Office of the MP for Whange Central Constituency
Monthly Update Report
March 2021
INTRODUCTION
After a somewhat slow start to the New Year largely due to the restrictive nature of the COVID-19 related national lockdown; the office Of the MP for Whange Central constituency has slowly started to scale up its public programmes and meetings. As a result, the month of March was a more active one in terms of public programmes and meetings, when compared to both the month of January and February. It is thus hoped that the lockdown restrictions will continue to be reduced during the month of April so as to enable the Office of the MP to scale up on its public programmes and meetings.
The following is a summary report for the month of March 2021.
The report starts by sharing an update on various issues related to Parliamentary business. It then features some updates related to the Office of the MP’s partnerships with various civil society organisations. Thereafter the report focuses on some updates related to various local community initiatives. Last but not least, it concludes by featuring an update related to the administrative issues of the Office of the MP.
PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
The Hon. MP Daniel Molokele, participated in various meetings at the Portfolio Committee level. He serves in three separate Committees. (Health and Childcare, Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation and Science and Technology Development and Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises
PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE FOR HEALTH AND CHILDCARE
The Hon. MP actively participated in most of the Committee’s meetings across the month.
In particular, he was privileged to be the Master of Ceremonies during the launch event of the Parliament of Zimbabwe Pharmaceuticals Caucus on 18th March 2021. The launch event was attended by various representatives and stakeholders from the pharmaceutical sector of Zimbabwe.
Most members of the Portfolio Committee for Health and Childcare also attended the event. The guest of honour was the Speaker of Parliament, Honourable Jacob Mudenda. He will also serve as the Patron of the new parliamentary caucus
The Hon. MP was also humbled to chair a special meeting on Tuesday 30th March 2021. The meeting was called to hear a petition from the Retail Pharmacists Association.
The petitioners are seeking for amendments to the Public Health Act. In particular, they are seeking for amendments to the sections of the Act that seem to give exclusive access to influential job posts to the medical doctors. They would like such job opportunities to be opened up to other professions in the health sector including nurses, pharmacists, among others. The Committee will have deliberations on the petition on Tuesday 13th April 2021.
HIGHER AND TERTIARY EDUCATION, INNOVATION AND SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
The Hon. MP actively participated in most of the Committee’s meetings across the month.
In particular, the Hon. MP was one of the members of the Committee that participated in all the five public hearings that were related to the Centre for Education, Innovation, Research and Development Bill. In this regard, the Hon. MP was privileged to chair the public hearing that was held at the Bulawayo Rainbow hotel on Monday 12th March 2021.
WOMEN AFFAIRS, COMMUNITY, SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES DEVELOPMENT
The Hon. MP actively participated in most of the Committee’s meetings across the month.
In particular, he was humbled to chair the special Committee meeting that hosted a delegation from the Ministry as led by its Permanent Secretary John Sibanda. The meeting was held on Thursday 4th March 2021. The main purpose of the meeting was to receive evidence from the Ministry. In particular, a presentation was made to the Committee by the Permanent Secretary Melusi Matshiya, that focused on the impact of COVID-19 on the SMEs sector from March 2020 till to date.
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SESSIONS
The Hon. MP managed to attend most of the National Assembly plenary sessions across the month mostly via the Zoom virtual platform.
DEBATE ON THE MOTION ON THE PATRIOTISM BILL
On Tuesday 2nd March 2021, the Hon. MP actively debated in the motion on the proposed Patriotism Bill. The motion was introduced by the late Hon. Alum Mpofu, who was seconded by Hon. Togarepi Pupurai. The motion sought to support the proposed legislation of the Patriotism Bill that will mainly seek to criminalise any Zimbabwean whose behaviour and conduct, especially at an international level; is deemed to be unpatriotic in nature. In this regard, the Hon. MP was very clear in his stance on the motion. The Hon. MP strongly opposed both the motion and proposal to introduce the Patriotism Bill. His well-articulated debate on the motion ended up going viral and became his most well-known speech since he was admitted into the Parliament of Zimbabwe in August 2018.
DEATH OF HON. ALUM MPOFU
The Parliament of Zimbabwe was plunged into mourning once again, after the loss of one of its National Assembly members. Hon. Alum Mpofu, who was the MP for Mberengwa South, passed away on Sunday 28th March 2021 after a long illness. The Hon. MP would like to express his most sincere condolences to both the Mpofu family and residents of the Mberengwa South constituency.
RECALL OF MORE MDC ALLIANCE MPs
The Hon. Speaker of Parliament announced a new round of recalls on Wednesday 17th March 2021. The affected legislators were from the MDC Alliance but originally seconded by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The Hon. MP was very saddened and disappointed by the recalls, and expressed his full solidarity with all the affected legislators. It remains the Hon. MPs strong and unequivocally stance against these recalls; that he views as a deliberate affront to the democratic wishes of the Zimbabwean electorate as expressed in the July 2018 elections. On this sombre occasion, the Hon. MP takes this opportunity to re-affirm his clear stance in terms of public loyalty to the MDC Alliance as led by President Advocate Nelson Chamisa.
CONSTITUENCY DEVELOPMENT FUND
During the first week of March, the Office of the MP rolled out a consultation process for the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) for 2021. In particular, this process was facilitated by the local CDF Committee as set up in terms of the relevant Parliamentary regulations and guidelines.
The consultation process went very well. On Tuesday 30th March, the CDF Committee held a meeting to deliberate and agree on at least three shortlisted proposals. This process will culminate in subsequent submission of the proposal to the relevant office at the Parliament of Zimbabwe during April 2021.
The CDF Committee is currently finalising its detailed report that covers the disbursement process for 2020. The funds for the 2020 allocation were used to refurbish a selected nine primary schools and one secondary school in the urban part of the constituency. The 2021 allocation will conversely focus on the rural part of the constituency. This is in line with the resolution of a major public consultation meeting that was held in 2018 that resolved that the CDF funds should be disbursed alternately between the rural and urban wards till 2023.
VARIOUS INITIATIVES WITH CIVIL SOCIETY PARTNERS
WHANGE WIDOWS NETWORK COORDINATORS WORKSHOP
The Office of the MP, in partnership with a Chitungwiza-based NGO, the Widows Fountain of Life (WFoL); recently hosted a successful Ward-level Coordinators training workshop. The workshop was held on Saturday 27th March 2021. The WFoL Executive Director, Angeline Chiwetani, travelled all the way from Chitungwiza to Whange to help co-host the training workshop. Almost 40 participants attended the workshop. Participation at the workshop was at voluntary level. Each of the 17 wards under the local constituency was represented by at least two representatives who were successfully trained as Coordinators.
This is all in line with the on-going efforts by the office of the MP to actively support all widows who are based at the constituency. A follow-up training workshop will also be held towards the end of June 2021. The Office of the MP, in partnership with WFoL, also plans to host a special public event to commemorate the International Widows Day on Wednesday 23rd June 2021. The day was launched by the United Nations organisation (UN) in 2010 to raise awareness of the violation of human rights that widows suffer in many countries following the death of their spouses.
ACTIVE SUPPORT TO THE DINDE COMMUNITY
The Office of the MP has been consistently engaging with the Dinde community especially on the recent mining activities and possible evictions. On Saturday 13th March 2021, the Office of the MP took time to visit rural Ward 13 in Dinde on a consultative mission. In this regard, the Office of the MP managed to conduct a successful consultation meeting with the local Councillor Morris Sibanda, the local village heads, community leaders and the representatives of the local Dinde Residents Association.
The consultation meeting discussed at length the topical issue of the proposed mining exploration by an investment company from China. The Office of the MP appreciated and supported the stance by the local community representatives who are demanding that no exploration process should start until a more comprehensive local consultation process is fully conducted.
As a result of its consultative field visit to Dinde, the Office of the MP identified a training gap and hosted a workshop focusing on advocacy. The workshop was held on Saturday 27th March 2021. It was successfully hosted in partnership with a local community organisation known as the Vostile Creatives Trust represented by Marlven Vosta Daka and Advocates4Earth; an organisation that focuses on environmental issues, which was represented by Tinashe Lenin Chisaira. The training workshop participants were drawn from representatives for various local Dinde community stakeholders.
The participants included the local Dinde village heads, traditional leaders, the resident Councillor, the local Dinde residents’ association leadership and the other community focal persons. The training workshop focused on such aspects as Campaign, Advocacy, Lobbying and environmental laws.
WHANGE THOUGHT LEADERS FORUM
The prospective partners to the proposed Whange Thoughts Leaders Forum met on Friday 26th February afternoon to deliberate and adopt the MoU for the modus operandi of the proposed forum. The forum seeks to promote a culture of local ideas and solutions in order to promote the development agenda for the constituency.
The said partners, namely Greater Whange Residents Trust, Hwange Radio FM, El Dorado Rock Park and Office of the MP ended up successfully adopting the MoU. Consequently, the new forum has now formally commenced as from 1st of March 2021. A planning meeting is set to be conducted during the third weekend of April. Added to that, the Forum is set to host its first braai-side meeting during the last weekend of April 2021.
WOMEN OF INFLUENCE CONFERENCE
The plans by the Office of the MP to host its inaugural Women of Influence Workshop, gathered some good momentum during the month of March. The conference will be held in partnership with a number of civil society leaders and organisations. Participants for the conference will be drawn exclusively from women who are based at the local constituency. The event is most likely to be held at the end of May 2021.
MEN OF INFLUENCE CONFERENCE
The Office of the MP has started the process of organising the inaugural annual Men of Influence Conference. It is proposed that this special conference focusing exclusively on men based at the local constituency will be held in partnership with various civil society leaders and organisations such as the Padare/Enkundleni/Men’s Forum on Gender, among others. The conference is most likely to be held during July 2021.
CITIZEN JOURNALISM TRAINING WORKSHOP
The Office of the MP, in partnership with the Media Centre plans to host a basic training workshop focusing on the art of Citizen Journalism. The workshop facilitators will include renowned media expert Ernest Mudzengi and the award-winning journalist Luke Tamborinyoka, who will both travel all the way from Harare to Whange to facilitate the workshop. A public call for applications to participate at the workshop was issued by the Office of the MP during the first half of March 2021. There has been an overwhelming response to the call for participants. As such, it is planned that the workshop will be held during the mid-part of May 2021.
WOMEN CITIZEN JOURNALISM TRAINING WORKSHOP
The Office of the MP has started engaging with the Women’s Political Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (WALPE) to host another workshop focusing on citizen journalism exclusively for women based at our local constituency. If all goes well, the workshop will be held sometime during June 2021. More details about the proposed workshop will be shared in the next few weeks.
GOSPEL MUSIC ASSOCIATION ELECTS INTERIM COMMITTEE
The Hon. MP has now successfully completed his role as the national Convenor for the Gospel Music Association of Zimbabwe (GMA). He has been the inspirational force behind the revival efforts of the GMA for the past three years. The Hon. MP formally handed over the leadership role of the GMA to an Interim Committee that was elected at the GMA’s long awaited national leadership meeting that was held at Harare on Saturday 20th March 2021. It is now envisaged that the Hon. MP will now take a backstage role and continue to serve the GMA as an advisor to its interim Committee. The interim Committee will be led by Stanley Chivere who was elected as its Chairperson.
The meeting further resolved that the term of the interim Committee will be based on the GMA Constitution. This means that the interim Committee will play its role until the next elective AGM that is due to be held in June 2023.
VARIOUS LOCAL COMMUNITY INITIATIVES
WARD LEVEL VISITS
The Office of the MP recently initiated a robust programme of engaging the local communities at ward level so as to help assess the effects of COVID-19, especially on the livelihoods of people in the Constituency. However, due to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, the Office of the MP is only engaging the ward Councillors for feedback purposes and a few ward community leaders.
It is in that particular context that the Office of the MP on Sunday 28th March, held an engagement meeting and local field tour with the Councillor for Ward 5, Tendai Sibanda. The field tour particularly focused on a local income generation project that is being run by some local women.
The initiative is known as Sizimisele and currently operates mostly by running a highly-productive nutrition garden in the neighbourhood. After the field tour, the Hon. MP had a very intensive strategy meeting with the leadership of the Sizimisele initiative that could help the project to continue to grow and develop in a viable and sustainable manner.
The Office of the MP, together with the Ward 5 Councillor, Tendai Sibanda; also held a meeting with a delegation from a local soccer team.
The local team constitutes mostly of primary and secondary school students. At the end of the meeting, the Hon. MP pledged his full support to the local soccer team. He also agreed to help the team secure the necessary equipment such as soccer balls and also sponsorship for a proposed challenge match between Ward 5 and Ward 6 soccer and netball teams. The tournament is likely to be held before the end of May 2021.
ENGAGEMENT WITH THE WARD 20 COUNCILLOR
The Office of the MP recently had an engagement meeting with the Councillor for rural Ward 20, Bakani Kwidini. The meeting was held on Saturday 13th March 2021 at the Lukosi business centre. The meeting discussed the current status of the local community, challenges and possible solutions. The issues discussed also included the adverse effects of COVID-19 and the lockdown restrictions on the ward’s largely rural population.
RURAL WARDS BOREHOLES REPAIRS
In line with one of the major electoral commitments by the Hon. MP; since 2018, the Office of the MP has been paying for all boreholes repairs across all the three rural wards under the constituency. It is envisaged that this initiative will continue to run up to the end of the term of office in 2023. So far, the Office of the MP has fully paid for the repair services of over 30 boreholes.
ACTIVE SUPPORT FOR THE GIRL-CHILD AT SCHOOLS
The schools recently re-opened after a lengthy break that was forced by a necessary response to curb the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, Hon. MP has adopted several female learners at various schools across the constituency. These include Amanda Ndlovu who adopted by the MP at the end of her primary school years at Nekabandama under rural ward 12. For more than three years, the Hon. MP has been paying her tuition fees and others school related expenses while she is doing her studies at Gebhuza secondary school. The MP has also adopted Cheryl Sibanda who is a learner at the St Marys Primary school at the rural Ward 20. Last but not least, the Hon. MP recently adopted Lecylin Mbiza who is a multi-talented learner. He will be paying for both her tuition fees and other school related expenses at the Whange Government high school.
SOCIAL WELFARE SUPPORT FOR BIG CHARLIE
Since 2018, the Office of the MP has been actively supporting the legendary and iconic Big Charlie in terms of his social welfare needs. The process has largely been encapsulated by regular monthly visits by the staff of the Office of the MP. The staff always hand over groceries to Big Charlie during each of the monthly visits. The month of March was no exception as the Office of the MP, represented by the Administrator Fatuma Mohammad, managed once again to hand over some groceries to Big Charlie at his home.
ENGAGEMENT WITH THE LOCAL ALBINO COMMUNITY
The Office of the MP recently met with the representatives of the Whange Albinos Association to discuss various ways of collaboration. A volunteer Committee has now been set up to help advise the Office of the MP to effectively address all issues related to Albinism in the constituency.
Further, the Office of the MP recently successfully coordinated a special week on Albinism in order to promote awareness of issues related to Albinism with the greater public under the constituency. The week covered the period from Sunday 28th February till Saturday 6th March 2021.
SUPPORT FOR YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS
The Hon. MP is a strong believer in entrepreneurship especially from a young people’s perspective. In this regard, the Office of the MP held a meeting on Sunday 28th March 2021 with a delegation from one of the local start-up companies known as the New Addition Enterprises. The new company was recently set up by a consortium of youthful local entrepreneurs.
WHANGE LAW CHAMBERS
In line with his electoral campaign promise, the Hon. MP has resumed the process of setting up a permanent legal practice at Whange. The process was delayed last year in order to fulfil some requirements set by the Law Society of Zimbabwe. If all, goes well, the legal practice will be set up later this year.
OFFICE OF THE MP CONSOLES BESNART DUBE’S FAMILY
The local Whange community was recently plunged into deep mourning after the loss of Besnart Dube who passed away in mid-February 2021. The late Dube was a revered long-standing local community leader who had over the years been involved in various initiatives. In particular, she was well known as a civil and human rights advocate and had also championed the rights of the local informal sector.
On Saturday 13th March 2021, the Hon. MP led a delegation from the Office of the MP to the home of the late Dube, where he took some time to express his heartfelt condolences to her husband, children and grandchildren.
ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS
OFFICE OF THE MP PHYSICAL ADDRESS
The Office of the MP would like to confirm that the Hwange Colliery Company has formally withdrawn the original offer for office space at the old Maurice Kantor shop that is located at the No.2 Colliery. After some serious consultations with some various local community stakeholders, the Office of the MP has resolved not to pursue the matter further. Instead, it has now been resolved that the physical offices will be located at Empumalanga township. In this regard, there are some advanced negotiations to sign a lease agreement for an office space located under Ward 4 at Empumalanga township.
OFFICE OF THE MP CONTACT DETAILS
The Office of the MP remains available to serve all local constituency residents at all times, regardless of their social status or political affiliation. Please do all feel free to contact the Office of the MP, especially during business hours. Also, do kindly take note of the contact details for all our team members:
• Daniel Molokele – Hon. Member of Parliament (071 372 6552)
• Thulani Moyo – Personal Assistant and Spokesperson (077 648 3659)
• Fatuma Mohammad – Office Administrator (077 105 1782)
• Anita Mudenda – Deputy Office Administrator (078 657 5068)
• Sitali Njamba – Security Officer (077 813 0439)
• Bangi Mpofu – Security Officer/Driver (071 936 414)
CONCLUSION
The month of March saw a marked increase in the number of public programmes and meetings facilitated by the Office of the MP. It is hoped that this progressive trend will continue during the month of April 2021. Be that as it may, it is evident that COVID-19 is set to remain as the most crucial factor during the first half of 2021. Just like last year, it has forced the Office of the MP to have a slow start to the year. However, unlike last year, the Office of the MP is already seeking ways to mitigate the adverse effects of the COVID-19 related lockdown restrictions on its local constituency plans and programmes. It is evident that the epidemic is here to stay and as such there is an urgent need to start adapting around it. As part of the way forward, the Office of the MP is in the process of consulting various local stakeholders in order to come up with a 2021 priorities strategy plan. The plan will help the Office of the MP to be more focused and results oriented in its approach to local community development during the year.
Thank you
May God bless you all
Thulani Moyo
PA and Spokesperson to the Office of the MP
Whange Central Constituency