By Staff Writer
WINDHOEK
A human interest piece in the latest edition of the weekly South African City Press newspaper transformed many an unsmiling face in the New Era newsroom yesterday when contagious laughter erupted spontaneously from the editor to his juniors.
In an article penned by Japhet Ncube with the headline ‘Zim names free and fair’, the author says when he visited a salon in Harare last week, he met a beautiful young woman whose name is Believe and he could not believe it.
“Even in these trying times, it seems Zimbabweans have run short of everything except a sense of humour. They still find time to laugh at themselves,” Ncube says in the City Press article.
After the country’s elections on March 29, says an e-mail that has been doing rounds, hospitals and clinics have woken up to a new trend in naming kids according to Ncube.
The most fashionable names today, he says are: Run-off Moyo, Senatorial Chirumhanzu, Candidate Pote, Independent Maposa, Rigging Hamadziripi, Electoral Commission Ndlovu, Foreign Observer Chimunda, Neck-to-Neck Nyamadzawo, Heavyweight Utaunashe, Results Matongo, Meticulous Verification Chinengundu, Free-and-Fair Pazvakavambwa, Re-run Mombeshora, Polling Station Nhamoinesu, Ballotbox and Ballotpaper Kunonga (twins), Harmonised Matonga and Ward-Based Chinamasa.
And suddenly Lovemore, one of the favoured names among the Shona people, has taken a back seat.
“It can only be on the sunny streets of Harare that you can bump into a guy whose name is Lovemore and he knows nothing about romance,” says Ncube in the front-page piece.
Across all spheres of life in Zimbabwe, interesting names have emerged and left many observers dazzled, concludes the City Press article.