Dewa Mavhinga

It has been a month since five armed men in civilian clothes kidnapped Itai Dzamara, a prominent Zimbabwean human rights activist, near his home in the Glenview suburb of Harare.

Malawi’s tumultuous elections, held last week, left the country reeling and at risk of violence. While peaceful campaigns marked the lead-up to the vote, havoc reigned on election day, when numerous polling centers didn’t open and many had no ballot boxes.

The recently published first Constitution Select Committee (COPAC) draft constitution has generated intense debate across the country with some within Zanu PF led by Professor Jonathan Moyo and Tafataona Mahoso attacking everything about the draft, including Zanu PF representatives in COPAC.

The high level of attention given to Zimbabwe’s crafting of a new constitution as a key step towards fresh elections necessarily calls for a word of caution about the unjustified great expectations that a new constitution will solve Zimbabwe’s governance and electoral challenges.

On 29 January 2009 Zimbabwe stopped using its own inflation-ravaged currency, replacing it with a multi-currency regime dominated by the US dollar. The initiative cured the inflation challenge and brought about some stability.

I had not realised the true extent and impact of the Zimbabwe crisis on ordinary Zimbabweans until last weekend, when I embarked on a four and half hour drive from Johannesburg to Kabokweni, a tiny, far-flung township situated in a valley near Nelspruit, in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province.

Recently l had a quiet chuckle as l reflected on the role of trust in Zimbabwean politics. The reflection led me to recall a story my father often told me.