The following video tells a story of how alleged Zanu PF youths in Mhondoro disrupted an MDC Alliance meeting that was organized to launch the One Million Campaign.
The video was shared by members of the opposition and they even name the people who disrupted their gathering which according to them was sanctioned by the Police who were also present when it happened.
An Apostolic Faith Mission pastor, Edmore Sibanda has called upon President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government to initiate dialogue with MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa to end the suffering of Zimbabweans.
In an interview yesterday with the Southern Eye, Sibanda said the economic difficulties in the country were worsening hence the need for dialogue between the two political parties.
He said Mnangagwa’s government had failed to live up to expectation two years after the ouster of the late former President Robert Mugabe.
“The living standards of the people of this country have worsened. In my opinion, it is only dialogue between the ruling Zanu PF and the MDC Alliance that can get the economy working again,” Sibanda said.
“I believe that all the small parties that are in the Political Actors Dialogue (Polad) will never be effective in terms of ending the economic and political problems in this country. I think they are a waste of time. It is only the two main political parties, Zanu PF and the MDC Alliance that can end the country’s problems,” he said.
The AFM pastor said politics was a game of power whereby if two elephants fight the grass suffers, adding that the ordinary people were struggling because of the political power struggles between Zanu PF and the MDC Alliance.
Sibanda blasted some church leaders in the country for taking a partisan stance.
“Some church leaders have taken a partisan stance, they either rally behind the ruling party or the opposition. As a result there is always conflict in the country. As Christians, we must be catalysts for positive change. Those in leadership positions must accept to be corrected.
“The church has found itself in two different camps where some churches work in cahoots with the government while others work with the opposition instead of working as one body of Christ,” he said.
-Newsday
By Eddie Cross
It has been my view for some time that the average Zimbabwean has not yet grasped the extent to which the ground under our feet has changed. Two years ago we had a grossly over-valued currency, we were running a massive budget deficit even though we were already in default as a country on our debts. We were importing over 70 per cent of our food and 95 per cent of what you saw in a supermarket was imported. Even before the onset of the Covid crisis our GDP was declining.
Correcting those problems required painful and extensive surgery – not palliatives. We have not yet arrived at the point where we can say we are back to normal, but just look around you today. There is no doubt, that unlike our neighbors to the south and the western world, the Zimbabwe economy is now recovering fast. By the end of December, I have no doubt in my own mind that our GDP will have largely recovered to earlier levels of activity. Our inflation rate has been below 4 per cent, month on month, for the past 4 months and I see little chance that it will again spiral out of control in 2021.
We have no shortages of any kind in the market, our exchange rate has corrected the imbalances that existed in 2018 and is now stable. Our balance of payments is in surplus and we have foreign exchange savings in our bank accounts. Whenever can any of us remember a time like this? We have had a rough ride in the past 100 years – let alone the past two decades. In my view, for the first time we have the internal capacity to settle our outstanding debts and once again resume a more normal relationship with the rest of the world.
What are going to be the major challenges in 2021? There are many but in my mind the major ones are relatively few. On the political front we have to make progress on re-engagement with the global community – not as supplicants but as an independent sovereign State that is trying very hard to find its way in the world. No easy, but I think this is possible.
Then we have to get our growing gold industry under control and management. We are potentially one of the largest gold producers in the world. Our industry is unlike many others in that our gold reserves are located over large areas in small or low value deposits. Our people have discovered this and we have probably 2 to 3 million people actively mining gold, in addition to about 600 formal mines.
Only a small proportion of this output is marketed here – in 2020, probably less than 20 tonnes worth US$1,4 billion. The rest is smuggled abroad and the proceeds either banked abroad or spent elsewhere. The local industry is plagued by criminal elements and armed gangs. This cannot go on. If we did we would enter a new era where we would have the resources to deal with our international debts, and resume normal relations with the global financial community. My own estimate is that we are losing US$2 billion a year.
The third challenge is to fix agriculture. I think we all know the industry is broken but what we fail to appreciate is what it is going to cost us to get our farmers back to work. Although the record is muddled, progress has been made on the ground. In the past winter season, we could have produced close to 300 000 tonnes of wheat and barley had we had the money to finance our farmers. We grew over 200 000 tonnes and this is double what we did in 2019, but we are struggling to pay for it. Still it shows progress.
In fact, my feeling is that the biggest impediment to the recovery and growth of our economy in 2021 is going to be financial. We have to recognize that in 2001/8 and in 2018/9 very high levels of inflation have substantially wiped out the accumulated financial savings of many generations of Zimbabweans. We are now largely debt free, but have no cash. It costs us Z$6 billion a month to import all our basic foodstuffs, it would cost us ten times that to grow the crop and then double that again to buy the crop and store it for eventual sale and consumption.
We have to recognize that the task of our financial industry is very different in a rapidly growing economy than a contracting economy. All the countries that are experiencing rapid growth today, have been able to do so because they could borrow abroad to finance the expansion. We cannot do so on our own and therefore re-engagement is not just an option, it is essential.
I was reminded this past week by the Minister of Foreign Affairs that on the 1st of January Britain leaves the European Union and Africa goes into a new continental free trade zone. I am afraid I think that Britain is in for a hard Brexit and will suffer the consequences for some years to come. The question is what about Zimbabwe in a continental market of over 1,2 billion people and a GDP approaching US$2 trillion, and growing rapidly.
We must recognize the main lessons from the past 50 years in global business. This is a period of historically unparalleled expansion and in the reduction in the global incidence of absolute poverty. 50 years ago China, South Korea and many others were poorer than Zimbabwe. Today they are all middle to upper income countries and the main driver has been access to global markets for goods and services. The combined borrowings of the Asian Tiger economies including the two biggest economies in the world – Japan and China is equal to two and half times their GDP. By contrast African States, including Zimbabwe are significantly under borrowed.
World markets have grown consistently over the same period by 15 per cent per annum and this has created billions of jobs and raised living standards across the globe. Today global financial markets are awash with liquidity and the main problem confronting the banking industry is what to do with that liquidity – how to find profitable and safe outlets for surplus money. Our problem is the opposite. We are swamped by new opportunities, but cannot fund them.
The Continental Free Trade Zone is going to exacerbate this problem because it opens up access to markets on the Continent for countries like Zimbabwe who are competitive and have the skills and the resources to exploit regional opportunities. When I visited Ireland in the late 70’s just after the UK and Ireland went into the European Union, I found a country plagued by rural poverty and conflict. Most farms did not have clean water or modern facilities; they were almost peasants. Today Ireland has one of the fastest growing economies in the world with a first world economic infrastructure and industries.
Zimbabwe stands on the threshold of new opportunities today – we are slowly getting our act together, our economy is expanding, our local currency stable and undervalued and our productive sector starting to appreciate that we can sell into regional markets. In fact, even now, our industrial exports have doubled in the past year and our farm exports are growing strongly. Global commodity prices are recovering and if we can get our mining industry growing, the opportunities are enormous. The challenge is how to fix our infrastructure so that we can supply a growing economy with clean water, electricity at a reasonable price and transport goods to and from our main markets at a competitive cost. All challenges but also opportunities.
Eddie Cross
Harare, 6th December 2020
Musician Selmor Mtukudzi has been dealt a major blow after thieves stole her phone last week and deleted her fan page.
Her husband, Tendai Manatsa shared news of the unfortunate incident on Sunday afternoon and pleaded with those with the know how of how to retrieve the page to assist.
“Hey guys, my wife Selmor Mtukudzi lost her phone to thieves last week and they deleted her Facebook page. Does anyone know how we can recover the page? Been trying everything we know with no avail,” wrote Manatsa on his Facebook page.
This is a major blow for Selmor as the page which had thousands of followers had a lot of content of her career which she likely had not saved anywhere else.
Reuters
At least 400,000 people have fled militant attacks in northern Mozambique, the United Nations refugee agency said, warning that the crisis could quickly spread beyond the country’s borders if regional neighbours did not help tackle the insurgency.
Mozambique’s northernmost province of Cabo Delgado, home to gas developments worth some $60 billion, is grappling with an insurgency linked to Islamic State that has gathered pace this year, with insurgents regularly taking on the army and seizing entire towns.
Valentin Tapsoba, the southern African head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), said families who were rebuilding their lives after the destruction caused by Cyclone Kenneth in 2019 have had to flee from militant attacks.
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“This is a situation starting in one country but if all the countries don’t get their act together to tackle it and wait too long, it could spread within the sub-region,” Tapsoba told Reuters by phone from Pempa in Mozambique.
Zimbabwe presidential spokesman George Charamba said leaders from Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana and Tanzania were set to meet in Maputo on Monday over the insurgency.
Tapsoba said 424,000 people have fled the insurgency to Niassa, Nampula and Pempa and that the number could rise. He said Mozambican authorities put the figure at 570,000.
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On Friday the Mozambican government, together with UN agencies and other local non governmental groups, will launch an international appeal for funding to help those fleeing Cabo Delgado, Tapsoba said.
UNHCR had raised a third of the $19.2 million it requires for shelter, water and sanitation and food next year, said Tapsola.
“The numbers are still growing … so it is a very big concern,” he said.
The onset of the rainy season could make it difficult to reach the camps where thousands are living, which would be “a nightmare for these people,” he added.
Reuters
Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said on Sunday he was recovering from Covid-19, in his first televised appearance since he was admitted to hospital in Germany almost two months ago.
“Thanks to God … I have started on the road to recovery,” Mr Tebboune, 75, said a day after the first anniversary of his election.
“It may take two or three weeks but, God willing, I will recover all my bodily strength.”
The video was broadcast on state television and published on Mr Tebboune’s Twitter feed.
He did not indicate his location, but the Twitter feed carried the comment “we will meet soon on the territory of the nation”.
Mr Tebboune, was admitted on October 28, and Algerian authorities later announced that he had Covid-19.
Little was made public about his progress. The prolonged absence stirred echoes of predecessor Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who spent months in hospital and out of the public eye before his bid for re-election triggered mass uprisings that led to his resignation.
Mr Tebboune has been unable to sign a revised constitution into law because he must be on Algerian soil to do so.
Algerian President Tebboune’s absence after Covid-19 treatment unexplained
Algerians still feel effects of nuclear tests 50 years ago
He also has until December 31 to sign off on a 2021 budget.
But he said on Sunday he was following developments in Algeria “day by day, if not hour by hour”.
Visibly thinner and wearing a casual jacket, he sat at a desk next to an Algerian flag.
Mr Tebboune won last year’s widely boycotted December 12 presidential election, called after months of mass protests.
President Mnangagwa has left Harare International Airport for Mozambique to discuss the Islamist insurgency in the neigh bouring country.
He was seen off by Vice President Chiwenga, service chiefs and other Government officials.
President Mnangagwa is expected to join other SADC leaders for the Sadc Troika meeting, a continuation of the Gaborone 27 November summit.
Mozambique has been hit by an Islamist insurgency that has killed more than 2000 people and left thousands homeless.
The drama that followed the late Lazarus “Gringo” Boora during his acting days continues to haunt him even in death after sharp disagreements over his memorial service led to the event being held during the night on Saturday.
Gringo’s widow, Netsai Meki, had already stirred controversy by accusing family members of not respecting her as the last woman to have been with him.
The memorial service in Nyazura on Saturday was supposed to start in the afternoon, but Gringo’s eldest son Taurai kept telling the gathering that he was going to pitch up after attending a wedding.
The memorial service could not continue without his presence since he is the eldest son.
Then there were also members of Gringo’s apostolic sect who insisted that the function could only start at night in accordance with their beliefs.
The Herald Arts was present at the Boora homestead when the family started squabbling in an attempt to find a lasting solution to how the memorial service would be conducted. Work on Gringo’s grave for the memorial service was being carried out by members of the apostolic sect, who seemed to have assumed the leading role in the programme.
At the edge of the homestead was a parked commuter omnibus full of police officers whom village herd Mr Alec Zunidza had summoned to be on stand-by just in case their services would be required during the event.
It was clear that Mr Zunidza and other villagers were anticipating trouble at the memorial service, considering similar experiences that occurred during Gringo’s funeral.
“We had chaos during the funeral,” said Mr Zunidza. “There were a lot of people who caused chaos and it was difficult to control them. We were not prepared at that time, but now we have planned ahead.
“I am told that they are waiting for their son Taurai to start the event, but for now as per custom we managed prepare the grave at the graveyard. Gringo was a nice, happy fellow.”
A family source said Taurai wanted the memorial service to be conducted a week earlier on December 5, but disagreements arose over the date.
“My brother, I think the family should now go and see the chief because this is getting out of hand,” said a villager who refused to be named. “It seems Taurai wants to fix the family members, including Netsai.
“Imagine, the small boy had the audacity to attend a wedding while everyone is waiting for him here. His father was not like that, maybe there is someone who is telling him to do that, but it is wrong.”
Gringo’s aunt Esther Manheya, who was in the company of her sister Kroria Chaipa, confirmed the programme had been stalled by Taurai’s absence.
“Taurai said he had a wedding to attend today, but he was going to pitch up later,” she said. “So, we are waiting for him. We are a peaceful family and please just know that people talk a lot. We are surprised with the news that there is war among us.
“I just want my grandchildren to benefit equally as you can see they are all here. Netsai should take the house in Rusape, as for the car in question, I only heard it belongs to Gringo’s former boss.” Netsai said she was not at liberty to talk much, but was hurt.
“Today I think you can talk to other family members,” she said. “The story is interesting by day, with new issues to be discussed. Let this be over so I can look after my children in peace.”
Gringo’s children from his divorced three wives were present at the memorial service.
Effort to get a comment from Taurai were fruitless as his mobile phone was off up to yesterday.
After the memorial service on Saturday night, Gringo’s property, mainly his clothes were shared yesterday, with his children getting most of them. Netsai did not get the Rusape house as proposed by Manheya, which was left to be accessed by any member of the family.
The controversial Isuzu KB250, which Netsai claimed belonged to Gringo’s boss, was not discussed to enable the supposed owner to come forward and make his claim.
Government has allocated $420 million to the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) in the 2021 national budget, which will translate to $2 million per constituency 10 times the $200 000 that was allocated this year.
The CDF is given to National Assembly members to carry out developmental projects in their constituencies as part of deliberate efforts by the Government to develop communities.
The allocation was made by Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube when he presented the 2021 national budget a fortnight ago.
Parliamentarians have been complaining that the $200 000 was no longer adequate to carry out any meaningful development projects due to inflation.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Permanent Secretary, Mrs Virginia Mabhiza, confirmed the figure yesterday.
“Yes, that is the figure but it has previously been managed by Parliament of Zimbabwe,” she said. “But we are trying to come up with a legal framework governing CDF to ensure accountability in its utilisation. So we will be coming with an Act of Parliament to that effect.”
This week, Members of Parliament expressed mixed views on the figure in the National Assembly, while contributing to a debate on the 2021 national budget.
Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance and Economic Development chairperson Cde Felex Mhona welcomed the funds.
“The Committee welcomes the allocation towards the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) of ZWL$420 million which translates to $2 million per constituency,” he said. “The Committee, however, recommends timeous disbursements and a review of the allocation to an equivalent of US$50 000 per constituency if it is to make meaningful impact.”
Primary and Secondary Education portfolio committee chairperson, Ms Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, implored legislators to use their CDF money in furtherance of education given the challenges that affected the sector this year.
“On CDF, we want to persuade the Hon Members that have not taken CDF for next year; we are going to be coming to you and say do you not think that it is important to prioritise at least for next year the issues that are to do with education,” said Ms Misihairabwi-Mushonga.
Bikita South MP Cde Josiah Sithole (Zanu PF) urged the Government to continue providing money for CDF in order to develop communities.
He wanted the Constituency Development Fund to be taken seriously. “I think we need to make sure that we name the fund constituency development to mean exactly what we are doing because when we say we develop, we have to develop and that should be adequate.”
Mbizo MP Mr Settlement Chikwinya (MDC Alliance) said the CDF, if properly funded, will go a long way in developing communities.
“Members of Parliament are seen as practitioners of social development,” he said. “So, the boreholes, the soccer tournaments and dip tanks that you see are being developed by Members of Parliament. If you do not support the CDF, you are killing the whole community development initiative and the President is on record to say, you are supposed to serve your people. So that is a principle and agreed policy — Members of Parliament are supposed to serve their people.”
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VIDEO LOADING BELOW….
Vice President Constantino Chiwenga’s estranged wife, Marry has announced that she is not at all HIV positive and furthermore she doesn’t take drugs, as supposed in a social media circles, a toxicology enthusiast narrates.
The only thing she takes is alcohol, Martin Chinyanga continues alleging…
VIDEO LOADING BELOW….
Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) coronavirus/COVID-19 situation report as of 13 December 2020:
New cases: 27
Locals: 27
Returnees: 0
Deaths: 0
Recoveries: 92
PCR Tests Done:1187
National Recovery Rate: 84%
Active Cases: 1 488
Total Cumulative Cases: 11 246
Total Recoveries: 9 451
Total Deaths: 307
A caller speaking in support of the tortured Marry Mubaiwa, has challenged her husband Constantino to a DNA test to prove he is the real Vice President. He was speaking following the grabbing away of Marry’s children, while adding that the real Chiwenga would not do such a thing which violates his own children’s rights. VIDEO LOADING BELOW:
State Media
The Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service (ZPCS) has reported a prisoner who escaped from Harare Remand Prison on Saturday evening.
Peter Muchenga, who was arrested for aggravated indecent assault, escaped in full view of prison warders and his whereabouts are still unknown.
Muchenga escaped at around 6.30pm
“When inmates were locked up and the number in the yard could not tally with the one on the board, two recounts were done but there was no change. Officers and B Class inmates carried out a search within the prison,” reads a ZPCS communique.
“At around 20:00hrs, officers who were at the D Class section saw the inmate on the top of the prison roof where there are water tanks.
“The officers looked for a ladder in order to access the place where the inmate was lodged but he bolted to the other end of the building where he used an electricity cord to climb down the wall,” said ZPCS.
The inmate is said to have landed on the ground before climbing over the security wall which separates Harare Remand Prison from Harare Central Prison.
“When officers arrived from the top of the building, they found the inmate already on the pre-cast concrete wall and moving towards the workshops. Three warning shots were fired but could not stop the inmate who jumped from the wall into the workshop yards. A search was carried out in the workshop but the inmate could not be located. The matter was reported to the police under case number IR 121480.”
State Media
Some relatives of the late national hero Air Chief Marshal Perrance Shiri have requested DNA tests for some of his children despite them having birth certificates.
According to some children, this is meant to deny them their share of the estate and pave way for the grabbing of assets by some greedy relatives, friends and business partners of the former liberation war fighter, Air Force of Zimbabwe Commander and Cabinet Minister.
Sources close to the estate wrangle said the relatives only managed to find a 1995 will, which shows that the Air Chief Marshal Shiri had a house in Borrowdale and two children.
The same will appointed the now late General Solomon Mujuru and Mr Sobusa Gula-Ndebele as executors of the estate.
Gen Mujuru died first and the Master of High Court appointed Mr Gula-Ndebele as executor.
When he died some 25 years after signing the will, he had acquired more assets which were not part of the initial testament.
The will in question has since been accepted by the Master of High Court, who then appointed an executor.
“We hereby inform you that the deceased’s will has been accepted for administration purposes,” reads a letter to the executor.
“From our reading of the will, it would appear same nominates you (Mr Gula-Ndebele) as testament executor.
“In order that we may issue you with letters of administration, kindly complete the enclosed acceptance of the trust form and the bond of security.”
After signing the 1995 will, Cde Shiri rose through the ranks in the Air Force of Zimbabwe to become Air Chief Marshal.
At the time of his death in July, he was a Cabinet minister and had acquired more properties and purchased shares in a number of companies.
Although the assets register is still being compiled, fighting has already started on the distribution of the estate.
After his death, several children approached the family and the executor claiming to be the hero’s children, some with birth certificates.
Of the several children, only three had birth certificates bearing the national hero’s name. One of the children, Rufaro Stephanie Shiri, who registered the estate at the Master of High Court claimed some “greedy” relatives were out to deprive legitimate children of their father’s estate.
Through her lawyer, Mr Caleb Mucheche of Caleb Mucheche & Partners Law Chambers, Rufaro has written to the executor questioning the legality of DNA tests when the national hero accepted her as his daughter through an uncontested official birth certificate.
“For the avoidance of doubt, our client unequivocally and categorically rejects some wild, baseless, misguided and legally misplaced insinuations and suggestions by some third parties or persons that she must undergo any DNA tests post the death of her late father who freely and voluntarily recorded his name as her father and maintained that legal status without any qualm or query up to the time of his death,” reads part of the letter.
The lawyers requested to be part of the administration of the estate and to be invited to any meeting related to the estate.
“We hereby advise that we represent Rufaro S. Shiri in this estate, who is one of the potential beneficiaries to the estate, who has a birth certificate bearing the name of the deceased as the father and a national identity card bearing the deceased’s surname,” reads the letter.
“It is against this background that our client instructs us to request your esteemed good offices to notify us about any stages and meetings involved in the administration of this estate.”
Meanwhile, the national hero’s brother, Vincent Chikerema, who worked for the late freedom fighter supervising the sale of his farm produce at Mbare and Chikwanha vegetable markets, has since filed a claim of US$4 000 in salary arrears.
In a letter to the executor, Mr Chikerema stated that he was a supervisor in his brother’s farming business getting US$800 per month.
State Media
A school teacher in Mwenezi East allegedly stabbed and killed a Zanu PF official on Friday for being loud and disturbing his rest while discussing ballot papers in the just-ended Zanu PF District Coordinating Committee (DCCs) elections.
Kennias Dzingirai (35), the Zanu PF ward 13 chairman in Chingwizi, Mwenezi East, died after he was stabbed in the chest and stomach, allegedly by Paulosi Mangoma (40), a teacher at Batanai Primary School in the area.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi yesterday said Mangoma had since been arrested and would appear in court soon.
“The suspect, a teacher at Batanai Primary School in the Chingwizi area, is assisting police with investigations and will appear in court soon charged with murder,” said Asst Comm Nyathi.
According to preliminary police investigations, Dzingirai and some associates were at a tuckshop in the Chingwizi area discussing the delivery of ballot papers to the party’s elections command centre in the constituency.
It is alleged that Mangoma interrupted the discussion between Dzingirai and his colleagues whom he accused of disturbing his peace and then that a fist-fight broke out between Dzingirai and Mangoma.
This was stopped by others who managed to restrain the two. Mangoma went home, but allegedly returned armed with a kitchen knife, charged at Dzingirai and stabbed him in the chest and stomach.
Dzingirai collapsed and died on the spot and a report was made to police leading to Mangoma’s arrest.
The body was taken to a mortuary and is awaiting a post-mortem.
Paul Nyathi
More than 1 000 nurses who wete removed from the monthly pay sheets for refusing to work standard hours on the instruction of Health Minister Constantino Chiwenga last month are being reinstated after being coerced by government to apologise for their act.
The Health Services Board (HSB) removed 1 032 nurses from its pay sheets after they insisted on working flexible hours which were agreed on during a collective bargaining exercise defying Chiwenga’s instruction which had ordered all nurses back at work in full hours.
The nurses were later dragged into disciplinary hearings where the Nurses Union indicate that the Nurses were ordered to submit written apologies for their actions if they wanted their jobs back.
In the “comman apology letters, the Nurses were told to vowed to comply with the prescribed shifts and never defy given instructions.
Authorities agreed to forgive the “repentant ones” and HSB chair Dr Paulinas Sikhosana confirmed that the process of returning nurses to the payroll had started with some having been already reinstated.
“We have started the process and some are now on the pay sheets,” he said. “I am not sure about the numbers as yet, but those who apologised earlier like the ones at Sally Mugabe Central Hospital have been reinstated.”
A total of 504 Sally Mugabe Central Hospital nurses, 258 at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals and 229 at United Bulawayo Hospitals have formally apologised.
Of the 1 032 struck off the pay sheets by the HSB, only 41 are yet to formally express regret for defying a legal directive for them to resume normal shifts.
Of the 41 who are yet to officially ask for pardon, a few are union leaders.
Acting Health and Child Care Minister Professor Amon Murwira confirmed the resumption of normal rosters by nurses.
“We are taking their issue further and what I can say is that they can expect positive feedback,” he said in an interview. “The nurses who were initially not reporting for duty wrote letters to us apologising.
“The nurses who wrote the letters say they do not have anything to do with the conflict that has been going on. I am happy that they are working and what we want is to improve the country’s health system.”
Paul Nyathi
The prime minister of Eswatini, Africa’s last absolute monarchy, died in a South African hospital on Sunday after contracting coronavirus, the government said in a statement.
Ambrose Dlamini, 52, had been hospitalised in neighbouring South Africa in early December, two weeks after testing positive for Covid-19.
“Their Majesties have commanded that I inform the nation of the sad and untimely passing away of His Excellency the Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini,” Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku said.
The prime minister “passed on this afternoon while under medical care in a hospital in South Africa,” he added, without detailing the cause of Dlamini’s death.
Dlamini had announced in mid-November that he had tested positive for coronavirus but said that he felt well and was asymptomatic.
Dlamini, a businessman but political novice, was named prime minister in October 2018.
The head of government’s role is limited in Eswatini where the current king, in power since 1986, names all ministers and controls parliament.
Formerly known as Swaziland, the kingdom of Eswatini has reported over 6,700 coronavirus cases and 127 deaths among its population of 1.2 million people.
Tinashe Sambiri|Recalled MDC Alliance Councillor for ward 7, Masvingo Urban, Richard Musekiwa has vowed to stand with the MDC Alliance and President Nelson Chamisa.
Musekiwa has described his recall as a non-event.
“I will never betray the people’s struggle .
Not even gold and silver can influence me.
Moving solidly behind the people President Advocate Nelson Chamisa -victory is certain.
I would like to thank the residents of Rujeko, ward 7 who gave me the opportunity to represent them in council.
I was recalled by Douglas Mwonzora and Zanu PF.
I will continue to assist local residents,” Musekiwa said in as statement.
Tinashe Sambiri|Recalled MDC Alliance Councillor for ward 7, Masvingo Urban, Richard Musekiwa has vowed to stand with the MDC Alliance and President Nelson Chamisa.
Musekiwa has described his recall as a non-event.
“I will never betray the people’s struggle .
Not even gold and silver can influence me.
Moving solidly behind the people President Advocate Nelson Chamisa -victory is certain.
I would like to thank the residents of Rujeko, ward 7 who gave me the opportunity to represent them in council.
I was recalled by Douglas Mwonzora and Zanu PF.
I will continue to assist local residents,” Musekiwa said in as statement.
Tinashe Sambiri|Embattled MDC -T leader Thokozani Khupe’s attempt to seize the people’s project hit a snag in Chinhoyi.
In a statement, MDC Alliance said Khupe would not stop the people’s victory despite being backed by Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration.
Read full statement below :
Chinhoyi has denied Khupe a chance to steal the people’s victory.
We are elated to inform you that a plot to steal the people’s victory by the MDC-T cabal was thwarted when Cllr Garikai Dendera was voted into office and Cllr Mada deputised -handing back the Chinhoyi Mayorship to the MDC Alliance led by Advocate Nelson Chamisa.
The illegal recalls of 6 other MDC Alliance Councillors this week to armtwist the remaining Councillors to give in to the ZANU friendly MDC-T and force them to vote for khupes candidate flopped as the remaining Councillors chose to stand with the people and the MDC Alliance.
Not even the presence of Gift Matshoba Konjana could change the complexion of the mayoral election.
It is no doubt that the khupe cabal are operating full throttle on social media but completely divorced from the grassroots,no wonder why they rely on virtual meetings than physically ones.
Their plan to fire members to get an edge over the MDC Alliance is no longer effective as they continue to be trounced hands down.
Bring on the By-elections we have sellouts and terrorists fighting the people to fry.
Police are hunting down buyers of Zimsec Mathematics and English examination papers stolen by a worker at the Zimsec printing works who was arrested and brought to court on Saturday.
The 22-year-old employee with Zimsec Norton Printing Press, Arnold Maimba, was charged with contravening the Zimbabwe School Examination Council (Zimsec) Act when he appeared before Harare magistrate Mrs Victoria Mashamba.
He allegedly stole the O-Level papers 1 and 2 for Mathematics and English, two crucial subjects.
The State led by Mr Lancelotte Mutsokoti opposed bail, saying there was overwhelming evidence against Maimba and considering the jail term he faced, this could induce him to flee from justice.
His bail application will continue to be heard today. The court heard that on November 27, Maimba stole a copy of O-Level Mathematics papers 1 and 2 at his workplace and hid them under his jersey before he went home.
He then allegedly sold the papers to a prospective candidate before the examination date.
A week later, on December 3, Maimba was once again at work and stole the O-Level 2020 English papers 1 and 2 and again smuggled them out under his jersey. Again he sold them.
Investigations led to Maimba’s arrest and he led the police to the recovery of all the papers and the identification of people he had sold the papers to. -Herald
Tinashe Sambiri|Embattled MDC -T leader Thokozani Khupe’s attempt to seize the people’s project hit a snag in Chinhoyi.
In a statement, MDC Alliance said Khupe would not stop the people’s victory despite being backed by Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration.
Read full statement below :
Chinhoyi has denied Khupe a chance to steal the people’s victory.
We are elated to inform you that a plot to steal the people’s victory by the MDC-T cabal was thwarted when Cllr Garikai Dendera was voted into office and Cllr Mada deputised -handing back the Chinhoyi Mayorship to the MDC Alliance led by Advocate Nelson Chamisa.
The illegal recalls of 6 other MDC Alliance Councillors this week to armtwist the remaining Councillors to give in to the ZANU friendly MDC-T and force them to vote for khupes candidate flopped as the remaining Councillors chose to stand with the people and the MDC Alliance.
Not even the presence of Gift Matshoba Konjana could change the complexion of the mayoral election.
It is no doubt that the khupe cabal are operating full throttle on social media but completely divorced from the grassroots,no wonder why they rely on virtual meetings than physically ones.
Their plan to fire members to get an edge over the MDC Alliance is no longer effective as they continue to be trounced hands down.
Bring on the By-elections we have sellouts and terrorists fighting the people to fry.
More than 1 000 nurses removed from the monthly pay sheets for not working standard hours are being reinstated after apologising to the Government and reverting to normal duty shifts.
Last month, the Health Services Board (HSB) removed 1 032 nurses from its pay sheets after they insisted on not working or only working sharply reduced hours. They have, however, shown contrition and inundated the Government with letters of apology.
In their letters, they vowed to comply with the prescribed shifts, with the Zimbabwe Nurses Association (Zina) confirming last week that they had reverted to standard rosters.
Authorities agreed to forgive the repentant ones and, yesterday, HSB chair Dr Paulinas Sikhosana confirmed that the process of returning nurses to the payroll had started with some having been already reinstated.
“We have started the process and some are now on the pay sheets,” he said. “I am not sure about the numbers as yet, but those who apologised earlier like the ones at Sally Mugabe Central Hospital have been reinstated.”
A total of 504 Sally Mugabe Central Hospital nurses, 258 at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals and 229 at United Bulawayo Hospitals have formally apologised.
Of the 1 032 struck off the pay sheets by the HSB, only 41 are yet to formally express regret for defying a legal directive for them to resume normal shifts.
Of the 41 who are yet to officially ask for pardon, a few are union leaders and investigations show that some of them have found employment elsewhere, but have yet to formally resign from Government employ and continued drawing salaries from two employers.
Last week, Zina president Mr Enock Dongo said the association had told their members to cancel the “flexi-hours” regime and start reporting 40 hours a week in compliance with the Government directive.
“We do not want confrontation with Government,” he said. “We are now working 40 hours a week like what was directed by Government. We are giving dialogue a chance and we want genuine dialogue with Government, so we are waiting for them to address our concerns while we are working normal duty roasters.”
Mr Dongo said the Zina leadership had a strong feeling that what they were saying in meetings with Government representatives was not being reported correctly to the country’s leadership.
He said they were willing to engage Health and Child Care Minister Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, his deputy Dr John Mangwiro, and Permanent Secretary Dr Jasper Chimedza, to have their concerns addressed.
Acting Health and Child Care Minister Professor Amon Murwira confirmed the resumption of normal rosters by nurses.
“We are taking their issue further and what I can say is that they can expect positive feedback,” he said in an interview. “The nurses who were initially not reporting for duty wrote letters to us apologising.
“The nurses who wrote the letters say they do not have anything to do with the conflict that has been going on. I am happy that they are working and what we want is to improve the country’s health system.”
Government has made it clear that it will pay the maximum possible to civil servants, but that the total is guided by the revenue inflows from taxes and under no circumstances will the Government borrow or print money to meet monthly bills.
VP Chiwenga is restructuring the health sector and is pushing for a sustainable funding model, far greater effectiveness, and a new work ethic for staff.
Officials in the Ministry of Health and Child Care say emphasis is now on improving the provision of drugs, effective service delivery in hospitals, as well as improving the conditions of healthcare workers from remuneration to conducive ambience at the workplace. -Herald
Below is a memo narrating how a soldier arrested a police officer over possession of minerals:
MEMORANDUM
TO : CHIEF STAFF OFFICER [OPERATIONS]
INFOR : COMMISSIONER GENERAL OF POLICE
: DEPUTY COMMISSIONER GENERAL [OPERATIONS]
: CHIEF STAFF OFFICER [HUMAN RESOURCES]
FROM : OFFICER COMMANDING POLICE [SUPPORT UNIT]
SU MEMO : 1910/20
DATED : 12 DECEMBER 2020
SUBJECT : ARREST OF A MEMBER OF THE POLICE SERVICE FOR CRIMINAL ABUSE OF OFFICE AS A PUBLIC OFFICER AND TRANSPORTING GOLD ORE WITHOUT A LICENCE: NUMBER 049466R CHIEF INSPECTOR NCUBE B.: SUPPORT UNIT CHIKURUBI URBAN DISTRICT YANKEE TROOP.
My Personal Encounter With The Outgoing UCCZ President
….. as Rev ETC Ngadziore “ Retires “
By Dr Tinashe Gumbo
Today, the 13th of December 2020, Rev Ephraim Tafura Chandaifira (ETC) Ngadziore retires as the United Church of Christ in Zimbabwe (UCCZ) President after serving for two terms. Rev Ngadziore has been more than just a President of his Church but an Ecumenical leader who left a legacy for the broader Church in Zimbabwe.
Mudhara ETC was a darling of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) structures including the Secretariat. I personally worked with him since 2003 to date. He has been too good to me. He was always available for all the ZCC programs. Indeed, here lies a man of God who knew that life on earth also needs to be influenced by the men and women of Cloth. And…..he did it so well that he became a “social, economic, religious and even political justice activist” and I joined him in that field to serve our dear country Zimbabwe.
Rev Ngadziore led one of the biggest mainline churches in Zimbabwe.
While many would joke saying that UCCZ “ndeyekuChipinge”, the institution now boasts of membership that is spread across the country. Prominent National figures have their roots in that Church including the late Nationalist, Rev Ndabaningi Sithole, the prominent Lawyer, Professor Lovemore Madhuku, Rev Dr Menson Mpofu, the Midlands State University Chaplain among many more academics, politicians and Economists. The Church administers big education and health institutions such as Mount Selinda and Chikore Mission Hospitals and Schools. Thus, Rev Ngadziore has been presiding over these institutions during his tenure as the Head of Denomination for two consecutive terms.
Rev Ngadziore started his journey as a Clergy in 1989 when he joined the United Theological College where he spent four years.
In 1993, he was posted to the Midlands Province where he became the Church point person in Kwekwe. Rev Ngadziore became the ZCC local Chairperson in 1996 where he was being deputised by Rev Cephas Mukandi of the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe (MCZ). By the way, Rev Mukandi later became the ZCC Vice President sometime in early 2000s. While in Kwekwe, the leadership of Rev Ngadziore facilitated the allocation of residential stands for the Ministers of Religion.
Together with his team, Rev Ngadziore successfully campaigned against the participation of the under 18s in beer hall activities.
In 1999, Mudhara ETC was elected Church Superintendent and was moved to Gweru. It is in Gweru that I first met this man who became a close Ecumenical leader that I interacted with till this day when he leaves his church presidency. In 2005, with my colleague at ZCC, Owen Murozvi, under the leadership of Rev Ngadziore, we intervened to guide Church response to the ugly Operation Restore Order (Murambatsvina).
We mobilised support for the victims of this exercise that was implemented by the Mugabe Regime. Many people believe that the operation was fulfilled by the regime to punish the urban dwellers who had voted overwhelmingly for the opposition.
Politics for another day, let me concentrate on the man who led churches to save lives, Mudhara ETC!
In 2006, the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations (ZHOCD), then made up of ZCC, Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference (ZCBC) and the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ) proposed a way forward for Zimbabwe. The Church leaders came up with the “Zimbabwe We Want Discussion Document”. Through the able leadership of mukoma Gabriel Manyangadze, I, together with Owen Murozvi participated in the very initial development stages of the Pastoral Letter that was later amplified into the Zimbabwe We Want Document.
Now, Rev Ngadziore on behalf of ZCC led the process of popularizing the Document in the province and districts.
He was a Provincial Facilitator (POF) working closely with mukoma Paul Muchena of the ZCBC. I remember very well one incident that befell Mudhara ETC and team in my home area of Mberengwa. The team was detained at Mataga Growth Point for leading the Zimbabwe We Want processes. Rev Ngadziore engaged Councillor Ben Mataga who in turn talked to the then Midlands Boss, the late Minister Cephas Msipa. Rev Ngadziore always narrates this incident to me saying “vanhu vekumusha kwako vakandishungurudza”. That was Mugabe Regime for you.
Later on Rev Ngadziore was moved to the Masvingo province. He became the ZCC Chairperson with Rev Mangiza of MCZ as his deputy. The ZCC Mubatanidzwa became visible during his tenure as the Chair. One major achievement of the leadership of Rev Ngadziore was its influence for the construction of the round about near the Flamboyant Hotel in Masvingo.
Having realised that many people had lost lives through accidents at that spot, the Church leaders
engaged the then Minister of Transport as well as the Masvingo City Council and subsequently, a round about was constructed to reduce accidents at that point.
As the President of the UCCZ and ZCC Supervisory Council member, I interacted with Rev Ngadziore in many ways. I would not follow protocols to invite Rev Ngadziore for participation in ZCC civic processes. He was always available for ZCC High Level engagement process with Constitutional Commissions, Government Departments, Parliament, Diplomats and other key stakeholders. He led many civic programs including the I PRAY I VOTE Campaign, national budget, national dialogue etc(as his name tells-ETC). One thing I will always remember Rev ETC about, is how he communicates with The Almighty in a natural way. His prayer can easily pierce through one’s heart because the man is natural when it comes to prayer. In his deep Ndau he says exactly what he wants unlike other artificial prayers that we always hear around.
Rev Ngadziore’s tenure as President will be remembered for his leadership of the ZCC-UNICEF project in fulfilment of the ZCC’s Ecumenical COVID-19 Response Strategy. Through his leadership, UCCZ benefited from this project-Mount Selinda and Chikore Missions will never be the same after participating in this project. One other major highlight of Rev Ngadziore’s tenure was when he and Chief Mapungwana intervened when the owner of Beacon Hill Farm had evicted many families from the farm in order to grow macadamia. The UCCZ President engaged Professor Madhuku and the case was thrown before the courts. Rev Ngadziore is passionate about people’s lives and he always shared with me his feelings towards the evicted families. He appreciates the legal intervention of Professor Madhuku.
Thus, Rev Ngadziore, stood with the people during trying times. He was always available to save life: he was there for the people during Murambatsvina, he was there for the people when they were affected by Cyclone Idai and indeed, when COVID-19 hit, he was there for the people while he also stood with the evicted farmers. Thank you Mudhara ETC!
Rev Ngadziore is father to Taoneswa, Takudzwa and Elizaberth Ngadziore. He will now join some of his predecessors including Rev Murombedzi Kuchera, Rev Matuvhunye etc etc etc ETC rikava zita ravo!!! NdiMoyo ava!
NB: These are my own personal views about Rev ETC Ngadziore. They do not in anyway represent those of the various institutions I am associated with
A school teacher in Mwenezi East allegedly stabbed and killed a Zanu PF official on Friday for being loud and disturbing his rest while discussing ballot papers in the just-ended Zanu PF District Coordinating Committee (DCCs) elections.
Kennias Dzingirai (35), the Zanu PF ward 13 chairman in Chingwizi, Mwenezi East, died after he was stabbed in the chest and stomach, allegedly by Paulosi Mangoma (40), a teacher at Batanai Primary School in the area.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi yesterday said Mangoma had since been arrested and would appear in court soon.
“The suspect, a teacher at Batanai Primary School in the Chingwizi area, is assisting police with investigations and will appear in court soon charged with murder,” said Asst Comm Nyathi.
According to preliminary police investigations, Dzingirai and some associates were at a tuckshop in the Chingwizi area discussing the delivery of ballot papers to the party’s elections command centre in the constituency.
It is alleged that Mangoma interrupted the discussion between Dzingirai and his colleagues whom he accused of disturbing his peace and then that a fist-fight broke out between Dzingirai and Mangoma.
This was stopped by others who managed to restrain the two. Mangoma went home, but allegedly returned armed with a kitchen knife, charged at Dzingirai and stabbed him in the chest and stomach.
Dzingirai collapsed and died on the spot and a report was made to police leading to Mangoma’s arrest. The body was taken to a mortuary and is awaiting a post-mortem. – Herald
My Personal Encounter With The Outgoing UCCZ President
….. as Rev ETC Ngadziore “ Retires “
By Dr Tinashe Gumbo
Today, the 13th of December 2020, Rev Ephraim Tafura Chandaifira (ETC) Ngadziore retires as the United Church of Christ in Zimbabwe (UCCZ) President after serving for two terms. Rev Ngadziore has been more than just a President of his Church but an Ecumenical leader who left a legacy for the broader Church in Zimbabwe.
Mudhara ETC was a darling of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) structures including the Secretariat. I personally worked with him since 2003 to date. He has been too good to me. He was always available for all the ZCC programs. Indeed, here lies a man of God who knew that life on earth also needs to be influenced by the men and women of Cloth. And…..he did it so well that he became a “social, economic, religious and even political justice activist” and I joined him in that field to serve our dear country Zimbabwe.
Rev Ngadziore led one of the biggest mainline churches in Zimbabwe.
While many would joke saying that UCCZ “ndeyekuChipinge”, the institution now boasts of membership that is spread across the country. Prominent National figures have their roots in that Church including the late Nationalist, Rev Ndabaningi Sithole, the prominent Lawyer, Professor Lovemore Madhuku, Rev Dr Menson Mpofu, the Midlands State University Chaplain among many more academics, politicians and Economists. The Church administers big education and health institutions such as Mount Selinda and Chikore Mission Hospitals and Schools. Thus, Rev Ngadziore has been presiding over these institutions during his tenure as the Head of Denomination for two consecutive terms.
Rev Ngadziore started his journey as a Clergy in 1989 when he joined the United Theological College where he spent four years.
In 1993, he was posted to the Midlands Province where he became the Church point person in Kwekwe. Rev Ngadziore became the ZCC local Chairperson in 1996 where he was being deputised by Rev Cephas Mukandi of the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe (MCZ). By the way, Rev Mukandi later became the ZCC Vice President sometime in early 2000s. While in Kwekwe, the leadership of Rev Ngadziore facilitated the allocation of residential stands for the Ministers of Religion.
Together with his team, Rev Ngadziore successfully campaigned against the participation of the under 18s in beer hall activities.
In 1999, Mudhara ETC was elected Church Superintendent and was moved to Gweru. It is in Gweru that I first met this man who became a close Ecumenical leader that I interacted with till this day when he leaves his church presidency. In 2005, with my colleague at ZCC, Owen Murozvi, under the leadership of Rev Ngadziore, we intervened to guide Church response to the ugly Operation Restore Order (Murambatsvina).
We mobilised support for the victims of this exercise that was implemented by the Mugabe Regime. Many people believe that the operation was fulfilled by the regime to punish the urban dwellers who had voted overwhelmingly for the opposition.
Politics for another day, let me concentrate on the man who led churches to save lives, Mudhara ETC!
In 2006, the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations (ZHOCD), then made up of ZCC, Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference (ZCBC) and the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ) proposed a way forward for Zimbabwe. The Church leaders came up with the “Zimbabwe We Want Discussion Document”. Through the able leadership of mukoma Gabriel Manyangadze, I, together with Owen Murozvi participated in the very initial development stages of the Pastoral Letter that was later amplified into the Zimbabwe We Want Document.
Now, Rev Ngadziore on behalf of ZCC led the process of popularizing the Document in the province and districts.
He was a Provincial Facilitator (POF) working closely with mukoma Paul Muchena of the ZCBC. I remember very well one incident that befell Mudhara ETC and team in my home area of Mberengwa. The team was detained at Mataga Growth Point for leading the Zimbabwe We Want processes. Rev Ngadziore engaged Councillor Ben Mataga who in turn talked to the then Midlands Boss, the late Minister Cephas Msipa. Rev Ngadziore always narrates this incident to me saying “vanhu vekumusha kwako vakandishungurudza”. That was Mugabe Regime for you.
Later on Rev Ngadziore was moved to the Masvingo province. He became the ZCC Chairperson with Rev Mangiza of MCZ as his deputy. The ZCC Mubatanidzwa became visible during his tenure as the Chair. One major achievement of the leadership of Rev Ngadziore was its influence for the construction of the round about near the Flamboyant Hotel in Masvingo.
Having realised that many people had lost lives through accidents at that spot, the Church leaders
engaged the then Minister of Transport as well as the Masvingo City Council and subsequently, a round about was constructed to reduce accidents at that point.
As the President of the UCCZ and ZCC Supervisory Council member, I interacted with Rev Ngadziore in many ways. I would not follow protocols to invite Rev Ngadziore for participation in ZCC civic processes. He was always available for ZCC High Level engagement process with Constitutional Commissions, Government Departments, Parliament, Diplomats and other key stakeholders. He led many civic programs including the I PRAY I VOTE Campaign, national budget, national dialogue etc(as his name tells-ETC). One thing I will always remember Rev ETC about, is how he communicates with The Almighty in a natural way. His prayer can easily pierce through one’s heart because the man is natural when it comes to prayer. In his deep Ndau he says exactly what he wants unlike other artificial prayers that we always hear around.
Rev Ngadziore’s tenure as President will be remembered for his leadership of the ZCC-UNICEF project in fulfilment of the ZCC’s Ecumenical COVID-19 Response Strategy. Through his leadership, UCCZ benefited from this project-Mount Selinda and Chikore Missions will never be the same after participating in this project. One other major highlight of Rev Ngadziore’s tenure was when he and Chief Mapungwana intervened when the owner of Beacon Hill Farm had evicted many families from the farm in order to grow macadamia. The UCCZ President engaged Professor Madhuku and the case was thrown before the courts. Rev Ngadziore is passionate about people’s lives and he always shared with me his feelings towards the evicted families. He appreciates the legal intervention of Professor Madhuku.
Thus, Rev Ngadziore, stood with the people during trying times. He was always available to save life: he was there for the people during Murambatsvina, he was there for the people when they were affected by Cyclone Idai and indeed, when COVID-19 hit, he was there for the people while he also stood with the evicted farmers. Thank you Mudhara ETC!
Rev Ngadziore is father to Taoneswa, Takudzwa and Elizaberth Ngadziore. He will now join some of his predecessors including Rev Murombedzi Kuchera, Rev Matuvhunye etc etc etc ETC rikava zita ravo!!! NdiMoyo ava!
NB: These are my own personal views about Rev ETC Ngadziore. They do not in anyway represent those of the various institutions I am associated with
Emmerson Mnangagwa has promoted 515 senior and junior police officers stationed in Bulawayo and Matabeleland South provinces.
The promotion comes after the president had recently promoted over 1000 police officers. The officers were promoted as follows in Bulawayo:
479 officers from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Police Protection Unit (PPU) and the Daily Uniformed Branch (DUB) were elevated.Of those, 52 were Inspectors who were promoted to the rank of Chief Inspector.123 were promoted from Sergeant to Assistant Inspector282 Constables were elevated to Sergeants.22 were elevated from Sergeants to Sergeant Majors.
A similar event took place in Gwanda, the provincial capital of Matabeleland South Province.
36 police officers stationed in the province were conferred with new ranks of Inspectors and Chief Inspectors.1 officer was promoted from Sergeant Major to Assistant Inspector,27 were promoted from Assistant Inspector to Inspector8 were promoted from Inspector to Chief Inspector.
In a speech read on his behalf by Assistant Commissioner John Simon during the conferment ceremony, Comm-Gen Godwin Matanga said:
While your promotion today reflects due recognition and incentive for your individual hard work, its main thrust is that it is an investment vehicle in which the organisation is planting seeds of hope in your career.
As such you are expected to remain forthright, exemplary, visionary, firm, fair and professional among other attributes and expectations synonymous with the ranks you now occupy.
Above all the need for you to become role models to your peers and subordinates as well as paragons of professionalism in the communities you serve cannot be overemphasised.
He also urged police officers to shun corruption, uphold morality and good ethical conduct.-State media
FIVE poachers were gunned down by Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) rangers in 10 incidents of armed confrontation in national parks this year amid an intensifying crackdown on poaching by authorities.
Poaching activities declined significantly this year, thanks to the introduction of new anti-poaching strategies that include deployment of high-tech drones to monitor conservancies, retraining of rangers and the introduction of a shoot-to-kill policy.
According to statistics from Zimparks, 20 elephants were killed by poachers this year, down from 30 killings recorded last year. Only eight rhinos were killed this year, down from 29 in 2019. Four lions were poached this year matching the same number of predators that were killed last year.
Zimparks spokesperson Mr Tinashe Farawo told The Sunday Mail that introduction of the shoot-to-kill policy has deterred illegal incursions into conservancy areas.
“Twenty elephants were poached this year, marking a significant decrease from the 30 that were killed in 2019,” said Mr Farawo.
“We have had 10 armed contacts with poachers this year, with five of them leading to fatalities. If you look at it, five years ago we would have about 500 elephants poached in a year but with the introduction of new strategies by management, we are bringing the numbers down.
He said rangers had intensified patrols after Zimparks acquired more vehicles.
“We are also working with the International Fund for Animal Welfare to help with protecting elephants especially in the Hwange National Park and also other partners to fight poaching.
“Before the new management came in there were a lot of constraints especially in terms of vehicles but now we have managed to procure over 100 vehicles for patrolling and tracking and this has helped us become more visible around the protected areas. We are now also harnessing technology by deploying drones and this helps us in monitoring wildlife and the protected areas. We are now able to detect intruders early and this has really helped to curb poaching.”-The Sunday Mail
THE Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) has opened investigations against judges, magistrates and church leaders over a slew of graft allegations.
Zacc chair Justice Loyce Matanda-Moyo last week said members of the judiciary were under scrutiny but emphasised there was no interference on the independence of the third arm of the State.
She also hinted that there were several church leaders under probe for corruption allegations among whom is a prominent bishop who received a US$100 000 tithe from his church congregant.
“The investigation against members of the Judiciary Services Commission (JSC) is underway but we want to ensure that there will be no outcry of interference on the judiciary,” said Justice Matanda-Moyo.
On the church bishop, Justice Matanda-Moyo said: “The commission is tracing the source of funds which shows that the church member who paid a US$100 000 tithe had made US$1 million.”
Justice Matanda-Moyo was not at liberty to disclose the names of the church leaders under probe saying it could jeopardise investigations.
She said corruption was deep-rooted even in law enforcement agencies such as Zacc, police, and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
“Our institutions are not free from corruption; we have arrested some police officers while some members of Zacc have been dismissed on corruption charges,” said the Zacc boss.-The Sunday News
BULAWAYO businessman and Stingrays Swimming Academy founder, Edmore Cyprianos is suspected to have committed suicide, according to the police.
Cyprianos (49) was reportedly found hanging in a tree in a bushy area at Lucydale Farm in Matobo on Tuesday.
He was the managing director of Cypriano Electrical, ran Donnington Meat Supplies and also had a thriving farming and livestock venture.
The 2016 Zimbabwe National Chambers of Commerce Matabeleland chapter businessman of the year left his home on Tuesday without notifying his wife and was later found dead.
According to the police, the incident happened between 4.30 am and 4pm at Matopo Research Station.
Matabeleland South acting provincial police spokesperson Inspector Loveness Mangena said they were investigating a case of suicide.
“The deceased, Edmore Cyprianos (49) of 7 Bishop Gaule Avenue, Kumalo was found hanging from a tree in a bushy area by a passerby on 8 December 2020.
“He had left his house in the morning without notifying his wife where he was going.
“The body was taken to the United Bulawayo Hospitals and is awaiting post-mortem results,” she said.-The Sunday News
Video loading below…
By A Correspondent | SEN DOUGLAS MWONZORA has confirmed that his acclaimed funder has been arrested by police at his (the financier’s) in law’s house in Hwange at 8pm Sunday night, ZimEye can reveal.
The Thokozani Khupe aligned Harare deputy mayor who was on the run for several weeks, Luckson Mukunguma, has been arrested in Hwange.
He was found hiding in a round hut at his in-laws rural residence at around 8pm.
Mukunguma is facing 7 counts of corruption charges.
Mukunguma who Mwonzora refers to as his world bank, is expected to appear in court in Bulawayo within the next 48hrs.
Efforts to get a comment from Sen Mwonzora had a brief snag as his phone phone was continuously engaged; But Sen Mwonzora later confirmed the development saying that he was currently driving Bulawayo to see him. He spoke to ZimEye.com in the below interview….
By A Correspondent- Some primary and high schools in Bulawayo are forcing parents and guardians of students to fork out payments for masks and sanitizers, a move the government has declared illegal.
In September, the government began a phased re-opening of schools after a six months forced closure to curb the spread of the virulent Corona pestilence.
In turn, some schools demanded that parents should part with money in order to secure masks and sanitizers for their children.
The government went on to unveil ZWL$600 million to cater for masks and other necessities for students, but teachers argue that such money was not availed by the authorities.
Bulawayo is a Covid-19 hotspot in the country, recording deaths and double digit new infections almost daily.
An investigation by this publication revealed that schools such as Petra High, Christian Brothers College, Coughlan Primary and Mshede Primary demanded that parents pay between 100 rand to 200 rand for masks and sanitizers.
The monies are not receipted but are paid directly to the class teacher who in turn allegedly sources the masks and sanitisers from unnamed markets, investigations revealed.
At Mafela primary school, guardians were asked to part with 100 rand each while schools such as Pumula High and Maswazi Primary asked parents to come and clean schools without providing protective clothing.
In September, a symposium was organized by the Women of Zimbabwe Arise to discuss the re-opening of schools.
Among the participants were guardians, school children, and the Parliament Portfolio Committee on Primary and Secondary Education.
One of the contentious issues was the demand of varying monies for masks and sanitizers by schools.
“They asked us to come and clean the school and we were told that we need to bring 100 Rand each for masks and sanitizers,” said one grade seven pupil from Mafela.
Outspoken and combative Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) secretary general, Raymond Majongwe, told this publication in an interview that schools were spot on in charging mask fees as the government had failed to provide them.
“As far we are concerned schools are following what has to be done and we can’t blame the schools because they have to make sure that kids are safe, but at the same time we can’t pass the buck to parents because government had told us that it had provided ZWL$600 million to cover for these,” said Majongwe.
The PTUZ boss further said that the government lied about availing ZWL$600 million for masks and sanitizers for students.
Said Majongwe: “It goes back to the argument that the government was telling the nation that it has ZWL$600 million and the question is; where is the ZWL$600 million? Will they point, indicate a paper trail of what they are talking about, sanitizers, masks and provisions of water and any other provisions stipulated by WHO.
“As far as we are concerned the WHO guidelines have not been adhered to, class sizes remain huge and testing never happened. At the end of the day we need to find out who took the ZWL$600 million and where it was placed and those who took it must be arrested. If ZWL$600 million was provided we can’t be told that certain schools say they don’t have sanitizers to go to exams and it’s unacceptable and unforgiven. The people on the wrong side should be arrested.”
But, Taungana Ndoro, Primary and Secondary Education spokesperson expressly declared that it was illegal for schools to charge money for masks.
“The government has provided sanitizers and masks and parents can only supplement, but schools cannot force parents to buy them. It is unlawful,” Ndoro told CITE via a telephone interview.
An analysis of official COVID-19 data shows that new cases have been rising since November and are now averaging 100 cases daily, compared to the previous two months when infections stood at about 25 a day.
Almost 300 students have tested positive for Covid-19 since the resumption of classes on November 9.
By A Correspondent | DOUGLAS MWONZORA’S acclaimed “funder’ has been arrested by police at his in law’s house in Hwange at 8pm Sunday night, ZimEye can reveal.
The Thokozani Khupe aligned Harare deputy mayor who was on the run for several weeks, Luckson Mukunguma, has been arrested in Hwange.
He was found hiding in a round hut at his in-laws rural residence at around 8pm.
Mukunguma is facing 7 counts of corruption charges.
Mukunguma who Mwonzora refers to as his world bank, is expected to appear in court in Bulawayo within the next 48hrs.
Efforts to get a comment from Sen Mwonzora had a brief snag as his phone phone was continuously engaged; But Sen Mwonzora later confirmed the development saying that he was currently driving Bulawayo to see him. He spoke to ZimEye.com in the below interview….
By A Correspondent- A Harare woman is claiming $700 000 in damages from the government after losing her unborn child at Sally Mugabe Central Hospital on June.6
Valerie Chibaya is suing Vice President Constantino Chiwenga in his capacity as Health minister after accusing health officials at the hospital of neglecting to treat her as a medical emergency.
In her High Court papers, Chibaya named the vice president as the defendant in the suit as he is responsible for the actions of health officials. According to her summons, Chibaya went to Sally Mugabe Central Hospital in June when she was 23 weeks pregnant after experiencing unusual abdominal pains.
Upon arrival, the doctors and nurses did not take her temperature, blood pressure or sugar levels nor did they do a routine check-up on her.
Instead, they insisted that she gets a scan first before they could treat her, despite her obvious pain and discomfort. Chibaya claims that she began to bleed, without any treatment or even a wheelchair being provided.
The woman eventually went into premature labour and lost her baby without receiving any emergency medical care from staff at the hospital.
“It is reasonably foreseeable that a pregnant woman presenting herself at night in severe abdominal pain, if not medically assisted diligently and as a matter of urgency would develop complications threatening her life, causing pain and suffering, loss of and amenities of life.
“The traumatic experience by plaintiff occurred in a public place where people watched her in such a vulnerable position. Plaintiff as a result was humiliated, demeaned and embarrassed,” reads Chibaya’s summons.
Chiwenga and the Health ministry are yet to file their responses to Chibaya’s suit.-dailynews
Chitandara Team, Gombavazungu Village Team: two local football teams were … struck by lightning in my Constituency (Marondera West). 22 victims are battling for their lives in the hospital and one died on the spot. The hut they had sought refuge in was burnt ruthlessly. I am deeply pained by this unfortunate incident. We are in a country where the purported Ministers responsible for Health are seeking medication outside the country. These people (victims) need our support and their health is of paramount importance. – Hon Magorimbo
Warriors returnee Denver Mukamba says he is a reformed man and is delighted with receiving a call up to the senior men’s national soccer team.
The 2012 Soccer Star of the Year dazzled at his peak for Harare giants Dynamos and was even named Warriors captain at some point but his watershed move to South Africa changed everything as allegations of drug abuse and indiscipline marred his promising career.
Seven years after his last appearance in gold and green, Mukamba has been drafted into the Warriors fold by coach Zdravko Logarusic for the CHAN preparations and he assured football fans that he has changed.
“It has been long since I last had a chance with the Warriors. This is another golden opportunity for me, I am getting older and I feel this could be my last chance to fight my way back into the national team set up. The target is to do well and earn a place in the team that will travel to Cameroon for the CHAN finals,” he told The Sunday Mail.
“I now know the business and I am a changed guy. My club coach Dhlakama has been like a father to me. He has changed a lot of things in my life and I am now focused on reviving my career,” added the Ngezi Platinum midfielder.-Soccer 24
President Robert Mugabe’s G40 formation ‘has defeated the coupist, Emmerson Mnangagwa in ZANU PF’s just ended DCC elections.’
Findings from the results show that President Mugabe’s grouping is the real musangano, the exiled Foreign Affairs Minister Walter Mzembi says.
Minister Mzembi writes: Results of the just ended Zanu PF DCC elections countrywide anoratidza kuti G40 ndomusangano! It is folly for anyone to imagine that they can wish away G40.”
FULL TEXT
On a sad note, we report the passing away of Mamelodi Sundowns defender Motjeka Madisha due to a car accident.
The defender died on Saturday night after a horror crash in Kempton Park.
His death comes barely days after a former Masandawana player Anele Ngcongca was laid to rest following a car accident.
We send our condolences to the Masandawana family and South African football fraternity at large, in the wake of this tragic loss.-Soccer 24
Tinashe Sambiri|Recalled MDC Alliance Councillor for ward 7, Masvingo Urban, Richard Musekiwa has vowed to stand with the MDC Alliance and President Nelson Chamisa.
Musekiwa has described his recall as a non-event.
“I will never betray the people’s struggle .
Not even gold and silver can influence me.
Moving solidly behind the people President Advocate Nelson Chamisa -victory is certain.
I would like to thank the residents of Rujeko, ward 7 who gave me the opportunity to represent them in council.
I was recalled by Douglas Mwonzora and Zanu PF.
I will continue to assist local residents,” Musekiwa said in a statement.
Tinashe Sambiri|Embattled MDC -T leader Thokozani Khupe’s attempt to seize the people’s project hit a snag in Chinhoyi.
In a statement, MDC Alliance said Khupe would not stop the people’s victory despite being backed by Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration.
Read full statement below :
Chinhoyi has denied Khupe a chance to steal the people’s victory.
We are elated to inform you that a plot to steal the people’s victory by the MDC-T cabal was thwarted when Cllr Garikai Dendera was voted into office and Cllr Mada deputised -handing back the Chinhoyi Mayorship to the MDC Alliance led by Advocate Nelson Chamisa.
The illegal recalls of 6 other MDC Alliance Councillors this week to armtwist the remaining Councillors to give in to the ZANU friendly MDC-T and force them to vote for khupes candidate flopped as the remaining Councillors chose to stand with the people and the MDC Alliance.
Not even the presence of Gift Matshoba Konjana could change the complexion of the mayoral election.
It is no doubt that the khupe cabal are operating full throttle on social media but completely divorced from the grassroots,no wonder why they rely on virtual meetings than physically ones.
Their plan to fire members to get an edge over the MDC Alliance is no longer effective as they continue to be trounced hands down.
Bring on the By-elections we have sellouts and terrorists fighting the people to fry.
WHO today launches a year-long global campaign for World No Tobacco Day 2021 – “Commit to Quit.” The new WHO Quit Challenge on WhatsApp and publication “More than 100 reasons to quit tobacco” are being released today to mark the start of the campaign.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to millions of tobacco users saying they want to quit. The campaign will support at least 100 million people as they try to give up tobacco through communities of quitters.
“Commit to Quit” will help create healthier environments that are conducive to quitting tobacco by advocating for strong tobacco cessation policies; increasing access to cessation services; raising awareness of tobacco industry tactics, and empowering tobacco users to make successful quit attempts through “quit & win” initiatives.
WHO, together with partners, will create and build-up digital communities where people can find the social support they need to quit. The focus will be on high burden countries* where the majority of the world’s tobacco users live.
WHO welcomes new contributions from partners, including private sector companies that have offered support, including Allen Carr’s Easyway, Amazon Web Services, Cipla, Facebook and WhatsApp, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Praekelt, and Soul Machines.
Quitting tobacco is challenging, especially with the added social and economic stresses that have come as a result of the pandemic. Worldwide around 780 million people say they want to quit, but only 30% of them have access to the tools that can help them do so. Together with partners, WHO will provide people with the tools and resources they need to make a successful quit attempt.
“Smoking kills 8 million people a year, but if users need more motivation to kick the habit, the pandemic provides the right incentive,” said WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
WHO released a scientific brief earlier this year showing that smokers are at higher risk of developing severe disease and death from COVID-19.
Tobacco is also a major risk factor for noncommunicable diseases like cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory disease and diabetes. Moreover, people living with these conditions are more vulnerable to severe COVID-19.
Both global and regional cessation tools will be rolled out as part of the campaign. WHO’s 24/7 digital health worker to help people quit tobacco is available in English and will soon be released to support people in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish.
“Millions of people worldwide want to quit tobacco – we must seize this opportunity and invest in services to help them be successful, while we urge everyone to divest from the tobacco industry and their interests,” said Dr Ruediger Krech, Director of Health Promotion.
To create environments conducive to quitting tobacco, WHO has worked with partners and countries around the globe to implement tobacco control measures that effectively reduce the demand for tobacco.
WHO calls on all governments to ensure their citizens have access to brief advice, toll-free quit lines, mobile and digital cessation services, nicotine replacement therapies and other tools that are proven to help people quit. Strong cessation services improve health, save lives and save money.
Source:WHO
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My Personal Encounter With The Outgoing UCCZ President
….. as Rev ETC Ngadziore “ Retires “
By Dr Tinashe Gumbo
Today, the 13th of December 2020, Rev Ephraim Tafura Chandaifira (ETC) Ngadziore retires as the United Church of Christ in Zimbabwe (UCCZ) President after serving for two terms. Rev Ngadziore has been more than just a President of his Church but an Ecumenical leader who left a legacy for the broader Church in Zimbabwe.
Mudhara ETC was a darling of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) structures including the Secretariat. I personally worked with him since 2003 to date. He has been too good to me. He was always available for all the ZCC programs. Indeed, here lies a man of God who knew that life on earth also needs to be influenced by the men and women of Cloth. And…..he did it so well that he became a “social, economic, religious and even political justice activist” and I joined him in that field to serve our dear country Zimbabwe.
Rev Ngadziore led one of the biggest mainline churches in Zimbabwe.
While many would joke saying that UCCZ “ndeyekuChipinge”, the institution now boasts of membership that is spread across the country. Prominent National figures have their roots in that Church including the late Nationalist, Rev Ndabaningi Sithole, the prominent Lawyer, Professor Lovemore Madhuku, Rev Dr Menson Mpofu, the Midlands State University Chaplain among many more academics, politicians and Economists. The Church administers big education and health institutions such as Mount Selinda and Chikore Mission Hospitals and Schools. Thus, Rev Ngadziore has been presiding over these institutions during his tenure as the Head of Denomination for two consecutive terms.
Rev Ngadziore started his journey as a Clergy in 1989 when he joined the United Theological College where he spent four years.
In 1993, he was posted to the Midlands Province where he became the Church point person in Kwekwe. Rev Ngadziore became the ZCC local Chairperson in 1996 where he was being deputised by Rev Cephas Mukandi of the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe (MCZ). By the way, Rev Mukandi later became the ZCC Vice President sometime in early 2000s. While in Kwekwe, the leadership of Rev Ngadziore facilitated the allocation of residential stands for the Ministers of Religion.
Together with his team, Rev Ngadziore successfully campaigned against the participation of the under 18s in beer hall activities.
In 1999, Mudhara ETC was elected Church Superintendent and was moved to Gweru. It is in Gweru that I first met this man who became a close Ecumenical leader that I interacted with till this day when he leaves his church presidency. In 2005, with my colleague at ZCC, Owen Murozvi, under the leadership of Rev Ngadziore, we intervened to guide Church response to the ugly Operation Restore Order (Murambatsvina).
We mobilised support for the victims of this exercise that was implemented by the Mugabe Regime. Many people believe that the operation was fulfilled by the regime to punish the urban dwellers who had voted overwhelmingly for the opposition.
Politics for another day, let me concentrate on the man who led churches to save lives, Mudhara ETC!
In 2006, the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations (ZHOCD), then made up of ZCC, Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference (ZCBC) and the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ) proposed a way forward for Zimbabwe. The Church leaders came up with the “Zimbabwe We Want Discussion Document”. Through the able leadership of mukoma Gabriel Manyangadze, I, together with Owen Murozvi participated in the very initial development stages of the Pastoral Letter that was later amplified into the Zimbabwe We Want Document.
Now, Rev Ngadziore on behalf of ZCC led the process of popularizing the Document in the province and districts.
He was a Provincial Facilitator (POF) working closely with mukoma Paul Muchena of the ZCBC. I remember very well one incident that befell Mudhara ETC and team in my home area of Mberengwa. The team was detained at Mataga Growth Point for leading the Zimbabwe We Want processes. Rev Ngadziore engaged Councillor Ben Mataga who in turn talked to the then Midlands Boss, the late Minister Cephas Msipa. Rev Ngadziore always narrates this incident to me saying “vanhu vekumusha kwako vakandishungurudza”. That was Mugabe Regime for you.
Later on Rev Ngadziore was moved to the Masvingo province. He became the ZCC Chairperson with Rev Mangiza of MCZ as his deputy. The ZCC Mubatanidzwa became visible during his tenure as the Chair. One major achievement of the leadership of Rev Ngadziore was its influence for the construction of the round about near the Flamboyant Hotel in Masvingo.
Having realised that many people had lost lives through accidents at that spot, the Church leaders
engaged the then Minister of Transport as well as the Masvingo City Council and subsequently, a round about was constructed to reduce accidents at that point.
As the President of the UCCZ and ZCC Supervisory Council member, I interacted with Rev Ngadziore in many ways. I would not follow protocols to invite Rev Ngadziore for participation in ZCC civic processes. He was always available for ZCC High Level engagement process with Constitutional Commissions, Government Departments, Parliament, Diplomats and other key stakeholders. He led many civic programs including the I PRAY I VOTE Campaign, national budget, national dialogue etc(as his name tells-ETC). One thing I will always remember Rev ETC about, is how he communicates with The Almighty in a natural way. His prayer can easily pierce through one’s heart because the man is natural when it comes to prayer. In his deep Ndau he says exactly what he wants unlike other artificial prayers that we always hear around.
Rev Ngadziore’s tenure as President will be remembered for his leadership of the ZCC-UNICEF project in fulfilment of the ZCC’s Ecumenical COVID-19 Response Strategy. Through his leadership, UCCZ benefited from this project-Mount Selinda and Chikore Missions will never be the same after participating in this project. One other major highlight of Rev Ngadziore’s tenure was when he and Chief Mapungwana intervened when the owner of Beacon Hill Farm had evicted many families from the farm in order to grow macadamia. The UCCZ President engaged Professor Madhuku and the case was thrown before the courts. Rev Ngadziore is passionate about people’s lives and he always shared with me his feelings towards the evicted families. He appreciates the legal intervention of Professor Madhuku.
Thus, Rev Ngadziore, stood with the people during trying times. He was always available to save life: he was there for the people during Murambatsvina, he was there for the people when they were affected by Cyclone Idai and indeed, when COVID-19 hit, he was there for the people while he also stood with the evicted farmers. Thank you Mudhara ETC!
Rev Ngadziore is father to Taoneswa, Takudzwa and Elizaberth Ngadziore. He will now join some of his predecessors including Rev Murombedzi Kuchera, Rev Matuvhunye etc etc etc ETC rikava zita ravo!!! NdiMoyo ava!
NB: These are my own personal views about Rev ETC Ngadziore. They do not in anyway represent those of the various institutions I am associated with
From
Berias B T Mari
Email [email protected]
0834480396
To:
Mr Komichi
MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRATIC CHANGE
44 NELSON MANDELA AVENUE HARARE
13 DECEMBER 2020
Dear Mr Komichi
Re: Notice of EOC By Senator Komichi Circulating.
I greet you Sir.
On 27 November 2020 I Berias Brian Trust Mari wrote a letter to the Acting President of MDC requesting to get a formal invitation to the SC sanctioned Extra -Ordinary Congress in terms of article 6.2.6. I have not received a response from her.
What I found out today 13 December 2020 on twitter is a thing that purports to be a notice of EOC which is said to have been inserted by you. I have no idea if it is a notice you gave yourself or someone did it maliciously.
What ever the case, I feel obliged as an interested part, to raise concern on that particular notice. Should it be proven that you did not produce that notice, all the objection below may fall out.
A) SUPREME COURT RULING
ARTICLE 1
NAME, SYMBOL AND HEADQUARTERS OF THE PARTY
1.1 The name of the political Party shall be the Movement for Democratic Change (hereinafter referred to as “MDC” or where appropriate “Party”).
1.2 The Party’s symbol is an open palm with its borders in black on a white background encircled by the
Party’s slogan “Chinja maitiro” “Guqula Izenzo” written in black. The Party’s logo is a black circle incorporating the Zimbabwe bird in grey on an orange background which represents a wheel on which is also embedded the Party’s flag in black, red, yellow and green blocks arranged in bands.
1.3 The Party’s flag is rectangular. It is one and half times longer than it is wide. It is a horizontal multi-colour, comprising from top to bottom equal bands of green, yellow, red and black. At the centre of the flag is the Party symbol in its original colours with the words “MDC” written in white on the black band of the flag.
1.4 The Party is headquartered at Harvest House, No.44 Nelson Mandela Avenue, Harare and shall have offices at such other places as may be determined from time to time by the National Council.
It is important to note the identity details of the party that was before Court. It was never MDC Tsvangirai as you state on the said notice. It is evident that the notice you gave talks of another political party beside the one in court case SC56/2020. The name and symbol on your notice do not match the MDC cited in court.
4)The party whose Constitution was lodged has a legal status stated in article 2 of its constitution.
ARTICLE 2
LEGAL STATUS
2.1.The MDC shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession, capable of Suing and being sued and acquiring and disposing of property in its own name.
2.2 The MDC shall have the power to do everything necessary or conducive to the furtherance of its aims, values and objectives.
Take note Mr Komichi MDC can sue or be sued in her own name according to her constitution. It cannot be sued or sue in the name of Tsvangirai or
MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRATIC CHANGE TSVANGIRAI or any other name
preferred by anyone. In your notice you conflate a party which is not known to me as one cited in case SC56/2020. That is illegal and criminal.
before the courts Secondly, and equally significantly, he was unanimously elected as the President of the Party, i.e. the one that is presently before this Court, at its Congress convened in June 2019. These are the inescapable facts that loom large on the country’s political landscape. Please read that part. Very
clear. If you go to the notices given by the then Secretary General of MDC in 2019 to convene the 6.2.2 Congress you will see that the Congress was for MDC without a Tsvangirai both in person and on notices. This is the party that is in SC56/2020.
40
you that the power to convene an EOC is in the president as per 9.1.2.1 of MDC Constitution.One has to first assume the role of president, either by Acting or elected. Without assuming the role of president one cannot use article 9.1.2.1 of MDC to convene an Extra Ordinary Congress for MDC. Looking at the whole notice of yours, Mr Komichi, no where does it say you are writing the notice as Acting President of MDC or exercising powers in article 9.1.2.1 of MDC constitution.
to say.4” In the event that the third respondent fails or is unable to comply with paragraph 3 above, the third appellant, in his capacity as the National Chairperson of the first appellant, be and is hereby ordered to convene the aforesaid Extra-Ordinary Congress, within a period of four months from the date of this order”. It must be realised by you that the Court gave a condition that must first happen. That is to say Madam Khupe must fail or be unable to comply with order 3 of ruling then in
the capacity of Chairperson of MDC convene an EOC of MDC. The questions that then arise are
MDC constitution you must realise this clear statement 9.21.2 In the
event of the death or resignation of the National Chairperson, the Deputy National
Chairperson shall respectively hold office until the next Congress. As you know Mr
Komichi, you were elected Deputy National Chairperson and Mr
Lovemore Moyo was elected the Chair for a period 5years in 2014. Along the course Mr Moyo resigned from the party and you were to hold that post until next Congress, which came to pass in 2019. The Court noted it and stated that it is an escapable fact. A new Chairperson was elected and the court noted that too on
page 32 Mootness of the Matter This matter was heard a quo on 14 March 2019 and judgment therein was handed down on 8 May 2019. Soon thereafter, in June 2019, the Party convened a Congress at which elections were held and officials were elected to lead the Party. More significantly, the second appellant was elected as the President of the Party. The question that then arises is whether or not this matter has been overtaken by events and thereby rendered moot. Point to note is
that a congress was convened and elections were held and officials were elected to lead the party. In short a Chairperson was elected on that Congress. The matter before the court was not about the election of Chairperson.
B) YOUR NOTICE OF EOC
MDC constitution that a notice is given at least one month before date of EOC
6.2.6 A notice convening an Extra-Ordinary Congress shall be sent to all members entitled to attend and to each branch by the National Council at least one month before the date of the meeting. Without a date of
issue one cannot tell when this notice was issued. If delegates from SA are to get this notice from any source today they have no constitutional period of one month to meet the dates.
3) By reading the notice
i) Salutation.
“TO: All Delegates and All branches”. It shows Mr Komichi is applying some other constitution to write this notice beside MDC constitution. Like it is shown in article 6.2.6 which I quoted in B(2) above. Notice to convene Extra-Ordinary Congress shall be sent to all members entitled to attend and to each branch. This wording clearly show notices are given to each individual and to each branch unlike notice of 6.2.2
congress which is in article 6.2.4.1. A notice convening the Congress shall be sent to all
Provinces and Districts by the Secretary General on the direction of the National Council at least 2 (two) months before the date of the Congress.6.2.4.2. In addition, the notice convening the Congress shall be published once in a Newspaper of national circulation, thirty days before the Congress. Key words that you must not miss in this whole process are:
6.2.6. Article 6.2.6 notice requires “members entitled to attend” and not delegates. That is why we see foolish exercises of nominations being published. That you need to understand that no person go to EOC on behalf of anyone or representing anyone. The word delegate must tell you why notice 6.2.6 is important to be directed to each person entitled to attend.
Judgement between Movement for Democratic Change v Elias Mashavira and the constitution of that party but suddenly changes to give notice of an Extra Ordinary congress of another party known as Movement for Democratic Change (Tsvangirai). How this party is enjoined to the said SC judgement is not known to us. Again like explained above MDC in SC lodged a constitution with article 1 that give its name and Symbols and its article state clearly in black and white that it can only sue or be sued in its “own” name not other people’s name. There is no way MDC could have been sued in the name of MDC T . It us absurd for you to abuse a SC ruling to call your own party’s EOC using a Supreme Court judgement. This is a commercial crime of corporate hijacking. I feel you need to be warned to note your actions. Let it be clear that MDC is a legal person outside her members. This MDC T you are conflating to MDC is not known to the SC or us members holding membership cards of MDC the party in SC ruling.
you have nothing left as long as article 9.21.2 stands and as long as June 2019 congress stand.
C) MY concerns
I will just conclude and say this.
Hope to see you doing the right thing
Yours
Berias Brian Trust Mari
Member of MDC South Africa Provincial Executive.
Tinashe Sambiri|Embattled MDC -T leader Thokozani Khupe’s attempt to seize the people’s project hit a snag in Chinhoyi.
In a statement, MDC Alliance said Khupe would not stop the people’s victory despite being backed by Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration.
Read full statement below :
Chinhoyi has denied Khupe a chance to steal the people’s victory.
We are elated to inform you that a plot to steal the people’s victory by the MDC-T cabal was thwarted when Cllr Garikai Dendera was voted into office and Cllr Mada deputised -handing back the Chinhoyi Mayorship to the MDC Alliance led by Advocate Nelson Chamisa.
The illegal recalls of 6 other MDC Alliance Councillors this week to armtwist the remaining Councillors to give in to the ZANU friendly MDC-T and force them to vote for khupes candidate flopped as the remaining Councillors chose to stand with the people and the MDC Alliance.
Not even the presence of Gift Matshoba Konjana could change the complexion of the mayoral election.
It is no doubt that the khupe cabal are operating full throttle on social media but completely divorced from the grassroots,no wonder why they rely on virtual meetings than physically ones.
Their plan to fire members to get an edge over the MDC Alliance is no longer effective as they continue to be trounced hands down.
Bring on the By-elections we have sellouts and terrorists fighting the people to fry.
Emmerson Mnangagwa has promoted 515 senior and junior police officers stationed in Bulawayo and Matabeleland South provinces.
The promotion comes after the president had recently promoted over 1000 police officers. The officers were promoted as follows in Bulawayo:
479 officers from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Police Protection Unit (PPU) and the Daily Uniformed Branch (DUB) were elevated.Of those, 52 were Inspectors who were promoted to the rank of Chief Inspector.123 were promoted from Sergeant to Assistant Inspector282 Constables were elevated to Sergeants.22 were elevated from Sergeants to Sergeant Majors.
A similar event took place in Gwanda, the provincial capital of Matabeleland South Province.
36 police officers stationed in the province were conferred with new ranks of Inspectors and Chief Inspectors.1 officer was promoted from Sergeant Major to Assistant Inspector,27 were promoted from Assistant Inspector to Inspector8 were promoted from Inspector to Chief Inspector.
In a speech read on his behalf by Assistant Commissioner John Simon during the conferment ceremony, Comm-Gen Godwin Matanga said:
While your promotion today reflects due recognition and incentive for your individual hard work, its main thrust is that it is an investment vehicle in which the organisation is planting seeds of hope in your career.
As such you are expected to remain forthright, exemplary, visionary, firm, fair and professional among other attributes and expectations synonymous with the ranks you now occupy.
Above all the need for you to become role models to your peers and subordinates as well as paragons of professionalism in the communities you serve cannot be overemphasised.
He also urged police officers to shun corruption, uphold morality and good ethical conduct.-State media
By A Correspondent- A 28 year old Harare man yesterday appeared before magistrate Estere Chivasa on allegations of robbing and raping seven women.
The alleged serial rapist, Coaster Kabvuratsiye was not asked to plead when he appeared before Chivasa on 14 counts of rape and robbery.
Prosecutor Panganai Chiutsi told the court that sometime between April 2019 and February 2020, Kabvuratsiye disguised himself as a middleman for jobseekers and would rape the unsuspecting victims.
On all the incidences, he would lie to the victims that he had found a job for them and was taking them to their employer.
Rather, he would lead them to a maize field in Tynwald South in Harare where he would rape them before robbing them of their valuables.
On other incidents, he would rape the victims together with his accomplices who are still at large.
Kabvuratsiye was arrested on February 8, 2020 when the police tracked him using one of the victims’ mobile phone.
He was remanded to December 23, 2020 for trial.
Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) commander Lieutenant General Edzai Absolom Chanyuka Chimonyo is in India for medical treatment.
Lt. Gen. Chimonyo is said to be suffering from lung complications and was airlifted to the Asian country recently.
A local publication said they tried in vain to get a comment from Defence and War Veterans Affairs Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri and the army.
This comes after former Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) commander Constantino Chiwenga, who is the Vice President and Health Minister, was flown to China also for medical care.
In September, after being appointed Health Minister, Chiwenga said the government had banned medical trips abroad by Zimbabweans which he said were draining the country of scarce foreign currency.
He said:
We will not export our patients. We will not make referrals (to foreign medical facilities) for our patients. It’s everybody.
Ministers are only about 20 but those who have been going out it’s you, you, me, altogether.
That export bill was too high and that’s what we want to curtail. We want to do away with that, and it requires us to carry out restructuring from the village health worker right up to the quaternary hospital.
Several high-ranking Zimbabwean officials have received medical care in India, among them, Chiwenga, Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo and the late ZIPRA and Zapu supremo, Dumiso Dabengwa.
-newshawks
Folloowing their recently rolled out program on the so called research on pre colonial, colonial and post colonial conflict periods, and also following ZAPU and NPRC meeting in Bulawayo on 11 December 2020, we wish to emphasise on the following points as communicated to the commission;
1. It is insincere, insensitive and insulting of the Zimbabwean government, through the NPRC to conduct a research on matters of rights violations which they and the public are well aware of due to different roles each played in committing them and experiencing them.
2. We note and condemn the mischief by the Zimbabwean government which, and deliberately so, has bundled unverified folk tales of pre colonial era with rights violations of post colonial and post independence era.
3. We reiterate that what the Zimbabwean government refers to as “conflict” is actually human and citizens rights violations by the state on its people. These are monumental crimes against humanity and must be therefore treated not as conflict but as crimes.
4. The NPRC in its entirety is compromised and therefore has absolutely no capacity to lead the resolutions of numerous crimes against humanity that were committed by their appointing authority, the Zimbabwean government. These include the 1980s genocide on ZAPU initially and Matebeleland in result, successive waves of electoral violence since 1980, economic crimes that led to collapse of the national economy, Murambatsvina, sustained state sponsored abductions, torture and disappearances of citizens and the recent shooting of unarmed protestors post 2018 elections.
5. With specific reference to the ZAPU and Matebeleland genocide of the 1980s, ZAPU is adamant that neither is the Zimbabwean government nor their appointed apologists and enablers posing as the NPRC can lead and resolve the genocidal crime. For starters, the composition of the commission itself is an insult to the victims, for it consists only of known ZANU PF members and by extension, only perpetrators of the genocidal crime. It is more insulting that the Zimbabwean government, after committing a genocide of Gukurahundi proportions, turns around and self appoints as leader in its research and also in its resolution.
ZAPU again demands the unconditional release and publishing of reports of all commissions that investigated the ZAPU and Matebeleland genocide of the 1980s. These include Chihambakwe and Dumbutshena reports. The release of these will mark the very first step in resolving the genocidal crime and also open an honest dialogue and truth tekling around the matter. The mother party also reminds the government that taxpayers money funded those two commission investigations and as such, the state is obliged to release to the funders the results of the investigations.
7. ZAPU demands the state cedes to it the process of resolving the genocide since we were the targeted victims. We refuse to watch the perpetrating Zimbabwean government of ZANU PF pacifying the victims with piecemeal resolution initiatives that are only meant to prolong the process and ultimately denying them justice, healing and peace. ZAPU, as believers in justice, will expeditiously undertake processes to resolve the genocide and deliver the long awaited justice to whoever must receive it.
8. Bundling together of what the government has termed pre and post colonial conflicts with its rights violations is a mischievous act to evade accountability for those crimes. The Zimbabwean government has no capacity as well as the sincerity to resolve those matters as well as the crimes it committed against its people.
9. We, therefore, dismiss with the contempt it deserves, the process of the NPRC. We in the same vein, register our disapproval of the NPRC, which we do not recognise for the specific reason that it is composed entirely of compromised members who report directly to perpetrators of those crimes they supposedly are investigating.
10. ZAPU once again draws the attention of the perpetrating Zimbabwean government to its position regarding the 1980s genocide and demands audience with the perpetrators. We refuse to be bundled together with other so called political parties, most if not all were never a target, victim or even experienced the crime. The most unfortunate part of this dubious involvement of the so called other political parties is that none existed during the genocide, through the forced unity accord until recently when the pact was in its final stages of collapse leading to the eventual pullout by ZAPU in 2009.
11. In line with our position on the resolution of the genocide, ZAPU demands an honest and genuine process that begins with official acknowledgement of the crime, truth telling, justice, reparations, descent reburials as well as memorisation, documentation, healing and rehabilitation. A deliberate affirmative action must be implemented in the Matebeleland and Midlands region so that the victims catch up with the rest of the country on economic and social development.
Iphithule Maphosa
ZAPU Secretary for Information Publicity and Marketing
[email protected]
www.zapu.org.
The tenth edition of Zim Hip Hop Awards was held on Saturday night at Harare International Conference Centre (HICC) Rainbow Towers.
Bulawayo’s finest rapper, Asaph reigned supreme at the awards where he scooped four gongs while fast-rising Holy Ten who is behind the Ndaremerwa hit and R Peels also had a good night as they scooped three and two awards each respectively.
The Ginde track in which Asaph featured on earlier this year put him on the map as it earned him and Crooger nods for Best Collaboration and Best Video.
Asaph was also awarded for having the Best hip hop verse and Hip Hop personality.
Check out the full list below:
Best Male
R peels
Best Female
Kikky BadA$$
Best Newcomer
Holy ten
Best Hip-Hop Duo/Group
Crisswiss and the dot
Best Album
Jungle loco – Bata mastreets
Song of the year
Holy Ten – Ndaremerwa
Best Producer
Jonn the producer
Best Collaboration
Crooger ft Asaph and Ti Gonzi – Ginde
Best Brand Supporting Local HipHop
Kingsville Clothing
Best Promoter
Cottage47
Best Diaspora
Mlue Jay
Best Radio DJ
Lady k and Pd the ghost
Best Gospel Act
Courtney Antipas
Best underground
Prozac
Best alternative
Indigo Saint
Best Online Media
Zimsphere
Best Journalist
Takudzwa Kadzura
Hip Hop personality of the year
Asaph
Video Of The Year & Video director of the year
Crooger – Ginde
Best hip hop hustle
R Peels
Best hip hop verse (sweet 16 award)
Asaph
Peoples choice
Holy ten
Artiste of the decade
Stunner
-statemedia
By A Correspondent- Zimbabwe’s largest sugar manufacturer, Tongaat Hulett last week closed all of its schools in Triangle and Hippo Valley after staff members reportedly tested positive for covid-19.
Eight staff members including the school head, teachers and non-teaching staff at Mufakose High School in Triangle tested positive for Covid-19 last week.
To curb the spread of the virus Tongaat Hulett decided to close all of its 22 schools on Thursday 10 November.
However, only Zimsec exam candidates will be allowed to write their examinations at the schools under strict government and World Health Organisation(WHO) covid-19 safety protocols.
Tongaat Hulett spokesperson Ms Adelite Chikunguru said the company decided to close its schools to curb the spread of the virus among staff and pupils.
“It is unfortunate that one of our schools reported cases of Covid-19. We have closed all schools that are being run by Tongaat Hulett in the Lowveld so that we try and minimise the possible spread of the pandemic. We had stringent protocols that we have been following since the schools opened in September and we had not had any case of Covid-19.
“The new cases at one of our schools are unfortunate and we have made sure that the affected people receive best health care.
We have state of the art healthcare facilities at Tongaat Hulett and we are also working with the Rapid Response Team and the Ministry of Health and Child Care to ensure that the situation is under control. We continue to follow Government guidelines on Covid-19,” she said.
Tongaat Hulett said in a written memo to its employees that 51 people came into direct contact with one of the 8 persons who tested positive for covid-19 at Mufakose High School.
The memo states that the 51 people who came into contact with the primary source were tested for the virus and were currently in self-quarantine while their PCR test results are being processed.
“Of the 66 primary contacts that have been investigated so far, 15 were tested and 11 turned out to be positive. A total of 51 secondary contacts were tested, six of the 14 ran tests were positive. Other 37 results are not yet out,” reads part of the memo.
-statemedia
By A Correspondent- Shebeens are sprouting around Victoria Falls with many houses being turned into drinking spots in the absence of bars and nightclubs that were closed because of the Covid-19 lockdown.
Shebeen operators, both men and women, and beer lovers are oblivious of the Covid-19 precautions as patrons usually gather for the “wise waters” albeit without masks or practicing social distancing.
bars and nightspots remain closed and the government stated in a recent post-cabinet briefing that lockdown and curfew measures still exist, adding that where there is non-compliance, the law enforcement agents will not hesitate to enforce the penalties prescribed.
The government recently intensified enforcement of the lockdown measures following a new surge in Covid-19 cases.
Judith Sibanda of Mkhosana, whose husband is based in South Africa and has not been able to return home due to the lockdown restrictions, said she started selling beer at her rented one room to raise money for the upkeep of her four minor children.
“I was working at a backyard restaurant, which was closed because of the lockdown and has not opened to date,” Sibanda said.
“I decided to sell beer at home because that was the only way I could make money.
“We order from Delta, but sometimes we have challenges because they want licences for one to buy beer in bulk so we pay bar operators to order for us using their licences.”
She does not allow her clients to drink on site as a way of evading law enforcement agents.
“They buy and go,” Sibanda said. “Only a few drink inside my room and this is usually my friends and relatives, otherwise everyone else buys and goes to drink elsewhere.”
A random check around Mkhosana and Chinotimba high-density suburbs showed that there could be around 40 houses that are selling beer.
before the lockdown, there were two popular shebeens known as KwaMai Kazembe in Mkhosana and MaJele in Chinotimba.
The closure of public places such as Shoestrings backpackers, Army Chalets, Rest Camp, Invuvu, The Vic Falls Club, Grid bar, KoPanashe, Zambezi house, boat Club, The River brewery, brown Sugar, Comfort Pub and Grill, Sports bar, Tavern, Old bar, Mukali bar and G Sport as a result of the national lockdown that was effected in March left beer lovers with no drinking spots.
Unconfirmed reports say some bar operators are the ones running the shebeens.
However, Mukali bar owner Silas Maligo refuted the claims, saying he was abiding by the lockdown regulations although residents say people have been buying alcohol from his bar.
Mufudzi nyoni, who used to rent Dentola Sports bar, defended a drinking spot at his house in Mkhosana, saying it was not a shebeen but only a sports and leisure centre for people to play snooker.
“I don’t sell beer here. I only saw an opportunity to make money following the closure of bars and nightclubs,” Nyoni said.
“People used to play snooker at Dentola Sports bar so I brought the pool table here.
“Those who want soft drinks buy from a nearby tuckshop, but we don’t allow beer in the yard.”
Most of the shebeens open all night long and clients are entertained with loud music.
Residents have expressed concern about the noise, which they say disturbs their peace.
This is despite the presence of police and soldiers, who are deployed to enforce lockdown regulations.
Sometimes patrons fight at the drinking spots.
“We are tired of noise day and night,” said a Chinotimba resident whose house is surrounded by three shebeens.
“It is worse during weekends as they make noise until morning. We can’t even sleep because of noise.
“They also urinate in our yards and gardens and we have to clean their mess which is a health risk for us.
“We have raised the issue with the police, but nothing has happened as they also drink from there.”
A couple was recently arrested and charged with attempted murder after allegedly stabbing a patron 32 times with a screw driver after he allegedly failed to pay for beer.
Christopher Lyuhya, aged 37, and wife Jacqueline Nhidza, aged 36, severely assaulted Tendai Zengeni at their house in Chinotimba where they were operating a shebeen, leaving him for dead.
The couple is in custody for attempted murder awaiting trial.
Matabeleland north police spokesperson Chief Inspector Siphiwe Makonese says police are aware of the presence of illegal drinking spots and occasionally carry out raids.
“We sometimes raid houses that sell beer and we will constantly remind citizens that we are still on lockdown,” Makonese said.
“Police will not hesitate to arrest any citizens that break the law as bars remain prohibited while public drinking is also an offence.”
—-
This article was originally published by The Citizen Bulletin, nonprofit hyperlocal news outlet serving audiences in and around Matabeleland.
By A Correspondent- Clara Tandi felt feverish. Worried she was sick with the coronavirus, she grabbed handfuls of lemon, guava and mint leaves from her garden and boiled them into a liquid.
Then Tandi (59) stripped off her clothes, swaddled herself in a blanket and inhaled the herbal steam until sweat beaded on her forehead.
Finally, she stirred a topical cold-and-cough ointment into the greenish brew and drank an entire cup.
“Then you know that, if the virus was inside, it has disappeared or has been killed,” she said.
Some africans routinely use alternative treatments, including herbs, roots, barks and powders, to meet their medicinal needs.
In Zimbabwe, the underfunded health care system can be so frustrating to navigate that traditional medicine is increasingly popular.
So as the coronavirus marched across the country and infected more than 11 000 people some turned to berries and herbs instead of doctors and nurses.
But because the virus is new and what is known about it is ever-shifting, it is a particularly ripe target for misinformation, or what the World Health Organisation has called an “infodemic”.
Medical experts here have noticed a slew of social media posts promoting unproven remedies.
In one, a woman claims she cured her daughter of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, with a routine that included steaming under a blanket four times a day and stuffing her socks with onions and garlic.
While some alternative treatments have proven medicinal value, many coronavirus antidotes do not.
They may not stop the disease, says Shingai Nyaguse, president of the Zimbabwe Senior Hospital Doctors’ association.
And even if an herb is effective, it could linger in the body, severely damaging the kidneys as they try to flush it out.
Agnes Mahomva, chief coordinator of the country’s Covid-19 response, recently met with specialists who analysed Covid-19 cases at a large hospital in Harare.
A number of patients had suffered renal failure.
“We know some of those complications can come because people were taking some concoctions that are not regulated,” she said.
Zimbabwe’s health care system was once among the region’s best.
But over the last two decades, the country’s economy collapsed under the leadership of former president Robert Mugabe.
Health care funding evaporated, and some hospitals had neither electricity nor water.
Many physicians left the country. Those who remain frequently strike to demand more supplies and better pay.
Many Zimbabweans depend on a strained network of public clinics.
Doctors are usually only available on certain days, and the lines to see them are long.
While they once dispensed medication for free, they’re now more likely to give patients a prescription to buy it elsewhere.
“Once communities know that, when you visit a health facility, there are no drugs, and the health workers are rude because they are poorly paid, they end up not visiting those health facilities because the quality of care will be poor,” said Itai Rusike, executive director of the Community Working Group on Health, which advocates for health care for the poor.
Instead, Rusike says, many Zimbabweans visit traditional or faith healers to treat digestive problems, mental illness and sexually transmitted diseases.
They are often less expensive than physicians, and it’s easier to get an appointment.
The government requires healers to join a registry and only use treatments deemed safe.
One of the largest associations counts 55 000 members.
The government has authorised herbalists to treat Covid-19 patients.
But Prince Sibanda, secretary of education for the Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers’ association, notices that people bypass even registered healers and try to mix their own concoctions instead.
He attributes this to headlines out of Madagascar, where the president touted an herbal tonic as a potential cure. (There’s no proof that it destroys the virus, though the WHO recently helped establish rules for scientists to test such therapies.)
It’s easy to find ingredients at open-air markets. and if a recipe comes from a friend on social media, it may seem trustworthy, said Nyaguse, the doctors’ association president.
Tandi lives in Kuwadzana, a Harare suburb where large families pack into small homes.
A chatty woman with an ever-present smile, she has hypertension and diabetes, which would put her at higher risk of severe illness if she contracted the coronavirus.
As a tailor, Tandi already worked from home, and when she leaves, she protects herself by wearing a mask and avoiding crowded events like church services and funerals.
But in June, her uncle died from Covid-19. That terrified her.
In the past, Tandi had tried treating her medical conditions with herbal cocktails, though she also takes prescription medication.
She heard that a woman from church beat the virus with homemade therapies. So she and her friends trade recipes on Whatsapp and experiment with different ingredients and measurements.
“I heard that coronavirus does not thrive in hot temperatures or sour stuff,” Tandi says, “so I started looking for things that are hot and sour, and I drank those regularly to avoid being infected.”
Now, three times a day, Tandi sips a mix of Zumbani, an herbal tea people drink to reduce fever, and garlic. She saves the steam and cold-ointment ritual for when she has flu-like symptoms, though ingesting ointment is potentially toxic. But she considers her experiments safe and more efficient than visiting the local clinic. She heard the nurses there were on strike.
Global Press Journal
By A Correspondent- The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) has reportedly set its sights on the judiciary and on churches, The Sunday Mail reports. The anti-graft body has reportedly opened an investigation into judges, magistrates, and church leaders alleged to be engaged in corrupt activities.
This was revealed by the ZACC Chief, Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo who said they were investigating corruption in the judiciary even though she emphasized there will be no interference on the independence of the judiciary from ZACC:
The investigation against members of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) is underway, but we want to ensure that there will be no outcry of interference on the Judiciary.
The commission is tracing the source of funds which shows that the church member who paid a US$100 000 tithe had made US$1 million.
Our institutions are not free from corruption; we have arrested some police officers while some members of ZACC have been dismissed on corruption charges
The commission has submitted eight applications for unexplained wealth orders with the High Court of Zimbabwe. We have started tracing assets in South Africa, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Malasyia, Mauritius and Kenya.
This year, the commission has so far submitted 87 dockets for prosecution. We understand that the NPA has been on a recruiting drive and we look forward to corruption cases being given top priority next year
Matanda Moyo refused to shed light on the case about a prominent bishop who allegedly received a US$100 000 tithe from his church congregant but said corruption is deep-rooted in institutions.
ZACC last week headlined for claiming that it has recovered over 500 vehicles in the last 18 months.
-statemedia
By A Correspondent- A relative of the former second lady Marry Chiwenga Hunnington Mubaiwa has called on the Vice President Constantino Guvheya Chiwenga to stop victimising his wife and ensure that she gets the medical attention she urgently requires.
Mubaiwa called on the judiciary to execute their mandate professionally and stop persecuting Marry at the instruction of higher powers by denying her the right to seek medical treatment in South Africa.
He said:
“The matter became extra judicial when that errant judge personalised the case and when he issued a warrant of arrest.
“When a judge superceeds the right and ability and capacity of a duly accepted and professionally trained lawyer and when he has to drag a very sick person to court.
“Sending an ambulance to bring her to court…….that case becomes an extra judicial. The matter is sitting on the president’s lap…VP Chiwenga, this is the mother to your children, she is your wife she has rights.
“Please check the sanity of the judge presiding over this case. We just want her to go to hospital. Cut your losses and do the right thing.”
By Nomusa Garikai- “The $1,744 billion allocated in the 2021 National Budget by Treasury to allow the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to conduct the delimitation exercise ahead of the 2023 harmonised elections, has been described as grossly inadequate,” reported Zimeye.
“However, legislators (Parliament’s portfolio committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs) have called for more budgetary support for the exercise, which requires about $8,6 billion.”
This government has not implemented even one democratic reform since the rigged 2018 elections and there is nothing to suggest it has any intention of doing so in the future. With no reforms, the 2023 elections will marred by the same flaws, irregularities and illegalities noted in the 2018 elections and, before that, the 2013 elections. This is just another expensive but utterly meaningless rituals!
Last January the MP for Chiredzi South constituency revealed that the best performing schools in the grade 7, form 2, “O” and “A” level examination posted 3% pass rate and the great majority had 0%. Most rural schools had very similar results.
Zimbabwe’s education standards did not fall to this over one or two years; this has taken decades – a reflection of decades of under invest. And yet year after year parents have send their children to school knowing fully well the children will learn very little, as the school results showed!
The 2020 corona virus pandemic has disrupted education the world over, including Zimbabwe. Whilst the rest of the world has made a concerted effort to make sure students made up for lost time, our attempts to do the same have largely come to naught.
As soon as the schools and colleges reopened leaners found there were no teachers. The teachers went on strike; taking up from where they left off before the corona virus shut down. They are demanding a living wage and not the US$50 or so per month when the PDL is pegged at US$650.
This government is squandering $1.7 billion (US$ 17 million); the same again in 2022 and ten times that, at least, in 2023; preparing for the 2023 elections. This is just a criminal waste of money; we already know the elections will be rigged!
I would rather government pay the teachers a living wage than waste the money on yet another mockery elections.
By A Correspondent- A relative of the former second lady Marry Chiwenga Hunnington Mubaiwa has called on the Vice President Constantino Guvheya Chiwenga to stop victimising his wife and ensure that she gets the medical attention she urgently requires.
Mubaiwa called on the judiciary to execute their mandate professionally and stop persecuting Marry at the instruction of higher powers by denying her the right to seek medical treatment in South Africa.
He said:
“The matter became extra judicial when that errant judge personalised the case and when he issued a warrant of arrest.
“When a judge superceeds the right and ability and capacity of a duly accepted and professionally trained lawyer and when he has to drag a very sick person to court.
“Sending an ambulance to bring her to court…….that case becomes an extra judicial. The matter is sitting on the president’s lap…VP Chiwenga, this is the mother to your children, she is your wife she has rights.
“Please check the sanity of the judge presiding over this case. We just want her to go to hospital. Cut your losses and do the right thing.”
By A Correspondent- A Zanu-PF official in Shangani, Matabeleland South, is allegedly usurping the authority of traditional leaders and the Lands ministry by illegally selling state land to unsuspecting people.
In a petition, Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP) president Mqondisi Moyo called on the government to “rescue Chief Jahana’s subjects from the captivity of Shame Mathe and Zanu-PF”.
The petition, dated December 3, was addressed to Chief Ndumiso Jahana Khumalo and copied to the ministries of Lands, Home Affairs, Justice, Primary and Secondary Education, Matabeleland South Provincial Affairs minister Abednico Ncube (pictured) as well as President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
“I draw your attention to the subject in which Mathe, a teacher at Ensangu Primary School at Ensangu Village under Chief Jahana, who is a member of Zanu-PF, has become a law unto himself,” Moyo wrote.
“He is a nuisance to Chief Jahana, village heads, and their subjects who do not condone his unethical conduct.
“On December 2, in Bulawayo, five village heads led by Ernest Nxumalo and three other villagers from Village 5 of Insango, Ward 22, Insiza North, had to meet me to air their grievances regarding the unlawful behaviour of Mathe, who has unlawfully taken over responsibilities and roles of the chief.”
He alleged that the traditional leaders claimed that Mathe often boasts about his Zanu-PF and government connections.
“Because of all this, the man has become one of the Zanu-PF untouchables,” Moyo alleged.
“Since May 2012, Mathe has been unlawfully selling land at prices ranging from R5 000 to R6 000, and mainly to land grabbers from Mashonaland.
“It was indicated to me that so far, 5 946 villages have been dubiously registered for land or even allocated the same by Mathe using his destructive connections with Zanu-PF.”
He said the problems started around 2012 when Mathe imposed himself as village head, taking over from Nomusa Mguni who had been appointed by Chief Jahana.
Chief Jahana said he was yet to see the petition although he said he had received many reports about Mathe.
“I have many reports about Shame Mathe on land issues,” he said.
Mathe, however, dismissed the petition as politicking and threatened to sue MRP.
“To me, that’s politics,” he said. “I am not giving it much attention, but the only thing I will do is to seek legal action so that they prove their claim in court.
“They once did the same and the government investigated and found me clean and now they are repeating the same claims again.”-standard
By A Correspondent- The chaos that characterised Zanu-PF polls has revealed that the ruling party is still struggling for cohesion three years after its long-time ruler Robert Mugabe was toppled in a coup, analysts have said.
Zanu-PF held the largely chaotic polls as part of efforts to resuscitate its moribund district coordinating committees (DCCs) over a week ago.
The DDCs were disbanded by the late Mugabe in 2012 as the jostling to succeed him between factions linked to his then deputies Emmerson Mnangagwa and Joice Mujuru intensified.
Mnangagwa eventually succeeded the octogenarian after the military toppled him in November 2017 and the former VP has been trying to strengthen his grip on the faction-riddled party.
The DCC polls were marred by rampant rigging, factionalism and violence.
Ballot papers were burnt in certain areas while candidates accused of belonging to a faction that was aligned to Mugabe in his last days in power known as G40 were prevented from taking part in the polls.
In Nyanga, Manicaland province, one of the candidates, Moses Gutu, was arrested for destroying ballot papers and insulting a polling officer.
In Goromonzi district, Mashonaland East province, candidates said they were threatened by some senior party officials along factional lines and labelled G40 or Gamatox and not wanted by Mnangagwa.
Gamatox was a faction that favoured Mujuru to take over from Mugabe ahead of Mnangagwa before they were expelled from Zanu-PF together with their leader in 2013.
Some of the disgruntled candidates in the new DCC elections said they were intimidated and their supporters ended up either snubbing the polls or voting for candidates they were told were allegedly wanted by Mnangagwa.
“Some candidates were not allowed to stand, labelled either G40 or having been independent candidates before,” said a candidate from Goromonzi.
“The best two candidates for chairmanship and women affairs were Boniface Mutize and Beatrice Nyamupinga, who were labelled G40 and disqualified from participating in the elections.
“At counting, youth affairs and women affairs should have a maximum of 40 votes per district or station, but you had someone getting 79 votes.
“No disregard of voters will surpass this.”
Acting Zanu-PF spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa said it was premature for him to comment on the polls.
“I will not comment right now because the process is still underway,” Chinamasa said yesterday.
“When it is finalised we will give you a press statement.”
But political analyst George Makoni said it was clear that the elections were characterised by vote-buying, imposition of candidates and intimidation.
“The elections also showed an ugly scene of factionalism in Zanu-PF and a lot of hate speech was very common with some being labelled G40s and Gamatox.
“Again marginalised groups, including women and people with disabilities, failed to make it into the DCCs.”
University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer Tawanda Zinyama said while there was a semblance of democracy in Zanu-PF, it failed the fundamental tests.
“But what we need to understand is that this is guided democracy, which is grounded in Marxism-Leninism where the thinking is that centralised democracy is the way to go,” Zinyama said.
“You don’t behave the way you want, which is why you see the national political commissar Victor Matemadanda continuously saying we have G40 remnants, which means if somebody is popular in a district and has high chances of winning and is deemed to be someone who is not toeing the party line as defined by the leaders, you are likely to be labelled so that you can be disqualified no matter how popular you are in that particular district.
“So at the end of the day, it defeats the proper functioning of an internal democracy.
“So I will say it is cosmetic windowdressing. It reflects on the existence of fractures in the party. There is no unity at all.”
University of Zimbabwe political scientist Eldred Masunungure said while only violence was lacking this time around, there were reports of rigging and other allegations.
“This now appears to be a staple food in Zanu-PF,” Masunungure said.
“They are a reflection of Zanu-PF factionalism and the party appears to thrive on factionalism.
“It is a paradox but it seems factionalism makes the party robust and these are permanent features in Zanu-PF,” he said.
ZBC journalist Reuben Barwe, businesswoman Sharon Mugabe and former presidential aspirant Shakespeare Maya were some of the notable figures to win in the elections.-standard
By A Correspondent- Matabeleland north Provincial affairs minister Richard Moyo has become the latest top Zanu-PF official to test positive for Covid-19 as cases continue to surge.
Zanu-PF secretary for administration Obert Mpofu and the party’s communications director tafadzwa Mugwadi tested positive for Covid-19 over a week ago.
Moyo said he tested positive for the coronavirus last Monday, but said he was asymptomatic.
“I am self-isolating at home, but for now I am not feeling any pain and I am still asymptomatic, but I am taking as much as possible caution while at home,” he told Cite.
Moyo became the third Provincial affairs minister to contract the virus after his Midlands counterpart larry Mavhima and Mary Mliswa Chikoka from Mashonaland West.
Other government officials that have tested positive for the disease since the Covid-19 outbreak began in March include Public Services, labour and Social Welfare deputy minister lovemore Matuke and Finance and economic Development permanent secretary George Guvamatanga.
The then agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement minister Perrance Shiri succumbed to the disease in July.
In august, 26 Zanu-PF employees tested positive for the disease. Zimbabwe has been witnessing a resurgence in Covid-19 cases for the past two months and Friday the country recorded 74 new infections with one death.
As of Friday, Zimbabwe had recorded 11 127 Covid-19 cases with 9 253 recoveries. the country has seen 305 deaths.
Meanwhile, Portia Manangazira, the Health and Child Care ministry’s director of epidemiology and diseases control, on Friday said there was need for Zimbabweans to remain vigilant as Covid-19 would remain a threat to public health for some time.
Manangazira told the Zimbabwe national Practitioners association annual general meeting in Karoi on Friday that there was a risk of a second Covid-19 wave due to increased travel during the festive season
“Covid-19 is still with us for the next two or three years,” she said.
“We must wear masks, regularly sanitise for our own good health. We must share information and researches so that we get solutions. Scientifically, efforts are being made to find medication.
“As Zimbabwe we remain on the forefront to do the best out of it and help get medication with traditionalists playing a critical role for medication.
“Let us value our cultural ways so that we can collaborate and make researches that can be accepted globally to cure Covid-19.”
-standard
By A Correspondent- A 21 year old Shamva woman was arraigned before the courts on Friday for stoning her husband’s girlfriend together with her sister after damaging her property.
Talent Mushamba stoned her husband’s lovebird who was in the company of her sister. She pleaded guilty to all the charges and was slapped with 2 months imprisonment which was commuted to 70 hours of community service by Bindura magistrate Samantha Dhlamini.
She was further fined $4100 for malicious damage of property to be paid before December 31.
Prosecutor Shiella Maribha told the court that on 30 July Mushamba was told by her friend that her husband Lovemore Chikuma was having an extra marital affair with Trish Bvuta.
She armed her self with stones and stormed Bvuta’s homestead.
Upon arrival she broke window panes and asbestos before gaining entry in the house where she pelted Bvuta and Betty Chikuwira with stones on the head.
The duo was injured and rushed to hospital.
SCHOOLS will open in two phases for the 2021 first term, with the first classes resuming lessons first week of January after Government declared that recent sporadic outbreaks of Covid-19 in schools had been contained.
All classes, with the exception of Form One and Five learners, will commence learning on January 4, with this year’s Ordinary Level examination candidates resuming their exam sittings the following day.
Form One and Five classes will return to school in February after Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council (Zimsec) has released their results.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister Ambassador Cain Mathema said all pupils will be in school by February.
“We recently issued statements to school heads regarding when schools will be opened,” said Ambassador Mathema.
“I have submitted the calendar to Cabinet and I can tell you that by February all students will be in school.”
The Ministry’s spokesperson Mr Taungana Ndoro said public examinations will resume after the festive season holiday break.
“Students in Grade One to Seven, Form Two up to Four and Upper Sixth learners will be back in school on January 4,” said Mr Ndoro.
-State Media
COUNCILLORS in Bulawayo and a few top officials squandered $1,5 million in just two days at a workshop that was held early this month.
The revelation comes at a time when the local authority is struggling to pay its workers salaries while service delivery has completely stalled in some areas.
Surprisingly the workshop which residents have described as “a Christmas money spinner for the councillors and officials” was in defiance of a Government ban on out-of-town trips.
All the 20 councillors in the city attended although it could not be immediately established how many officials attended.
The move has attracted the wrath of residents who have questioned the local authority’s priorities.
According to a council confidential report, the workshop was held at Matopo Hills Lodge in the Matobo National Park on 3 and 4 December as part of the Annual General Meeting for Ingwebu Breweries.
Ingwebu Breweries is a wholly owned business of the city council trading under the name Bulawayo Municipal Commercial Undertaking.
“The Annual General Meeting for Ingwebu Breweries for the 2018 financial year end has been overdue and had therefore been scheduled for 3 December 2020 at Matopo Hills Lodge. This had been scheduled together with a City of Kings Business Venture projects update workshop on 4 December 2020.
“Travelling was scheduled for 2 December 2020, departing 3.30pm. The Town Clerk felt that there was a need to also include the cost of the workshop which was estimated to be approximately $1,5 million. He emphasised on the need for transparency on such issues,” reads part of the report.
The local authority, according to the report, sought funding for the workshop from their commercial entity, Ingwebu Breweries.
Contacted for comment, the city’s Mayor, Councillor Solomon Mguni defended the move saying council did not bear the brunt of the workshop as it had been organised by Ingwebu Breweries, which catered for the entire costs.
“I am not aware of the councillors workshop and the said costs of $1,5 million. What I am aware of is the Ingwebu Breweries Annual General meeting that was arranged by the company and councillors attended as shareholder representatives in terms of the Charter.
“So, the costs attended to the logistics can only be known by the company executives who arranged for the statutory meeting that has to be held in terms of the law,” said Clr Mguni.
Commenting on these developments, Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association coordinator, Mr Emmanuel Ndlovu blasted the local authority for not setting their priorities straight and manage its expenses.
He said the money could have been used to cater for other service delivery related matters rather than pushing for a luxury outing.
“This is completely unacceptable. The local authority has been irresponsible with funds. It’s an indication of collective blindness on the part of BCC over failure to manage expenses despite the fact that council is fiscally distressed. The amount is too much for 20 councillors trained over two days,” said Mr Ndlovu.
The Ministry of Local Government and Public Works in 2019 banned the holding of council workshops and seminars outside their jurisdictions to minimise the abuse of funds.
According to Circular No. 12 of 2019, such trips can only be held with the approval of the permanent secretary.
The circular reads: “The Honourable (minister) has placed a restriction on the holding of workshops, seminars, training and similar events outside of the council jurisdiction in the case of urban councils and outside the administrative district in the case of rural district councils unless authority to hold a function at an alternative venue has been sanctioned by the permanent secretary.
“Any council wishing to hold a function outside the limits given should make submission to the permanent secretary in writing giving justifications for same.”
Tinashe Sambiri|The writing is on the wall for Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa and his cronies following the formation of a government in exile.
The government in exile comprises concerned Zimbabweans in the diaspora.
According to information gathered by ZimEye.com, the government in exile will set up offices in the United Kingdom.
It is understood the government in exile will confront Mr Mnangagwa over gross violation of human resources, looting of State Resources and flagrant disregard of Constitutional principles.
It was Miles Munroe who said, “you must become the answer to your own prayer.”
Stop asking God to send someone to heal your country, says Miles Munroe. pic.twitter.com/ahwmuvMO78
— ZimEye (@ZimEye) November 30, 2020
The man who accurately predicted his own death, and who for years running, would fly his private jet into Harare, spoke out in a sermon saying: “…the world cannot heal itself, but whatever you can avoid you can never change, so you must become the answer to your own prayer. Stop asking God to send someone to heal your country.
“Do you know how long people have been praying for their governments and their countries are still collapsing?
“You cannot expect righteousness from an unrighteous person. I mean that is so simple but it went right all over your head. You know the person is a demon, you say, ‘help us Lord, I pray for my Government.’
“How can you pray for a demon to be good? The Bible does say, when the righteous are in power, the people rejoice, not when the demon who you pray to be righteous is in power, pray to be righteous, no. He says, when the righteous are in power, the people rejoice.
“The same verse, says, when the wicked rule, the people groan, I wonder how many countries are groaning, the poor, the oppressed, the widows, the children, the young people, are groaning, people losing their houses, and their sanity, losing their jobs and their business, and losing their health and cant even get medical attention because they ai’nt got no money, they are groaning.
“He says that’s because the wicked are in power.”
Zimbabweans in diaspora have sat down to set up a government in exile, and a building has so far been secured in London.
The group behind this initiative represents the citizens who number a whopping 7 million: 5 million in South Africa, 600,000 in UK, and the rest in Australia, New Zealand, United States, Canada, and other parts of the world.
Why this has been done? – One of the conveners tells ZimEye, “These people have said they will not allow a criminal, Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa to control their destiny.
“They are not under the man’s tiny territory of terror, and of these 7 million, 85% will never return to Zimbabwe for the next quarter of a century, and 60% will be buried outside Zimbabwe, so why should this group allow itself to be subjected to abuses every day?”
They then emphasise- ” we have run businesses that are doing well, we have started NGOs, and even churches that are thriving – what stops us running a simple institution called a government? And do we need an army? Not at all, all we need is us, following examples of previous exilegovernments that were successful in changing their people’s lives such as Poland in the 1940s, and others.”
Another convener, Mr Stanford Biti, speaking on ZimEye yesterday says of Emmerson Mnangagwa’s new Patriotic Act law, “there’s an legal government in Zimbabwe, which is forcing people to be patriotic, which is impossible you cannot force a person who is in exile… you cannot force someone who fled Zimbabwe because of your persecution to be patriotic; It’s impossible”
So how will the government in exile work? –
The last 80 years has several examples, Poland is one of them – it was run by an exile govt which paved way for freedom in the 1940s, and in our time, we have seen the likes of the Libyan Council running the country from the diaspora in 2011, even striking international deals on behalf of the nation’s masses, parallel to an ongoing dictatorship. JOIN THE PROGRAM TONIGHT AS WE INTERVIEW THE CONVENERS.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Hundreds of students are feared missing after gunmen raided the Government Science Secondary School in north-western Nigeria.
The attackers arrived on motorbikes and targeted the school – where more than 800 students are said to reside – in Katsina state on Friday evening.
On Saturday, the military said it had located the gunmen’s hideout in a forest and exchanged gunfire with them.
However, the outcome was unclear but officials said there were no reports of students being injured.
Meanwhile, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the attack and ordered the school to carry out a full audit of students to find out how many are missing. Parents who dashed to the school to take their children home were also asked to notify the school authorities.
BBC
Video loading below…
Mamelodi Sundowns have suffered tragedy once again with another player having passed on following yet another car accident.
Sundowns have lost one of their star defenders Motjeka Madisha, who passed on on Saturday night.
The rising star was involved in a horrific car crash in Kempton Park on Saturday evening, just hours after the club’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
Scroll through the gallery above to see some of Madisha’s career highlights
This is the second loss by The Brazilians, who just recently laid former right-back Anele Ngcongca to rest following a car accident in Durban last month.
KickOff.com wishes to express heart-felt condolences to the bereaved family, friends, teammates and colleagues.
Kick Off
Paul Nyathi
Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs minister Richard Moyo who tested positive for Covid-19 last week went on to spend the day with President Emmerson Mnangagwa and a multitude of other ZANU PF members well aware of his status.
The Minister was part of the delegation that attended the official conferment of the city status to Victoria Falls on Wednesday which was presided over by Mnangagwa.
Moyo said he tested positive for the coronavirus last Monday, but said he was asymptomatic.
“I am self-isolating at home, but for now I am not feeling any pain and I am still asymptomatic, but I am taking as much as possible caution while at home,” he told Cite.
Moyo became the third Provincial Affairs minister to contract the virus after his Midlands counterpart Larry Mavhima and Mary Mliswa Chikoka from Mashonaland West.
Other government officials that have tested positive for the disease since the Covid-19 outbreak began in March include Public Services, Labour and Social Welfare deputy minister Lovemore Matuke and Finance and Economic Development permanent secretary George Guvamatanga.
The then Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement minister Perrance Shiri succumbed to the disease in July.
In August, 26 Zanu PF employees tested positive for the disease. Zimbabwe has been witnessing a resurgence in Covid-19 cases for the past two months and Friday the country recorded 74 new infections with one death.
As of Friday, Zimbabwe had recorded 11 127 Covid-19 cases with 9 253 recoveries. The country has seen 305 deaths.
Paul Nyathi
LAWYERS from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) are working on filing an appeal in the High Court challenging the denial of bail of Allan Moyo, a University of Zimbabwe (UZ) student, who was arrested on Monday 7 December 2020 and charged with inciting people to commit public violence after he allegedly called for a revolt against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.
Moyo, a student at UZ, was arrested on 7 December 2020 by Zimbabwe Republic Police officers who charged him with incitement to commit public violence as defined in section 187(1)(a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act as read with section 36(1)(a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.
On Thursday 10 December 2020, prosecutors told Magistrate Judith
Taruvinga that the 23 year-old Moyo, who is represented by Obey Shava of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, incited some commuters on 3 July
2020 at Copacabana bus terminus in Harare when he addressed and told them that the time to stage a revolt against President Mnangagwa’s administration in Zimbabwe was conducive, for the ZANU PF party leader has failed the people of Zimbabwe.
The prosecutors also alleged that Moyo told commuters that President Mnangagwa’s government was not capable of presiding over the country’s
affairs as it has presided over the suffering of people in Zimbabwe.
Paul Nyathi
The Ministry of Health and Child Care says the deadly Coronavirus is likely to remain with us for the next three years.
Portia Manangazira, the Health and Child Care ministry’s director of epidemiology and diseases control, on Friday said there was need for Zimbabweans to remain vigilant as Covid-19 would remain a threat to public health for some time.
As of Friday, Zimbabwe had recorded 11 127 Covid-19 cases with 9 253 recoveries. The country has seen 305 deaths.
Manangazira told the Zimbabwe National Practitioners Association annual general meeting in Karoi on Friday that there was a risk of a second Covid-19 wave due to increased travel during the festive season
‘‘Covid-19 is still with us for the next two or three years,” she said.
“We must wear masks, regularly sanitise for our own good health. We must share information and researches so that we get solutions. Scientifically, efforts are being made to find medication.
“As Zimbabwe we remain on the forefront to do the best out of it and help get medication with traditionalists playing a critical role for medication.
“Let us value our cultural ways so that we can collaborate and make researches that can be accepted globally to cure Covid-19.”
Standard
A Zanu PF official in Shangani, Matabeleland South, is allegedly usurping the authority of traditional leaders and the Lands ministry by illegally selling state land to unsuspecting people.
In a petition, Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP) president Mqondisi Moyo called on the government to “rescue Chief Jahana’s subjects from the captivity of Shame Mathe and Zanu PF”.
The petition, dated December 3, was addressed to Chief Ndumiso Jahana Khumalo and copied to the ministries of Lands, Home Affairs, Justice, Primary and Secondary Education, Matabeleland South provincial affairs minister Abednico Ncube (pictured) as well as President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
“I draw your attention to the subject in which Mathe, a teacher at Ensangu Primary School at Ensangu Village under Chief Jahana, who is a member of Zanu PF, has become a law unto himself,” Moyo wrote.
“He is a nuisance to Chief Jahana, village heads, and their subjects who do not condone his unethical conduct.
“On December 2, in Bulawayo, five village heads led by Ernest Nxumalo and three other villagers from Village 5 of Insango, Ward 22, Insiza North, had to meet me to air their grievances regarding the unlawful behaviour of Mathe, who has unlawfully taken over responsibilities and roles of the chief.”
He alleged that the traditional leaders claimed that Mathe often boasts about his Zanu PF and government connections.
“Because of all this, the man has become one of the Zanu PF untouchables,” Moyo alleged.
“Since May 2012, Mathe has been unlawfully selling land at prices ranging from
R5 000 to R6 000, and mainly to land grabbers from Mashonaland.
“It was indicated to me that so far, 5 946 villages have been dubiously registered for land or even allocated the same by Mathe using his destructive connections with Zanu PF.”
He said the problems started around 2012 when Mathe imposed himself as village head, taking over from Nomusa Mguni who had been appointed by Chief Jahana.
Chief Jahana said he was yet to see the petition although he said he had received many reports about Mathe.
“I have many reports about Shame Mathe on land issues,” he said.
Mathe, however, dismissed the petition as politicking and threatened to sue MRP.
“To me, that’s politics,” he said. “I am not giving it much attention, but the only thing I will do is to seek legal action so that they prove their claim in court.
“They once did the same and the government investigated and found me clean and now they are repeating the same claims again.”
SCHOOLS will open in two phases for the 2021 first term, with the first classes resuming lessons first week of January after Government declared that recent sporadic outbreaks of Covid-19 in schools had been contained.
All classes, with the exception of Form One and Five learners, will commence learning on January 4, with this year’s Ordinary Level examination candidates resuming their exam sittings the following day.
Form One and Five classes will return to school in February after Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council (Zimsec) has released their results.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister Ambassador Cain Mathema said all pupils will be in school by February.
“We recently issued statements to school heads regarding when schools will be opened,” said Ambassador Mathema.
“I have submitted the calendar to Cabinet and I can tell you that by February all students will be in school.”
The Ministry’s spokesperson Mr Taungana Ndoro said public examinations will resume after the festive season holiday break.
“Students in Grade One to Seven, Form Two up to Four and Upper Sixth learners will be back in school on January 4,” said Mr Ndoro.
“Form Fours sitting for their examinations will go back to school on January 5.
“Form One students will open on February 9 next year, this is to enable marking of their examinations and to ensure parents secure places for their children.
“Lower Sixth students will have to wait for their O’Level results to be released.”
Advanced Level and Grade Seven candidates started writing examinations on December 1 and 3 respectively and will finish this week.
Ordinary Level candidates will break on December 18 before resuming sitting for their last papers on January 5.
Outbreaks under control
Mr Ndoro said the number of Covid-19 cases reported in schools recently had significantly dropped.
Over 300 pupils, teachers and staff have tested positive to Covid-19 at nearly 30 schools countrywide in recent weeks, prompting fears of a widespread outbreak.
“The Ministry was in the Matabeleland provinces assessing the situation in schools that had students who were infected with the Covid-19,” said Mr Ndoro.
“At John Tallach 184 students out of 185 have been cleared and at Chinhoyi all 72 cases have been cleared and this is very encouraging.
“We are yet to receive statistics from the other schools that were affected.”
In her weekly Covid-19 update on Friday, chief coordinator of the national response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Dr Agnes Mahomva said outbreaks in schools had been contained.
“Reports from monitoring support and supervision visits indicate that the situation in our schools is now under control,” said Dr Mahomva.
“Government is grateful to parents in the affected schools for not only being cooperative during the outbreak, but for also remaining very calm and very supportive during the investigations and implementation of the recommendations.
“Government would also like to thank the teachers and other school authorities who stepped up to ensure that the situation was brought under control in a very timely fashion.”
Exams progress
Zimsec board chairperson Professor Eddie Mwenje said the public examinations body would prioritise marking of Grade Seven papers to allow parents adequate time to secure Form One places for their children.
“We will be marking Grade Seven papers first and we are hoping that they will be released around mid-January,” said Prof Mwenje.
“Zimsec is also coming up with strategies that will be used to ensure that all work is done as soon as possible. We will only be in position to give these strategies when we have sat down and deliberated next week. We understand that there are students who want to proceed to tertiary institutions, some want to go to Lower Sixth and to Form One, so we will try to fast-track the process.”
A Sakubva man reportedly se_xually abused his own daughter (12) and concealed his crime by marrying her off to a polygamous self-proclaimed prophet in Temberere Village which is under Chief Zimunya, The Manica Post reports. The matter came to light when the young girl fled the prophet’s home and was rescued by a good samaritan.
According to the publication:
On an unknown date last year, the accused person asked his three children to join him in his bedroom for the night.
They all slept on the same bed and during the night, the girl’s father raped her. After committing the crime, he threatened to kill his daughter if she ever divulged the matter to anyone.
Days later, the man took his daughter to 35-year-old Lukas Hondo, a self-proclaimed prophet of Temberere Village under Chief Zimunya and married her off.
The prophet’s second wife prepared a room for the young girl and the ‘man of cloth’ came in to rape her. This went on for days until the complainant fled and seek refuge in a nearby bush.
Starvation forced the young girl to approach a Good Samaritan to seek assistance. The matter was subsequently reported to the police.
The case was confirmed by Deputy Manicaland provincial police spokesperson, Assistant Inspector Luxon Chananda who said the matter is before the courts.
Manicaland’s districts Makoni, Buhera, Mutasa, and Chipinge are riddled with cases of child marriages according to Manicaland Provincial Development Coordinator, Mr. Edgars Seenza.
By A Correspondent- The National Joint Operations Command (JOC) met in Beitbridge yesterday and committed to beefing up borderline security to control rampant smuggling of goods and irregular migration which peaks during the festive season.
The meeting was attended by JOC members, who included State Security minister Owen Ncube, Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe, Commander of Defence Forces Phillip Valerio Sibanda, Commissioner General of Police Godwin Matanga and Air Chief Marshal Elson Moyo.
Also in attendance were several directors from the Central Intelligence Organisation and dozens of senior civil servants who also came face to face with a massive traffic gridlock that has paralysed Africa’s busiest inland port of entry.
Kazembe promised to immediately engage his South African counterpart Aaron Motsoaledi over the traffic jam.
“I will call him before we leave Beitbridge. We met recently and I will take images of this and forward to him,” he said.
Truck drivers are spending up to three days before crossing into South Africa because of disorderly COVID-19 screening by South Africa lumping travellers and truckers in one queue.
Speaking to journalists soon after their briefing at a hotel in the border town, Ncube said their visit to Beitbridge was to appreciate the situation and find solutions.
“We want to increase security between us and South Africa. We have to stop smuggling of petrol (fuels), electrical gadgets, explosives and cigarettes among other things,” Ncube said ahead of their visit to River Ranch illegal crossing point..
“We want to seal all the porous points and routes between our two countries. We are going to improve security.”
Zimbabwe is losing billions of potential revenue in duties to smuggling enabled ironically by security personnel deployed along the country’s borders.
This year, after the COVID-19 lockdown, Customs and Excuse officials at Beitbridge intercepted smuggled goods worth over a billion dollars which had been smuggled across the river.
At the official crossing point large volumes of fuel have been intercepted after being smuggled into the country.
At the illegal crossing points the ministers found nothing after information of their arrival leaked.
JOC members held several small on site meetings and saw signs of activity at the points which looked like picnic sites with beer bottles, empty condom papers, signs of small fires all over showing a hive of activity.
During their meetings, closed to the press, some officials were heard complaining that the visits were too much and unproductive.
“We came here this year, next year and yet the problem continues. Let’s arrest those who fail to arrest the problem we have. Ngatisungane (let’s arrest each other),” one official said.
“We cannot continue giving lip service.”
Zimbabwe, which has the potential to become of the richest African nations, is widely believed to be let down by corruption cascading from top to bottom.
Civil servants were also believed to be half-hearted in their work owing to poor remuneration.
The JOC has been travelling around the country and arrived in Beitbridge after a tour of Manicaland which took them to Chiadzwa diamond fields.
Some Zimbabwean economists have, however, said Zimbabwe was wrongly focusing on imports yet losing billions to under-declaration of exports.
Recently, a Zimbabwean former football administrator Henrietta Rushwaya attempted smuggling gold worth US$333 000 outside the country although she says it was in the wrong bag.
-newsday
THE Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) has opened investigations into judges, magistrates and church leaders over a slew of graft allegations.
ZACC chair Justice Loyce Matanda-Moyo said members of the Judiciary were under scrutiny, but emphasised that there was no interference on the independence of the third arm of the State.
She also hinted that there were several church leaders who were under investigation for corruption, among whom is a prominent bishop who received a US$100 000 tithe from his church congregant.
“The investigation against members of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) is underway, but we want to ensure that there will be no outcry of interference on the Judiciary,” said Justice Matanda-Moyo.
On the bishop, Justice Matanda-Moyo said: “The commission is tracing the source of funds which shows that the church member who paid a US$100 000 tithe had made US$1 million.”
She was not at liberty to name the church leaders under probe, fearing to jeopardise investigations.
Corruption, she said, was deep-rooted even in law enforcement agencies such as ZACC, the police and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
“Our institutions are not free from corruption; we have arrested some police officers while some members of ZACC have been dismissed on corruption charges,” said the ZACC boss.
-State Media
The Kenyan government has begun issuing formal citizenship documents to members of the Zimbabwean Shona community, the first step in recognizing the people who have lived in the country for years without recognition.
The government earlier this week issued the first batch of birth certificates to 600 children from the community, raising hopes that its members will now officially be recognised as Kenyans.
The Shona community in Kenya is estimated to have around 3,500 members.
The community’s forefathers are believed to have migrated to the East African country from the southern part of Africa in the 1960s.
Most of the members alive now were born in the country, but their quest to obtain citizenship documents have been in vain until now.
The move to provide citizenship documents to the Shona, now makes it Kenya’s 44th tribe.
The 43rd tribe (Makonde) was formally recognised by the current President Uhuru Kenyatta in February 2017 after years of living in the country without documentation.
Upon completion of the documentation process for the Shona people, they will be eligible to participate in national matters, including elections.
Kenya is one of Africa’s most ethnic diverse African nations, now boasting of 44 tribes. With this in mind, the country has legislation in place of recognising all the ethnic groups equally.
Some ethnic tribes have however seen a decline in their members over the years, prompting initiatives to ensure their survival and the passing on of their cultures to future generations.
-CGN News
Zimbabwe international Ronald Pfumbidzai had a nightmarish MTN 8 final and could be fingered for both goals conceded by Bloemfontein Celtic in their 1-2 loss to Orlando Pirates in the decider at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday.
The former CAPS United left-back first gifted Deon Kavendji‘s with Pirates’ equalizer after they had fallen behind to a Siphelele Luthuli early strike.
He was then shown a straight red card for a foul on Thembinkosi Lorch, which resulted in a penalty, from which the Buccaneers scored their second.
Pfumbidzai started the game for Celtic, while his Warriors teammate Terrence Dzvukamanja was on the bench as Pirates clinched their first trophy since 2014.
By A Correspondent- Schools will open in two phases for the 2021 first term, with the first classes resuming lessons first week of January after Government declared that recent sporadic outbreaks of Covid-19 in schools had been contained.
All classes, with the exception of Form One and Five learners, will commence learning on January 4, with this year’s Ordinary Level examination candidates resuming their exam sittings the following day.
Form One and Five classes will return to school in February after Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council (Zimsec) has released their results.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister Ambassador Cain Mathema said all pupils will be in school by February.
“We recently issued statements to school heads regarding when schools will be opened,” said Ambassador Mathema.
“I have submitted the calendar to Cabinet and I can tell you that by February all students will be in school.”
The Ministry’s spokesperson Mr Taungana Ndoro said public examinations will resume after the festive season holiday break.
“Students in Grade One to Seven, Form Two up to Four and Upper Sixth learners will be back in school on January 4,” said Mr Ndoro.
“Form Fours sitting for their examinations will go back to school on January 5.
“Form One students will open on February 9 next year, this is to enable marking of their examinations and to ensure parents secure places for their children.
“Lower Sixth students will have to wait for their O’Level results to be released.”
Advanced Level and Grade Seven candidates started writing examinations on December 1 and 3 respectively and will finish this week.
Ordinary Level candidates will break on December 18 before resuming sitting for their last papers on January 5.
Outbreaks under control
Mr Ndoro said the number of Covid-19 cases reported in schools recently had significantly dropped.
Over 300 pupils, teachers and staff have tested positive to Covid-19 at nearly 30 schools countrywide in recent weeks, prompting fears of a widespread outbreak.
“The Ministry was in the Matabeleland provinces assessing the situation in schools that had students who were infected with the Covid-19,” said Mr Ndoro.
“At John Tallach 184 students out of 185 have been cleared and at Chinhoyi all 72 cases have been cleared and this is very encouraging.
“We are yet to receive statistics from the other schools that were affected.”
In her weekly Covid-19 update on Friday, chief coordinator of the national response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Dr Agnes Mahomva said outbreaks in schools had been contained.
“Reports from monitoring support and supervision visits indicate that the situation in our schools is now under control,” said Dr Mahomva.
“Government is grateful to parents in the affected schools for not only being cooperative during the outbreak, but for also remaining very calm and very supportive during the investigations and implementation of the recommendations.
“Government would also like to thank the teachers and other school authorities who stepped up to ensure that the situation was brought under control in a very timely fashion.”
Exams progress
Zimsec board chairperson Professor Eddie Mwenje said the public examinations body would prioritise marking of Grade Seven papers to allow parents adequate time to secure Form One places for their children.
“We will be marking Grade Seven papers first and we are hoping that they will be released around mid-January,” said Prof Mwenje.
“Zimsec is also coming up with strategies that will be used to ensure that all work is done as soon as possible. We will only be in position to give these strategies when we have sat down and deliberated next week. We understand that there are students who want to proceed to tertiary institutions, some want to go to Lower Sixth and to Form One, so we will try to fast-track the process.”
These systems order universities on the basis of a variety of criteria such as student-to-staff ratio, income from industry and reputation as captured through public surveys.
Universities around the world use their rankings as marketing material and parents and prospective students make life choices on the basis of them.
But the methodology underpinning the Quacquarelli Symonds and Times Higher Education ranking systems and others like them would be unlikely to pass as a third-year student’s research project.
And yet high-status universities around the world spend time and money competing in this extravaganza rather than pointing out that the Emperor is wearing no clothes.
Why would they when the rankings reinforce their position as institutions of choice for those who can afford their fees?
As a researcher of higher education, I find it worrying that we are held captive by these glitzy spectacles.
Imagine if a student indicated that their research project would be to develop a ranking of all universities.
They would allocate 20 percent to whether current students and the general public thought the university was prestigious, 5 percent for the number of Nobel Prize winners on the institution’s staff, 30 percent for the number of research publications, and so on.
Any academic advisor would throw the proposal out.
Some of these criteria are subjective. The weightings are arbitrary, important aspects of many universities are missing and the averaging of unrelated aspects to a final number is simply poor science which does not tell us much about the institution at all.
And yet this is exactly how rankings are determined.
Method doesn’t add up
The methods behind the international university ranking systems vary but the underpinning methodology is identical. Convert proxy measures of a few academic activities into numeric metrics, add these together and come up with a ranking of institutions.
The criteria may be entirely unrelated to each other or may be poor proxies of the academic activity being measured.
Reputation surveys and student throughout, for example, probably tell you more about how wealthy and, therefore, selective the university is than anything about the quality of their teaching.
Furthermore, the weighting of each criterion is almost entirely arbitrary.
If publications and citations are worth 20 percent and web visibility is worth 10 percent, you will get one order of institutions.
Change this to 25 percent and 5 percent and the entire list rearranges itself.
Many of the criteria could be seen as descriptive rather than evaluative.
High pass rates and student-staff ratios are separate criteria in many systems, yet most academics would argue that they are measuring related issues.
Privilege begets privilege too, so universities that are the most prestigious and charge the highest fees can be the most selective in student enrolment and staff recruitment.
Because higher education is not a meritocracy but largely reinforces social stratifications, these universities will then celebrate their inevitable success in getting students to complete their studies and graduate.
Many rankings focus on reputational rankings which ask employees, graduates and the general public to indicate which institution is the best.
But this becomes circular: a strong reputation leads to a strong reputation.
This benefits well-known universities and neither reflects nor benefits teaching and learning, research, community engagement or any other academic activity.
When less wealthy universities attempt to compete, the cost can be a drain on resources that could be spent on activities more attuned to their context.
Many universities in South Africa are now chasing these rankings, even while admitting that they are problematic. But participation is neither innocent nor harmless.
It is not innocent because universities know the average citizen believes that these rankings say something about quality.
This influences choices as to where to study and work and whom to employ. Instead of using their research skills and academic integrity to pull these games apart, they expend a great deal of energy trying to improve their position.
Increasing research output in the global South is essential.
If the rankings drive this process, well and good.
But it is harmful if the focus on publications and postgraduates comes at the expense of important factors that are not used in rankings.
What counts?
Ranking systems do not concern themselves with whether the university takes its community engagement responsibilities seriously.
They do not consider who students are and where they want to go.
Ranking systems care only for the market and higher education is a very large market.
Academics can and should speak out against these neo-colonial processes that position all universities as striving to be identical and competing for market share.
But it is difficult for universities to opt out of these games.
The university where I work refuses to engage with ranking organisations.
And yet it is still included in these systems, as they draw on publicly available data.
Despite having among the highest undergraduate success rates and publication rates in South Africa, the lack of medicine and engineering programmes works against it.
So too does its strong focus on community engagement and its small size though these might be exactly why the university is a good fit for many.
The dodgy methodology is stacked against the institution but far more problematically, it is stacked against most of the purposes set for higher education in South Africa’s white paper of 1997.
Nowhere do these systems concern themselves with transformation, social justice or the public good.
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Sioux McKenna is director of Centre for Postgraduate Studies, Rhodes University. She is also a fellow at the STIAS Wallenberg Research Centre. This article first appeared on The Conversation.
Tinashe Sambiri|A school head is on the run after killing a villager over a heated political argument in Mwenezi on Saturday morning.
Although details are still sketchy, sources told ZimEye.com, the head of Batanai Khomanani school stabbed the said villager five times and vanished.
“The school head arrived at a place local villagers were drinking beer.There was a political argument and the school head interjected.
The villager, who is one of the known parents of children at Batanai Khomanani School urged the school head to stay out of Zanu PF politics as he was a civil servant.
This angered the school head who produced a knife and stabbed the parent five times before running away,” said a source.
Sources say the school head is a Zanu PF activist.
Police are yet to comment on the matter.
Tinashe Sambiri|The writing is on the wall for Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa and his cronies following the formation of a government in exile.
The government in exile comprises concerned Zimbabweans in the diaspora.
According to information gathered by ZimEye.com, the government in exile will set up offices in the United Kingdom.
It is understood the government in exile will confront Mr Mnangagwa over gross violation of human resources, looting of State Resources and flagrant disregard of Constitutional principles.
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BULAWAYO businessman and Stingrays Swimming Academy founder, Edmore Cyprianos is suspected to have committed suicide, according to the police.
Cyprianos (49) was reportedly found hanging in a tree in a bushy area at Lucydale Farm in Matobo on Tuesday.
He was the managing director of Cypriano Electrical, ran Donnington Meat Supplies and also had a thriving farming and livestock venture.
The 2016 Zimbabwe National Chambers of Commerce Matabeleland chapter businessman of the year left his home on Tuesday without notifying his wife and was later found dead.
According to the police, the incident happened between 4.30 am and 4pm at Matopo Research Station.
Matabeleland South acting provincial police spokesperson Inspector Loveness Mangena said they were investigating a case of suicide.
“The deceased, Edmore Cyprianos (49) of 7 Bishop Gaule Avenue, Kumalo was found hanging from a tree in a bushy area by a passerby on 8 December 2020.
“He had left his house in the morning without notifying his wife where he was going.
“The body was taken to the United Bulawayo Hospitals and is awaiting post-mortem results,” she said.-The Sunday News
By Dr Takavafira Zhou| The Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Hon Matema; perm sec, Tabela, and serial liar, Ndoro must be reminded that they cannot successfully run the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education through propaganda.
We gave them professional advice that schools were ill-prepared for re-opening and they were adamant that they were fully prepared. One wonders where the more than $600 million has gone, let alone the other $150 million released by gvt as it is clear that it never filtered to schools.
Whereas we now have over 650 of confirmed covid 19 cases, the Ministry’s conservative figure is still at 330. Several pupils and teachers are being infected on a daily basis as schools have no covid 19 abatement equipment, have no adequate infrastructure, personnel and textbooks to ensure social distance. Most hostels in boarding schools are overcrowded while bloated classes are the order of the day.
In all the most affected schools, be it John Tallach, Matopos High, Goromonzi High, Anderson Adventist, Waddilove, Dadaya etc, the Ministry has been found wanting and virtually useless in alleviating the plight of students and teachers.
A case in point is that of Dadaya High in Zvishavane, a school with more than 1000 pupils. The Ministry could only afford to source 47 testing kits. As such only 47 (13 Staff members and 34 students) were tested. It is therefore important to state that the cumulative positive cases that stand at 32 according to ZBC and 29 (25 students and 4 members of staff according to some health officials) must be fully comprehended as a tip of the iceberg. With testing of more pupils and teachers after acquiring more test kits, the result would be worse. At any rate, many students who were not tested have mild and moderate symptoms that resonate with covid.
Ministry officials did not only reject professional advice given by teacher unions but have also not taken seriously Ministry of Health recommendations. They have not come clear on how invigilators can man exams of positive cases without protective gear, let alone handle their scripts, and mark contaminated scripts.
The Ministry officials owe pupils and teachers in particular, and the nation in general, an apology. The constant peddling of lies and propaganda by Ndoro in particular, was dangerous and tantamount to academic terrorism. With many teachers and pupils now infected, Ministry officials have gradually become conspicuous by their silence thereby leaving school administrators, teachers and parents pondering over how best to navigate across the covid 19 infection. To those who were quick to blame us, it doesnt matter, history has absolved us.
Venceremos
Dr Takavafira M. Zhou (Ptuz President)
