At parliament the activists spent some minutes handing over the demands newsletter and handing over their placards to the security guards and some Senators who were at the door of parliament. The previous song Government dont torment us changed to We have lost patience, we are tired of waiting for change.
After some minutes a police officer made a sign to disperse us. A signal was then given for the activists to disperse peacefully. As this was happening someone identified as an intelligence officer came forwards and started to ask what is your message?; taking this as a delaying tactic, the newsletter was placed in his hands. He then became insulting and discriminating, saying dont these women have husbands. It is likely he is the same officer who then instructed officers who arrived in a police pickup to look around town for Jenni Williams and arrest her.
At least 2 truckloads of Riot police arrived after the protest had dispersed and finding noone they kept circling the CDB. Several times in the past they have arrested members at the bus terminus. As one protest went past a bank, vendors seen being chased by municipal police, proof of continued harassment.
The placards being carried had the following messages give our children an education- urgent; Restore the rule of law, police stop harassing us. In the Harare consultation the top 3 priorities members wanted the government to address are: Fix the education system; Create employment and opportunities and Restore the healthcare system (full list follows).
Bystanders came forward to accept the newsletters and give words of encouragement saying WOZA women your message is correct; you have been quiet; – keep up your pressure until GNU delivers its promises.
The protest and the list of demands handed over to the government complex today follow wide consultations with members in Bulawayo and now in Harare, the consultations continue. The objective to keep WOZA members focusing on holding the power-sharing government accountable for the promises they make. These activities are a continuation of WOZAs Take the Step campaign, designed to encourage Zimbabweans to continue with the civic participation.
Background
As a finale to the mobilisation, WOZA Members were asked what they thought the power-sharing government should have prioritised in their first 100 days in office. To do this we asked their responses to this question:
100 Days of the Government of National Unity an analysis
10 months have passed since the Global Political Agreement was signed. They promised to build a democratic and just, inclusive society free of fear, violence, patronage, corruption and to ensure a better life for all Zimbabweans. They promised to arrest the fall in living standards and reverse the decline of our economy, and an end to violence, respect for human rights and freedoms of expression and assembly, economic and social justice, security sector reform, constitutional reforms and national healing.
On 11 February this year, Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as Prime Minister and a few days later ministers and deputy ministers were sworn in. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said in his speech, “For too long our people’s hopes for a bright and prosperous future have been betrayed. Instead of hope their days have been filled with starvation, disease and fear. A culture of entitlement and impunity has brought our nation to the brink of a dark abyss. This must end today.” He promised jobs for those who wish to work, food is available for those who are hungry, and where we are united by our respect for the rights and dignity of our fellow citizens. This is the debt we owe to our liberation heroes and our democratic movement heroes who paid the ultimate price so we could all live together free from fear, hunger, and poverty. He said he would restore a free media, the rule of law and Zimbabwe’s devastated agricultural sector. He promised to open a new chapter for our country and told us he had three priorities:
1. Democratisation 2. Ending the humanitarian crisis 3. Stabilising the economy
SO WHERE ARE WE NOW? WOZA heard them talk and reminded each other that – actions speak louder than words. We continued to encourage each other to Qhubeka/ Take the Step /Yendera Mberi. We continued to demand respect for human rights and social justice through non-violent protest. We waited to see what they would do during the first 100 days. We know that our country has been destroyed and cannot be fixed overnight BUT we also cannot just sit and watch and do nothing. The 100 days has come and gone. Now we have to remind politicians we are impatient for a better life we deserved it yesterday and want it TODAY. We march today to demand concrete progress on the promises made.
WOZA have completed the Bulawayo and Harare consultation on what they thought the power-sharing government should have prioritised in their first 100 days in office. They responded to this question:
If you were President or Prime Minister or even Minister of Finance or Education and you had 20 days left what 20 things would you concentrate on first?
1. Fix the education system:
– We want free or affordable better quality education, with resources for our children and teachers who are motivated by descent salaries.
– Teachers still look at parents as their employer while the real employer, government, looks on helplessly.
2. Create employment and opportunities:
– We want jobs for all and those with jobs require a living wage that enables them to afford to get to work and eat three meals a day.
– Offer civil servants a decent salary.
-Allow people to get trading licenses and tell police to stop treating vendors like criminals.
-Encourage informal and cross-border trading by capacitating ordinary people with self-help projects and training so that they will be able to create more business on a small scale, which will automatically boost industry.
3. Restore the healthcare system:
-We need affordable fees for clinics and hospitals and enough affordable medicines.
– Pregnancy no longer means celebrating a birth but pain and suffering due to high costs; demands for bribes and bad service. Nurses and doctors must be told to treat patients with respect. They must also earn a living wage that dignifies them.
– Please allow people a dignified death buy more storage fridges and clean up mortuaries.
4. Basic commodities food for all:
– Food needs to be affordable and available. Reduce prices on a par with regional prices to stop profiteering
– Free and unhindered access to food aid for those who cannot feed themselves.
– Adequate food for prisoners.
5. Fix transport infrastructure:
– Repair roads. Improve transport for the easier movement of goods and passengers.
-Make fuel more affordable and accessible.
6. Housing:
-There needs to be affordable housing for all make rents reasonable and build more houses.
-A special compensation programme of housing for Murambatsvina victims.
7. Re-establish agriculture and initiate a genuine land-reform programme:
– Stop selective distribution of land. Stop illegal invasions. Be serious about agriculture because our country depends on farming. Give land to productive people.
– Fair distribution of inputs. Biased distribution means starvation.
– Compensation for those who had their farms taken.
8. Urgent reforms to stabilize the economy:
-Reintroduce local currency as soon as possible because not everyone can access foreign currency and afford to use it. Find a way to bring back a stable Zimbabwe dollar currency.
– Audit finances at RBZ and Gono should be investigated for corruption and either be fired or resign.
9. Restore the rule of law:
– Enforce the rule of law and respect for property rights.
– Police corruption is steadily increasing; weed out corrupt police officers. We demand an end to the public looting of vendors goods by police. Citizens need to be protected against indiscriminate harassment. Implement the deal points about training of police.
– End the violence by police on citizens. There is too much police brutality.
– Withdraw trumped up charges against prisoners.
– Repeal the sections in law (POSA sections) that violates civil rights immediately.
10. Write a new constitution followed by elections:
– Speed up the process for a new people-driven constitution. No president can hold more than 2 terms of office.
11. Resuscitation of industry:
– Inject funds into industry.
-Encourage investment to get our economy back on its feet.
12. Better quality, affordable and efficient service delivery from ZESA, City Councils and Tel One:
-They keep increasing their tariffs but at the same time they decrease their service. Make sure people are getting a clean supply of water. Reduce telephone tariffs and improve service.
OTHER RESPONSES INCLUDED
13. Provide social welfare:
– A decent pension for elderly, care and support for orphans and the disabled must be catered for.
14. Start a national healing process:
-Make the President apologise to the nation.
– There should be an investigation into human rights abuses and crimes against humanity and those guilty should be removed.
– We need peace and an immediate end to violence. We need to feel safe in our own country and own homes.
15. Have media freedom:
-Fair and equal coverage of all government officials. We want to hear them speak on ZBC and not have voice-overs telling us what they are saying. We want the truth from our media.
– We want more independent media newspapers, radio and television.
16. Equality for all:
-Stop discrimination. Equal allocation of resources to all provinces and people.
– Support gender equality programmes to gain womens participation in all aspects of life business, leadership.
17. Improve international relations:
– Restore international relations not only East or West, but all. Make sure that we have good (and equitable) trade relationships with regional and international countries.
-We would like to thank our neighbours and the international community for helping us in our time of need. Please keep it up.
If I was the Minister of Home Affairs:
– Remove Police Commissioner Chihuri who allows officers to abuse peoples rights and loot their goods.
– Reduce the cost of passports.
-Allow people to get birth certificates and identity documents at regional offices and make it easy for them.