional handicaps that significantly impair Presidential leadership are for example, mood swings of clinical proportions, defective impulse control, uncontrolled anger, defective temperaments, rigidity and a tendency to suspicion that results in being paranoid. Emotional flaws in a President can result in him/her being an underachiever because those flaws can act as an impediment to his/her peformance and a defective impulse control especially when it involves the control of sexual emotions can result in the President becoming an embarassment to the nation. The presidential bedrock must be integrity and that includes an honorable private life. The President must be steady and stable and have a normal personality which has presence, dignity, a certain touch of distance but not aloofness and be a person of substance who has high morals and courage. The President must be tough, even ruthless, but not find sick enjoyment in ruthlessness and he needs to possess a deep self-confidence, stopping short of a grandiose sense of destiny.

Let me end this article by pointing out that it would be reductionist to suggest that any of these Presidential leadership qualities can stand alone because the truth of the matter is that they are inextricably linked, each of these Presidential leadership qualities connects to and builds upon the other to form a seamless web of a great President. Taken as a whole and not in parts I am sure they will give you an idea of the kind of great President that Zimbabweans need to vote for in the next elections for them to be able to live in a developed Zimbabwe of their dreams. In the world of imagination it is possible to envisage a cognitively and emotionally intelligent Zimbabwean President, who happens also to be a brilliant effective orator, a capable and efficient country organizer, and the possessor of exceptional political skill and a clear vision. In the real world, human imperfection is inevitable, but some imperfections are more disabling than others and it is up to us the voters to choose a President whose imperfections will not be detrimental to the development of the country.

Photographs that say it all

What is the Zimbabwean dream?

It is about time that Zimbabweans state clearly what their Zimbabwean dream is so that Zimbabwean politicians know excatly what they are expected to deliver. We might expect the politicians to use their common sense but then what you might call common sense might not be so common to some politicians who because of an exaggerated sense of self-importance and complacency have alienated themselves from the masses and lost touch with the needs of ordinary Zimbabweans. I am a down-to-earth Zimbabwean myself and I mingle and mix with Zimbabweans of all classes and know the kind of life that Zimbabweans dream of, so hopefully this article is going to represent most Zimbabweans' dreams, if not all.

The Zimbabwean dream is living a free and peaceful life, a comfortable life with no lack and a life in which one can reach his/her full potential and his/her professional contribution to the country is appreciated and justly rewarded.

The ability to live a free and peaceful life is of paramount importance to Zimbabweans who happen to be a peace-loving people and are happy when they are given the freedom to say what they think and feel as well as the freedom to protest any injustice peacefully. Zimbabweans would be happy if they are free to complain and the press is free to report the leaders' indiscretions, corruption and misdeeds without fear of being jailed and experiencing the pathetic, inhumane conditions in the Zimbabwean cells. In other words Zimbabweans want a life in which their human right freedoms are respected. At the moment their human rights are being suppressed by the Zimbabwean Police which is using the unconstitutional oppressive laws, POSA and AIPPA to charge them if they try to express themselves politically.

The ability to be able to be successful and afford a comfortable life of plenty is what Zimbabweans long for. They want to be able to buy a comfortable three-bedroomed house in an area of their choice using their salary to pay up the mortgage. Zimbabweans want to be able to buy cars, through installments so that their standard of living can be raised to the level of that in South Africa which allows its citizens to enjoy the convenience of a car as long as they produce a payslip that shows that they can afford the monthly instalments of the car that they want. Zimbabweans want to lead a comfortable life with no food and medicine shortages or shortages of any kind as well as no electricity and water cuts. They want to lead lives in which they have more than enough so that they can be able to provide everything that their children need as well as support their extended families. At the moment most Zimbabweans can not afford to take a mortgage to buy a house and they can only buy their cars with cash and most ordinary Zimbabweans can not afford to save the cash needed to buy a car. Poverty eats the lives of most Zimbabweans and electricity and power cuts are an everyday experience.

A life in which one can reach his/her full potential and his/her professional contribution to the country is appreciated and justly rewarded is what Zimbabweans want. A Zimbabwean life that has laws, policies and a culture that promotes the growth of each and every citizen without any limitations so that they reach their full potential. The economic, political and social environment in Zimbabwe should be such that there is no limit to what a Zimbabwean citizen can accomplish in Zimbabwe. It should be such that Zimbabweans have the confidence that they can ultimately reach their dreams if they work towards achieving those dreams. Zimbabwean professionals want to be appreciated in their own country and given the due respect that they deserve as well as be given remuneration which is consistent with their education and which sets them apart from the uneducated street-smarts.
At the moment Zimbabweans are being limited from reaching their full potential by the economic and political situation in the country that makes it impossible for most of them to grow. Most ordinary Zimbabweans are getting a monthly salary of US$100,00 and that is not enough for them to afford to upgrade themselves. Education, which is the only legacy that the not so well-to-do can give their children has become so low in standard because of demotivated, underpaid teachers and lecturers which means that the growth of most children to reach their full potential is being nipped in the bud.

As long as the Zimbawean politicians do not ensure the fulfillment of this Zimbabwean dream for its citizens, Zimbabweans will continue to immigrate to other countries where this dream can be realised and those in the diaspora will not come back home. If Morgan Tsvangirai knew this he wouldn't have urged Zimbabweans in the diaspora to come back before he has the resources to deliver the Zimbabwean dream to them. This goes to show how the fake power and money that comes with being the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe has made him myopic.

The joys and pains of love

Eusebia blogging about peace, love and happiness which she values in her life.



I don't know about you but the only thing that brings me pain in this world is love. Funny how the very people we love the most are the very people that brings us the most pain. Funny how the person you truly love may not necessarily love you back but the one you have no feelings for may be the one who truly loves you. What do you do in that case, do you settle for the one who loves you but whom you have no feelings for or do you wait eagerly for a change of heart in the man you truly love but who at the moment does not love you back? If he doesn't love you back now, how do you know that he will ever change his heart when at the moment all you see is a hostile heart? If you settle for the one that you have no feelings for how do you know that eventually those feelings will grow through the love he will be showing you.? In such
a dilemna I suggest turning to Jesus and asking him to make the right man give you a sign that he is the man.

Eusebia pondering about the complexity of love.



Love is not to be underestimated, it is the most powerful emotion in this world that drives us to do things we would never dream of doing if our minds had control over matters of the heart. In my time I have innocently lied to protect the ones I love from being hurt. Out of love's jealousy I at one time sent two wrong extremely beautiful photos to an online lover just to make him give maximum attention to me and stop concentrating on the other women. In my pursuit for love I at one time left my home, my children and my work to meet a loved one in a foreign land only to be disappointed with the cold welcome I got when I arrived there. I have been hurt by Love over and over again so many times that I have lost count. The tears I have ever shed in my lifetime have always been a result of love gone bad, betrayed love, jilted love, neglected love, unrequited love, one-sided love, taken for granted love,
untrue love, unfaithful love, untrusted love, violent love, quarellsome love, abused love, misunderstood love, misconstrued love, suppressed love, unromantic love, uncommunicated love, ......... I could go on and on, the list is endless. I am beginning to wonder if the love I expect to receive from a man can be real or it will forever remain a dream that can never come true. Are my expectations from love too good to be true, are they unrealistic, what is realistic love like? Dear God, when will I ever find true love?

Eusebia wondering if love can ever be real or will forever stay in her dreams.




I have been made to believe that love is life and if you miss love, you miss life. And who on earth would want to miss life? I have been made to believe that love is an act of endless forgiveness for no human being is perfect and love forgives and accepts all those imperfections. I have been made to believe that love does not fall in love with the outer beauty but falls in love with the inner beauty so that when you are both old and wrinkled and the outer beauty has become history, the love will still stand. I have been made to believe that love is a game that two can play and both win and the minute it becomes a win-lose or lose-lose game it ceases to be love.
I have been made to believe that love is pulling together against all odds, it is a beautiful duet sung by two hearts in harmony with one another. I have been made to believe that love is when you take away the feeling, the passion and the romance in a relationship and find out that you still care deeply for that person, for love is like a violin, the music may stop now and then, but the strings remain forever. I have been made to believe that love is eternal, the aspect of it may change, but the essence remains the same, it is a symbol of eternity that wipes out all sense of time, destroying all fear of an end. Love is of God.

Eusebia wondering if what she has been made to believe about love is true.




If only God had made love easy to find, if only God had designed love to be a given with the right person meant for you once you reach 21years of age and made that love everlasting until death do you part. If only we humans could do without love, but we
can't do without it, it features in Maslow's heirarchy of the needs of human beings.
Love is just a word until you find someone to give it a meaning as that person showers you with love. Love is too strong a word to say it too early, and too beautiful a meaning to say it too late, if you miss saying it at that particular right time it looses its meaning. For it can be likened to a friendship that has caught fire, in the beginnng just a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce but still only light and flickering. As loves grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable. How then does he expect her to quench all that love for him burning in her heart after it has become deep-burning and unquencable. Dear God, you made me out of you own image which means I am worthy to be loved just as you God is worthy to be loved so if I am worthy to be loved make the man whom I love and who loves me the way I want to be loved find me soon before I get too old to care.

Eusebia blogging her mind away as she tries not to think about love or the lack of it.

The good thing is with or without love, life goes on because the lack of love in one's life is not the same as having a terminal illness. We all need love but without it we can still survive though peace and happiness would then lack in our lives.

The laws that killed democracy in Zimbabwe

When Zimbabwe won independence in 1980 Mugabe and his government made the mistake of inheriting the Law and Order Maintainance Act (LOMA) and the State of Emergency (SOE) law that the Rhodesian government had introduced so that they could use it to deal with any political activity by the African majority that had the potential of overthrowing their white minority government. Mugabe and his government should have removed those oppressive laws and then come up with democratic laws but instead for sometime they chose to retain those autocratic laws and used them to crush any opposing voices, for example the crushing of ZAPU supporters in Matebeleland and Midlands during Gukurahundi. So right from independence democracy was not given any space to grow because of the two laws LOMA and SOE. It was only in 1989, two years after the Unity Agreement between Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and Nkomo's ZAPU party was signed that the State of Emergency was lifted and the LOMA was repealed but that didn't give democracy a chance to thrive because then the Public Order & Security Act (POSA) was introduced in 2002 and Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act (AIPPA) in 2003, which are just as oppressive as LOMA and SOE if not more. To make matters worse there is an unconstitutional section of the Presidential Powers Act and the Criminal Procedure and Offences act that give the President the power to authorise the detention of someone without bail or trial just as was the case in the SOE.

The Public Order and Security Act (POSA) is a piece of legislation introduced in Zimbabwe on 22 January 2002 by a ZANU-PF dominated parliament.The act was amended in 2007. The chief architects of this undemocratic act when it was formulated were Jonathan Moyo and Patrick Chinamasa. It is the following parts and sections of POSA that the Zimbabwean police has been abusing to shoot democracy in the heart.
Part II regards the following as offences against constitutional government and public security
Section 12. Causing disaffection among Police Force or Defence Forces.
Section 15. Publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the State.
Section 16. Undermining authority of or insulting President.
The Zimbabwean police have been known to use these sections of Part II of POSA to suppress the freedom of expression and the freedom of the press by silencing journalists, bloggers or individuals who criticise the government and that is because all criticism against the government be it constructive and destructive the police sometimes regard it as undermining of or insulting the authority of the President or as being prejudicial to the State. Come election time it is these sections of part II of POSA that the police use to make sure that the opposition parties do not utter any criticism against ZANU-PF thus resulting in unfair elections.
Part III regards the following as offences against public order
Section 19. Gatherings conducing to riot, disorder or intolerance.
Section 20. Assaulting or resisting peace officer.
Section 21. Undermining of police authority.
Section 22. Intimidation.
These sections of part III of POSA are deliberately misconstrued by the police and used by them to prohibit peaceful protests by civil societies against ineffective or unjust government policies. Section 19 of Part III of POSA is abused by the Zimbabwean police to break up any political gatherings by opposition parties, yet ZANU-PF green bomber militia cause a lot of violent disorder and display a lot of intolerance towards other political parties but the police do not charge them with Section 19 of Part III of POSA. This violates the human right of being treated equally irrespective of one's political affiliation as well as the freedom of association.
Part IV sets the procedure that needs to be followed in order to be allowed to have a public gathering.
Section 24. Organiser to notify regulating authority of intention to hold public gathering.
Section 25. Regulation of public gatherings.
Section 26. Prohibition of public gatherings to avoid public disorder.
Section 27. Temporary prohibition of holding of public demonstrations within particular police districts.
Section 28. Civil liability in certain circumstances of organiser of public gathering.
Section 29. Dispersal of unlawful public gatherings.
Section 31. Disrupting public gatherings.
The Zimbabwean police misuse this Part IV of POSA by coming up with flimsy excuses as to why they can't allow opposition party campaign meetings or rallies to take place, yet ZANU-PF gatherings are virtually never prohibited. Civil societies like WOZA, ZCTU and Lovemore Madhuku's organisation which is concerned with constitutional
matters have constantly had their applications to the police to hold civil gatherings denied with unjustified reasons.

The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) is law enacted in Zimbabwe by a ZANU-PF dominated parliament on 9 November 2004 to oversee how the print and electronic media operated in the country. The law has a provision for a Media and Information Commission, (MIC), a body whose first chairman was Tafataona Mahoso. Since it was introduced, foreign news organizations have been banned from reporting in Zimbabwe while some newspapers in Zimbabwe have been shut down. Professor Jonathan Moyo and Patrick Chinamasa are the undemocratic masterminds behind this piece of legislation which has been described as criminalising the profession of journalism in Zimbabwe. It states that journalists found practicing without accreditation shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years or both and this violates the human right freedom of expression. The AIPPA law also denies the existence of an association of media houses and this violates the human right freedom of
association. Since its inception the AIPPA law has been extensively used to suppress the freedom of the press and settle political scores with certain sections of the media that criticise government policies.

Laws are made to serve the national interest and not parochial party political interest yet in Zimbabwe laws are sometimes used to suppress the opposing voices of the people. In terms of the Zimbabwean Declaration of Rights, most sections of POSA and AIPPA are unconstitutional, in that they deny the guaranteed rights of assembly and freedom of expression. POSA and AIPPA also defy section 7.5 of the SADC principles and guidelines which states, "Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens including the freedom of movement, assembly, association, expression …’’ They were also being used to violate SADC principles and guidelines governing democratic elections. It is through the use of POSA and AIPPA legislation that ZANU-PF leaders have managed to cripple democracy in Zimbabwe and feed their dictatorial tendencies. How the ZANU-PF government has managed to keep on the statute book a law which is patently unconstitutional and undemocratic is because there is no independent judiciary in Zimbabwe and the Attorney General that is appointed by the President would be pro-ZANU PF instead of non-partisan.

It is these laws that the Zimbabwean GNU government should have given priority to have them repealed so that the human rights of Zimbabwean citizens are respected. The way I see it is that as long as POSA and AIPPA remain in place and are misused or should I say abused by the Zimbabwean Police the American Congress is not going to repeal the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA) of 2001. This is true because ZDERA has subsections of its section 4 which says, lines of credit to Zimbabwe will be opened only when there is the American Presidential certification that the following conditions are satisfied :
A certification under this subsection is a certification transmitted to the appropriate American congressional committee of a determination made by the president (of the United States) that the following conditions are satisfied:
■Restoration of the rule of law – The rule of law has been restored in Zimbabwe, including respect for ownership and title to property, freedom of speech and association, and an end to the lawlessness, violence, and intimidation sponsored, condoned, or tolerated by the government of Zimbabwe, the ruling party, and their supporters or entities.
■Election or pre-election conditions – Either of the following two conditions is satisfied
(a) Presidential election –
Zimbabwe has held a presidential election that is widely accepted as free and fair by independent international monitors, and the president – elect is free to assume the duties of the office.
(b) Pre-election conditions –
In the event the certification is made before the presidential election takes place, the government of Zimbabwe has sufficiently improved the pre-election environment to a degree consistent with accepted international standards for security and freedom of movement and association.

I thought I should bring to your attention that POSA and AIPPA became law in Zimbabwe in 2002 and 2004 respectively some years after the American Congress had passed the ZDERA bill in 2001. Does n't that make you suspect Professor Jonathan Moyo and Partrick Chinamasa who drafted these two laws, POSA and AIPPA as acting against the best interests of Zimbabwe or in other words sabotaging the country by coming up with laws that consolidate what ZDERA had stated as the reasons why no lines of credit would be extended to Zimbabwe? The fact that the ZANU-PF dominated parliament of 2002 and 2004 passed these two laws POSA and AIPPA without thinking of how their impact would consolidate what the American Congress of 2001 had cited as the reasons for passing the ZDERA bill goes to show how Zimbabwean parliamentarians tend to support a bill just because it has been introduced by a fellow party member without scrutinising and analysing the bill to see if it has any negative effects on Zimbabweans as a whole.

The Zimbabwean GNU government should take the repealing of POSA and AIPPA as an issue of paramount importance for the much needed change in the lives of Zimbabweans for the better depends on that, since that would make them regain their human rights
and it would in turn result in the American Congress repealing ZDERA and voting positively to allow international financial institutions to give lines of credit to Zimbabwe.

The lives of Zimbabweans are in the hands of the American Congress.

Believe it or not it is true that the lives of Zimbabweans are in the hands of the American Congress. I am sure the question in the reader's mind right now is, "By what means this wonder is effected?" The answer dear readers is that the American Congress have a bill called the Zimbabwe Democracy and Recovery Act of 2001 (ZDERA) which indirectly gives them the power to control not only the Zimbabwean economy but also how Zimbabweans are governed. For those of you who are not knowledgable about this ZDERA bill let me inform you fully about this bill and copy and paste word for word what it says.

The Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (S. 494) is an act passed by the United States Congress sanctioned to provide for a transition to democracy and to promote economic recovery in Zimbabwe.
Senators Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) and Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) introduced the bill on March 8, 2001.[1] Senators Frist, Jesse Helms (R-North Carolina), Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York), and Joseph Biden (D-Delaware) sponsored the bill. The US Senate passed the bill on August 1, 2001 and the House passed the bill on December 4, 2001. President George W. Bush signed it into law on December 21, 2001.
Let me bring to your attention that the Republican, Senator Jesse Helms, spent most of the early years of his life working against black majority rule in Zimbabwe and the bill was drafted with the help of one of the white parliamentarians of Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC.
The bill was passed in the Senate by unanimous consent, and a record of each senator’s position was not kept. The House of Representatives passed it by roll call vote, which was held under a suspension of the rules to cut debate short and pass the bill. It needed a two-thirds majority – 396 representatives voted for it, 11 against, and 26 abstained.

Below is the full text of the Act

S.494 [107 th Congress of the United States of America]: Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act 2001.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled.

Section 1 : Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001”

Section 2 : Statement of Policy
It is the policy of the United States to support the people of Zimbabwe in their struggle to effect peaceful, democratic change, achieve broad-based and equitable economic growth, and restore the rule of law.

Section 3 : Definitions
In this Act :
•International financial institutions – The term ‘international financial institutions’ means the multilateral development banks and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
•Multilateral development banks – The Term ‘multilateral development banks’ means The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development,
The International Development Association,
The International Finance Corporation,
The Inter-American Development Bank,
The Asian Development Bank,
The Inter-American Investment Corporation,
The African Development Bank,
The African Development Fund,
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development,
The Multilateral Investment Guaranty Agency.

Section 4. Support for democratic transition and economic recovery
■Findings – Congress makes the following findings:
■Through economic mismanagement, undemocratic practices, and the costly deployment of troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the government of Zimbabwe has rendered itself ineligible to participate in International Bank for Reconstruction and Development [also known as the World Bank] and International Monetary Fund [IMF] programmes, which would otherwise be providing substantial resources to assist in the recovery and modernization of Zimbabwe’s economy. The people of Zimbabwe have thus been denied the economic and democratic benefit envisioned by the donors to such programmes, including the United States.
■In September 1999, the IMF suspended its support under a “standby arrangement’, approved the previous month, for economic adjustment and reform in Zimbabwe.
■In October 1999, the International Development Association (in this section referred to as “IDA”) suspended all structural adjustment loans, credits, and guarantees to the government of Zimbabwe.
■In May 2000, the IDA suspended all other new lending to the government of Zimbabwe.
■In September 2000, the IDA suspended disbursement of funds for ongoing projects under previously approved loans, credits, and guarantees to the government of Zimbabwe.
■Support for democratic transition and economic recovery :
■Bilateral debt relief – Upon receipt of the appropriate congressional committee of a certification described in subsection (d), the secretary of the treasury shall undertake a review of the feasibility of restructuring, rescheduling, or eliminating the sovereign debt of Zimbabwe held by any agency of the United States government.
■Multilateral debt relief and other financial assistance – It is the sense of Congress that, upon receipt by the appropriate congressional committee of a certification described in subsection (d), the secretary of the treasury should:
■Direct the United States executive director of each multilateral development bank to propose that the bank should undertake a review of the feasibility of restructuring, rescheduling, or eliminating the sovereign debt of Zimbabwe held by that bank; and
■Direct the United States executive director of each international financial institution to which the United States is a member to propose to undertake financial and technical support for Zimbabwe, especially support that is intended to promote Zimbabwe’s economic recovery and development, the stabilization of the Zimbabwean dollar, and the viability of Zimbabwe’s democratic institutions.
■Multilateral financing restriction – Until the president [of the United States] makes the certification described in subsection (d) and except as may be required to meet basic human needs or for good governance, the secretary of the treasury shall instruct the United States executive director to each international financial institution to oppose and vote against (1) Any extension by the respective institution of any loan, credit, or guarantee to the government of Zimbabwe, or (2) Any cancellation or reduction of indebtedness owed by the government of Zimbabwe to the United States or any international financial institution.
■Presidential certification that certain conditions are satisfied :
A certification under this subsection is a certification transmitted to the appropriate congressional committee of a determination made by the president (of the United States) that the following conditions are satisfied:
■Restoration of the rule of law – The rule of law has been restored in Zimbabwe, including respect for ownership and title to property, freedom of speech and association, and an end to the lawlessness, violence, and intimidation sponsored, condoned, or tolerated by the government of Zimbabwe, the ruling party, and their supporters or entities.
■Election or pre-election conditions – Either of the following two conditions is satisfied (a) Presidential election – Zimbabwe has held a presidential election that is widely accepted as free and fair by independent international monitors, and the president – elect is free to assume the duties of the office. (b) Pre-election conditions – In the event the certification is made before the presidential election takes place, the government of Zimbabwe has sufficiently improved the pre-election environment to a degree consistent with accepted international standards for security and freedom of movement and association.
■Commitment to equitable, legal, and transparent land reform – The government of Zimbabwe has demonstrated a commitment to an equitable, legal and transparent land reform programme consistent with agreements reached at the International Donors Conference on Land Reform and Resettlement in Zimbabwe held in Harare, Zimbabwe, in September 1998.
■Fulfilment of agreement ending war in DRCongo – the government of Zimbabwe is making a good faith effort to fulfil the terms of the Lusaka, Zambia, agreement on ending the war in DRCongo.
■Military and national police subordinate to civilian government – The Zimbabwe Armed Forces, the National Police of Zimbabwe, and other state security forces are responsible to and serve the elected civilian government.
■Waiver – The president [of the United States], may waive the provisions of subsection (b) (1) or subsection (c), if the president determines that it is in the national interest of the United States to do so.

Section 5 : Support for democratic institutions, the free press and independent media, and the rule of law :
(a) In general – the president [of the United States] is authorized to provide assistance under Part 1 and Chapter 4 of Part II of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to:

•Support an independent and free press and electronic media in Zimbabwe.
•Support equitable, legal, and transparent mechanisms of land reform in Zimbabwe, including the payment of costs related to the acquisition of land and the resettlement of individuals, consistent with the International Donors’ Conference on Land Reform and Resettlement in Zimbabwe held in Harare, Zimbabwe, in September 1998, or any subsequent agreement relating thereto, and
•Provide for democracy and governance programmes in Zimbabwe.
(b) Funding – Of the funds authorized to be appropriated to carry out Part 1 and Chapter 4 of Part II of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 for fiscal year 2002 -

•$20m is authorized to be available to provide the assistance described in subsection (a) (2); and
•$6m is authorized to be available to provide the assistance described in subsection (a) (3)
( c) Supersedes other laws – The authority in this section supersedes any other provision of law.

Section 6 : Sense of Congress on the actions to be taken against individuals responsible for violence and the breakdown of the rule of law in Zimbabwe :
It is the sense of Congress that the president [of the United States] should begin immediate consultation with the governments of European Union member states, Canada, and other appropriate foreign countries on ways in which to:

•Identify and share information regarding individuals responsible for the deliberate breakdown of the rule of law, politically motivated violence, and intimidation in Zimbabwe.
•Identify assets of those individuals held outside Zimbabwe.
•Implement travel and economic sanctions against those individuals and their associates and families; and
•Provide for the eventual removal of amendment of those sanctions

It is this ZDERA bill that is now barring the Zimbabwean GNU government from accessing the desperately needed lines of credit which in turn affect the GNU's economic turnaround programmes. To qoute the Minister of Finance, Mr Tendai Biti, "The World Bank has right now billions and billions of dollars that we have to access, but we can’t access those dollars unless we have dealt with and normalised our relations with IMF but then we cannot normalise our relations with IMF because of the voting power of USA, it’s a blocking voting power of America and
people who represent America on that board cannot vote differently because of ZDERA," he said. It is Section 4(c) of ZDERA that is barring any lines of credit to Zimbabwe which states that: The Secretary of the Treasury shall instruct the United States executive director to each international financial institution to oppose and vote against:
(1) any extension by the respective institution of any loan, credit, or guarantee to the Government of Zimbabwe; or
(2) any cancellation or reduction of indebtedness owed by the Government of Zimbabwe to the United States or any international financial institution.

As much as I want Zimbabwe to develop and have economic growth which is something that lines of credit from the World Bank and the IMF can make possible, I support ZDERA for trying to protect my human rights as a Zimbabwean and for putting measures to ensure that the rule of law is followed in Zimbabwe and there is freedom of expression and association. I don't blame the American Congress for refusing to repeal the ZDERA Act until there is true democracy and the rule of law in Zimbabwe.

Simbi Veke Mubako, Zimbabwe's ambassador to the USA back then in 2001 when the bill was passed and signed, and Cynthia McKinney who was a US Congresswoman when the bill was passed accused supporters of the bill of anti-black racism citing that there were ulterior motives for the bill which had something to do with the Zimbabwean Land Reform Programme. They considered the bill as a way for Westerners to protect their kith and kin relations (in this case, white farmers who had lost their lands in Zimbabwe), and punish the culprits who were making their kith and kin suffer.

Ulterior motive or no ulterior motive, one thing I do know is that I want democracy and the rule of law to reign in Zimbabwe and this ZDERA which restricts the Zimbabwean government where it hurts the most is my only hope.

Zimbabwe: The political marriage of convenience saga continues. Episode 3

Disclaimer: This story is fiction and any resemblance in names and the plot of the story to your on circus government or family is purely coincidence

In our last episode of this saga we were left puzzled as to why the wife, Tsvangirai, was allowing the husband, Mugabe, to treat her like his doormat? We were left with these questions. Where has the wife's pride gone to? Is this marriage of convenience really worth the humiliation she is being subjected to by her husband? Why is she afraid of divorcing this husband? In this episode we are going to scrutinise the marriage more so as to bring out in the open some of the problems causing this marriage of convenience to be shaky as well as answer all the questions that the last episode raised.

Let me bring to your attention that in the first place this marriage of convenience was arranged by neighbors from the surrounding surburbs of SADC who thought it was the best solution to bringing harmony and development between the husband's and wife's families whose rivalry was shaking the stability of not only these two families and the surburb they live in but the whole city. It took a very long time for both parties in the marriage to agree to enter into an agreement concerning the ground rules that would govern this marriage, the governing rules had to be negotiated and signed and that was a lengthy process with one impasse after another. When they finally decided to sign the agreement to marry for convenience still there were some outstanding issues to which no consensus had been reached and it is these same issues that are causing the marriage to become shaky now. The neighbors who arranged the marriage had brushed aside these issues as minor domestic problems that the husband and wife could settle on their own once they got married. More than 100 days into the marriage and yet the husband and wife have failed to agree on the matters concerning the firing of their housekeeper, Gono, and the gardenboy, Tomana, and the wife has asked the neighbors who arranged the marriage to intervene. The other main problem in the marriage is that the husband is behaving in an autocratic manner towards the wife, not giving the wife enough power and authority to run the household in the democratic manner she wants to run it. The husband is of the old school that thinks that a wife should always agree with the husband's thoughts and do what the husband wants without any regard to her own thoughts and feelings and should not make any decision concerning the running of the household. He is of the ancient opinion that the wife should exist as an extension of the husband and not as a person with her own thoughts, opinions, feelings and likes and dislikes. In getting married to this particular husband the wife has been made to loose his own individuality and his sense of pride as a unique idividual whose thoughts count. The wife is not happy about that but is allowing the husband to have his way because she has neither the strong character nor the intelligence to outwit her conniving husband. Besides the conniving husband has wrapped her around his finger and made her believe that he is not the demon that he is purported to be and blames some of his powerful relatives for manipulating him so that he does not succumb to his wife's needs. What a gullible wife he has turned out to be.

This marriage of convenience came with benefits for the wife and her close relatives who all became entitled to Mercedes Benz and 4x4 wheel-drive cars and a generous monthly allowance of pocket money. The children in this marriage of convenience are of the opinion that it is because of those benefits that the wife is hesitating to divorce the husband and her close relatives are not advising her to do so. Whoever said the love of money and material possesions is the root of all evil has been proved to be right in this case. Meanwhile the children in this marriage have not benefited anything from the marriage, so far the marriage has not improved their lives at all and they are puzzled as to what their mother means when she cites the reason for not divorcing their father is for their sake, "Handiende ndinogarira vana vangu", unovagarira pakudii ivo vana vacho vasina zvirikuvanakira zvirikukonzerwa nemuchato ivoyo The children feel that their mother is bit by bit being swallowed by their domineering father and as a consequence she is bit by bit deserting them. As a reaction to that they are thinking of deserting their parents in this marriage of convenience and joining the Makoni or Dabengwa families.

As we speak the wife in this marriage of convinience has gone out of the country to USA and Europe to try and convince potential well-wishers of this marriage to help the family with loans and donations to run their household since their family bank account is nearly bankrupt. In the next episode of this saga we will talk more about that issue, just watch this space.

Zimbabwe: The GNU has not lived up to expectations so far.

The Zimbabwean GNU has been in existence for over 100 days now and I have been digging deeply to find out what improvement it has done to the lives of Zimbabweans. My conclusion is that there is no improvement at all in the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans that can be credited to this GNU. Yes, the shop shelves are now full to the brim with all sorts of food stuff and luxuries, which are affordable and that is thanks to the dollarisation of the economy which made that possible. But this dollarisation of the economy happened before the GNU was formed and it is something that was inevitable considering that the hyper-inflated Zim dollar had been rendered practically useless by the abnormally high level of hyper-inflation that Zimbabwe's economy had reached. ZANU-PF is claiming credit for the dollarisation of the economy as if it is their great genius yet it was economic nature taking its course, the hyper-inflation bubble in Zimbabwe had become over-saturated and so had to burst and the only way forward after that economic burst could only be dollarisation of the economy. Besides how can one take credit for rebuilding what one had destroyed in the first place.

When the GNU was formed Zimbabweans were overjoyed because they thought its formation would result in the economically vibrant, politically correct, and socially enjoyable country of their dreams. As Zimbabweans celebrated the birth of the GNU they did so with the anticipation of experiencing a good lifestyle with all the neccessary amenities of the modern day world like a constant, reliable supply of clean running water and a constant, reliable supply of electricity without any blackouts or brownouts. They also thought the GNU would repair the potholed roads as well as expand the road network to cater for the increase in traffic from the time the old road infrastructure was built to now. They thought that the GNU would result in all the institutions in the country like schools, hospitals, banks and the different municipalities, industries and mines working efficiently and at full throttle. Zimbabweans are generally hard workers who take pride in earning an honest living so the high unemloyment rate in their country makes most of them very miserable and they thought the GNU was going to take them out of their misery by setting up many projects aimed at rebuilding the country and they could be employed on those projects. They thought that the GNU was going to kick start the economy and drive it to a rapid growth that would lift millions out of poverty. They thought the courts, which follow ZANU-PF's bidding would win complete independence resulting in a fair justice system. They thought that by now there would be the rule of law in Zimbabwe with the police which had become just another repressive branch of ZANU-PF having been redirected from fighting opponents of ZANU-PF to fighting crime and corruption. They thought that by now instead of a handful of cowed media, Zimbabwe would boast of a cornucopia of free media with competing television channels, newspapers and magazines practising the freedom of expression and catering for every conceivable taste and interest. A new constitution that they take part in drafting is what Zimbabweans expected from the GNU. In its heyday, Zimbabwe was the linchpin of stability in Africa and a model of rapid development and Zimbabweans thought that the GNU would bring it back to that state. They thought that formation of the GNU would attract donor funding and foreign direct investments as well as make international financial institutions like the IMF and the World Bank agree to give Zimbabwe loans to rebuild the country. All this was only wishful thinking in the minds of Zimbabweans and its sad to say that after more than 100 days in power there is nothing tangible to show Zimbabweans that the GNU has made in-roads towards addressing all these problems that make ordinary Zimbabweans prefer to cross without any visa restrictions to South Africa to work and live there.

For now, most foreigners, donors, and financial institutions are regarding Zimbabwe as more of a cautionary tale with high risks than a good economic revival model. That is an economic judgement that the GNU should have reversed in its first 100 days, for the fate of this GNU rests on the economy and the fate of the economy rests on attracting foreign investments, donor funding and loans. The GNU should have harnessed its unprecedented mandate to try and make right everything that is wrong in Zimbabwe so that all potential investors and donors as well as Zimbabweans could gain trust in this GNU. The conclusion is that for whatever reason so far the GNU has failed to deliver what was expected from it. When a country fails to deliver it is its leaders, that is its President, its Vice-Presidents its Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers that face the blame. So with all due respect allow me to say that "Robert Gabriel Mugabe, Joyce Mujuru, Joseph Msika, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai, A. Mutambara, Khuphe and all your ministers in the GNU you have failed Zimbabwe dismally so far."

Zimbabweans are beginning to doubt if any of these leaders have got the leadership qualities that can cause the much needed improvement in their country. They are beginning to wish that it was Simba Makoni at the helm of Zimbabwe, with his presidential leadership qualities he would definately improve the lives of Zimbabweans.

Let me conclude this article by confiding in you that as I wrote this article these two qoutes by Martin Luther King Jnr and Mahatma Gandhi respectively kept cropping into my mind, inspiring me and urging me to say the truth as it is in Zimbabwe.

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
Martin Luther King Jnr, Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, Dec. 10, 1964

"Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained." by Mahatma Gandhi