Friday 5 October 2012

Great Zimbabwe



The Great Zimbabwe is situated in Masvingo, the capital of Masvingo Province.  This late Iron Age monument was constructed by the Rozvi people. The word 'Great' distinguishes the monument from other small monuments in the valley.  It is one of the tourist attractions among Victoria Falls, Chinhoyi Canes, etc.  This monument house many people most of who were stone carvers.  The most important carvings, which later became Zimbabwe`s National Emblem, are the eight birds.  Amazingly, the walls of this invaluable structure were built of stone without mortar, which fascinated early European explorers.

The Zimbabwe Bird

 
Great Zimbabwe housed eight carvings of these birds, but early explorers plundered the carvings and left onely one, which was still there at Independence.  The Zimbabwe Bird is the National Emblem and is found on the National Flag, Zim notes and coins, government documents, and many other places.

 

Thursday 4 October 2012

Sanity in the city, menace on the highways

The recent operation by the ZRP and City of Harare Police to rid the city centre of rude kombi drivers and touts has been received well by commuters.  All along, commuters had become slaves of these touts by being verbally and emotionally abused.  These touts would spend most of their day clutching PET bottles full of clear liquid, one wonders if they would be following the advise to drink water frequently.

Dollar pakufamba is still the order of day for workers be it from home or vice versa. Commuters have no choice but to pay the dollar in order to fend for families.

But contrary to this order, in our highways.  While there are many reported cases of people being murdered and bodies mutilated, we wonder how the body parts are passing around in the highways with the police staging roadblocks almost every few kilometres along all the highways.  I believe the police have shifted their weight to the control and monitoring of public transport whilst neglecting private cars.  We would wait one day for a report that a private car has been searched and found with human body parts. 

The dualisation of the Masvingo highway should be taken seriously by all people.  The need has been proven after part dualisation up to Boka floors.  Traffic now flows well without hitches, contrary to what it was.  Peak hours, morning and evening, were a nightmare since motorists had to wait many nminutes to travel a few kilometres.  The only problem is at the traffic lights at rothmans.  Traffic flow in the morning is so dense that one expect to wait for 10 minutes in the queue.

Generally, we are getting there.

Beware of clamping

Those who come to pick relatives who would have landed at the Harare International Airport need to be reminded that clamping is on and the security waste no time in crippling your car for a staggering $30, 00.  Recently, our car was clamped in front of the departures doors, because, as they say, the driver did not park well inside the yellow line.  So when you are picking your loved ones, make sure you are inside the yellow line.