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Have been giving a lot of thought lately to my explorations into crossdressing, my bisexuality and refinding my submissive side and wondering how much of it is a reaction to a heartbreaking situation I faced last year and to an extent continue to face #pauseforthought
#PauseForThought
Almost two years ago, on 14 October 2024, I raised the concerns below with Harare Mayor @JMafume after residents of my childhood neighbourhood of St. Martins complained about the blasting, noise, dust and damage to their homes from this very development.
The Mayor responded promptly, saying he had little or no knowledge of the developments and would investigate further.
Fast forward to today, 14 August 2026, and I wake up to the news that houses being built opposite Commando Barracks are being demolished, with authorities saying temporary and permanent structures were built illegally.
I am shocked, but sadly not surprised.
With all the noise surrounding these construction activities back then, I find it difficult to understand why Council did not act to stop the developments if those building did not have the necessary planning approvals.
Sadly, there is a familiar pattern to these stories. Council officials issue planning permission, construction starts, everyone looks the other way, and only when the proverbial hits the fan do we suddenly wake up to declarations that the developments are "illegal".
And what happens to those responsible? Heads don't roll. Nobody is held accountable. It's business as usual. The story gets buried in the fast-moving news cycle and eventually forgotten.
This isn't the first time, and it won't be the last. The same people who authorised the sale of these stands simply move on to their next deal, while ordinary people are left counting the cost.
I sympathise with the buyers whose homes have now been demolished, some of whom may have lost their life savings. But I also have to ask why people continue to buy and build on stands without first exhausting every avenue to establish that the land and development have the necessary approvals. Due diligence before committing your life savings should be non-negotiable.
Two years ago, residents were already raising the alarm.
Today, we are seeing the consequences.
Good morning Your Worship @JMafume ,Mayor of Harare.
The ongoing construction, particularly the blasting, is severely impacting the homes in my beloved childhood neighborhood of St. Martins.
While we welcome the expansion along the airport road with about 200 new homes, the way this project is being conducted is distressing for the residents.
Structural Concerns: The vibrations from the blasting are causing noticeable disturbances, raising concerns about structural integrity of nearby houses.
Noise Pollution: Construction noise isn't just during the day; it extends late into the night, robbing residents peace and sleep. This incessant noise from 8 PM onwards is untenable.
Lack of Communication: There's been minimal engagement with the community. This lack of transparency and dialogue exacerbates the tension and worry among residents.
I implore you to intervene. Please urge the contractors to:
Implement quieter construction methods, especially if feasible during night hours.
Establish clear communication channels with the community regarding schedules, safety measures, and expected impacts.
Consider compensation or mitigation measures for affected homeowners, like soundproofing or temporary housing for those most severely impacted.
The development of St. Martins should not come at the expense of its residents' well-being. Let's find a balanced solution that respects both progress and people.
Thank you,Your Worship.
Another wee Suzie 'Thinking Out Loud' about the Messy Middle (The In-between) 💜💜💜 #YouMatterAlways #thinkingoutloud #reflectandconnect #PauseforThought
##PauseForThought
#AirZimbabwe | London ✈️ Harare Direct.@FlyAirZimbabwe @MinistryofTID
I've seen all the skepticism surrounding the resumption of direct London–Harare–London flights, and I'd like to make my position crystal clear.
I wholeheartedly welcome this move.
Yes, I'm reading reports that the aircraft is around 20 years old and doesn't have in-flight entertainment.
Fair enough.
Meanwhile, many of us here in the UK have spent years asking for a direct connection.
For me, the convenience of boarding one aircraft in London and waking up in Harare far outweighs the absence of a screen showing some spaghetti movie.
Many friends in my circle are already booking their Christmas flights. That alone tells you there has been a genuine demand for this route.
It's a complete no-brainer for me.
Dinner in London… sleep… then wake up in Zimbabwe ready for a proper village breakfast of dassa and fiyo . What's not to like?
By the time the skeptics are checking in for their connecting flights somewhere in the Middle East or East Africa, I'll already be on the ground in Harare, belly full,after a quick power nap and mentally preparing for the festive jollifications. 😆
One thing I will say, though…
I'm not particularly chuffed seeing the Spanish flag on the winglets. Nothing against Spain or Plus Ultra, but if Zimbabwe is leasing and paying for the aircraft, the optics don't look lakker..
The aircraft should look unmistakably Zimbabwean. I'd love to see the winglets and tail proudly carrying our national flag.
Hopefully Air Zimbabwe and Plus Ultra can have that conversation.
As for me…
I can't wait to be on one of those flights early next year.
I'll settle into my usual Mbombela Class, enjoy what I already suspect to be warm beers 😆 after dinner, recline the seat, sleep like a baby and wake up on touchdown at RG Mugabe International Airport.
Handei tione! 🇿🇼✈️
PS:
Before the “Air Zimbabwe has sponsored this post” brigade arrives… no, they haven't. I just happen to value eight hours of sleep more than eight hours in transit 😅
#PauseForThought #SoulShackRadio
I have deliberately taken my time before commenting on Thomas Tafirenyika Muchadura Mukanya Mapfumo's @OfficialMukanya decision to accept the performance offer made by Wicknell Chivhayo.
Emotions have been running high, but sometimes it is better to let the dust settle before offering an opinion.
Many people have every right to feel disappointed. Mukanya has spent decades speaking truth to power, giving a voice to the ordinary Zimbabwean and refusing offers that he believed compromised his principles. That legacy cannot simply be erased.
But I also think we should look at this from another angle.
Thomas Mapfumo is not accepting a handout. He is not receiving charity. He is being paid for doing what he has done for more than half a century , performing his music.
There is a difference.
For decades, Mukanya gave Zimbabwe a soundtrack that defined generations. His music inspired, challenged, comforted and united millions. If someone now believes that contribution is worth paying US$1 million for, why should he apologise for earning it?
Some will say he has changed.
I would ask... At what point do we allow a man to stop fighting and simply enjoy the fruits of his life's work?
He has already made his position known over many decades. History has already recorded where he stood. His record speaks for itself. There is little left for him to prove.
Not long ago, after his rural home was destroyed by fire, a fundraising appeal reportedly struggled to raise even a fraction of its modest target.
That should give us all pause.
It is easy to tell a legend to remain uncompromising. It is much harder to support that legend when he needs us.
If this performance fee allows Mukanya to enjoy his later years in comfort, surrounded by family, with the dignity he has earned through his own talent, then I genuinely wish him well.
Perhaps this chapter may also open the door to something many Zimbabweans, regardless of political persuasion, have quietly wished to see for years , Thomas Mapfumo spending more time back in the country that gave birth to both the man and the music. There is something deeply special about a legend coming home. Every great story deserves a peaceful final chapter, and there is no place like home.
Whether you agree with his decision or not, one thing remains unchanged...
Thomas Mapfumo's contribution to Zimbabwean music, our liberation story and our national identity was secured long before this performance offer arrived.
A paid performance cannot erase a lifetime of conviction.
I wish Dr. Thomas Mapfumo safe travels, successful performances and, above all, peace and happiness in the years ahead.
Legends deserve their flowers while they are still here.💐
#PauseForThought By King Jay #SoulShackRadio
Air Zimbabwe's proposed relaunch of direct London–Harare–London flights is a welcome development. If properly managed, I believe the route can become profitable within a few years and provide much-needed relief for UK-based Zimbabweans who have, for the past 14 years, endured exhausting journeys via Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Dubai or Doha, often with lengthy layovers.
Leave days are precious. The clock doesn't stop, and losing one or two days in transit can put a real dampener on a holiday.
That said, it's also important to reflect on why the direct service disappeared in the first place. From conversations over many years with friends who worked at Air Zimbabwe, one issue that was often raised was the abuse of staff travel privileges. I was told there were occasions when staff travelling on heavily discounted tickets, sometimes accompanied by relatives, were accommodated ahead of full-fare passengers. If that happened, it would have undermined both customer confidence and the airline's revenue.
Baggage handling was another area that appeared to cause problems. On more than one occasion I personally witnessed passengers travelling with unusually large amounts of luggage, in some cases well over ten suitcases. Whether those excess bags were properly paid for, I cannot say. However, I did experience situations where the luggage of fully paying passengers was left behind to make space, only arriving on a later flight, causing unnecessary inconvenience.
Recruitment practices were also frequently questioned. There was a widespread perception that connections sometimes mattered more than merit, particularly in cabin crew recruitment. This isn't about age or discriminating against anyone, no, it's about ensuring that people appointed to demanding operational roles are selected on competence, professionalism and their ability to meet the physical demands of the job.
If Air Zimbabwe @FlyAirZimbabwe is serious about making the London route a long-term success, lessons from the past cannot be ignored.
Staff travel benefits should be transparent and tightly controlled, operational policies should be applied fairly, and recruitment must be based solely on merit.
A well-run national airline can succeed, but only if accountability, professionalism and customer service come before privilege.
@MinistryofTID
#AirZimbabwe #LondonHarareLondon

#PauseForThought. By King Jay #SoulShackRadio Sports Desk ✍️
I've been watching most of the opening World Cup matches and one issue that keeps coming back to mind is the growing trend of countries naturalising athletes and footballers with little or no prior connection to the nation they end up representing.
Before anyone misunderstands me, this is not an attack on immigrants or naturalised citizens. Many players move countries as children, grow up there, attend school there, build their lives there and quite rightly represent their adopted nation.
My concern is with cases where nationality appears to become a sporting transaction rather than a genuine national connection.
The same debate exists in athletics.
We have seen elite athletes born and developed in one country switch allegiance to another after being offered citizenship and better financial opportunities. It is perfectly legal under current rules, but should it be that easy?
I believe international sport should introduce stricter eligibility requirements.
For example, a player not born in a country should have a minimum of five years continuous residence, a Citizenship held for a further number of years before becoming eligible.
A demonstrable connection to the country through residence, education, family ties or long-term contribution to its sporting development.
The purpose would not be to exclude people. It would be to preserve the meaning of international representation.
A national team should primarily reflect a country's people, development structures and sporting culture, not simply its financial muscle.
Imagine a youngster born and raised in Njanja,#Zimbabwe honing his skills on the dusty streets of Kong representing the Warriors through the youth ranks, earning a move to Arsenal, then at the peak of his career being offered a passport and a lucrative package by another country with which he has no meaningful connection. Should international allegiance really be that easy to change?
If international teams become collections of passports acquired for sporting convenience, what exactly separates international sport from club football?
To me, that is the fundamental question.
Clubs can buy talent. Countries should represent something deeper.
International sport is meant to showcase the success of a nation's people, communities, development pathways and sporting culture.
Once nationality becomes something that can effectively be fast-tracked to strengthen a team, the spirit of international competition begins to blur.
This debate is not about race, religion or immigration. It is about whether representing a country should mean more than simply holding a recently acquired passport.
What do you think? Should eligibility rules be tightened, or is citizenship alone enough regardless of how it was acquired?
#WorldCup2026
#PauseForThought.
I have taken time to digest the recent tragic event in one of Harare’s high-density suburbs, where bodies were recovered from an open sewer pit and one person was thankfully rescued alive.
It is heartbreaking.💔
For many of us who remember Harare during its best years, this is difficult to comprehend. This was once the Sunshine City, admired across the region for its cleanliness, planning and functioning public services.
To witness the gradual deterioration of infrastructure and basic service delivery over the years is deeply painful.
What is even more worrying is how normal these conditions have become. Broken pavements, open pits, exposed sewage, roads dug up without barriers, warning signs or lighting, these are now things residents encounter almost daily. People have become so accustomed to it that the abnormal now feels normal.
The saddest part is for the younger generation, the ama2K, who have grown up seeing sewer water flowing in the streets, relying on boreholes within the city and navigating unsafe infrastructure. To them, this may appear to be how city life is supposed to be, simply because it is all they have known.
This is not about politics or blame alone. It is about responsibility, accountability and care for citizens. Local authorities, together with those entrusted with overseeing urban governance, must surely recognise that these are no longer isolated incidents but signs of a much deeper crisis requiring urgent attention.
In any functioning society, tragedies of this nature would trigger immediate action, visible empathy and a serious reassessment of public safety standards.
Residents deserve to feel protected in the city they call home.
Harare can do better. Zimbabwe can do better. The trajectory can still change if there is collective will to restore dignity, safety and pride to our communities.
My heart goes out to the families affected.😭
#PauseForThought
I am a huge admirer of our farmers. Small scale, commercial, subsistence, all of them. Farming is not child’s play. It is brutal hard graft. Sleepless nights, massive financial risk, uncertainty over weather patterns, input costs, fuel, labour and markets.
In Zimbabwe especially, one bad season can wipe out years of effort. Agricultural loans are expensive and for many farmers the interest rates simply do not make business sense anymore.
Those not receiving any form of support or inputs must dig deep into their own pockets, usually hard US dollars, just to put a crop in the ground.
During my recent drive through Bromley, Melfort and Goromonzi visiting my cousin and several farmers in the area, a number of neighbouring farmers gathered around for a catch-up over braaied meat, sausages and a few chilled liquids of a mildly intoxicating nature under the stars beside a roaring bonfire.
Some were men I have known for years. Others I was meeting for the first time. Tough, hardened farmers in their middle age and early sixties, plus one young lady farmer trying to build her future from the soil.
As the evening progressed, I became curious about how the season had treated them.
The mood changed immediately.
Two of them had ventured heavily into tobacco after last season’s relatively favourable prices. But this year, the frustration and disappointment was written all over their faces.
They spoke of tobacco prices at the auction floors dropping as low as around 45 US cents per kilogramme in some instances, compared to much stronger prices during the same period last year. One farmer described the returns as “tired money” that could not even recover a meaningful portion of production costs per hectare.
To be fair, some acknowledged that global oversupply may be contributing to weaker prices internationally. However, they strongly felt that local market conditions, contracting systems and the dominance of powerful buyers were also leaving farmers with very little bargaining power.
Another issue they raised repeatedly was the foreign currency retention framework where part of their earnings are converted into ZiG.
Their argument was that most farming inputs are obtained in US dollars, so losing part of their proceeds through compulsory conversion places additional strain on already thin margins.
What struck me most was not anger, but hopelessness.
One farmer said he would try again next season. The other said "Ndageza mawoko( I have washed my hands, I'm done with tobacco)
Sadly, the same story followed me to the village. Speaking to one young subsistence farmer there was equally sobering. He proudly told me how last season’s crop had allowed him to buy a 4 cattle and and secure inputs for the following season.
This year however, after all the hard work, the returns have left many wondering whether the struggle is still worth it.
That should concern all of us.
Whatever one’s political views may be, Zimbabwe cannot afford a situation where productive farmers begin losing faith in farming itself.
Agriculture feeds families, sustains rural communities, creates employment and keeps industries alive downstream.
Farmers are not asking for miracles. Most simply want fair value for their crop, transparent markets and policies that allow them to remain viable.
If the people who feed and sustain the nation begin to feel abandoned, eventually the whole country feels the consequences.
@timb_zw
@MoLAFWRD_Zim
⚽🫂 ✝️ One act in the Champions League final points us to a saviour who is able to understand and walk with people in suffering.
🎧 Listen to Graham Daniel's Pause for Thought from @bbcradio2 this morning
#pauseforthought #football #faith
#PauseForThought
Every year, sometimes twice a year, I look forward to going home to Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is home. It is where my umbilical cord was buried. It is where my roots are. It is where, God willing, I hope to spend my twilight years.
In a few years' time, when I finally decide to return for good, I will pack my belongings, my work tools, my Partial Discharge detectors, Hipot testers, Tan Delta test sets, transformer testing equipment and all the other instruments that have been part of my working life, load them into a container and head home to be among my people.
But every time I visit, there is one thought that I can never completely silence.
What would happen if something went terribly wrong? When I'm driving through places like Zai Rimwe, Mutekedza or Mupatsi on my way to rural Njanja, I sometimes catch myself thinking about the unthinkable.
What if there was an accident out here?
Would someone be able to call an ambulance?
Would an ambulance come?
If the situation was serious, would there be access to an air ambulance?
If people were trapped in a vehicle, would the fire brigade arrive in time?
Where would the injured be taken?
Would the nearest hospital have the equipment, medicines and resources needed to save a life?
These are not political questions.
These are human questions.
They affect the wealthy businessman in a luxury vehicle just as much as they affect the pensioner travelling on a rural bus.
A million dollars in the boot of a Rolls-Royce means nothing when a person is trapped under twisted metal and every minute counts.
In those moments, status disappears.
Politics disappears.
Connections disappear.
All that matters is whether help is coming.
Whether the ambulance arrives.
Whether the rescue team arrives.
Whether the hospital can do what it was built to do.
Living in the UK has taught me many things. Life here is far from perfect, but one thing that gives people peace of mind is knowing that if tragedy strikes, a system exists. Ambulances, fire services, air ambulances and hospitals may not be flawless, but they are there. People know that when they dial for help, help is on its way.
That sense of security is priceless.
Healthcare and emergency services are not luxuries.
They are not political projects.
They are among the most important investments any nation can make because every single one of us is mortal.
No title, no office, no amount of wealth, no security detail and no political influence can prevent an accident, a stroke, a heart attack or a medical emergency.
Life can change in a second.
That is why I believe we should all be talking more about hospitals, ambulances, rescue services and emergency preparedness.
Not because we expect disaster.
But because we all hope to survive it if it comes.
This is not criticism.
It is concern.
It is the concern of a son of the soil who loves his country and wants the same peace of mind for Zimbabweans that people in many other countries take for granted.
Some things are worth putting ahead of everything else.
Saving lives is one of them.
END.
Some things are worth doing, not because we’ll do them well, but because they bring us joy.
To read my reflection from this morning’s #PauseforThought on @BBCRadio2 👇
https://t.co/kxtQAIYFQC
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