Own Correspondent|Efforts by the state security agents to see the incarceration of Mthwakazi Republic Party activists who shook the Kgalema Motlanthe Commission of inquiry in Bulawayo recently continue to hit a brick hall at the Bulawayo courts.
The Bulawayo magistrates court yesterday once again threw away a case against Wisdom Mkhwananzi who state security arrested for declaring that President Emmerson Mnangagwa presided over the death of his father during the Gukurahundi atrocities era.
Mkhwananzi was yesterday bungled back into court after the court initially threw away charges against him in his initial trial last month. The magistrates court stood its ground and declared that the state is failing to present a credible case against Mkhwananzi.
Appearing in the same court on charges of inciting public violence at the commission, three other MRP activists were also told to go home and return to court on the 18th of December after their defence led by Maqhawe Mpofu and Dumisani Dube of Abammeli Lawyers for Human Rights demanded the footage of the proceedings of the day in question and the report of the commission before trial against the trio continues.
President Mnangagwa has been given a summary of the final report by the commission whose chairman, Motlanthe has since left the country back to his home in South Africa.
The commission secretariat indicated this week that the report has been finalised and going through “polishing stage” at government printers.
Mnangagwa’s spokesperson George Charamba has however hinted that the report might not be made public which will be a challenge on how the court case against the three activists will proceed.
Media Statement|The Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) in collaboration with the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) shall be holding a two-day Residents Summit in Bulawayo from Thursday to Friday.
The Residents Summit, to be attended by more than 50 residents associations from across the country’s ten provinces shall discuss issues of concern to residents, including devolution of power, the role of declaration of assets in promoting integrity in local authorities, participatory budgeting and issues of service delivery.
This is an annual gathering of resident’s representatives from across Zimbabwe, and this year comes at a time when government has approved principles for devolution and when declaration of assets as a means of combating corruption has become a topical issue.
It is expected that the Residents Summit will culminate in production of position papers on devolution of power and declaration of assets which will be
submitted to the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing.
Expected at the summit are representatives from the Ministry of Local Government, City of Harare and Bulawayo City Council, amongst others.
The summit also hopes to create lasting cross-boundary network of associations that are able to act locally, impacting nationally.
IntratRek Zimbabwe director Wicknell Chivayo, who is facing a $5,6 million fraud charge in a botched Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) solar project deal, has petitioned the High Court, seeking a review of the lower court’s decision to dismiss his application for exception to the charges.
Chivayo, who appeared in court on November 19, unsuccessfully filed an application for exception to the charges before magistrate Lazini Ncube, where he argued that facts on the charge sheet and outline did not disclose a criminal offence.
In his application for review to the High Court, Chivayo cited Ncube as the respondent.
“This is an application for review of the second respondent’s (Ncube) ruling dismissing my (Chivayo) exception to criminal charges preferred against me in the court of the provincial magistrates at Harare under case number CRB P9114-5/2018. The ruling was handed down on November 19, 2018,” Chivayo said in his founding affidavit.
Chivayo argued that his company won the tender and was awarded a contract governed by the Public Procurement Act.
Following certain alleged breaches in the contract, his company was sued for specific performance and the judgment in that matter was reserved by the High Court, he said.
The businessman further said the State made some cosmetic changes to the charges, which amended charge was put to him, and he challenged it on the basis that the facts alleged did not disclose the offences alleged.
“The allegations originated from a public procurement tender. That the allegations amounted to allegations of breach of contract remedies which are provided for under the public procurement regime. That the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC), the alleged complainant, did not, in fact, complain and in its opposing affidavit before this court denied being the complainant or ever having complained against the applicants,” he said.
Chivayo argued that the magistrate did not address his mind to the question of whether the facts alleged disclosed the offences.
“The exception was never taken on the basis that the charge was defective or incompetent … the decision of the magistrate was grossly unreasonable, but also a breach of the law and public policy of Zimbabwe in that it is a breach of the positive law of Zimbabwe.”
Zimbabwe is fast degenerating into a regional security threat as its economic situation worsens, the opposition MDC party said yesterday and announced plans for more demonstrations against government.
Last week, the party petitioned the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) and African Union (AU) to intervene to stop the situation from worsening and spokesperson Jacob Mafume said more needed to be done to bring Zimbabwe’s situation under control.
“We will go on a regional offensive in the Sadc region whereby we will definitely discuss with regional leaders about the situation in Zimbabwe,” Mafume said.
“The economy is deteriorating and it will become a security threat to the whole region. We believe the leadership in the region; in particular, the Namibian President [Hage Geingob] must be seized with this matter as he is currently the head of Sadc.
The MDC spokesperson said they resolved to take their demonstrations out of Harare as their supporters from outside the capital are also calling on the party leadership to help them register their dissatisfaction with the country’s state of affairs.
“The party resolved to embark on a series of actions in all towns within the country. We will do demonstrations similar to those that we had in Harare; people outside Harare want to express themselves. This will be done before the Christmas break.”
Mafume said the party had also discussed the recently concluded commission of inquiry into the post-election violence of August 1, in which the military allegedly killed six civilians, headed by former South Africa President Kgalema Motlanthe.
Conflicting statements coming from government and the commission itself raised questions about the credibility of its report, he added.
“(The commission)’s results are now taking the form and nature of the Zec results – at some point they say it’s a full report while on another they say there is no report and we are now worried that the report will be doctored should it come out. There are now too many speaking for that commission, one George Charamba (Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet) and the commission is also speaking on its own behalf.”
Mafume said there were no issues against MDC deputy president Elias Mudzuri despite a public humiliation at the party’s demonstration last week. Mudzuri did not attend the meeting following a family bereavement, he said.
ZANU PF’s Buhera South MP Joseph Chinotimba caused furore in the National Assembly yesterday after calling MDC Alliance leader of the House Thabitha Khumalo a prostitute, leading to her walking out with both parties trading insults which halted business for over 30 minutes.
The question and answer session was disrupted for almost 30 minutes as MPs hurled insults at each other over Chinotimba’s utterance, which came as the nation is commemorating 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.
“I am shocked that we have MPs that call us names, and Chinotimba just called me a prostitute – this is wrong – no one has a right to call me names. I am not a prostitute, I am an MP and a woman and I want to be respected. He must withdraw or I will take him to court,” Khumalo said.
Chinotimba refused to withdraw, claiming that Khumalo was the first to hurl insults at him. Khumalo walked out of the chamber.
Female parliamentarians, including MDC women’s assembly chairperson Lynnet Karenyi, recently threatened to approach the courts to report sexual harassment against some Zanu PF lawmakers.
Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda has instituted investigations into the issues raised by the female lawmakers.
Chinotimba then turned on Job Sikhala, (Zengeza West) alleging that the MDC Alliance legislator had called Zanu PF MPs stupid.
“I never said those words, however, if he wants me to withdraw that fact that he is stupid then I withdraw,” Sikhala responded.
Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi had earlier torched a similar storm when he called opposition legislators hypocrites for raising points of order over truancy by ministers during the question and answer session.
Ziyambi said ministers could not respond to questions from opposition MPs if they do not recognise President Emmerson Mnangagwa as the appointing authority.
“According to the Constitution, ministers are appointed by the President and opposition MPs do not recognise the President – and we cannot continue in this House with hypocrites who on one hand say they do not recognise the President, yet they expect the ministers he appointed to respond to their questions in Parliament,” Ziyambi said.
“From today onwards, no minister is going to answer questions from the opposition,” he said.
Sikhala said Ziyambi’s remarks confirmed that there was a dispute on the issue of the Presidency.
“The minister knows that in terms of the law, there is a de jure and de facto President, and in terms of the Constitution ministers are public servants using taxpayers’ money and you must stop politicking and respond to questions,” Sikhala said.
After acting Speaker of the National Assembly William Mutomba ruled that question and answer should continue, Highfield East MP Erick Murai (MDC Alliance) asked Ziyambi to explain measures that government will take to solve the deteriorating situation in the health sector and the doctors’ strike.
“I am unable to respond until they (MDC Alliance) recognise the appointing authority,” Ziyambi said.
This led to chaotic scenes in the House with MPs shouting at each other. Ziyambi later said doctors were engaged in discussions with the Health minister Obadiah Moyo to end the stalemate.
Own Correspondent|President Emmerson Mnangagwa has all but declared three extra non productive days in a year into the ailing but labour intensive Zimbabwean economy.
Mnangagwa declared the first Friday of each calendar month, the National Environment Cleaning Day in which in the first two hours of the working day every Zimbabwean will be forced to down their tools and undertake a nationwide clean up exercise.
Mnangagwa made the declaration as he officially launched the national clean-up campaign in Harare and signed a declaration to this endeavour.
The national environmental cleaning across the country will be carried out between 8am and 10am. In numbers, the exercise takes twenty four hours of productive time in a year which relates to three days of work as the country’s labour laws give a maximum eight hour working day.
Themed “Zero tolerance to litter: my environment, my pride”, the national clean-up campaign launch was attended by First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa, Vice Presidents Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi, Defence and War Veterans Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri and several Cabinet ministers.
It remains a mystery how Zimbabwean businesses will respond to the call as they have generally always ignored most of the numerous national holidays and government programmes and continued with their businesses as usual.
Launching the campaign, President Mnangagwa stressed the importance of unity and harmony to keep the environment clean.
He said Government had set aside December 5 of every year to plant trees countrywide and to remind each other the importance of keeping the environment clean.
“Let us be united. Let us love peace. Let us love harmony. Let us work together. Let us clean our nation, clean our environment together. Let us be together in broad daylight, at night, during challenges and let us be together. Gore renzara takabatana, gore remaguta takabatana, gore resarudzo takabatana,” said President Mnangagwa.
President Mnangagwa noted that urban centres in Zimbabwe generated about 165 million tonnes of waste per year, the bulk of which ended up in open illegal dump site, urban streams and wetlands.
He said this had often resulted in blocked drainage system, contaminated surfaces and underground water.
“The Government is committed to uphold and further environmental rights through enactment and passing of laws which enforces responsible waste management behaviour at individual, household and company level,” said Mnangagwa.
“It is mandatory in terms of the Environmental Management Act that every local authority develops a Local Environmental Action Plan (LEAP). In this respect, it is commendable that some local authorities have embraced the LEAP’s programme and managed to construct properly lined and well-engineered land fill sites. It is my Government’s expectation that all other municipalities will follow suit.”
President Mnangagwa said plastic materials were the biggest pollutants and urged wholesalers and retailers not to use plastic materials for packaging.
Earlier in the morning, President Mnangagwa planted a Mushumha tree at State House which is the national tree of the year.
Own Correspondent|The Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe has confirmed the death of two people during a recruitment exercise on Wednesday.
In a statement, the authority indicated that two male job-seekers died on admission at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals yesterday after suffering health complications during a road run recruitment exercise at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport.
“It is with deep sorrow and heavy hearts that we announce that during the recruitment exercise two potential male candidates suffered some medical casualties as a result of the road run,” the authority said.
“The deceased passed on at Parirenyatwa Hospital where they had been ferried to receive medical care.
“The affected families have been informed and the authority is working closely with them during this trying time.”
The authority said the recruitment was part of its efforts to equip its Aviation Security Department in line with International Civil Aviation Organisation requirements.
By Own Correspondent| Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi today torched a storm in parliament when he refused to answer questions from opposition legislators arguing that the MDC should first recognise the presidency of the appointing authority Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The development followed complaints from opposition legislator Job Sikhala that ministers were bunking parliament despite knowing that Wednesday was question time.
However Ziyambi said:
“I am unable to respond until they (MDC) recognise the appointing authority who is President Mnangagwa.”
HARARE – Rural teachers are set to embark on a 250 km march from Mutare to Harare in a protest to demand salaries in United States Dollars and demanding higher bonus payment.
In a letter to Finance minister Mthuli Ncube, Amalgamated Teachers Union of Zimbabwe secretary general Robson Chere said they are going to walk for a staggering 10 days from
December 9 to 19 from the eastern city to the capital Harare.
“In terms of section 59 of the Constitution , teachers are going to march demanding that their salaries be paid in US dollars and that their
bonuses be paid in full. Teacher’s salaries are being paid in RTGS, contrary to the 2012 negotiated agreement that salaries would be paid in United States dollars.”
Chere said the teachers will camp at the ministry’s offices until their issues are addressed.
“The teachers will camp at the ministry of Finance and Economic Development offices until their grievances are met,” he said.Daily News
Zanu PF’s Mashonaland West political commissar Simon Solomon appeared before Harare magistrate Rumbidzayi Mugwagwa on charges of illegally selling a farm for $12 000.
He was arrested yesterday and detained at Kadoma Central Police Station before appearing in court today where he filed a bail application.
The state, represented by investigating officer Elizabeth Muzorodza opposed the bail application saying the accused has so many pending cases at Kadoma CID and he is capable of interferring
with the witnesses.
“Solomon is an influential person in Kadoma therefore if he is given bail, witnesses might be victimised,” Muzorodza said.Daily News
HARARE – With factionalism refusing to die in Zanu PF, anxious power-brokers in the party are scheming to keep President Emmerson
Mnangagwa at the helm of both the former liberation movement and the government for the next decade, the Daily News can report.
Well-placed sources who spoke to the newspaper yesterday said the move by influential Zanu PF officials in its provincial structures was intended to keep at bay “ambitious” party bigwigs who stand accused of harbouring “unwelcome presidential ambitions”.
All this comes after one of Mnangagwa’s two deputies in the party and in government, Constantino Chiwenga, recently told Zanu PF supporters that Mnangagwa was “the chosen one” — in a surprising public re-endorsement of
the president which fired anew raging speculation that a faction in the former liberation movement
wanted the Zanu PF leader to serve only one term as president.
It also comes after Mnangagwa himself had, from the blue, hinted in September that he would serve his two terms as the country’s president,
in line with Zimbabwe’s new Constitution.
What makes all these developments more interesting is that Zanu PF will hold its annual conference in Esigodini, Matabeleland South, next
week — where Mnangagwa will address party delegates for the first time since he dramatically assumed the leadership of the former liberation movement last year.
One of the sources who spoke to the Daily News said provinces were “stampeding” to nominate Mnangagwa as the party’s candidate for the country’s 2023 presidential elections — a mere four months after the Zanu PF leader began his first term as head of the country following the hotly-disputed July 30 polls.
In this regard, Harare, Bulawayo, Mashonaland West, Mashonaland East, Matabeleland South and North provinces, had already endorsed
Mnangagwa as their 2023 presidential candidate.Daily News
FORTY-two-year-old Nokuthula Sibanda was on Tuesday crowned Miss Zanu-PF Bulawayo Metropolitan province at a ceremony held at Davis Hall.
The modelling contest that saw a 70-year-old making it in the top three, was held to select the province’s representatives for the national finale.
The finale will be held during Zanu-PF’s 17th National People’s Conference in Esigodini that will run from December 10 to 15.
Sibanda beat six other contestants relegating Ruth Shelton (33) to first princess and Evelyn Nyambe (70) to second princess.
Following her crowning, Sibanda, who is Zanu-PF’s provincial secretary for transport, said she would do her best to represent the province at the national finals.
“I’m confident that I’ll bring the national crown home. The competition was very stiff as there were many talented ladies on stage
who could’ve won the top prize,” said
Sibanda, a mother of three.
She urged more women to participate in the revolutionary party’s pageant.
“This pageant encourages us to be clean and confident as women. I recommend more women to participate in these pageants
organised by the party in future,” said
Sibanda.
The competition was a mixture of old and young with winners being drawn from two categories, Youth and Women’s League.State media
GRITTY midfielder, Farai Madhanhanga, was for the second game running on top of the situation helping FC Platinum advance to the
first round of the 2018/2019 Caf Champions League at a the expense of battling Madagascar champions CNaPS at Mandava yesterday.
The former Harare City man muscled his way into the box before squaring the ball into the path of Rodwell Chinyengetere who slotted home the only goal of the match.
The miners had last week restricted the Madagascar champions to a 1-1 stalemate away in Antanananrivo, and yesterday’s result means they advance to the next stage of this competition on a 2-1 aggregate win.
Last time they retreated from the
competition at the first hurdle after
completing back-to-back defeats at the hands of Primero Agosto of Angola, now they have gone a step further setting the stage for a promising campaign.
The premiership kings have been firing from all cylinders on the local front and now seem to have warmed to the demands of the continental game right in time to meet the
long cherished wish for the club of reaching at least the group stages of Africa’s premier club knock-out competition.
A heavy downpour hit Zvishavane before the match and the pitch was not conducive for FC Platinum’s free flowing football, the visitors also used to playing on an artificial turf also struggled to cope with the
conditions of the pitch.
Coach, Norman Mapeza, threw in Lameck Nhamo in the starting team and the former Triangle United man did not disappoint either on his debut.Chronicle
OBEDIAH MOYOGovernment has pledged $25 million to the health sector for the purchase of medical goods, medicines and surgical sundries to ease drug shortages and deal with price distortions in the market.
This comes as junior doctors at public health facilities embarked on an industrial action on Saturday, citing several challenges such as unsatisfactory working conditions, low salaries and lack of basic medicines and equipment.
Minister of Health and Child Care Dr Obadiah Moyo said the health sector should expect to start getting medicines and medical supplies soon.
“The President has equally made a huge contribution in as far as making sure that products are available to the Ministry of Health. I am happy to note that an arrangement for $25 million worth of medical goods, medicines and surgical sundries has been concluded through the efforts of His Excellency. We are very grateful for the effort made by His Excellency’s office. As soon as the products start coming in they should be distributed to various health care centres starting with Government institutions and this is all coming through Natpharm,” he said.
“I am happy to note that His Excellency President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been considerate and he has been working with us, ensuring that we make all the arrangements necessary to be able to acquire various commodities required to ensure that we run an efficient health care service. At the same time credit facilities have been created by the Ministry of Finance for the benefit of the health system.”
Dr Moyo said discussions were still ongoing between the President and the Indian deputy President, on the consignment of 100 tonnes worth of medicines, which will put the country in a much better position.
He urged junior doctors who are on strike to go back to work and look after patients.
“We have realised that the junior doctors have been having problems with fuel. It is very painful to see young doctors riding into the kombis together with their patients. We want a situation where our doctors and all our health care workers are well looked after. In fact my number one priority has always been to ensure that all health workers are well looked after.
“We want everyone to go back to work and look after patients. It is my strong belief that there has to be an engagement and dialogue on a continuous basis. I have no problem of meeting with the junior doctors. I met another group and I would like to meet everyone,” he said.
He assured Zimbabweans that Government is working on ensuring that health care service gets back to normal in the shortest possible time.
Meanwhile, the minister held a meeting with the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors’ Association president Dr Elias Muzoremba and secretary general Dr Anele Mthabisi Bhebhe and other members to map the way forward.
Dr Moyo said Government wanted to work well with the doctors and also attend to their grievances.
“I am coming in as a new minister with a different approach and I know what has been happening. Feel free, don’t be scared, don’t be shy, speak your minds. The more you say, the more we will be able to make the ministry function,” he said.
He said whatever grievances the association were going to bring to his office, would been passed on to the appropriate authorities.
Dr Muzoremba said the minister had paved way for the start of formal negotiations to resolve the situation as soon as possible.
Dr Bhebhe said: “We are still engaging the ministry to map the way forward. We are still pushing our agenda so that our grievances will be addressed as soon as possible so that normalcy can be restored in the health sector.”
However, Dr Moyo later toured the hospital in the company of officials.-state media
A 60-year old Filabusi man has been arrested for allegedly raping and impregnating his 17-year-old stepdaughter.
The man from Gwatemba area who cannot be named for ethical reasons raped the girl three times in February while she was staying at his homestead.
He pleaded not guilty to charges of rape when he appeared before Gwanda regional magistrate, Mr Mark Dzira. The man was remanded out of custody on $100 bail to January 14.
Prosecuting, Mr Mncedisi Dube said the matter came to light in May after the girl fell pregnant.
“On a date unknown but in the month of February the complainant was staying with accused person at his homestead when he proposed love to her but she turned him down. On the following day, he sent her to collect water and followed her to the river. He called her into a bush and raped her.
“He raped her two more times on two consecutive days and warned her against reporting the matter. The matter came to light in May after the complainant had returned to her home in Zezani area. Her grandfather suspected that she was pregnant and when he questioned her the complainant revealed what her step father had done to her. The matter was reported to the police resulting in the arrest of the accused person,” he said.
Mr Dube said medical tests that were conducted at the time revealed that the complainant was three months pregnant.
In his defence, the accused person who is being represented by Mr Sibanda of Tanaka Law Chambers accused the complainant’s relatives of fabricating the allegations in a bid to fix him.
“My client was shocked when the complainant’s relatives accused him of impregnating the juvenile and told him that he had to marry her. This came as a shock to him as he didn’t have sexual intercourse with the juvenile.
“After my client refused to marry the girl her family went on to make a false report to the police in order to persecute him. My client will maintain that these charges are a fabrication aimed at tarnishing his image and fixing him for refusing to marry the juvenile,” said Mr Sibanda.
In her statement in court which she made in camera the complainant said her step father first proposed love to her and when she refused he raped her.
She said her step father would send her to fetch water alone leaving the other children behind and he would follow her to the river and rape her there.
Barely a year after shaking controversial preacher Walter Magaya’s hands, Walter Mzembi’s world has continued to crumble. Walter Mzembi with his lawyer, Job Sikhala
The State has set January 28, 2019 as trial date for former Foreign Affairs minister Walter Mzembi who is accused of various corruption related charges.
Mzembi is standing trial for allegedly misappropriating funds meant for the 2013 United Nations World Tourism Organisation General Assembly. He is also accused of disposing of 16 PVA television screens by means of donating, loaning or hiring them to various institutions and church organisations without approval from the Finance ministry.
Initially, the State had set November 19 and 29 as Mzembi’s trial dates. However, trial failed to commence when Mzembi fell sick and travelled to South Africa to seek treatment.
Last week, his Lawyer Job Sikhala told the court that the former Tourism minister is critically ill with colon cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy in South Africa.- Daily News
POLICE in Bulawayo have released three men who had been arrested for allegedly killing a man from Mpopoma suburb after a post- mortem report revealed that he died due to excessive alcohol consumption.
Farai Moyo (28) died on Saturday afternoon at Mpilo Central Hospital where he had been rushed for treatment after he was found in his room struggling to breathe.
Moyo died a day after he was assaulted by the three suspects for spilling their beer at Patapata Beer Garden in Mpopoma suburb.
Moyo’s family learnt through drunken mourners at his funeral that he had been assaulted at the beerhall and concluded that his death was due to the injuries he sustained in the attack.
Family members then reported the matter to the police, resulting in the trio’s arrest.
In an interview yesterday, Bulawayo police spokesperson Chief Inspector Precious Simango said the three murder suspects were freed after a postmortem report showed that they had nothing to do with the suspect’s death.
“The postmortem report released by doctors at Mpilo Central Hospital revealed that the deceased died due to alcohol intoxication. This forced us to release the three suspects we had arrested after they were linked to his death. Initially we were investigating murder but we are now treating the case as a sudden death,” said Chief Insp Simango.
She did not reveal the names of the suspects.
On Sunday, Moyo’s aunt Ms Sandra Chitepo said they initially did not know why he was assaulted until drunk mourners revealed that he was attacked for spilling beer at the beer garden.
“On Friday someone came here saying that Farai was lying on the side of the road and was failing to walk. The people who were in the house went to pick him up and thought he could have been drunk and just led him to his bedroom where he was left to sleep.
“They started getting worried when he didn’t wake up on Saturday as it was already past 10AM,” said Ms Chitepo.
She said Moyo’s mother entered his room and found him groaning and struggling to breathe before alerting neighbours who advised that he be rushed to a clinic.
Ms Chitepo said one of the neighbours availed a vehicle which was used to take Moyo to a clinic in the same suburb.
“At the clinic they attended to him and at around 12 noon they referred him to Mpilo Central Hospital where he died at round 2PM,” said Ms Chitepo.
ONE case of cholera has been reported in Gwanda after the patient travelled from Bulawayo, with new suspected cases countrywide standing at more than 200.
In an interview, Matabeleland South Provincial Medical Director, Dr Rudo Chikodzore, confirmed the Gwanda case which was recorded on Tuesday evening at Gwanda Provincial Hospital.
She said the patient, a tout on the Bulawayo-Gwanda Road, was in a stable condition.
Dr Chikodzore said a rapid response team had been deployed to trace the source of the disease in order to contain it. “I can confirm that we recorded one case of cholera in Gwanda on Tuesday. A rapid diagnostic test came out positive and we are now awaiting microscopy results to further confirm but we are certain that it’s a case of cholera. The patient is admitted at Gwanda Provincial Hospital and is in a stable condition and I can assure you that we have the situation under control.
“The patient is a tout operating the Bulawayo- Gwanda route and is from Zhukwe area in Gwanda. He started suffering from diarrhoea while he was on his way from Bulawayo on Monday and went home. He was brought to hospital on the following day. A rapid response team has gone to his homestead to conduct an assessment of the water and sanitation conditions as well as examining his family and those who came into contact with him. Investigations into this case are still underway,” she said.
Dr Chikodzore said they were trying to ascertain the source of the disease but they suspect that it did not originate from Gwanda.
She said the patient is suspected to have contracted the disease because of his line of work where he gets into contact with people from different areas.
She said the province was on high alert for any other cases of cholera. Dr Chikodzore said they were going to set up cholera treatment camps at the venue of this year’s Zanu-PF National People’s Conference to be held in Esigodini next week.
Dr Chikodzore urged members of the public to exercise general hygiene at all times to prevent cases of cholera.
More than 50 people died of cholera in September after drinking contaminated water in Harare.
By Farai D Hove| ZANU PF leader Emmerson Mnangagwa was during the day trapped as a court received demands for the much awaited Motlanthe report.
Prosecutors working under Mnangagwa have pursued a case against Mr Wisdom Mkhwananzi who police arrested during the Motlanthe commission held in Bulawayo while giving his witness statement. Two other citizens were also arrested at the commission hearings a few weeks before.
In a statement, the MRP spokesman, Mr. Njabulo Ngwenya, said the Wisdom Mkhwananzi’s case failed to kick start today at Tredgold Court 1 in Bulawayo. The state tried frantically to have Mkhwananzi remanded to a latter day, pending authorization of the case by the Prosecutor General.
“Mkhwananzi, who is a victim of the ethnic Gukurahundi genocide was violently arrested after testifying before the Kgalema Motlanthe Commission of inquiry into the August 1 killings in Harare.
“Mkhwananzi pointed at the portrait of the President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa as the person who had contributed to him being an orphan.
Mkhwananzi has been harassed by state security agents since the day of his arrest and his case will proceed by way of summons.
“The other three MRP activists who were arrested at the same function for instilling violence, had their case Postponed to the 18th of December, after the defence led by Maqhawe Mpofu and Dumisani Dube of Abammeli Lawyers for Human Rights, demanded the footage of the proceedings of the day in question and the report of the commission.
“We applaud all those who came in numbers in support of our harassed activists. Our gratitude goes to the few brave ex ZPRA freedom fighters who rendered their valued support.
FORTY-two-year-old Nokuthula Sibanda was on Tuesday crowned Miss Zanu-PF Bulawayo Metropolitan province at a ceremony held at Davis Hall.
The modelling contest that saw a 70-year-old making it in the top three, was held to select the province’s representatives for the national finale.
The finale will be held during Zanu-PF’s 17th National People’s Conference in Esigodini that will run from December 10 to 15.
Sibanda beat six other contestants relegating Ruth Shelton (33) to first princess and Evelyn Nyambe (70) to second princess.
Following her crowning, Sibanda, who is Zanu-PF’s provincial secretary for transport, said she would do her best to represent the province at the national finals.
“I’m confident that I’ll bring the national crown home. The competition was very stiff as there were many talented ladies on stage who could’ve won the top prize,” said Sibanda, a mother of three.
She urged more women to participate in the revolutionary party’s pageant.
“This pageant encourages us to be clean and confident as women. I recommend more women to participate in these pageants organised by the party in future,” said Sibanda.
The competition was a mixture of old and young with winners being drawn from two categories, Youth and Women’s League.
The judging panel comprised Memory Baye, Helen Charimari and Dominica Mringi.
The judges also selected the Top Youth League model and Women’s League model.
The top youth model was Shelton with Sibanda being the top women’s league contestant.
According to Mringi, Sibanda took the crown because she was well dressed and confident on stage.
“When we were looking for a queen, we looked at a woman who walked with confidence and had stage presence. In all categories, the queen took the cup — her attire was on point and you could see that she matched everything from her shoes to dress and jewellery,” said Mringi.
Ahead of the national finals, Mringi said Sibanda and her princesses would be taken for grooming and deportment lessons at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development offices at the Mhlahlandlela Government complex in Bulawayo.
Among the delegates who watched the contest were Zanu-PF Bulawayo provincial Women’s League chair Cde Eva Bitu, central committee members Cdes Molly Mpofu and Anna Ngwabi.
A senior mental health nurse who allegedly had sex with a teenager in his care has been jailed for seven years and eight months.
The judge said he could only conclude Gezi had groomed the girl for his own personal sexual gratification…
Givemore Gezi, 40, groomed the girl, who had a history of mental illness, after starting to treat her in 2017.
Judge Timothy Rose told Gezi, from Devon, that he had committed “an exceptional breach of trust”.
“Your actions were calculated, grossly manipulative and deceitful. You lied about your intentions and motivation.”
Gezi, of Maidenway Road, Paignton, began a sexual relationship with the girl when she was 15 and had sex with her after she turned 16.
When she became pregnant, he persuaded her to have an abortion, Exeter Crown Court heard.
After grooming her, Gezi told her he was in love with her and convinced her they were boyfriend and girlfriend.
He told the girl he was 28, when in fact he was 39 at the time and married with two children.
In an impact statement read out before sentencing, the girl said Gezi had made her believe that he loved her and cared for her.
She said she did not realise he was taking advantage of her at a “most vulnerable time”.
“[He] cut me off, so I was completely isolated and only had him to turn to. I still love him, but I think I love the version of him that he spun for me,” she said.
“I still battle with my emotions, particularly about the termination.”
Their relationship only came to light when Gezi’s wife became suspicious, found the girl’s number on his phone and confronted her.
The girl, who was in foster care, tried to kill herself after arriving at school in tears, the court heard.
The judge said the girl had shown “huge courage in her willingness to give evidence”.
Gezi was ordered to remain on the sex offenders register for life.- BBC
Below are pictures of ZANU PF leader Emmerson Mnangagwa in Harare today as he preached about outward cleanliness. He tweeted: ”
“It was an honour to take part in the National Clean-up Campaign, which seeks to galvanise us as a society to protect and preserve our environment.
“We need to keep our villages, towns and cities clean and hygienic for this generation and generations to come.
“We must therefore practice good environmental and waste management through increased advocacy, education, training and awareness. We must do this from a place of pride, not just necessity. A clean environment contributes to a strong, healthy nation, with a high quality of life.
“Keeping our environment clean is therefore a duty, a moral responsibility and a patriotic act!”
Own Correspondent| At least two people died and seven others left in critical condition after succumbing to pressure during a 10 km run that was a pre-requisite in job recruitment at the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) in Harare on Tuesday.
Inside sources said that twelve people who were listed candidates for security personnel posts, fainted during the course of the 10km run around mid-day on Tuesday.
The source said the twelve were rushed to Parirenyatwa Group Of Hospitals and two of them later died.
The source said the possible causes of death includes heat, hunger and exhaustion.
“The twelve were part of about 1200 people who had responded to a CAAZ job offer for positions as security guards.
“Due to the overwhelming response the recruitment exercise was delayed and the potential recruits ran in the sweltering afternoon heat.”
ZimEye.com efforts to get an official comment from the CAAZ were not successful at the time of writing.
Below is the MDC Youth Assembly’s statement responding to War Vets leader Victor Matemadanda on his proposal to lift the presidential age limit to 52:
We note with great concern the statements issued on the 4th of December 2018 by the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) on the revision of the constitutional provision of the presidential age limit from 40 years to 52 years.
It is unfortunate that such statements come at a time when the political legitimacy of the incumbent Mr Mnangagwa is still unresolved. We as the youth of the MDCA see these statements as undemocratic, discriminatory, unprogressive and exclusionary tactics to silence the People’s President Advocate Nelson Chamisa and impede on the will of the Zimbabwean people.
It is thus very clear that they know that the People’s President Advocate Nelson Chamisa won the presidential election and they can’t stand the humiliation and fear another election so they would rather exclude him on disqualification. We would like to remind the ZNLWVA and reiterate with great emphasis that this country is not a personal property of either Zanu PF or the War Veterans which they can take for granted at will.
It is clear that the youth of this country are nowhere near any agenda of ZANU PF and our future is not their priority. We advise the War Veterans Association that we as the youth, the future of Zimbabwe, will do everything possible to fight the advancement of such a proposal from every front, be it political, social, constitutional or otherwise, to safeguard our democracy and the future of this country.
These dictatorial power retention tactics have no place in the Zimbabwe we want to build and it is a pity that this is and has always been the focus of ZANU PF regardless of the fact that Zimbabweans are suffering as a result of their maladministration, bad governance and strategy deficiency. Let it be known that we’re prepared to safeguard and continue to advance the democracy that our liberation heroes fought for.
WE are Vigilant Enough, Confident Enough, Alert Enough and United Enough to complete this change. We will define, defend and secure our future.
Own Correspondent|The Acting British Ambassador to Zimbabwe Simon Thomas today made a courtesy call on opposition MDC President Nelson Chamisa at his Morgan Tsvangirai House offices in the capital.
Details of the private meeting have not been made public but Chamisa indicated excitement at meeting with the ambassador.
“Great and fantastic engagement with the British Acting Ambassador, Simon Thomas at Morgan R Tsvangirai House today,” said Chamisa on Facebook.
By Own Correspondent| Opposition MDC has raised the flag over a judgement by a High Court judge, Justice Musakwa where he has given a four year sentence to Zanu PF murderers in a case that has left Mudzi residents and the Magura family dumbfounded.
Zanu PF’s Chimukoko ward 3 chairperson, David Chimukoko and his secretary Graciano Kazingizi were sentenced to four years in jail, one year which was suspended on condition of good behaviour, for the murder of 67 year old Cephas Magura, the MDC Ward 1 Chairperson, in 2012.
Said the MDC in a statement:
“In passing the sentence, Justice Musakwa said the case cannot be classified as murder or culpable homicide but qualifies as a case of public violence; therefore the accused will serve just three years.
The same High Court, slapped Last Maengahama and Tungamirai Madzokere with a 20-year sentence on trumped up charges of fatally stoning Petros Mutedza at Glen View 3 shopping Centre during an MDC rally in May 2011. The only difference is one is Zanu PF and the other is MDC!
Sekuru Cephas Magura, died from injuries sustained during an assault by David Chimukoko and Graciano Kazingizi at Chimukoko Business Centre. The MDC had organised a rally there with permission from the police.”
A senior mental health nurse who allegedly had sex with a teenager in his care has been jailed for seven years and eight months.
The judge said he could only conclude Gezi had groomed the girl for his own personal sexual gratification…
Givemore Gezi, 40, groomed the girl, who had a history of mental illness, after starting to treat her in 2017.
Judge Timothy Rose told Gezi, from Devon, that he had committed “an exceptional breach of trust”.
“Your actions were calculated, grossly manipulative and deceitful. You lied about your intentions and motivation.”
Gezi, of Maidenway Road, Paignton, began a sexual relationship with the girl when she was 15 and had sex with her after she turned 16.
When she became pregnant, he persuaded her to have an abortion, Exeter Crown Court heard.
After grooming her, Gezi told her he was in love with her and convinced her they were boyfriend and girlfriend.
He told the girl he was 28, when in fact he was 39 at the time and married with two children.
In an impact statement read out before sentencing, the girl said Gezi had made her believe that he loved her and cared for her.
She said she did not realise he was taking advantage of her at a “most vulnerable time”.
“[He] cut me off, so I was completely isolated and only had him to turn to. I still love him, but I think I love the version of him that he spun for me,” she said.
“I still battle with my emotions, particularly about the termination.”
Their relationship only came to light when Gezi’s wife became suspicious, found the girl’s number on his phone and confronted her.
The girl, who was in foster care, tried to kill herself after arriving at school in tears, the court heard.
The judge said the girl had shown “huge courage in her willingness to give evidence”.
Gezi was ordered to remain on the sex offenders register for life.- BBC
Correspondent|MINISTER of Primary and Secondary Education Professor Paul Mavima has blasted rumours circulating on social media that certain ZIMSEC papers leaked and there will be a re-sitting of the same papers.
Mavima rubbished the letter as fake and bogus.
“There is a letter circulating on social media saying there are leaked O Level papers for November 2018 examinations. This is completely fake.
“The letterhead on which the latter is written… Myself as the Minister do not use such a letterhead. The signature is misspelt. My name is Mavima without an ‘h’ and they put an ‘h’.
In a sudden twist of events, Vice President Constantino Guvheya Nyikadzino Chiwenga is reportedly planning to resign from his post after the Esigodini December congress it has been reported.
A central committee member from Mashonaland East who spoke on condition of anonymity revealed the alleged plot being planned by the Vice President.
“I can tell you mukoma that there has been a twist of events in the power matrix of the Revolutionary party,” the source said.
They added: “some comrades close to the General have been involved in a plan to convince him to resign from the Vice Presidency position so that he can have more power and free movement towards succeeding Number 1 (President Mnangagwa).”
“The feeling among the cdes especially from Mashonaland East is that now the General is overshadowed by number one in terms of his discharge of duty because most of the things that he is during has to be reported to or sanctioned by number 1. So, when he resigns but remains in the politiburo, he will wield much power and will have much time in planning the succession map.
“Recently there were reports that Number 1 and the General had buried the hatchet, yes that was true, but it was only true to the extent that they are now working together very well hence you see the show of unity in public events. But I want to assure you that, that does not take away the plan that is there to make sure the General assumes the post that is rightfully his.
“However, I would also want to be frank to you that there are some us who feel that when the General is there, he is much closer to the throne and controls the levers of power. We will have a problem if the General resigns and then Madam Oppah (Muchinguri-kashiri) takes over the post because she is friends with Mutsvangwas and you may not be sure what plan they may hatch. So we are toting to convince the General not to resign.
“The other thing also that you may want to take note of is the stampede to endorse Number 1 as the Presidential candidate for 2023 just 90 days after the harmonised elections. You are clearly seeing a panicking group of people within the revolutionary party who are not open to healthy democracy. We are not about to groom a dictatorship again, lets allow the congresses to elect the leadership that people deserve without duress”
Recently there were reports that President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Vice President Constantino Chiwenga have found each other ahead of the December ZANU PF conference.
ZANU PF is reportedly planning to effect a number of changes to the party’s constitution and a clause that will recognize former President Robert Gabriel Mugabe as the founding Father of ZANU PF.
ZANU-PF has tentatively set December 11 to 16 as dates for its 17th Annual National People’s Conference to be held in Esigodini, Matabeleland South Province, where 5 000 delegates are expected to attend.
Own Correspondent|FC Platinum have reached the first round of the 2018/19 CAF Champions League season after beating CNaPS of Madagascar 2-1 on aggregate.
The Zimbabwe champions managed a narrow 1-0 victory at home on Wednesday after they had drawn 1-1 away last week.
The hosts controlled the opening minutes as they searched for an early goal with Farai Madhananga and Lameck Nhamo getting some opportunities which they failed to execute.
CNaPS only found their foot at the midway point of the first half, but their momentum didn’t last long as they started to show some signs of fatigue.
The game went to break with the teams tied in deadlock.
The second period had a cagey start, and it took over twenty minutes for both sides to get near the goal. An effort by Rodwell Chinyengetere on the hour separated the teams as FC Platinum went into the lead.
CNaPS tried to get back into the game for the remainder of the encounter but failed as they lost 1-0.
FC Platinum will play surprise winners Otoho d’Oyo who beat tournament favourites Angolan club C.D. Primeiro de Agosto in the next round.
Johannesburg – Inmates were left horrified after watching one of their own suffer from seizures for four hours and die in their jail cell as guards looked on, refusing to take him to the facility’s hospital.
Donald Masoka, 44, died lying on the cold floor of his cell on Friday afternoon at Pretoria’s Kgosi Mampuru Prison, where he had been serving a life sentence for murder. He had been due to wed his long-time girlfriend, Tebogo Mohlala, the next day.
For four hours, his 23 cell-mates at G1 section tried to revive him and to alert guards about his fits. He suffered five seizures within that period.
An inmate who witnessed the incident said Masoka had been jolly and looking forward to his wedding day when he started getting dizzy spells shortly after lock-up at 4pm.
He then went to the communal toilet where he vomited. “I went to check on him and found him lying on the floor having fits. We put a toothbrush in his mouth and stretched his muscles. He got better after a few minutes.”
The prisoners started banging the door to get the attention of warders. but none came. Other prisoners from the three neighbouring cells also joined the bid to raise the alarm, and a warder came at around 6pm.
“He had another fit right in front of the member (warder) who then left to get advice from his authorities. Another guard came an hour later, but instead of helping, he shut the door,” said the inmate.
A male nurse arrived at about 9pm but was unable to get into the cell as there was no guard to unlock the door.
“The nurse could immediately tell that Masoka was dead by just looking at him. The nurse left to look for a doctor to certify him dead. The police came, and the body was removed at about 2am, about six hours after he had died.”
Correctional Services Department spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said: “An investigation to determine the cause of death has been instituted.”
Masoka’s relative, Velaphi Makwela, said the family were still confused about the death and that the prison authorities did not want to take any responsibility. “We need answers and will take the prison to court if we have to.”
Correctional Services Gauteng spokesperson Mocheta Monama said: “Allegations that correctional officials refused to take the inmate to hospital are untrue. According to a preliminary investigation, he was asthmatic and repeatedly defaulted on his treatment.”
Bride-to-be Mohlala was devastated. The two first met in high school and became involved in 1994. After school they lost touch till three years ago, when Masoka contacted her on Facebook.
“He told me he was in prison but still loved me and wanted to be with me. I bought rings and was preparing for a life with him. I don’t know what I am going to do now,” she said.
Chiza’s wife posing with the brand new carCorrespondent|EAGLE Life Assembly founder Prophet Blessing Chiza has bought his wife Prophetess Tatianah Chiza a brand new Jeep Cherokee as an appreciation for standing with him in ministry.
“I am so glad to see my wife the Prophetess so happy with the surprise Christmas thank you gift of a brand new latest computerised Jeep Cherokee, sophisticated and advanced technology inside, I gave her at the Joshua Nkomo Airport on her arrival from UK for standing with me in Ministry.” Chiza said.
He added: “I love u sweetheart, you are my everything and the best gift to me that ever happened.”
Prophetess Tatianah posted on her Facebook page thanking her husband for the gift.
“Thank God for a husband like Prophet Dr B.S Chiza. I am so happy with this Latest Brand New computerised Jeep Cherokee gift he surprised me with as a ” XMAS THANK YOU” for standing with him in Ministry. I like it, so sophisticated and advanced technology. Help me celebrate,” she posted.
She is an ordained Pastor and Prophet and together with her husband Dr Prophet BS Chiza they have planted numerous assemblies in Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia and are currently leading a thriving one in Bulawayo.
BULAWAYO Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) has questioned the city council’s decision to award former mayor Martin Moyo a mayoral car as part of his exit package.
BPRA yesterday said the move was a way to poke fun at the struggling ratepayers who clashed with the local authority for diverting money to purchase a mayor’s vehicle, which was now being given for free.
“BPRA believes this indicates that the city council is out of touch with the reality and fails to understand the gravity of the matter pertaining economic hardships that have hit Zimbabwe and are bound to negatively affect Bulawayo City Council (BCC)’s revenue collection,” BPRA spokesperson Zibusiso Dube said yesterday.
According to a council confidential report, council’s financial director, Kimpton Ndimande, recommended that Moyo be given two options — a Mazda BT50 for free as it had no book value — or purchase a Chevrolet, which is also part of the mayoral fleet, for $14 732.
“BCC, which complains that low revenue collection is the cause of service delivery shortfalls, now seeks to virtually give away vehicles from its mayoral fleet, is indicative of a lack of sincerity, poor prioritisation of issues and lack of probity in the administration of Bulawayo’s financial resources,” Dube said.
The city fathers have, in the past, clashed with residents over its priorities regarding the expenditure of ratepayers’ money.
THE ruling Zanu PF Bulawayo provincial leadership has endorsed President Emmerson Mnangagwa as the party’s presidential candidate for 2023 and told off opposition leader Nelson Chamisa for demanding talks to help arrest the deteriorating socio-economic situation in the country.
At a meeting at its Davies Hall provincial office, the party passed a raft of resolutions which they want addressed during the party’s national conference scheduled for Esigodini later this month.
“As Bulawayo province, we are saying President ED Mnangagwa is our sole presidential candidate for 2023,” provincial secretary Elphas Mashava said while presenting the resolutions to provincial delegates.
“We defeated Chamisa in elections; there are no talks with him. We will only meet him in 2023, for now he must go to hell.”
The party’s deputy national youth secretary, Mabutho Moyo, said it was wrong for the MDC to engage in demonstrations to force Zanu PF into talks.
“Comrades, we must make it clear to Chamisa that there are not going to be talks with him. We will meet him in the 2023 elections, so he must not fool himself,” he said.
Terrence Mawawa|The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has disqualified Sierra Leone from participating in the 2019 Afcon qualifiers.
The decision comes after the West Africans failed to meet conditions for the lifting of the Fifa-imposed suspension of the country’s FA.
FIFA had banned Sierra Leone from international football because of government interference in the running of the country’s football association.
CAF announced the development on Monday in a statement which read:
“The CAF Executive Committee at its meeting on Friday, 30 November 2018 in Accra decided on the case of Sierra Leone in the 2019 Total Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
“Sierra Leone are disqualified from the qualifiers and all their matches are annulled. This will result in a group of 3 teams.”
The current Group F standings mean Kenya and Ghana progress to the 2019 Afcon finals.
Terrence Mawawa|The Zimbabwe U-20 team will be looking to put one foot into the knockout stage at the 2018 COSAFA tournament underway in Zambia when they face Lesotho this afternoon.
The match kicks-off at 3:30 pm and it will be live on Kwese Free Sports.
The Young Warriors are currently on top of Group C with three points and a win in their second will consolidate their chances of booking a berth in the semifinals. They started their campaign with a 2-1 win over Botswana, thanks to a brace from Triangle United forward Delic Murimba.
The other Group C encounter between Angola and Lesotho ended in a 1-1 draw.
Terrence Mawawa|Mr. Elvis Mugari, a social commentator and member of the Friends of SMM (FOSMM), has said the plot by war veterans to change the Presidential age limit is a calculated move meant to block MDC A leader’s 2023 Presidential bid.
In response to the plot by Zimbabwe’s War Veterans to force Zanu-PF, the ruling party, to make a constitutional amendment that will raise the age limit of the Presidem age Mugari has said the suggestion is baseless.
It is the case that Mr. Chamisa is 40 years old which is the current age limit for aspirants allowed in the Constitution.
Zanu-PF has the necessary Parliamentary majority to change the constitution and, therefore, the War Vets may have started a journey with a predetermined and inevitable outcome”
“This idea that age can be used to exclude certain targeted people from enjoying the rights and freedoms that are entrenched in the constitution goes a long towards exposing a political morality that is inimical to the rule of law. It cannot be disputed that ZANU-PF has the necessary numbers in Parliament to allow the absurdity inherent in this constitutional proposal to be given life to. This is possible because people like us have been silent and docile for far too long.
It is and should be our responsibility to stand on our feet and not on our knees begging people we put in government to be merciful on us when we possess the power to create the outcomes that we want to see.
If anything, the behaviour of political actors has convinced me and my colleagues that it is time for us to show up in any way we can to make civics provocative, igniting and inspiring again after 38 years of squandered opportunities, said Mr. Mugari.
Ms. Miriam Mutizwa, also an activist who established a group called Legal Eagles, said: “I believe that we can rekindle the spirit that led people to fight for democracy in Zimbabwe by creating platforms where power is explicitly the subject of interrogation.
We have no choice but to start by acknowledging that power illiteracy is so pervasive not only among the so-called “war vets” but among all of us.
Even the so-called “war vets” must know and ought to know that civics is and should be the art of being a pro-social, problem-solving contributor in a self-governing community.
If this is true, then it must be self-evident that the proposed constitutional amendment offends the principle that being pro-social does not need to be causally related to one’s age, and that contributing to solving human problems has nothing to do with age, and finally self-government or independence is a gift of nature.
To me, civics must encompass three fundamental things: a foundation of values, an understanding of the systems that make the world go round, and a set of skills that allow you to pursue goals and to have others join in that pursuit.
I am reminded by Elvis Mugari who angrily responded to an advert posted in the FOSMM whats up group by Dr. Gorden Moyo, the former Minister in the GNU government, of Professor Mutambara’s book launch.
His main contention was that the title of the book: “The Path to Power” strikes at the root of power illiteracy that seems to be a better friend of the few that claim to be powerful and enlightened.
I must admit that there is no shared understanding of what power is and is not.
“To me power is and ought to be: “Is the ability to act or produce an effect; capability of doing or accomplishing something.”
In the morality, culture and mythology of democracy, it cannot be disputed that power resides or ought to reside with the people. Period. End of story.
However, the reality is that even the so-called war vets think that they are the address of power simply because the few who pretend to understand how power operates in civic life often end up wielding disproportionate influence in society, and that these people bridge the gaps created by the ignorance of the great majority.
This is why it is so fundamental for us right now to use the gaffes created by war vets and their comrades in government to capture and share the correct idea of power and to democratize it.
It is striking that the proposal by the so-called war vets can only be made in circumstances where power illiteracy is so pervasive with the consequent that the few close to power become seemingly icons of democracy to the determent of democracy itself.
We have been naive for far too long. Many of us including me think that good things just happen and others who are cynical enough to believe that bad things just happen, the fortunate and unfortunate alike who think that their lot is simply what they deserve rather than the eminently alterable result of a prior arrangement, an inherited allocation, of power.
There can be no moral, legal and constitutional justification for any human being to claim a higher moral ground than likes in the pursuit of happiness like the so-called war vets have done since independence.”
Terrence Mawawa| An MDC A councillor has told Victor Matemadanda to stop “lecturing us on constitutional matters as he is a mere farmer.”
The MDC A councillor Arnold Batirai Ncube said: “Zimbabweans will not allow former farm manager Matemadanda to speak nonsense on behalf of our freedom fighters. Go back to the farm and amend your boss’ farm principles and not the Zimbabwean Constitution.We will protect our generation to the end.”
Own Correspondent| At least two people died and seven others left in critical condition after succumbing to pressure during a 10 km run that was a pre-requisite in job recruitment at the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) in Harare on Tuesday.
Inside sources said that twelve people who were listed candidates for security personnel posts, fainted during the course of the 10km run around mid-day on Tuesday.
The source said the twelve were rushed to Parirenyatwa Group Of Hospitals and two of them later died.
The source said the possible causes of death includes heat, hunger and exhaustion.
“The twelve were part of about 1200 people who had responded to a CAAZ job offer for positions as security guards.
“Due to the overwhelming response the recruitment exercise was delayed and the potential recruits ran in the sweltering afternoon heat.”
ZimEye.com efforts to get an official comment from the CAAZ were not successful at the time of writing.
Terrence Mawawa| The MDC Masvingo Provincial Executive says the party will not fall into Zanu PF’ s trap indicating Nelson Chamisa will be the party candidate for the 2019 congress and beyond.
“The MDC Masvingo Provincial Executive In Consultation with the 26 districts in the province unanimously
agreed that we are totally in support of Adv N Chamisa and he shall
continue to be the president of the MDC beyond 2019.
As a province we will not nagate the will of the over 2. 6 million Zimbabweans who have expressed trust and hope in the leadership of Adv N Chamisa,” said the party in a statement.
Terrence Mawawa|Prominent social media analyst Antony Taruvinga has described Victor Matemadanda’s remarks about adjusting the Presidential age limit as perilous and reckless.
See below Taruvinga’s statement:
The anti-Chamisa Amendment could draw the fiercest battle ever witnessed in the history of Zimbabwe. We will not continue to be spectators and bystanders while idiots masquerading as war vets play dices with our lives.
Battle lines have been drawn and as it stands we are at war with Zanu PF.
Zanu PF and the ‘war vets’ have now become a threat to our national security.
That section of the Constitution (term limits) is good as it is. If anything, amendments must be made to bar the old people from running for the Presidency. The
Amendment should have a lower limit of 30 years and upper limit of 65 years, not the nonsense Matemadanda is exuding.
And the Amendment, which is crucial to all and sundry, must go through a referendum so that the ordinary men who constitute the majority decide for themselves. It is now clear that the old people in Zanu PF have destroyed this economy.
We don’t need old minds to run a modern economy.There is nothing Mnangagwa can do torevive the battered economy. He is watching helplessly while the country is burning.Very old,clueless and unelected military man.
Mnangagwa’s appetite to eliminate Chamisa from the race is a clear testimony and an indication that Nelson Chamisa won the 30 July 2018.
Correspondent|PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa today led commemorations for the National Tree Planting Day at the State House in Harare before leading a National Clean-Up campaign in the high density suburb of Highfields. The President and First Lady Auxullia planted and watered a tree at the State House.
Officially launching the National Clean Up Campaign under the theme: “Zero Tolerance to Littering, My Environment, My Pride” , the President said Government has designated 5 December as a day Zimbabweans promote tree planting and national cleaning.
President Mnangagwa read and signed the National Tree Planting Day declaration, urging Zimbabweans to look after the environment. Both Vice Presidents and several government officials attended. Harare Mayor Herbert Gomba also graced the clean-up campaign.
Every year a specific tree is declared Tree of The Year. This tree is chosen based on the criteria that it is indigenous to Zimbabwe, it has important food and/or medicinal properties, that it has potential to significantly contribute to the socio-economic well-being of the country and that Zimbabwe can generally benefit from the widespread propagation of the species. Some are identified because they are rare and can possibly become extinct.
“All those between the ages of 10 to 65 years, even those older, if still able, would be expected to clean up the environment on 5 December, annually,” said the President.
The first week of December each year holds National Tree Planting Day in Zimbabwe. This day was first set aside for tree planting in 1980, by former President Robert Mugabe, and has since been an important day in Zimbabwe’s environmental calendar.
December marks the beginning of the rainy season, when tree planting is most successful. The purpose of the day is to educate the nation about the importance of natural forest and woodland conservation, motivate people to plant and conserve trees, and finally, to create nation-wide food security.
President Mnangagwa today underscored that cleanliness should be a daily routine for both men and women, boys and girls.
Meanwhile, First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa has been appointed the Patron and Ambassador of the National Clean Up Campaign. The campaign is aimed at eradicating littering, promoting cleanliness, recycling and waste management.
Speaking at the State House occasion, Environment and Tourism Minister Prisca Mupfumira said the Forestry Commission and the Environment Management Authority (EMA) are aggressively working on education and encouraging citizens to plant trees.
“Presently corporate partners have been assisting with funds and also embarking on individual corporate tree planting programmes,” she said.
Hon Mupfumira in said that 500 million trees have been planted since Independence in 1980, and about 60% survive.
Meanwhile, Government has authorised the Forestry Commission to handle 50% of the money collected from farmers under the tobacco levy for use in afforestation programs. The money had not been used since 2015 as the TIMB (Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board) had not been given the directive on how the funds will be disbursed to farmers.
In January 2015,Government introduced an afforestation levy on all tobacco farmers at a rate of 1,5% in the first year and 0,75% in subsequent years to finance regreening initiatives in the country.
The money, which had been ring-fenced for afforestation, was meant to be used for the establishment of 20 000 hectares of woodlots per year for the next five years.
Presenting the 2019 annual Budget recently, Minister of Finance and Economic Development Professor Mthuli Ncube said the administration of the tobacco levy by the TIMB had not served its intended purpose of financing conservation initiatives in the country.
FOUR people died on the spot while several others were injured on Tuesday evening 32 km after Masvingo along the Beitbridge road when a commuter omnibus they were travelling in was involved in an accident.
Masvingo Acting Police Spokesperson Assistant Inspector Dewa confirmed the incident and revealed the injured were ferried to Masvingo Provincial Hospital.
Details of the cause of the accident are still sketchy as police are still carrying out investigations.
However, according to eye witnesses, the commuter omnibus driver lost control of the vehicle after a tyre burst, resulting in the vehicle veering off the road.
The Toyota Hiace is said to have been travelling from Masvingo towards Beitbridge.
The deceased were taken to Masvingo Provincial Hospital mortuary.
ZANU-PF Chairperson Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri said former President Robert Mugabe’s decision to marry Grace — who was younger than him by nearly four decades — precipitated the former political strongman’s downfall.
“We should be builders, not destroyers like Stop It (Grace), who nearly destroyed Mugabe’s legacy. You should be careful not to marry young wives. We are warning you, they are always dreaming big. You should ask us to pray for you, otherwise you will fall because of them,” Muchinguri said.
She said she was forced to step down as the party women’s league boss to pave way for Grace at a time the latter was ambitiously clawing her way up the hierarchy of Zanu PF.
She said Grace acted as a catalyst for the removal of Mugabe through the coup executed in November last year.
“When we were forced to relinquish women’s league posts, we did not know it would cost us. Several emissaries were sent to us to give up the post and hand it over to Chikwiramiti (Grace). We did not know, but God knew this person who took away the position from us who had no party experience was going to get in, scold senior party members and fast-track the process,” she said.
Muchinguri was speaking at a Zanu PF inter-district conference at the Masvingo Polytechnic yesterday.
Some ruling party youths in Masvingo said they had nothing to show for Zanu PF’s victory, given the recurrent economic problems characterised by long fuel queues, price hikes and shortages of cash and some basic commodities.
Muchinguri said some party members were selling party regalia in nearby Mozambique and pocketing the proceeds.
She claimed that most of the regalia was looted ahead of the July 30 polls.
“Whatever trick you used to get regalia, you will get other regalia next time. There is some corruption to guard against in the party. We gave members regalia, but some of it is being sold in Mozambique. On Sunday, we were told that some Mozambicans were found with 500 pieces of regalia in Manicaland. There is business in Zanu PF. We give you regalia to give to (members in) wards, yet you divert it for sale,” she said.
“This explains why we got resistance from moving regalia from the airport to the President’s place. People were flooding the airport. We then searched some and saw one person wearing 20 T-shirts and others put clothes inside their trousers.”
She said some party leaders had pieces of regalia in all colours when party members that voted did not get any.
By Own Correspondent| Parents with learners at a Masvingo Boarding School, Riverton Academy are in shock amid indications that the institution is set to hike school fees for the first term of 2019 to $9 600.
According to a leaked post-dated letter addressed to parents with children at the boarding school, fees will now be denominated in United States dollars while those paying in local currency will have to part with at least four times more the amount paid in US dollars.
Below is the letter:
However, an official at the school who refused to disclose his name telling the ZimEye reporter to send questions via email to the school said the institution had not hiked its fees.
“I am not aware of the purported communication you are talking about because our fees remain the same?” said the official.
“People can play around with letter heads and i am yet to see the letter which is proposing the fees hike.”
By Own Correspondent| In a shocking development, two minor boys aged 16 and 17 from Epworth in Harare have been arrested for the murder of an Avenues hooker, Samantha Hlahla.
Samantha, who was a known lady of the night was discovered brutally murdered in her apartment at room 25 Trocadero Court in the Avenues area of Harare two weeks back.
Her acquaintances said that some of Samantha’s property was missing as there were two television sets which could not be accounted for and the apartment appeared to have been ransacked, indicating that robbery also took place.
After sterling work, detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) managed to locate and arrest the two teenagers who were relaxed at their Epworth base.
The detectives then took the two suspects to Samantha’s former apartment so that they could explain and reenact what had happened on the fateful day.
When Samantha’s friend, acquaintances and former work colleagues learned that the detectives had brought the suspects to Samantha’s apartment they thronged the apartment to catch a glimpse of the killers and to hear what happened.
According to sources who were close to the ground, the two teenagers murdered Samantha for ritual purposes after they had consulted a traditional dealer in Mbare, who gave them money making charms, known in the vernacular as “kuromba”.
The teenagers are alleged to have been asked to collect human blood and when they were arrested detectives discovered calabashes of blood in their house.
The two suspects had previously consulted the same n’anga for love potions and when the potions seemed to have worked according to plan, they decided to go a step higher and get money making charms.
According to friends and associates, the two were Samantha’s regular clients which is why they were able to enter her apartment easily. They are expected to appear in court soon.
Samantha was buried at Zororo Cemetery along Seke Road. Her friends and workmates hired a commuter omnibus to ferry the deceased’s colleagues in the trade to Mufakose where mourners were gathered before proceeding to the cemetery for burial.
The ladies of the night reportedly caused chaos by exhibiting their skills of the trade and reenacting how the deceased used to earn her living.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has read the riot act to his errant spokesperson George Charamba after his communication-expert went out of rail by insisting that Mnangagwa was not obligated to release the findings and recommendations of the August 1 inquiry to the public.
Charamba stunned neutrals and critics alike early this week when he appeared to hint that the commission’s findings into the disturbances that led to the death of at least six people, will only be made public at the benevolence of Mnangagwa’s mercy.
He insisted: “There is nothing at law that compels the president to release the report to the public or not to release it to the public. The discretion is his.”
However, in a dramatic U-Turn, Charamba on Tuesday told the State media that his ‘Mnangagwa’s eyes only’ statement had been misread.
The deputy chief secretary to the President and Cabinet responsible for Presidential Communications said the correct position was that Mnangagwa had made an “undertaking that both processes and the outcomes of the commission will be an open affair.
“That was way before the Commissioners had been identified, certainly well before the Commission had been sworn in.
“He does not need any modicum of motivation by twimbos to do the right thing. It’s a decision he took long time ago well before the Commission was constituted.
“That decision and commitment does not trash processes and formalities of receiving and digesting the findings of the Commission. That was the gist of my intervention, all of which was conveyed in simple, comprehensible English,”said Charamba.
However, a highly placed source told the Mail & Telegraph that Charamba had backtracked after stepping on the lion’s tail by insinuating that Mnangagwa had room to withhold the contents of the August 1 inquiry report. This gave rise to implication that he was reverting to the ways of his predecessor Robert Mugabe who was notorious for withholding reports from Commissions of inquiry.
The suggestion was in sharp contrast to Mnangagwa’s reformist agenda.
The source said Mnangagwa was against the former Mugabe spokesperson ‘s approach where he believes in aggression.
“He doesn’t understand the essence of smart and soft power. He believes in Mugabe’s hard edged power yet Mnangagwa has projected himself as a reformist,” said the source.
The Commission has said they have up to December 19 to submit the report canvassed from security sector chefs, top government officials, ruling party bigwigs, opposition leaders, civic society organisations, victims and eye-witnesses.
By Own Correspondent| Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), Raymond Majongwe said that the opposition should not take lightly the utterances made by war veterans secretary-general Victor Matemadanda.
Matemadanda stroked a raw nerve yesterday when he called on Parliament to amend the constitution so that the minimum age for a Presidential candidate be raised from the current 40 years to 52 years.
The war veterans did not explain why they settled for 52 years and this has been construed as a way to block MDC president Nelson Chamisa from contesting in the next presidential election since he will be 45 years old in 2023.
Writing on microblogging site Twitter, Majongwe said:
“Cdes,Matemadanda is not just an ordinary Warvet. He was instrumental in removing Mugabe so his statements cannot be dismissed as hogwash. Take those statements seriously.”
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has read the riot act to his errant spokesperson George Charamba after his communication-expert went out of rail by insisting that Mnangagwa was not obligated to release the findings and recommendations of the August 1 inquiry to the public.
Charamba stunned neutrals and critics alike early this week when he appeared to hint that the commission’s findings into the disturbances that led to the death of at least six people, will only be made public at the benevolence of Mnangagwa’s mercy.
He insisted: “There is nothing at law that compels the president to release the report to the public or not to release it to the public. The discretion is his.”
However, in a dramatic U-Turn, Charamba on Tuesday told the State media that his ‘Mnangagwa’s eyes only’ statement had been misread.
The deputy chief secretary to the President and Cabinet responsible for Presidential Communications said the correct position was that Mnangagwa had made an “undertaking that both processes and the outcomes of the commission will be an open affair.
“That was way before the Commissioners had been identified, certainly well before the Commission had been sworn in.
“He does not need any modicum of motivation by twimbos to do the right thing. It’s a decision he took long time ago well before the Commission was constituted.
“That decision and commitment does not trash processes and formalities of receiving and digesting the findings of the Commission. That was the gist of my intervention, all of which was conveyed in simple, comprehensible English,”said Charamba.
However, a highly placed source told the Mail & Telegraph that Charamba had backtracked after stepping on the lion’s tail by insinuating that Mnangagwa had room to withhold the contents of the August 1 inquiry report. This gave rise to implication that he was reverting to the ways of his predecessor Robert Mugabe who was notorious for withholding reports from Commissions of inquiry.
The suggestion was in sharp contrast to Mnangagwa’s reformist agenda.
The source said Mnangagwa was against the former Mugabe spokesperson ‘s approach where he believes in aggression.
“He doesn’t understand the essence of smart and soft power. He believes in Mugabe’s hard edged power yet Mnangagwa has projected himself as a reformist,” said the source.
The Commission has said they have up to December 19 to submit the report canvassed from security sector chefs, top government officials, ruling party bigwigs, opposition leaders, civic society organisations, victims and eye-witnesses.
By Own Correspondent| Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) has revealed that the association ia set to march from Mutare to Harare in a move aimed at demanding teachers’ salaries in forex and bonus in full.
Said the ARTUZ in a statement:
“You are kindly invited to join ARTUZ Salary Caravan.
Teachers are going to march from Mutare to Harare demanding salaries in United States dollars and bonus in full.
The march begins on 09-12-2018. The Caravan will storm Harare on 19-12-2018.
The Caravan will camp at Finance Ministry until our grievances are met.
We have Just informed the relevant Ministries about our Salary Caravan.”
“in Africa, those with power have no ideas and those with ideas have no power. This is what impedes development in Africa…”
NOMAZULU-THATA
By Nomazulu Thata | The Shona adage goes like this: Ave madziva ave mazambuko, musoro we gudo chave chinokoro. I cannot agree more. Indeed the great VP Phelekezela Mphoko is now a shadow of himself in the city of Kings and Queens: Bulawayo. Who ever thought in his/her imagination that this time around this once powerful man will the following year be politically a dust bin? This is African politics, very unpredictable and convoluted.
His fall was as unpredictable as his sudden rise to power. Even to date it is not clear how former VP Mphoko surpassed other contenders in the chase game to land in the presidency: what criteria was used to give Mphoko the VP post? Either than being a bootlicker of former President Robert Mugabe, being a CIO agent, absconding from Zapu camps in Zambia in the 1970s, settling in Mozambique, marrying a Mozambican woman to get residence a permit when he quit the liberation war altogether, VP Mphoko had nothing in his name to deserve the position he got clandestinely and nicodemously behind the back of his Zapu PF counterparts. This is African politics per-se, a trade like no other.
The Kenyan Professor, PLO Lumumba said, “in Africa, those with power have no ideas and those with ideas have no power. This is what impedes development in Africa. In Europe, politicians chase each other with sound ideas and sell those ideas to the electorate for them to get elected and hold political offices. Within hours of election day, the election results will be out and by the end of the day, the whole nation will have known who won those elections: that is not the case in African elections:” the good professor said.
If indeed African politics during the election time was a game of ideas, Dr. Nkosana Moyo would have resoundingly won the elections. He stands out as one presidential candidate who had clear vision of what is to be done to revive the rotten economic and social mess Zimbabwe finds itself in today. Nkosana Moyo came distant last in the July council parliament and presidential elections, but for goodness sake he had good well thought through and genuine ideas.
Corruption is a cancer and is rampant in Zimbabwe and indeed in the Sub-Sahara African countries. The culture of patronage since the inception of our independence in 1980 destroyed Zimbabwe economically, socially and otherwise to it to be called a pariah state. What value adding was VP Phelekezela Mphoko bringing to develop Zimbabwe either than absolute loyalty and obedience he pledged to Robert Zanu PF? VP Mphoko did what he promised Mugabe personally: he exonerated Mugabe and all them all of genocide atrocities of the early 1980s perpetrated by the ZanuPF elite. Having promised the former president Robert Mugabe that he was capable of dealing with any “Mathebele malcontents” that raise their voices about the past genocide atrocities, Gugurahundi is a western conspiracy: that alone he was honoured with a high civil servants post of vice presidency, was able or permitted to squat at the best hotel in Harare Sheraton for more than 24 months at the paltry tax payer’s pockets. He was highly insensitive of the suffering of the masses in Zimbabwe.
VP Phelekezela Mphoko had become so powerful; he could disregard the Zimbabwe police authority and break into the police cells to release the Chief Executives: Moses Juma and Davison Norupiri from police cells. The two had been arrested on serious charges of theft by defrauding the parastatal of about 1, 3 million US dollars. He illegally used his power to set them free by the wink of his eye, compromising the National Prosecuting Authority and the Judiciary powers: disregarding the fact that the two faced serious crimes of theft. VP Mphoko claimed to be higher than Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission ZACC; the commission had no power to question the “authority” and office of the VP, his Excellency Phelekezela Mphoko.
Where is His Excellency VP Phelekezela Mphoko today? He is in the dungeons of unpredictable Zimbabwean politics, haunted by the very comrades who were once his cabal in the echelons of power. God forbid, he never saw that coming, that he could overnight become a fugitive, from a state visit he landed in Botswana seeking refuge after the dethronement of President Robert Mugabe: the coup, but not a coup of November 2017. President Khama sent him packing within days to face the new dispensation of Mnangagwa government that would have none of him in the new government.
Phelekezela Mphoko was indeed appointed as Vice President of the Republic of Zimbabwe in 2014. His name will go down in the Zimbabwe history as having set foot in the presidency of the Republic. He was once addressed as His Excellency the acting President if Mugabe was out of the country. But the former VP Mphoko’s political history is challenging to follow. After independence Mphoko family came back from Mozambique where he was holed up for the rest of the struggle for independence. To get some cake in the ruling elite of the newly independent Zimbabwe, he joined the notorious secret agent service called CIO that was responsible for purging of Zapu PF members of Shona speaking and the peoples of Mathebeleland as a whole.
Dissenting voices talked loud about his nomination as VP. His presidency was created to counter balance the tribal powers in the ruling Zanu PF leadership. Those voices were dissatisfied about Mphoko becoming VP ahead of the late Khutshwekaya Ndlovu who was by any standards more senior that Mphoko. Mphoko was no match to Khutshwekaya Ndlovu when it came to capacity and intellect.
Some series of articles were written by some woman supposedly in the UK: (she lives in Germany) this woman was none either than Nomazulu Thata. The fight started between VP Mphoko and Nomazulu Thata, a woman who dared to call the most honourable VP in the land, “a member of Mugabe’s notorious secret army, a CIO, a political malcontent, an ex-Zipra soldier who absconded in the middle of the liberation in the 1970s. The residents of Bulawayo should never attend his come-together gathering at Davis Hall in Bulawayo”: she wrote in her articles. The VP was incensed about those articles; he wrote back, threatened this woman with legal action. He was going to sue her with unspecified sum of money as his name is indeed worth those millions!
When this woman continued to write articles critiquing the VP Mphoko’s post, she questioned his stay at the Sheraton hotel at the expense of the tax payer, the honourable VP decided to ignore the woman, his position was too big to give her audience, a woman for that matter supposedly squatted in Europe in the first place: UK or Germany nobody knows, he did not care to know. Mphoko was immersed, engrossed in the looting spree, how much privilege and money can he get and enjoy with his family while it lasted? That trick to ignore her worked well, indeed the Thata woman stopped writing those “defaming” articles about Mphoko when she realized there was no further response from the honourable Vice President. Mphoko: he opined and realized that it did not make any difference at all if this woman wrote those cheeky articles about him. Her writing about him did not hinder his looting of state treasury and abuse of power. His Excellency Mphoko and the entire family continued to enjoy the bubble: unlimited abuse of power and money from the state treassury as long as it lasted.
Where Mphoko is today is a very important question all of us who want to enter into politics should take heed of. We should ask ourselves what we really want to achieve if we were part of the ruling elite. What is politics for me? Is it to serve my immediate family needs as was the case with former VP Mphoko? Is politics some kind of employment for me as a person? Do I have the qualities to serve the nation have I got leadership qualities to execute political office? What drives one to enter politics? What change do I want to see if I entered the competition of ideas? Do I have the good ideas to bring change to the most disadvantaged? What values and principles do I have as a person first and foremost to advocate for change at national level?
Professor PLO Lumumba of Kenya is calling upon the young generation to rescue its own Africa, some paradigms shift is demanded of them young people to see politics not as some employment but a big responsibility to serve the nation and nations. The youthful Julius Malema’s EFF of South Africa is on the right path, he has the calling for higher office. Julius Malema is a selfless and fearless leader: how many young Julius Malemas do we have in Zimbabwe? He has gained respect even outside Africa. We have had and seen enough of selfish African politicians. A politics of patronage cannot be a buzzword for African politics. Our children deserve better.
This woman called Nomazulu Thata wishes to bump into former VP Phelekezela Mphoko in the streets of Bulawayo now without any presidential security details around him, but all the same he will be safe with her, apart from writing articles, her weapon is her simple fearless pen worth five cents in German shops and nothing else, she is otherwise harmless specie in the global ecosystems. The Shona adage goes again: chisinga peri chinoshura veduwe! Musoro wegudo chave chinokoro zvemene. In German I would have said: wir sind alle gleich im Sinne des worte, die lexte Hemd hat keine tasche!
We note with great concern the statements issued on the 4th of December 2018 by the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) on the revision of the constitutional provision of the presidential age limit from 40 years to 52 years.
It is unfortunate that such statements come at a time when the political legitimacy of the incumbent Mr Mnangagwa is still unresolved. We as the youth of the MDC see these statements as undemocratic, discriminatory, unprogressive and exclusionary tactics to silence the People’s President Advocate Nelson Chamisa and impede on the will of the Zimbabwean people.
It is thus very clear that they know that the People’s President Advocate Nelson Chamisa won the presidential election and they can’t stand the humiliation and fear another election so they would rather exclude him on disqualification.
We would like to remind the ZNLWVA and reiterate with great emphasis that this country is not a personal property of either Zanu PF or the War Veterans which they can take for granted at will.
It is clear that the youth of this country are nowhere near any agenda of Zanu PF and our future is not their priority. We advise the War Veterans Association that we as the youth, the future of Zimbabwe, will do everything possible to fight the advancement of such a proposal from every front, be it political, social, constitutional or otherwise, to safeguard our democracy and the future of this country.
These dictatorial power retention tactics have no place in the Zimbabwe we want to build and it is a pity that this is and has always been the focus of Zanu PF regardless of the fact that Zimbabweans are suffering as a result of their maladministration, bad governance and strategy deficiency.
Let it be known that we are prepared to safeguard and continue to advance the democracy that our liberation heroes fought for.
We are Vigilant enough, confident enough, alert enough and united enough to complete this change.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa made an undertaking to make the results of the August 1 inquiry public way before appointing the Mothlante Commission but will follow processes and formalities laid down in the law, his spokesperson Mr George Charamba has said.
Further, Mr Charamba said the Head of State and Government who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces does not require motivation from social media fanatics to do so.
The Commission of Inquiry was appointed by President Mnangagwa in terms of the Commissions of Inquiry Act to investigate the August 1 post-election violence that resulted in the death of six people and destruction of property worth millions of dollars.
Mr Charamba who is also the Deputy Chief Secretary (Presidential Communications) stated the President’s position following a misreading of his intervention by Twimbos on Monday when he explained that at law there was nothing that obligated President Mnangagwa to share the report with members of the public.
Mr Charamba further explained that there was nothing that also stops the President from making the report public if he so decides.
Speaking to our Harare Bureau yesterday, Mr Charamba said President Mnangagwa made the undertaking way before the constitution of the Commission of Inquiry and before the Commissioners were even identified.
“Zimbabweans must cool it and take it easy. There is no need for excitement. Let us avoid the feat of crossing the river when we are still at the summit of a hill,” said Mr Charamba.
“I sit in several meetings involving emissaries of foreign Governments and more particularly involving the President and the UN Secretary General. In all those meetings, the President made an undertaking that both processes and outcomes of the Commission will be an open affair. That was well before Commissioners had even been identified, certainly well before the Commission had been sworn in.
“He does not need any modicum of motivation by Twimbos to do the right thing. It’s a decision which he took a long time ago well before the Commission was constituted. That decision and commitment does not trash processes and formalities of receiving and digesting the findings of the Commission. That was the gist of my intervention all of which was conveyed in simple, comprehensible English.
“The current furore over the issue is doubly needless in that it misreads a simple communication from Government. Secondly, it elides time and processes.”
Mr Charamba said Government picked some critical lessons from the debate raised over the matter.
“But every cloud has a silver lining. There is a lot be bought from this mighty storm in the tea cup,” said Mr Charamba.
“It gave everyone a peep into national mind particularly a pre-disposition to suspect the intentions of the Government no matter how unfounded. The big gain is that from it we have inadvertently built a huge momentum against post-election violence and we should as a people harness that to very good effect for future elections.
“Secondly, it appears there is more sharpened reading of the law. I read someone saying somewhere that the Commissions of Inquiry Act is a colonial relic. Well and good, let’s deal with that so that we update our laws. More critically, I read someone saying Section 62 of our Constitution which give citizens right to information is in fact echoed by Section 5 of AIPPA. What this says then is that at long last and thanks to the Commission of Inquiry furore there is a new reading of Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. What this says then is that at long last and thanks to the Commission of Inquiry furore there is a new reading of AIPPA and I hope the responsible Ministry takes note.”
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has read the riot act to his errant spokesperson George Charamba after his communication-expert went out of rail by insisting that Mnangagwa was not obligated to release the findings and recommendations of the August 1 inquiry to the public.
Charamba stunned neutrals and critics alike early this week when he appeared to hint that the commission’s findings into the disturbances that led to the death of at least six people, will only be made public at the benevolence of Mnangagwa’s mercy.
He insisted: “There is nothing at law that compels the president to release the report to the public or not to release it to the public. The discretion is his.”
However, in a dramatic U-Turn, Charamba on Tuesday told the State media that his ‘Mnangagwa’s eyes only’ statement had been misread.
The deputy chief secretary to the President and Cabinet responsible for Presidential Communications said the correct position was that Mnangagwa had made an “undertaking that both processes and the outcomes of the commission will be an open affair.
“That was way before the Commissioners had been identified, certainly well before the Commission had been sworn in.
“He does not need any modicum of motivation by twimbos to do the right thing. It’s a decision he took long time ago well before the Commission was constituted.
“That decision and commitment does not trash processes and formalities of receiving and digesting the findings of the Commission. That was the gist of my intervention, all of which was conveyed in simple, comprehensible English,”said Charamba.
However, a highly placed source told the Mail & Telegraph that Charamba had backtracked after stepping on the lion’s tail by insinuating that Mnangagwa had room to withhold the contents of the August 1 inquiry report. This gave rise to implication that he was reverting to the ways of his predecessor Robert Mugabe who was notorious for withholding reports from Commissions of inquiry.
The suggestion was in sharp contrast to Mnangagwa’s reformist agenda.
The source said Mnangagwa was against the former Mugabe spokesperson ‘s approach where he believes in aggression.
“He doesn’t understand the essence of smart and soft power. He believes in Mugabe’s hard edged power yet Mnangagwa has projected himself as a reformist,” said the source.
The Commission has said they have up to December 19 to submit the report canvassed from security sector chefs, top government officials, ruling party bigwigs, opposition leaders, civic society organisations, victims and eye-witnesses.
Government will recover all the money looted at the Zimbabwe National Road Administration, President Mnangagwa has said.
An audit report by Grant Thornton at the national administrator unearthed massive looting of public funds and financial leakages that were exacerbated by incompetence by senior managers to negotiate contracts beneficial to the parastatal.
A committee instituted by then Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Joram Gumbo recommended a lifestyle audit of Zinara bosses, some of whom had been parachuted to senior positions without the requisite qualifications.
Addressing traditional chiefs at the 2018 Annual Chiefs Conference in Kadoma on Monday, President Mnangagwa said Government was now aware of where all the missing money collected for road development was.
The President was updating the chiefs on the progress made by Government in refurbishing the country’s roads.
President Mnangagwa said for several years toll fees and other collections were not being accounted for and Government would recover that money.
“There is an issue that was raised here relating to road maintenance,” said President Mnangagwa.
“If you look at most roads they are being refurbished and most of our roads were in a bad state. Those in areas that have not been attended to will say there is nothing that is happening but those in areas where they have witnessed this development should testify that Government is refurbishing the roads. We also have the Beitbridge-Chirundu Highway. We started by giving the tender to dualise the road to a company called Geiger International. They spent close to year making promises that they will start work soon.
“In the new dispensation we asked them to show us the money for the project and evidence that they once did a project of a similar nature stretching over 100 km in another country and they failed. So eventually we fired them. Now we are in the middle of negotiations with another company, but we are not going to give them the tender before they show us the money. But as Government, we have already started work on our own using our own local resources. We realised that as the Government of Zimbabwe we have the capacity and expertise and what was lacking was the money to undertake the project.
“We then sought to understand how our money from tollgates was being utilised and other collections from Zinara. We now know where that money which has been missing for several years is and that is the money we are using for this project. We are going to recover some of the funds that went missing in that regard.”
President Mnangagwa also told the chiefs that his Government will do everything to fight corruption.
“Corruption is rampant in urban areas but we are fighting the scourge,” he said.
“We take all the cases of corruption to the judiciary. We are hearing now that there is a cartel of corruption starting from the highest court — Constitutional Court — to the magistrates’ courts but we are going to deal with that.”
President Emmerson Mnangagwa made an undertaking to make the results of the August 1 inquiry public way before appointing the Mothlante Commission but will follow processes and formalities laid down in the law, his spokesperson Mr George Charamba has said.
Further, Mr Charamba said the Head of State and Government who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces does not require motivation from social media fanatics to do so.
The Commission of Inquiry was appointed by President Mnangagwa in terms of the Commissions of Inquiry Act to investigate the August 1 post-election violence that resulted in the death of six people and destruction of property worth millions of dollars.
Mr Charamba who is also the Deputy Chief Secretary (Presidential Communications) stated the President’s position following a misreading of his intervention by Twimbos on Monday when he explained that at law there was nothing that obligated President Mnangagwa to share the report with members of the public.
Mr Charamba further explained that there was nothing that also stops the President from making the report public if he so decides.
Speaking to our Harare Bureau yesterday, Mr Charamba said President Mnangagwa made the undertaking way before the constitution of the Commission of Inquiry and before the Commissioners were even identified.
“Zimbabweans must cool it and take it easy. There is no need for excitement. Let us avoid the feat of crossing the river when we are still at the summit of a hill,” said Mr Charamba.
“I sit in several meetings involving emissaries of foreign Governments and more particularly involving the President and the UN Secretary General. In all those meetings, the President made an undertaking that both processes and outcomes of the Commission will be an open affair. That was well before Commissioners had even been identified, certainly well before the Commission had been sworn in.
“He does not need any modicum of motivation by Twimbos to do the right thing. It’s a decision which he took a long time ago well before the Commission was constituted. That decision and commitment does not trash processes and formalities of receiving and digesting the findings of the Commission. That was the gist of my intervention all of which was conveyed in simple, comprehensible English.
“The current furore over the issue is doubly needless in that it misreads a simple communication from Government. Secondly, it elides time and processes.”
Mr Charamba said Government picked some critical lessons from the debate raised over the matter.
“But every cloud has a silver lining. There is a lot be bought from this mighty storm in the tea cup,” said Mr Charamba.
“It gave everyone a peep into national mind particularly a pre-disposition to suspect the intentions of the Government no matter how unfounded. The big gain is that from it we have inadvertently built a huge momentum against post-election violence and we should as a people harness that to very good effect for future elections.
“Secondly, it appears there is more sharpened reading of the law. I read someone saying somewhere that the Commissions of Inquiry Act is a colonial relic. Well and good, let’s deal with that so that we update our laws. More critically, I read someone saying Section 62 of our Constitution which give citizens right to information is in fact echoed by Section 5 of AIPPA. What this says then is that at long last and thanks to the Commission of Inquiry furore there is a new reading of Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. What this says then is that at long last and thanks to the Commission of Inquiry furore there is a new reading of AIPPA and I hope the responsible Ministry takes note.”
THE High Court has dismissed with costs, a court challenge by MDC-Alliance losing candidate for Kwekwe Central Constituency, Blessing Chebundo, citing lack of evidence among other reasons.
Masango “Blackman” Matambanadzo of National Patriotic Front (NPF) garnered 7 578 votes against Chebundo’s 7 127 to win the election.
Chebundo through his lawyers, Chitere, Chidawanyika and Partners filed an election petition at the Bulawayo High Court citing Matambanadzo as the respondent.
Chebundo accused Matambanadzo of vote buying, abuse of public resources and misrepresenting to the electorate that he was working with the MDC Alliance.
He argued that Matambanadzo dished out cash, rice and other goodies to buy votes and used Constituency Development Fund (CDF) to buy an ambulance that he used for campaigning thereby abusing public facilities.
In his ruling Bulawayo High Court Judge, Justice Thompson James Mabhikwa dismissed the application.
Justice Mabhikwa said Chebundo had no evidence against Matambanadzo.
Blackman — as Matambanadzo is known — was represented by Liberty Mashanyare of Mavhiringidze and Mashanyare Legal Practitioners.“Consequently the election petition is dismissed with costs.
“The court held that it was very difficult to prove a charge of corrupt practices merely on the basis of oral evidence because in election cases it is very easy to get the help of interested witnesses but very difficult to prove charges of corrupt practices,” said Justice Mabhikwa.
He said Chebundo should have applied for an interdict or disqualification of the respondent at the time the vote buying took place.
“I asked the petitioner and his counsel why they did not apply to the court for an interdict or even disqualification of the respondent right at the time rather than wait until voting was over and after they lost the election,” he said.
Justice Mabhikwa said there was no evidence that after receiving the goods, the people went on to vote for the respondent.
On allegations of misrepresentation or impersonation, Justice Mabhikwa said, the court was not going waste time pondering on how well the supporters knew their candidates.
Zimbabwean doctors at public hospitals went on strike on Monday for the second time this year to demand better pay and conditions, a union official said, as President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government struggles with a deteriorating economy, writes Patrick Guramatunhu.
“We are understaffed and underpaid and there are no medications in the hospitals,” said Mathabisi Bebhe, secretary general of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA).
“We are really hopeful that the government will intervene as early as possible. The duration of the industrial action depends on when the government gives a proper practical solution.”
Zimbabwe doctors earn $385 a month in a country in which prices of food, fuel and medicine has soared 300% plus if one is lucky to get them in the first place!
What is surprising here is that there are still people like Bebhe who are so naïve as to believe any good can ever come out of Zimbabwe’s failed political system. They still do not understand that by rigging the recent elections, Zanu PF killed off all hope of any meaningful economic recovery.
Most people now acknowledge that Zimbabwe needs an injection of direct foreign investment (DFI) to revive the country’s comatose economy. Mnangagwa led from the front on this with his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” call.
There has been very little DFI in the last year and there is no reason to believe there will be any in the future; not as long as Zimbabwe is viewed as pariah state.
By rigging the recent elections President Mnangagwa confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. President Mnangagwa had promised to hold free, fair and credible elections as proof that Zimbabwe had changed from the Mugabe reign of terror. He failed to keep his promise and investors are a shrewd lot who were not going to be easily fooled.
So, whilst the country remains a pariah state, we can forget any hope of any meaningful economy recovery. Indeed the economic meltdown will get worse.
So instead of going on strike demanding better wages and conditions of service people should be demanding an end to rigged elections and the pariah state, the substantive root cause of Zimbabwe’s political and economic mess.
One had hoped that Zimbabweans, at least the professionals like doctors, now appreciated the importance of the clarion call for free, fair and credible elections.
People now understood the linkage between good governance and economic prosperity and that the country would never have economic recovery whilst it remained a pariah state. Sadly, the penny has not yet dropped, at least as far as ZHDA members are concerned!
“We are really hopeful that the government will give a proper practical solution!” This vote rigging and therefore illegitimate Zanu PF regime is now the problem, the illness infecting the nation. Zanu PF must be forced to step down. As doctors ZHDA members should know there is “proper and practical solution” a disease can ever prescribe to cure itself!
If the professionals like doctors are still failing to see the linkage between good governance, free and fair elections and economic prosperity, even after 38 years of failed one-party dictatorship; what hope is there of those in the rural backwaters doing so!
In the long run, people get the government they deserve. We, in Zimbabwe, certainly deserve this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its ever growing entourage of corrupt and incompetent opposition parties.
“We are really hopeful that the government will give a proper practical solution!” After 38 years of corrupt, vote rigging and tyrannical rule; you are still hopeful the Zanu PF dictatorship will finally deliver long promised economic prosperity. How insane is that!
A Beitbridge woman who killed her 50-year-old husband by kicking him on his privates before finishing him off by stabbing him with a kitchen knife during a fight over money for rent, was yesterday sentenced to 15 years in jail.
Geraldine Nyoni (26) fatally stabbed her husband Majahana Mazibuko on March 4 last year during a fight at their rented home in Dulivhadzimu high density suburb in the border town.
Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Thompson Mabhikwa convicted Nyoni of murder with constructive intent.
In passing the sentence, Justice Mabhikwa condemned Nyoni’s conduct, saying the courts have a duty to protect the sanctity of human life through passing deterrent sentences.
“The loss of the deceased’s life was caused by the accused person and the current trend of murder cases which are on the rise is disturbing. In fact, what is actually more disturbing is that more and more women are now daring by committing serious offences like murder and armed robbery,” he said.
“One would have expected the accused person to scream for help after committing such an offence but you instead chose to rush to the police station to make a fake report of domestic violence.”
Justice Mabhikwa said a life was unnecessary lost in a gruesome manner.
“It is regrettable that a precious life was needlessly lost. It is the duty of the courts to uphold the sanctity of life through passing harsh sentences. Accordingly, the accused person is sentenced to 15 years imprisonment,” ruled the judge.
Chief Public Prosecutor, Mrs Tariro Rosa Takuva said the couple had a long history of domestic disputes relating to money issues.
The court heard that on March 4 last year at about 8PM, the accused person and the deceased were at their place of residence when a misunderstanding ensued over money for rent.
An hour later, the couple received two visitors, Zwelibanzi Phakathi and Saidi Chisa who were related to Mazibuko.
“The two visitors had come to complain to the accused person over her alleged ill-treatment of the deceased. The accused person and the two visitors went on to exchange harsh words over the issue. After about 30 minutes, Phakathi and Chisa went to their car and drove off,” said Mrs Takuva.
Mazibuko remained behind trying to calm down his wife after a dispute had arisen over the issue of money.
The court heard that Nyoni allegedly kicked her husband on the private parts before she picked a kitchen knife and stabbed him.
“A fight ensued between the two resulting in the woman picking a kitchen knife. She stabbed her husband on the right side of the neck and fled from the scene leaving him lying in a pool of blood,” said Mrs Takuva.
Soon after committing the alleged offence, Nyoni went to the police station where she made a report of domestic violence.
Neighbours rushed Mazibuko to Beitbridge District Hospital where he died upon admission.
Nyoni was later arrested by police and the blood- stained knife was recovered from their house.
In mitigation through her lawyer, Mr Tawanda Tavengwa of Mutuso, Taruvinga and Mhiribidi Legal Practitioners, Nyoni pleaded for leniency, saying she was of ill-health and a sole breadwinner taking care of her three minor children.
Nyoni said after the stabbing, she was frightened and out of shock she stormed out of the house and went to the police station to report the matter.
By Own Correspondent| A movement for youths, #GenerationalConsensus is set to hold a press briefing in response to a statement by war veterans seeking to ammend the Constitution and make 52 years the minimum age for one to contest for presidency.
The movement, said their presser is in response to the “archaic, reckless, shocking and idiotic utterances by the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZLWVA), regarding amending the Zimbabwean Constitution in relation to the minimum qualification age limit for the post of President from the current 40 years to 52 years.”
Jane Mlambo| Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) Secretary General, Raymond Majongwe has warned that remarks by war veterans on raising Presidential age limit should not be taken lightly as it was coming from Victor Matemadanda, who was instrumental in the removal of former President Robert Mugabe.
Matemadanda who is the war veterans Secretary General yesterday called for a constitutional amendment to raise the Presidential age limit from the current 40 to 52 arguing that the office requires mature people.
The opposition has since reacted angrily to Matemadanda’s proposal which they dismissed as sideshows at a time the economy was burning, but Majongwe was rather cautious saying the person pushing the agenda was not to be trusted due to the power he yields in the former combatants’ body.
AN Upper Sixth pupil at Sizane High School in Bulwayo drowned in a swimming pool at a hotel in Masvingo during an educational trip on Saturday night.
Samuel Zingozi allegedly sneaked out of his room with his friend to swim leading to the tragedy.
Bulawayo acting Provincial Educational Director Mrs Olicah Kaira confirmed the incident saying her office was investigating the tragedy.
“We have lost one of our pupils, a Form Six pupil from Sizane High School who is said to have drowned at a hotel in Masvingo. The pupil was part of the Zimbabwe Tourism Quiz Competition winning team.
“As part of their winning prize they received a token of an educational tour to Great Zimbabwe, courtesy of one of our sponsors.
“He had gone there with three other pupils and their teacher,” said Mrs Kaira.
“I was therefore disturbed when I received a phone call from one of our teachers informing me about this tragedy. We have since launched a full scale investigation to find out what really transpired.”
The Chronicle news crew visited Samuel’s home and spoke to his father Mr Simon Zingozi who said he was devastated by the death of his son. Mr Zingozi said his son had completed his Advanced Level public examinations.
“…thanks to the Commission of Inquiry furore there is a new reading of AIPPA and I hope the responsible ministry takes note.”
George Charamba
Zanu PF leader, Emmerson Mnangagwa’s spokesman, George Charamba has told Zimbabweans who are angry over his boss’ hiding of the Motlanthe report on the 1 August military terrorism, to “cool it.”
Charamba said his boss, Mnangagwa made the undertaking way before the constitution of the Commission of Inquiry and before the Commissioners were even identified.
“Zimbabweans must cool it and take it easy. There is no need for excitement. Let us avoid the feat of crossing the river when we are still at the summit of a hill,” Charamba told the state media.
“I sit in several meetings involving emissaries of foreign governments and, more particularly, involving the President and the UN Secretary- General. In all those meetings, the President made an undertaking that both processes and outcomes of the Commission will be an open affair. That was well before Commissioners had even been identified, certainly well before the Commission had been sworn in.
“He does not need any modicum of motivation by twimbos to do the right thing. It’s a decision which he took a long time ago well before the Commission was constituted. That decision and commitment does not trash processes and formalities of receiving and digesting the findings of the Commission. That was the gist of my intervention, all of which was conveyed in simple, comprehensible English.
“The current furore over the issue is doubly needless in that it misreads a simple communication from Government. Secondly, it elides time and processes.”
Mr Charamba said Government picked up some critical lessons from the debate raised over the matter.
“But every cloud has a silver lining. There is a lot be bought from this mighty storm in the teacup,” said Mr Charamba.
“It gave everyone a peep into national mind, particularly a predisposition to suspect the intentions of the Government no matter how unfounded. The big gain is that from it we have inadvertently built a huge momentum against post-election violence and we should as a people harness that to very good effect for future elections.
“Secondly, it appears there is more sharpened reading of the law. I read someone saying somewhere that the Commissions of Inquiry Act is a colonial relic. Well and good, let’s deal with that so that we update our laws. More critically, I read someone saying Section 62 of our Constitution which gives citizens right to information is, in fact, echoed by Section 5 of AIPPA. What this says then is that at long last and thanks to the Commission of Inquiry furore there is a new reading of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. What this says then is that at long last and thanks to the Commission of Inquiry furore there is a new reading of AIPPA and I hope the responsible ministry takes note.”
Jane Mlambo| MDC Secretary General, Douglas Mwonzora has castigated war veterans for seeking to change the Presidential age limit from the current 40 to 52 saying Zimbabweans voted overwhelmingly in favour of the current set up when they endorsed the new constitution in 2013.
Posting on Twitter, Mwonzora said the war veterans behavior is meant to distract the nation from the economic current catastrophe that has seen prices of basic commodities going up while the local bond notes continue to lose value to the United States dollar.
The statement by war veterans that they want to agitate for a change in the presidential age limit is designed to distract the nation from the economic catastrophe. Zimbabweans in an overwhelming referendum vote in 2013 set the age limit at 40. Simple!
AN Upper Sixth pupil at Sizane High School in Bulawayo drowned in a swimming pool at a hotel in Masvingo during an educational trip on Saturday night.
Samuel Zingozi allegedly sneaked out of his room with his friend to swim leading to the tragedy.
Bulawayo acting Provincial Educational Director Mrs Olicah Kaira confirmed the incident saying her office was investigating the tragedy.
“We have lost one of our pupils, a Form Six pupil from Sizane High School who is said to have drowned at a hotel in Masvingo. The pupil was part of the Zimbabwe Tourism Quiz Competition winning team.
“As part of their winning prize they received a token of an educational tour to Great Zimbabwe, courtesy of one of our sponsors.
“He had gone there with three other pupils and their teacher,” said Mrs Kaira.
“I was therefore disturbed when I received a phone call from one of our teachers informing me about this tragedy. We have since launched a full scale investigation to find out what really transpired.”
The Chronicle news crew visited Samuel’s home and spoke to his father Mr Simon Zingozi who said he was devastated by the death of his son. Mr Zingozi said his son had completed his Advanced Level public examinations.
By Farai Maguwu| We have now entered the 5th month since the July 30 harmonized election, allegedly won by ZANU PF. The MDC has okayed the ZANU PF 2/3 majority in parliament but has hotly disputed the presidential outcome – a contradiction of some sort.
Did the MDC A polling agents compile reports of what actually happened at the polling stations? Has the MDC A produced its own detailed report on the elections, highlighting the shortcomings, gaps and irregularities with the past election? If its there can someone share with me.
Again, since ballots were counted at every polling station, has the party done its own tabulation of the results which must be compared with the official results.
I have asked the same question since 2008. Legal experts can help me here.
Is it a crime for the opposition to produce a supplement in one of the daily newspapers, even The Herald! and show tabulated results from all the polling stations to prove how it won the election?
A detailed analysis and feedback to the electorate is crucial for the party to plan ahead or they become the proverbial fools who keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
We need to know how the opposition is being defrauded by ZANU PF or …if ZANU is winning free and fair we need a psychological clinic to diagnose the mental sickness afflicting our people leading to the correct therapy.
An eight year-old Mutawatawa boy died after he was attacked by a green mamba while picking mangoes from a tree at the weekend.
Mashonaland East provincial police spokesperson Inspector Tendai Mwanza yesterday confirmed the incident.
“I confirm the death of a boy in Mutawatawa, who was bitten by a snake in a mango tree on Friday,” he said.
According to police, on November 30, at around 3pm, the boy went to the garden in search of mangoes, but encountered a green mamba that bit him on the left arm.
He was taken to a nearby clinic before he was transferred to Murewa Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
By Own Correspondent| A 31 year old Harare woman got the shock of her life (Tuesday) after she was hauled before the courts and charged for insulting a police officer when she had lodged a formal report against police officers who had assaulted her and her 9 weeks old baby in Epworth, Harare.
The woman said since December 2 2018 when she was assaulted in Epworth, her baby is crying and showing visible signs of agony but the police have refused to open a docket for her so that she can access medical treatment.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa made an undertaking to make the results of the August 1 inquiry public way before appointing the Mothlante Commission but will follow processes and formalities laid down in the law, his spokesperson Mr George Charamba has said.
Further, Mr Charamba said the Head of State and Government who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces does not require motivation from social media fanatics to do so.
The Commission of Inquiry was appointed by President Mnangagwa in terms of the Commissions of Inquiry Act to investigate the August 1 post-election violence that resulted in the death of six people and destruction of property worth millions of dollars.
Mr Charamba who is also the Deputy Chief Secretary (Presidential Communications) stated the President’s position following a misreading of his intervention by Twimbos on Monday when he explained that at law there was nothing that obligated President Mnangagwa to share the report with members of the public.
Mr Charamba further explained that there was nothing that also stops the President from making the report public if he so decides.
Speaking to our Harare Bureau yesterday, Mr Charamba said President Mnangagwa made the undertaking way before the constitution of the Commission of Inquiry and before the Commissioners were even identified.
“Zimbabweans must cool it and take it easy. There is no need for excitement. Let us avoid the feat of crossing the river when we are still at the summit of a hill,” said Mr Charamba.
“I sit in several meetings involving emissaries of foreign Governments and more particularly involving the President and the UN Secretary General. In all those meetings, the President made an undertaking that both processes and outcomes of the Commission will be an open affair. That was well before Commissioners had even been identified, certainly well before the Commission had been sworn in.
“He does not need any modicum of motivation by Twimbos to do the right thing. It’s a decision which he took a long time ago well before the Commission was constituted. That decision and commitment does not trash processes and formalities of receiving and digesting the findings of the Commission. That was the gist of my intervention all of which was conveyed in simple, comprehensible English.
“The current furore over the issue is doubly needless in that it misreads a simple communication from Government. Secondly, it elides time and processes.”
Mr Charamba said Government picked some critical lessons from the debate raised over the matter.
“But every cloud has a silver lining. There is a lot be bought from this mighty storm in the tea cup,” said Mr Charamba.
“It gave everyone a peep into national mind particularly a pre-disposition to suspect the intentions of the Government no matter how unfounded. The big gain is that from it we have inadvertently built a huge momentum against post-election violence and we should as a people harness that to very good effect for future elections.
“Secondly, it appears there is more sharpened reading of the law. I read someone saying somewhere that the Commissions of Inquiry Act is a colonial relic. Well and good, let’s deal with that so that we update our laws. More critically, I read someone saying Section 62 of our Constitution which give citizens right to information is in fact echoed by Section 5 of AIPPA. What this says then is that at long last and thanks to the Commission of Inquiry furore there is a new reading of Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. What this says then is that at long last and thanks to the Commission of Inquiry furore there is a new reading of AIPPA and I hope the responsible Ministry takes note.”
Zanu PF Matabeleland South province has requested national hero status for the late distinguished educationist and former National University of Science and Technology (Nust) vice-chancellor Phineas Makhurane.
The academic died aged 79 on Saturday at Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo. He was diabetic.
“All I can say is that we have submitted our recommendation to the politburo for the national hero status and honour on Makhurane,” Zanu PF Matabeleland South provincial chairperson Rabelani Choeni told NewsDay.
“We now await the politburo decision. We are confident that the request will be granted,” he added.
A senior Zanu PF official disclosed that the party was confident the decision-making body would confer the educationist with the national hero status.
“It is a fact that Makhurane made significant contributions to the education sector, to Nust, specifically, as an institution. He was a respected academic and we are confident he will be laid to rest at the national shrine,” he said.
Records show that Makhurane is one of the first Africans to study physics and mathematics at the then University of Rhodesia and Nyasaland now University of Zimbabwe.
Makhurane was also appointed to serve on the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council as board chairperson.
He was the first black Zimbabwean to acquire a PhD in the sciences.
He is survived by his wife, four children — three sons and a daughter — and six grandchildren.
THE High Court has dismissed with costs, a court challenge by MDC-Alliance losing candidate for Kwekwe Central Constituency, Blessing Chebundo, citing lack of evidence among other reasons.
Masango “Blackman” Matambanadzo of National Patriotic Front (NPF) garnered 7 578 votes against Chebundo’s 7 127 to win the election.
Chebundo through his lawyers, Chitere, Chidawanyika and Partners filed an election petition at the Bulawayo High Court citing Matambanadzo as the respondent.
Chebundo accused Matambanadzo of vote buying, abuse of public resources and misrepresenting to the electorate that he was working with the MDC Alliance.
He argued that Matambanadzo dished out cash, rice and other goodies to buy votes and used Constituency Development Fund (CDF) to buy an ambulance that he used for campaigning thereby abusing public facilities.
In his ruling Bulawayo High Court Judge, Justice Thompson James Mabhikwa dismissed the application.
Justice Mabhikwa said Chebundo had no evidence against Matambanadzo.
Blackman — as Matambanadzo is known — was represented by Liberty Mashanyare of Mavhiringidze and Mashanyare Legal Practitioners.“Consequently the election petition is dismissed with costs.
“The court held that it was very difficult to prove a charge of corrupt practices merely on the basis of oral evidence because in election cases it is very easy to get the help of interested witnesses but very difficult to prove charges of corrupt practices,” said Justice Mabhikwa.
He said Chebundo should have applied for an interdict or disqualification of the respondent at the time the vote buying took place.
“I asked the petitioner and his counsel why they did not apply to the court for an interdict or even disqualification of the respondent right at the time rather than wait until voting was over and after they lost the election,” he said.
Justice Mabhikwa said there was no evidence that after receiving the goods, the people went on to vote for the respondent.
On allegations of misrepresentation or impersonation, Justice Mabhikwa said, the court was not going waste time pondering on how well the supporters knew their candidates.
More doctors yesterday joined the on-going strike, defying a government message to call off the job action.
The doctors have been on strike since Saturday to protest poor remuneration and the deteriorating health situation in the country.
“Only four out of 91 doctors came for work and I think the rest are waiting for talks between the doctors’ association and the employer over the issue of solving their problems before they report for duty,” Harare Central Hospital CEO Nyasha Masuka said.
Parirenyatwa Hospital and public health institutions in Manicaland and Bulawayo faced similar situations, with Mpilo Central Hospital and United Bulawayo Hospital keeping their out patient departments closed.
The Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) yesterdya also distanced itself from utterances made by former member, Patrick Mugoni, who “represented” doctors at a meeting with the Health minister on Monday and appeared on the national televison urging doctors to go back to work.
Mugoni, who was ZHDA secretary-general until a few weeks ago when he was removed from office through a vote of no confidence for being partisan, is said to have met with Health minister, Obadiah Moyo on the pretext that he was representating the association and subsequently announced that doctors should resume duties with immediate effect while their grievances have not been addressed.
ZHDA said Mugoni was a bogus agent and not one of their own.
“The Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association wishes to advise members of the medical profession, the media and the public at large of the futile attempts by one Patrick Mugoni, who appeared on ZBC purporting to represent ZHDA. The concerned doctor has been fired from the association for bringing the name of ZHDA into disrepute and violating the constitution of the ZHDA.”
“Dr Patrick Mugoni was suspended from the ZHDA after ‘crying’ while addressing the Zanu PF rally in Gweru. The ZHDA executive urges all stakeholders to ignore his utterances and any communication on the industrial action will be made through the information department,” ZHDA said in a statement.
ZHDA also promised to have Mugoni examined by colleagues in the profession and to give him psychological help and counselling, if needed.
Mugoni is infamous for weeping on national television after the doctors were awarded a pay hike in March. He said at the time he had been overwhelmed by emotions.
Zimbabwe Nurses’ Association (Zina) secretary-general, Enock Dongo, speaking on behalf of the Health Services Board yesterday said health workers were still negotiating with government.
“We are still negotiating with government, doctors are a single union that has downed tools, we appreciate that they have a genuine cause,” Dongo said.
Cabinet yesterday said it did not deliberate on the issue of the doctors’ strike.
“We did not discuss about the doctors’ strike because the Health minister told us that he talked to the them and that they have agreed to go back to work,” acting Information minister Mangaliso Ndlovu said yesterday.
The doctors expressed concern at the Health minister’s conduct.
“We wish to set the record straight that the industrial action that started on the 1st of December 2018 is still ongoing and the healthcare crisis in the country has reached an unprecedented critical level. Instead of addressing what is now perceived as a serious national health crisis, the Minister of Health seems to display an ‘I do not care’ attitude and ‘it is business as usual’ approach.
“We are even greatly disturbed that the minister went on national television in the evening of (Monday) to misinform the whole nation that the ongoing industrial action has been called off. He went on to acknowledge there is a serious shortage of vital medicines in public hospitals but nothing was being done,” ZHDA said.
Other stakeholders also laid into the Health minister for not handling the issue professionally.
“It is shocking that the Health minister Obadiah Moyo dwells on the legality of the job action than solutions as if he is reading from his predecessor’s script. No responsible and accountable minister or government would turn a blind eye to a crisis of this magnitude or wishes it away. We are in this health crisis minister because your predecessor (David Parirenyatwa) used to behave the same way: burying his head in the sand than tackling the issue head-on,” Community Working Group on Health director Itai Rusike said.
“We would like to remind the government that it has a national obligation to see that its citizens have access to quality and affordable health services as guaranteed in section 76 of the country’s Constitution. And that responsibility can only be achieved when health personnel like doctors, physicians and nurses are working normally,” Rusike said.
Meanwhile, Moyo at a Press conference revealed that President Emmerson Mnangagwa has unveiled a $25 million drug facility, with about 100 000 tonnes of medicine set to arrive from India.
A Beitbridge woman who killed her 50-year-old husband by kicking him on his privates before finishing him off by stabbing him with a kitchen knife during a fight over money for rent, was yesterday sentenced to 15 years in jail.
Geraldine Nyoni (26) fatally stabbed her husband Majahana Mazibuko on March 4 last year during a fight at their rented home in Dulivhadzimu high density suburb in the border town.
Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Thompson Mabhikwa convicted Nyoni of murder with constructive intent.
In passing the sentence, Justice Mabhikwa condemned Nyoni’s conduct, saying the courts have a duty to protect the sanctity of human life through passing deterrent sentences.
“The loss of the deceased’s life was caused by the accused person and the current trend of murder cases which are on the rise is disturbing. In fact, what is actually more disturbing is that more and more women are now daring by committing serious offences like murder and armed robbery,” he said.
“One would have expected the accused person to scream for help after committing such an offence but you instead chose to rush to the police station to make a fake report of domestic violence.”
Justice Mabhikwa said a life was unnecessary lost in a gruesome manner.
“It is regrettable that a precious life was needlessly lost. It is the duty of the courts to uphold the sanctity of life through passing harsh sentences. Accordingly, the accused person is sentenced to 15 years imprisonment,” ruled the judge.
Chief Public Prosecutor, Mrs Tariro Rosa Takuva said the couple had a long history of domestic disputes relating to money issues.
The court heard that on March 4 last year at about 8PM, the accused person and the deceased were at their place of residence when a misunderstanding ensued over money for rent.
An hour later, the couple received two visitors, Zwelibanzi Phakathi and Saidi Chisa who were related to Mazibuko.
“The two visitors had come to complain to the accused person over her alleged ill-treatment of the deceased. The accused person and the two visitors went on to exchange harsh words over the issue. After about 30 minutes, Phakathi and Chisa went to their car and drove off,” said Mrs Takuva.
Mazibuko remained behind trying to calm down his wife after a dispute had arisen over the issue of money.
The court heard that Nyoni allegedly kicked her husband on the private parts before she picked a kitchen knife and stabbed him.
“A fight ensued between the two resulting in the woman picking a kitchen knife. She stabbed her husband on the right side of the neck and fled from the scene leaving him lying in a pool of blood,” said Mrs Takuva.
Soon after committing the alleged offence, Nyoni went to the police station where she made a report of domestic violence.
Neighbours rushed Mazibuko to Beitbridge District Hospital where he died upon admission.
Nyoni was later arrested by police and the blood- stained knife was recovered from their house.
In mitigation through her lawyer, Mr Tawanda Tavengwa of Mutuso, Taruvinga and Mhiribidi Legal Practitioners, Nyoni pleaded for leniency, saying she was of ill-health and a sole breadwinner taking care of her three minor children.
Nyoni said after the stabbing, she was frightened and out of shock she stormed out of the house and went to the police station to report the matter.
By Mari Matutu| Help me understand this. You “win” an election at the age of 76. You “defeat” a 40 year old but you feel you need to raise age limit to 52 . Did you actually win? Why bother to change limit if you won? – ZimEye
By Own Correspondent| Opposition MDC National Secretary for Health Dr Henry Madzorera has called on government to address doctors’ demands and save people’s lives.
Dr Madzorera said failure by government to heed the doctors’ demands was reflective that the President Emmerson Mnangagwa led administration was a clear sign of a clueless and failed government which did not care for its citizens let alone their basic human right to health.
Said Madzorera in a statement:
Pay the doctors and save lives
The government must quickly and effectively resolve the issue of Medical practitioners’ welfare to avoid further crippling of the health delivery system and avoid loss of life.
The ongoing medical doctors strike is a serious indictment on the government,it is a clear sign of failure, cluelessness and lack of care.
It is the role of the government of the day to provide social services to the citizens but sadly the governmnt is failing to provide even the most basic of all.
Section 76(1) gives every Zimbabwean the right to basic health care services including reproductive health in contrast to what have been happening at state health institutions in the past two weeks and even beyond.
Patients are dying unattended at the country’s major hospitals, while the junior doctors are in yet another episode of downing their tools.
The state of affairs at hospitals especially at the casualty section where patients, especially those involved in accidents, bleed while their relatives are watching helplessly.
The responsible Ministers should deal with the concerns of the doctors to ensure they return to work with immediate effect in a country where the health sector is deteriorating.
While a recurrent cholera outbreak is spreading like the fires of the forges ,we cannot afford a doctors strike.
Curbing the effects of the pandemic solely relies on an effective public health system that is able to identify and isolate patients as quickly as possible; the strike is simply placing the health system in a more compromised, precarious position which further endangers the citizens.
The continuous development of the national social crisis is reflective of the centre that is no longer holding with the ruling party concentrating on petty factional fights while the real issues of the day are left without leadership to attend.
The nation has lost many medical professionals to neighboring countries; the current strike may result in many medical practitioners following the exodus, leaving our nation more exposed.
The current medical practitioners strike calls for immediate action, corrected priorities and a renewal of the whole social services delivery mechanisms.
We find the dramatising of the whole issue including ZANUPF ‘s spin that it has been called off to be cynical,contemptuous and disrespectful.
Behold the New. Change that Delivers
Dr Henry Madzorera
MDC National Secretary for Health
Civil servants yesterday threatened to down tools if government failed to reverse its austerity measures, including partial payment of bonus and payment of customs duty in foreign currency.
In a joint Press briefing yesterday, Health Services Apex Council chairperson, Enock Dongo and his civil service counterpart, Cecilia Alexander, said the situation currently obtaining in the country, particularly their conditions of service, demanded that government adjusts some of its policies.
This came at a time the economic situation in the country is worsening, forcing many companies to rationalise and turn to desperate means of survival.
“The Health and Civil Servants Apex Council jointly demand for a revision of some of the 2019 budget proposals by the Minister of Finance,” Alexander said.
“It is our position that any further move to implement the said proposals will certainly cause disharmony between ourselves and the employer and may in the end defeat the government’s well-intentioned objective to stabilise the economy.”
She said they were not consulted on the budget, a violation of Section 65 of the Constitution which guarantees government employees the right to consult and be consulted.
“The decision to pay a bonus based on basic salary is unacceptable to us and amounts to a withdrawal of a benefit, much against the law. The same applies to the 5% cut on the salaries of senior civil servants,” Alexander said.
Civil servants also demanded salaries in foreign currency and an adjustment to the cost of living allowances.
“If workers are going to pay duty in forex, it follows that salaries should be paid in forex. This proposal on forex will have the effect of excluding civil servants from buying vehicles and some foodstuffs. Our salaries are in RTGS (real time gross settlement), customs duty is in US dollar. If we convert our salaries to US dollar on the parallel market we get jailed for 10 years,” Alexander said.
“The budget does not at all mention a cost of living adjustment, which is an urgent matter given the massive erosion of our incomes since the continuous surge in prices of basic goods and service,” Alexander said.
An eight year-old Mutawatawa boy died after he was attacked by a green mamba while picking mangoes from a tree at the weekend.
Mashonaland East provincial police spokesperson Inspector Tendai Mwanza yesterday confirmed the incident.
“I confirm the death of a boy in Mutawatawa, who was bitten by a snake in a mango tree on Friday,” he said.
According to police, on November 30, at around 3pm, the boy went to the garden in search of mangoes, but encountered a green mamba that bit him on the left arm.
He was taken to a nearby clinic before he was transferred to Murewa Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Zanu PF Matabeleland South province has requested national hero status for the late distinguished educationist and former National University of Science and Technology (Nust) vice-chancellor Phineas Makhurane.
The academic died aged 79 on Saturday at Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo. He was diabetic.
“All I can say is that we have submitted our recommendation to the politburo for the national hero status and honour on Makhurane,” Zanu PF Matabeleland South provincial chairperson Rabelani Choeni told NewsDay.
“We now await the politburo decision. We are confident that the request will be granted,” he added.
A senior Zanu PF official disclosed that the party was confident the decision-making body would confer the educationist with the national hero status.
“It is a fact that Makhurane made significant contributions to the education sector, to Nust, specifically, as an institution. He was a respected academic and we are confident he will be laid to rest at the national shrine,” he said.
Records show that Makhurane is one of the first Africans to study physics and mathematics at the then University of Rhodesia and Nyasaland now University of Zimbabwe.
Makhurane was also appointed to serve on the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council as board chairperson.
He was the first black Zimbabwean to acquire a PhD in the sciences.
He is survived by his wife, four children — three sons and a daughter — and six grandchildren.
More doctors yesterday joined the on-going strike, defying a government message to call off the job action.
The doctors have been on strike since Saturday to protest poor remuneration and the deteriorating health situation in the country.
“Only four out of 91 doctors came for work and I think the rest are waiting for talks between the doctors’ association and the employer over the issue of solving their problems before they report for duty,” Harare Central Hospital CEO Nyasha Masuka said.
Parirenyatwa Hospital and public health institutions in Manicaland and Bulawayo faced similar situations, with Mpilo Central Hospital and United Bulawayo Hospital keeping their out patient departments closed.
The Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) yesterdya also distanced itself from utterances made by former member, Patrick Mugoni, who “represented” doctors at a meeting with the Health minister on Monday and appeared on the national televison urging doctors to go back to work.
Mugoni, who was ZHDA secretary-general until a few weeks ago when he was removed from office through a vote of no confidence for being partisan, is said to have met with Health minister, Obadiah Moyo on the pretext that he was representating the association and subsequently announced that doctors should resume duties with immediate effect while their grievances have not been addressed.
ZHDA said Mugoni was a bogus agent and not one of their own.
“The Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association wishes to advise members of the medical profession, the media and the public at large of the futile attempts by one Patrick Mugoni, who appeared on ZBC purporting to represent ZHDA. The concerned doctor has been fired from the association for bringing the name of ZHDA into disrepute and violating the constitution of the ZHDA.”
“Dr Patrick Mugoni was suspended from the ZHDA after ‘crying’ while addressing the Zanu PF rally in Gweru. The ZHDA executive urges all stakeholders to ignore his utterances and any communication on the industrial action will be made through the information department,” ZHDA said in a statement.
ZHDA also promised to have Mugoni examined by colleagues in the profession and to give him psychological help and counselling, if needed.
Mugoni is infamous for weeping on national television after the doctors were awarded a pay hike in March. He said at the time he had been overwhelmed by emotions.
Zimbabwe Nurses’ Association (Zina) secretary-general, Enock Dongo, speaking on behalf of the Health Services Board yesterday said health workers were still negotiating with government.
“We are still negotiating with government, doctors are a single union that has downed tools, we appreciate that they have a genuine cause,” Dongo said.
Cabinet yesterday said it did not deliberate on the issue of the doctors’ strike.
“We did not discuss about the doctors’ strike because the Health minister told us that he talked to the them and that they have agreed to go back to work,” acting Information minister Mangaliso Ndlovu said yesterday.
The doctors expressed concern at the Health minister’s conduct.
“We wish to set the record straight that the industrial action that started on the 1st of December 2018 is still ongoing and the healthcare crisis in the country has reached an unprecedented critical level. Instead of addressing what is now perceived as a serious national health crisis, the Minister of Health seems to display an ‘I do not care’ attitude and ‘it is business as usual’ approach.
“We are even greatly disturbed that the minister went on national television in the evening of (Monday) to misinform the whole nation that the ongoing industrial action has been called off. He went on to acknowledge there is a serious shortage of vital medicines in public hospitals but nothing was being done,” ZHDA said.
Other stakeholders also laid into the Health minister for not handling the issue professionally.
“It is shocking that the Health minister Obadiah Moyo dwells on the legality of the job action than solutions as if he is reading from his predecessor’s script. No responsible and accountable minister or government would turn a blind eye to a crisis of this magnitude or wishes it away. We are in this health crisis minister because your predecessor (David Parirenyatwa) used to behave the same way: burying his head in the sand than tackling the issue head-on,” Community Working Group on Health director Itai Rusike said.
“We would like to remind the government that it has a national obligation to see that its citizens have access to quality and affordable health services as guaranteed in section 76 of the country’s Constitution. And that responsibility can only be achieved when health personnel like doctors, physicians and nurses are working normally,” Rusike said.
Meanwhile, Moyo at a Press conference revealed that President Emmerson Mnangagwa has unveiled a $25 million drug facility, with about 100 000 tonnes of medicine set to arrive from India.
Civil servants yesterday threatened to down tools if government failed to reverse its austerity measures, including partial payment of bonus and payment of customs duty in foreign currency.
In a joint Press briefing yesterday, Health Services Apex Council chairperson, Enock Dongo and his civil service counterpart, Cecilia Alexander, said the situation currently obtaining in the country, particularly their conditions of service, demanded that government adjusts some of its policies.
This came at a time the economic situation in the country is worsening, forcing many companies to rationalise and turn to desperate means of survival.
“The Health and Civil Servants Apex Council jointly demand for a revision of some of the 2019 budget proposals by the Minister of Finance,” Alexander said.
“It is our position that any further move to implement the said proposals will certainly cause disharmony between ourselves and the employer and may in the end defeat the government’s well-intentioned objective to stabilise the economy.”
She said they were not consulted on the budget, a violation of Section 65 of the Constitution which guarantees government employees the right to consult and be consulted.
“The decision to pay a bonus based on basic salary is unacceptable to us and amounts to a withdrawal of a benefit, much against the law. The same applies to the 5% cut on the salaries of senior civil servants,” Alexander said.
Civil servants also demanded salaries in foreign currency and an adjustment to the cost of living allowances.
“If workers are going to pay duty in forex, it follows that salaries should be paid in forex. This proposal on forex will have the effect of excluding civil servants from buying vehicles and some foodstuffs. Our salaries are in RTGS (real time gross settlement), customs duty is in US dollar. If we convert our salaries to US dollar on the parallel market we get jailed for 10 years,” Alexander said.
“The budget does not at all mention a cost of living adjustment, which is an urgent matter given the massive erosion of our incomes since the continuous surge in prices of basic goods and service,” Alexander said.
Press Release|Letter to Honourable Advocate Jacob Mudenda Speaker of the National Assembly
Dear Sir
RE: Increase in Collection of Personal Information in the Absence of Adequate Data Privacy Legislation
RE: INCREASE IN COLLECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION IN THE ABSENCE OF ADEQUATE DATA PRIVACY LEGISLATION
MISA Zimbabwe writes to you to express its concern over the rise in the local use of surveillance technology and equipment in the absence of adequate and clear data privacy legislation.
Equipment such as the traffic cameras installed in parts of Bulawayo collect vast amounts of data that sometimes includes personally identifying information.
The same goes for the undefined facial recognition equipment reportedly acquired from China and the cybersecurity equipment that Japan recently pledged to Zimbabwe.
While MISA Zimbabwe concedes to the fact that the Zimbabwean cyberspace must be protected, it is our respectful submission that such protection of the local cyberspace must be within the confines of and not unjustifiably encroach on the universal human rights principles and the Zimbabwean Constitution.
Section 57 of the Zimbabwean Constitution guarantees the right to privacy. This right to privacy includes protection from excessive and unjustified State surveillance.
MISA Zimbabwe respectfully contends that privacy provisions found in the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) fall short of the privacy principles espoused in the Constitution. There is therefore, need to gazette privacy legislation that will adequately protect citizen data from over-surveillance at the hands of the State.
Another point of concern is the lack of transparency around the acquisition of this cybersecurity equipment and the conditions under which it is sold to Zimbabwe.
For example, Zimbabweans woke up to read that Zimbabwe would send vast amounts of biometric and personal data to CloudWalk Technology, a Chinese based entity that is providing Zimbabwe with facial recognition technology. This is a violation of people’s right to privacy because no one had knowledge of or consented to the cross border transfer of their data.
The lack of transparency and information around these deals is against the spirit of good governance and basic principles governing public administration as enshrined in sections 9(1) and 194 (1) (f) and (h) of the Constitution.
MISA Zimbabwe therefore urges Parliament to exercise its oversight function by examining how the acquisition and use of unspecified surveillance equipment will influence or curb the lawful enjoyment of the fundamental rights to privacy and free expression.
Yours Sincerely
Golden Maunganidze
Chairperson
CC Hon. C. Hwende: Chairperson Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on ICT and Cyber Security
Jane Mlambo| Opposition MDC leader, Nelson Chamisa has reacted angrily to calls by war veterans to have the Presidential age limit raised from 40 to 52 saying, it simply means the old want to fix the young.
Posting on Twitter today, Chamisa ridiculed the former combatants for seeking to raise the age bar instead of the democracy bar.
He added that their latest call vindicates his electoral victory in the July 30 harmonised elections.
If ever one doubted our July 30 election victory just listen to the chefs’ outbursts.They rule but can’t lead.The Old want to fix the young. Instead of raising the DEMOCRACY bar ED wants to raise the AGE bar. No true new amends the constitution to take away rights!#nothingchanged
their grievances are met,” he said.Daily News
presidential candidate.Daily News
either on his debut.Chronicle
Own Correspondent| At least two people died and seven others left in critical condition after succumbing to pressure during a 10 km run that was a pre-requisite in job recruitment at the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) in Harare on Tuesday.
N Chamisa,” said the party in a statement.
the race is a clear testimony and an indication that Nelson Chamisa won the 30 July 2018.
