my friend the inventor

Will's full of great ideas. He thinks that soon we'll be able to pop a tablet that'll mean we don't have to waste time sleeping. Will's big thing is saving time. Ten years ago he launched the gwatamatic, a machine that makes your sadza for you. Sadza-making is hard work, lots of stirring and sweating. With the gwatamatic, you put in your mealie-meal and water and the machine does it for you. He gave us a couple of freeze-wrapped packs of his sadza to try at home, large slabs of what looks like dense creamy-white mashed potato. What you do is you dunk the packet (do NOT pierce the bag, whatever you do) into a saucepan of boiling water and you simmer for 20 minutes, maybe a bit longer. What you get is great-tasting, no-lump sadza, no stirring involved. My mother-in-law loved it.

Will's gwatamatics are used in universities and factories here. The thing about his sadza, he says, is that it will always have the same taste.

"You've immortalised your mum's recipe, Will", I told him over boerewors sausage one lunchtime. He looked pleased. His mother hosts orphan parties in the town of Marondera, an hour's drive from Harare. She sounds like a good person to immortalise, even if only in mealie-meal.

Will stood for president last week, or tried to. Last month he launched the Christian Democratic Party at the Jameson Hotel (third poshest in town, after Meikles and the Monomatapa). The men in dark suits were there, complete with ancient video cameras. Will says he filed his nomination papers at a Harare court last Friday "for the kicks of confronting the dangerous." Not surprisingly, he was disqualified. His papers were not in order, the Herald said: Will blames poor quality nominators and a suspect voters' roll. A couple of days later the authorities said they'd soon seek constitutional amendments to bar "presidential chancers" in future. In the end the inventor of no-stir sadza caused quite a stir.

And he did get to register as a parliamentary candidate.