Farai

Thoroughly enjoyed my first trip in Zimbabwe. With its lovely scenery, impressive rock art and beautiful rhinos, Matopos is well worth a visit. Where do you recommend I should go next?

Today is June 27, a very sad and painful day for all Zimbabweans who voted for political change on March 29, 2008 — a day we should memorialise the many Zimbabweans killed in 2008 to keep ZANUPF in power. Robert Mugabe and ZANUPF lost the election to Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC-T party but refused to accept defeat, launching a bloody and violent post-election campaign that killed over 300 people mainly in Mashonaland, Manicaland and Masvingo. I was the first journalist to capture this brutality on video in Buhera, alongside the MDC-T parliamentary candidate Julius Magarangoma who had taken me there to see the scale and obscenity of the violence. My footage became the first warning to the world of what was to come. The Robert Mugabe regime, through the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), had banned me from covering this election, so some of the visuals were taken undercover. Mugabe was forced on the country on June 27, 2008 after a sham one man election because the masterminds of this violence, Emmerson Mnangagwa and General Constantino Chiwenga, knew their path to power was only possible if Mugabe remained in office. I directed, filmed and produced this one-hour award-winning documentary, A Violent Response, which captured the senseless violence that followed. I post it here for all to remember this painful event that took place in our country — without any consequence at all. Let this film stand as a witness for the dead, a cry for the broken, and a reminder that silence in the face of evil is complicity. We must never forget, and we must never forgive those who bathed our hope in blood. A Violent Response, filmed, directed and produced by Hopewell Chin’ono.

🔸What’s wrong with the alleged US$412 million cancer treatment equipment deal? 📍The alleged contract is with TTM Global Medical Exports (Pty) Ltd, a company where Wicknel Chivayo is the sole director according to a companies search. 📍The company is a “middleman”. There’s no reason why Govt should not transact with the supplier directly to avoid inflated costs. 📍The company is only 7 months old and has no discernible track record. 📍The company’s registered office is a DaVinci’s hotel suite in Sandton. 📍There was no transparent tender process for the equipment. 📍The value of the contract is an inflated US412 million which extremely high yet there’s no specification on what this covers. There were problems with inflated contracts in the past eg ballot printing deal with RenForm. 📍US$52,5 million is to be paid in advance of any delivery. This is likely the true value of the equipment before the inflated “commission payments.” There’s a risk that it will be paid but nothing will be delivered a la Gwanda Solar Project. It’s a mess. We need new leaders.🇿🇼

🔸With respect, anyone who pretends not to have known about the crisis in the public health sector all along arikunyepedzera kuzungaira. Ministers and senior Govt officials know but they don’t care. They won’t act unless they can directly cash in on the crisis with a “presidential drugs scheme” or “presidential hospital drive” where they allocate public money to public health but award themselves the supply contracts. Nothing will be delivered but they’ll be pretending to run around. (Remember what happened with Covid supplies.) We’ve seen this movie many times before. We need new leaders.🇿🇼

In 2022, the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association raised the alarm over the state of health care at Parirenyatwa in particular. Hospital was “leaking from everywhere”, they lacked “basic sundries” including gloves and cotton wool, CT scan “down for years” and “most drugs out of stock, even paracetamol.” To date, nothing has changed.

I visited one of our public health institutions this morning to see a relative and left deeply concerned by the conditions I witnessed. What I saw was deeply moving—a clear indication that many of our people are facing serious challenges. The growing public outcry over our healthcare system is not an exaggeration; it reflects the difficult experiences of many citizens. As your appointee and one whom you have tasked to speak for the young people of our great nation, I feel a solemn responsibility to speak openly: sometimes, in our desire to present progress, we may unintentionally overlook important realities on the ground. Your Excellency, you have earned the admiration of this nation for your compassion, humility and tireless dedication to the welfare of ordinary citizens. Under your leadership, many have found renewed hope. It is because of this trust in your care for the people that I respectfully plead with you: please find time from your busy schedule to visit these institutions yourself. There is no substitute for seeing, listening and understanding firsthand what our citizens are going through. I also wish to commend those who have had the courage to raise their voices on matters of public interest. Their advocacy reflects a belief in the kind of leadership you represent—a leadership that listens, acts and puts people first. @edmnangagwa

Zimbabwean journalist and political prisoner Blessed “Dhara” Mhlanga remains in prison for a crime he did not commit. His only crime was doing his work as a journalist through his platform where he interviewed Zimbabweans from all walks of life. His family continues to need our assistance, as his wife has to see him daily, bring food, pay rent, and prepare for school fees for their three children. Many in Zimbabwe have asked for a local EcoCash number. This is the number to send any assistance you can: +263 7 73210776. The name is Florence. You can also donate to his GoFundMe via this link: gofund.me/0bff0632 Please RETWEET for others to see! Thank you 🙏🏿🙏🏿

@HillaryMusarurw @Chofamba I do have positive experience. having lived in Wageningen and Utrecht. Would be happy to share my experience too

@Chofamba @faraima He is welcome to share. The aim though is not to make comparisons but to share positive & negative experiences so that those wanting to go through a similar path are better prepared. #DiasporaDiaries

One day I will do a podcast/Space on my terrible experience moving to the #Netherlands. It was a career detour that saw me struggle to secure a stable place to rent as well as endure a toxic environment. I hope other Twimbos will join in to share their experiences there too.

🟡We cannot allow a situation where the elderly were forced to endure an entire day and night in queues without access to food, all due to the failure of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to deliver a free and fair election. Its important that we stand up for the millions of people who were disenfranchised by ZEC and its handlers through vote suppression. We strongly demand a #FreshElection to protect their voices.

I have spent over half of my life interacting with young people, training on leadership. One thing we teach is that It is better to build a child than repair an adult. We will live with the consequences for a long time or indefinitely. Zimbabwe needs true and genuine leaders

Please RETWEET so that all election observers see this! Dear Election Observers, I know that you all have translators/interpreters with you, so ask them to confirm for you what I am going to say here. This is the type of rural intimidation going on in rural Zimbabwe as political parties campaign. This is a ZANU PF prospective member of parliament for Zvishavane-Ngezi constituency. He is intimidating rural voters instilling fear in them. He says to them that their vote isn't a secret at all. He tells them that ZANUPF will know who they voted for through tracking their ballot paper using the ballot paper serial number. He said that they will all have their serial numbers taken down, and that this process will involve local village leaders. This renders the election not Free and not Fair and it implicates the election commission officials because this can’t happen without their compliance. Please RETWEET so that all election observers see this! Villagers comply fearing violence and fearing not being given social welfare assistance during the next five years.

Twelve months aho, today, we launched Dear Yuppie. Grateful for everything. @faraima

The rate has hit 6000 mark plunging working people & companies into further poverty & turmoil.Values have been lost in 3 violent episodes of economic dislocation viz , 2008, 2019 and May 2023.The 2023 election is therefore about reversing 44 years of poverty & underdevelopment

This is Southerton. It's not a growth point in some rural community. This is in the heart of Harare 5km away from the CBD. If you need a reason to #Register2Vote, I hope this one is good enough. 💛💛💛

It is now 2 weeks since Jacob Ngarivhume was WRONGLY convicted in the magistrates court for simply calling out State CORRUPTION! This is an injustice that any sane and genuine Zimbabwean should speak out against daily until Jacob’s release! Jacob is an innocent man! NO to persecution!

We have baboons running the country, primitive, opportunistic and parasitic kleptomaniacs. They took 51% of all white-owned businesses and run them down. Now they are coming after black folks. They won't stop until we stop them. They are coming for your daughters & sons!

Citizens, remain calm. The regime is tying itself in knots and exposing itself to the world for what it is. It might not care, but with time you will realize why this pain is necessary to achieve freedom. I lived in prison with Jacob Ngarivhume, he will cope, and he was prepared for this the same way @JobSikhala1 is prepared for convictions. What scares us are not prisons, weak people are scared of prisons. What scares us is our determination to achieve freedom for all, and freedom will be achieved! You can jail people, but you can never jail an idea! Jailing someone because they called for a demonstration against corruption gives the answer that the world has been waiting for. We are under a brutal regime that survives through corruption, so anyone who threatens its corrupt ways becomes an enemy and is thrown in prison. Mandela stayed in prison for 27 years, Mugabe stayed there for 11 years, prison doesn’t scare us. It shows how the regime has run out of ideas, even Mugabe at his worst never behave in this laughable manner. So citizens remain calm, time and the world is on your side.

Close to $190 million worth of Gold is smuggled out of Zimbabwe every month. Harare International Airport Upgrades cost $153 million. China had to give them a Loan. Read this again and try make sense of the situation. Zimbabweans are not angry enough📍

It might not be today or tomorrow or next week but at some point we will all have to break fear. When we do, this country will belong to it's rightful owners that is the citizens not politicians. The fight is to free the country from Zanupf and any other politician coming after.