On the Pulse: Showbiz Zone with Lance Guma

13 October 2006.

After watching a video of the ‘Zanu Republic Police’ (ZRP) beating up members of the ZCTU leadership for demonstrating, the last thing you want to see or hear is a group of innocent beauties trooping from the United Kingdom over to Zimbabwe to ‘promote tourism.’ This is exactly what happened when beauty pageant winners Ropafadzo Garise and Faith Matambanashe arrived in the country for the Zimbabwe International Travel Expo. Without being overly negative, what is there to market? We obviously live on different planets from some people. Politicians should stop using these young girls and try to run the country properly for a change. But then again you can always take solace from the axiom, beauty and brains don’t always come hand in glove.

Sad news coming in from Chitungwiza General Hospital. Legendary musician Cephas Mashakada had his leg amputated on Thursday after doctors failed to contain an ‘ulcer-like lesion’ on his leg. Mashakada has been in hospital for a month and his diabetic condition is said to be the cause of his problems. The singer insists this will not stop him from performing and there is already talk he could use an artificial leg. On the Pulse wishes him a speedy recovery. We will try and get Mashakada on the show to talk about his ordeal.

Zimbabweans wise up to YouTube.com : With Mugabe’s government keeping a tight reign on the airwaves, innovative Zimbabweans are making good use of technology to beat the controls. Website YouTube.com, which is used for posting free videos, is increasingly getting a lot of content from Zimbabwe. Whether its musicians, politicians, sports personalities or just ordinary crazy people messing about the website is awash with so much information, ZBC TV had better look over its shoulder. Their monopoly will not last long.