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Fadzayi Maposah, Correspondent

I had a meeting at Kaguvi Building, I am always punctual for meetings.

I do not like walking into a room already full of people and trying to figure where to sit and having people staring at me in amazement.

They are entitled to look at the late comers, it could be one of the advantages of being early!

If I am seated and you come in late, I may not stare but I will look at you keenly.

When people are late for meetings, they can sometimes bring up a good point and share elaborate details only to be told having used their energy that it was discussed earlier.

Some chairpersons will save you the trouble and cut you short as soon as you start sharing the details.

So better to be there just as the meeting starts and get to hear and follow the proceedings.

The day I had a meeting with a Government ministry director at Kaguvi Building, I went through the reception and the professional staff directed me to the office where I was going.

When I got to the director’s office, I was made to sit briefly while her personal assistant informed her of my arrival.

The PA came back and told me the director would see me shortly as she was going through some documents.

The assistant then asked me if I knew where the other lady that we were supposed to meet was.

I had no idea where she was and I told the PA that we had agreed to meet at Kaguvi Building.

Within a short period, I was ushered into the director`s office. I felt at home.

The director and I waited for the other lady to arrive. The director asked that I let her attend to some documents as we waited and I responded to emails and messages on my phone.

After almost 30 minutes, an officer came and told her that the lady we had been waiting for had faced some challenges downstairs, but had since resolved the issues and was on her way up.

I was to learn the challenge later but then I wondered how those professional men could have delayed the lady. Or maybe she fell? I always tell myself that overthinking strains but sometimes, it just happens.

When the lady came in, she apologised profusely to us.

While she was apologising, I wondered why she had a heavy poncho on as it was not cold. I just wore a light jacket.

As if to answer my question, she then said that she had taken longer downstairs as she was wearing a sleeveless dress and the men at the reception would not allow anyone not formally dressed to enter the building. She had to seek help from the director’s officer.

The officer is the one who had arranged for the poncho to go downstairs so that she could come upstairs for the meeting.

I think it is actually good that there is dress code to enter these Government buildings. It sets the tone for what one would have travelled to do.

Lately, I have been thinking that there should be dress codes everywhere, maybe save for the food outlets and braai areas. Even there the owner of the place should dictate what they want and do not want at their facility.

I remember being in an Eastern African country and going for breakfast one morning. The lady at the entrance of the restaurant stopped a fairly young man and told him that he could not enter because he was not wearing shoes.

The man said he was coming from a walk on the beach. In a very polite voice, the lady reminded him that he was no longer on the beach and he had to have his shoes on to enter the restaurant.

The man mumbled something, but the lady stood her ground and he went away. She welcomed me to the restaurant and I got in. The man later came back with lace up shoes as I was having my breakfast!

What a person chooses to wear should not end up being an inconvenience to them. Sitting on a bench at one of the central hospitals in Harare, I have realise there are some people who will have come to see their admitted relatives or friends who end up feeling out of place because of their clothes.

It is within your right to dress as you please, but for every right there is a responsibility.

When one gets to the car park near the kiosk where most of the visitors meet, there is always someone who is requesting something to cover themselves after they heard that one of the in laws would also be present.

Suddenly what they have been wearing becomes inappropriate. Who do we dress for? What messages do we want to send with the way we dress?

Are there not instances where we are overdressed or even under-dressed.

I am among the few that do not understand ripped jeans, especially those that expose large parts of flesh. What about the low waist jeans that expose backs and part of the buttocks each time one bends? Or those young men who layer clothes?

I would like to know who invented the tight fitting bandage skirt worn by women without any wounds.

It is inappropriate for menopausal women who are always having hot flashes. It is also inappropriate for anyone on their menstrual period who is wearing an extra-long sanitary pad to prevent accidents.

I think the challenge is we all think we should just wear what fashion dictates and whenever we wish. Unfortunately, at times our bodies fight against fashion but we choose not to listen.

The situation may go against the fashion trends too.