THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY is a 1978 disco song by the studio disco group ‘Love and Kisses’, popularized as the theme song of the film by the same name.
Some of its lyrics are:
(Thank God it’s) Friday, Friday, Friday, Friday…
Hey, Put a smile on your face,
Things are coming your way,
Out there somewhere tonight,
For many, the song characterises the relief and excitement that comes with the last day of the working week.
So for this Friday, it is time to look back at the week, before you ‘smile’ your way into the weekend!
THE STRUGGLE TO GET HOME…As they say, everyday is a struggle. Here we see Marondera- bound commuters jostling for a place at the back of a private truck along Robert Mugabe Way. Many people travel to work in Harare everyday from surrounding towns like Marondera, Norton, Chegutu, Shamva among others. Some say it is because of the expensive accomodation rates in Harare and they choose to travel over 100 kilometres everyday to work. Because of the transport problems, many of these travellers end up resorting to hitch-hiking.
AND THE ENCOUNTERS GO ON…Police stop a pirate taxi along Jason Moyo as it was commuting from Fourth street to the Copacabana bus terminus. Note the baton stick held by the police officer in the middle, the stick looks all ready to strike.
SERIOUS ROASTING BUSINESS….The picture tells the full story on its own. Rolled sleeves, browning delicious-looking mealie cobs, a bottle of salt ready to be used. Owen Mutundumuri (19) is busy doing what earns him a living, that is roasting mealies near the turn off into Mvurwi town along the Harare- Guruve Highway. The product, which costs 50 cents, and requires quite some strong jaws to chew, becomes quite popular this rain season along the country’s main highways, market places and shopping centres, rural and urban.
CUTTING THE FORESTS AWAY: FLORA, FAUNA AND THE FUTUREThis is a Mvurwi resident, Sam Sanodiya pushing a wheel barrow of firewood that he uses for cooking. According to him, this load lasts him close to four weeks ,which means every four weeks he has to make the long trips to the nearest forests to look for his source of energy. The impression one gets is that Sam is the one responsible for the huge open space in the background, we do not know about that. But the serious issue is that there is an urgent need to find and use alternative and renewable energy sources. Windmills, solar panes, bio-gas quickly come into mind as we continue to rely on either electricity or firewood at the expense of our forests.CUTTING THE RISKSA man cuts grass along the Harare/Mvurwi Highway recently. This is done to maintain visibility for highway users, ensuring that road and pavement widths are not reduced by overgrown vegetation. In areas where there are no pavements, there may be a need to provide a safe refuge on the highway edges for pedestrians, particularly near busy roads.RELIABLE SUPPLIER: WALKING THE KILOMETRESThis enterprising man was captured on the Harare- Masvingo Highway. He is a major supplier of bread to the farms close to the Manyame River. Note how he has put a ‘cap’ on the bread stack at the back of the bicycle to protect his merchandise from possible rain. He laughed with us when we told him after the photograph that we first thought he was delivering bread from Harare to Chivhu as is on the road signs!TRUST CHINOS TO STAND OUT…The unmistakable Buhera South MP Joseph Chinotimba contributing during the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Local Government,Public Works and National Housing on Wednesday. This is one man who has been named in thousands of Zimbabwean jokes. he actually has quite a number of Facebook joke pages named after him. And he seem not bothered by it as he has climbed up the political ladder to become a legislator after a number of years. According to the Muckracker column in our sister paper, The Zimbabwe Independent, Chinotimba ‘always raises an eyebrow or two, especially through his outbursts which leave audiences either in stitches or shaking their heads in awe.’ That is Chinotimba for us TIGHTENING THE BELTS…An unidentified man sits on broken parts of the pavement as he sells belts along First street . As the country’s unemployment continues to rise amid reports of company closures, many people are forced out of jobs into the informal sector. With the economic problems seeming to grow each day, Zimbabweans are being driven to spend less, in other words to ‘tighten their belts’
