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Miss Milan pageant on cards

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Miss Milan pageant on cards

Tinaani Nyabereka

GWERU – All is set for the Miss Milan pageant with 20 models lined up for Saturday December 16 second edition of the Miss Milan contest to be held at Milan Restaurant in Gweru.
Milan Restaurant Coordinator, Faith Mazana said preparations were at an advanced stage and at least 20 contestant were drawn from across the country will battle it out for the title
“We are running around planning for this important day where we are going to crown our crown our Brand Ambassador. We have 20 contestants drawn from different provinces and these were selected out of 67 applications received.
“We have three contestants from Masvingo, eight from Harare, four from Gweru, four from Bulawayo and one from Chinhoyi,”
She said the contest will kick off at seven in the evening and the winners will walk away with cash prices.
“The final winner of this year’s pageant will take home US$1,000 cash courtesy of the restaurant while the First Princess will get US$500 courtesy of Afrocash Microfinance, just to give a few highlights ahead of the event.” She said.
Mazana went on to say they were happy as a number of sponsors had come on board to support the event.
“This time we have a number of sponsors on board and some of them include Pabloz lounge, Afrocash micro, Debaba Designs, Bundu Travel and Tours, Mahein Glam, House of Glam among others.
“The event is also going to be an entertainment galore and a number of artists will perform and Nyasha David will be the guest artist among others.” She said.

Masvingo to host cap and shorts festival

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Masvingo to host cap and shorts festival

Beverly Bizeki

Masvingo City is set to host its first edition of the cap and shorts festival, a festival that is going to include everyone on December 16, 2023.
Masvingo Caravan Park Operator Garikayi Garande said the event is a new concept meant to include everyone and attract traffic to Lake Mutirikwi and Great Zimbabwe Monuments.
“On December 16 we unveil the Cap and Shorts which is new concept, its summer and we have chosen cap and shorts as an easy and comfortable outdoor dress code. Cap and Shorts unlike other themes is inclusive of everyone and for all ages.
“We also aim to attract traffic to Lake Mutirikwi and Great Zimbabwe monuments amongst many other tourist attractions,” said Garande.
He said the event will be hosted at two venues that is Tambai Lakeside Park at Lake Mutirikwi and at Caravan Park and one ticket which costs US$5 gives people access to both venues.
“The event will be hosted at two venues, Tambai Lakeside Park at Lake Mutirikwi and at Caravan Park. Tickets will be sold at US$5 per head for adults and will give access to both venues at the same price, one can switch from one venue to the other using same ticket and children under the age of 12 will have free access. Each venue will have different activities,” said Garande.
Urban Grooves kingpin Trevor Dongo is expected to grace the event alongside Jah Signal and Kinnah.
Events that will be available at the Tambai lakeside Park include boat cruises, lakeside party, bush party, fishing, dipping pool, quad bikes, jumping castles, fun shoot, tug of war, monuments tour, scenic drives and lion encounter and will start from 1200 hours to 1830 hours.
At Caravan Park activities will include braai fest, quad bikes, jumping castles and entertainment from 1300hours till late whilst artists will perform from 1900hours
Food stalls will be going for US$50, sweet shop US$30, corporate branding US$30, shisha stalls US$30 and cocktail stalls will go for US$30

Zimbabwean youths’ future buried with drugs

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Zimbabwean youths’ future buried with drugs

By Aribino Nicholas

The future of Zimbabwe is blurred socially, culturally, economically, politically, morally and spiritually. An effort to gaze into the future is coming with negative feedback on the trajectory of the country. It is usually argued that the future of any country is associated with its youths. To that effect, the youths should be socialized into responsible citizens that can then be deployed to various sections of the economy. It is indeed sad to observe that Zimbabwe’s youths that constitute 67.7% have become drug abusers and partakers in sex orgies like group sex escapades. One may ponder as to how, where and where the rains beat the Zimbabwean youths. How, where and when the rains beat the Zimbabwean youths is not an easy question to answer because its answer may involve intersectional variables that speak to the politics and economy of the day. The politics and economy of the day are indeed central to shaping the behavioural patterns of the youths because they are the underlying root causes of poverty, cognitive dissonance, conflict, migration (human and organ trafficking) and wretchedness among the youths. It is indeed the intent of this opinion piece to interrogate the underlying root causes of the Zimbabwean youths’ social-behavioural patterns that have generated more heat than light across all the sectors of the society.
Studies reveal that the Zimbabwean youths rank top in Africa in terms of substance use and abuse. Pursuant to the above, WHO (2019) says that Zimbabwe has the highest number of 15- to 19-year-olds engaging in heavy episodic drinking in Africa, with 70.7% of males and 55.5% of females participating. This should indeed be worrisome for the political leadership of the country, because the future (youths) of the country is being interred with drugs. One may wonder if the political leadership of the country is concerned at all because the youths’ preoccupation with drugs may dim the youths’ consciousness of the political climate that may be in a serious need for rehabilitation. To that effect, use and substance abuse by the youths could be a zero-sum game for politicians who know that the youths have the capacity and capability to change the political course of the country. Some social scientists have argued that politicians could be responsible for supplying drugs to the Zimbabwean youths so that the youths’ cognitive structures could be in a perpetual state of dissonance to the extent of not taking the fight for change to the streets. This thinking explains the source of drugs for the youths as the politicians.
The other possible cause of the use and abuse of drugs in Zimbabwe is intimately linked to the economic down-turn of the country. In Zimbabwe there is a high unemployment rate, the formal economy has been overshadowed by the informal economy. Most Zimbabwean youths are out of employment, they have a lot of idle time that they use to try to numb their problems through use and abuse of drugs. The youths try to sink their problems in drugs without knowing that problems are good swimmers. The more the youths take the drugs the more they get used to the drugs, drugs arguably approximate viruses in their blood, they can’t let go. Some drugs induce gargantuan appetites while others kill appetite. When zonked, youths can do all sorts of things like sexual violence, robbing, thuggery, using foul language, engaging in group sex, stealing, dropping out of college and driving recklessly. Once hooked into drugs, youths lose focus, they live for the here and now, they gradually descent into mental health problems that are hard to rehabilitate. The underlying root cause of the abuse of drugs in Zimbabwe is the economy that has gone to the tubes. When the economy of the country is fixed, it becomes absorptive and, in the process, needles are put in their right places.
Another principal cause of the negative behaviours of the Zimbabwean youths, is for this writer, the screaming absence of recreational facilities for children and youths. It does boggle the mind that Zimbabwe now has more filling stations than sports academies. Day in and day out spaces for car sales are being created at the expense of recreational facilities, eateries like Chicken Inn, Nandos, Chicken Slicer and KFC are mushrooming in the country at the expense of recreational facilities for the youths. Political leaders in Zimbabwe should rethink thinking in terms of developmental processes that are pro-poor and inclusive. The Zimbabwean youths have nowhere to go to spend their time productively, all spaces have been taken up by housing units, food courts and filling stations. This writer questions the sanity of the leadership that puts a premium on allocating housing units to people without considering recreational facilities for children and the youths. Play is critical for the moral, intellectual, spiritual, physical, emotional and linguistic development of children and youths. Observably, gated communities are also sprouting within Harare and they are coming bereft of corresponding spaces for recreational facilities. For the little children and the youths play has now been privatized, corporatized if not commodified through food courts that have created play facilities for customers who would have bought food. Let the children and the youths play, and this will cut down on cases of substance abuse. Idle youths would experiment with sex and beer and would also increasingly fall back on the digital public space for pornography and other activities that are not progressive. In some countries where terrorist activities are common, research has shown that youths have been recruited into terrorist organisations through the digital public spaces that they are always using because of having nothing to do. The cup of misery for the Zimbabwean youths is not yet full, until the politics and economy of the country are fixed. Everything falls and rises on leadership, thence the Zimbabwean leadership has a duty of safeguarding and protecting the youths of Zimbabwe through distributive justice.

Dr Aribino Nicholas (Gender and Policy Studies Student-GZU). Writing in own capacity.
Contact : +263715617095

ZIMCODD establishes new Central Region Committee

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ZIMCODD establishes new Central Region Committee

Tinaani Nyabereka

Gweru – Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development, (ZIMCODD) last week established its Central Region Committee which will drive the organization’s operations in the Midlands.

The establishment of the regional committee saw Gweru Residents and Ratepayers Association director, Conilia Selipiwe being elected Chairperson, while Patronella Ngozo of Community Voices Zimbabwe was elected Vice Chairperson with Ephraim Mthombeni being elected Treasurer uncontested.

Youth Essence will lead the cluster on youths and students while the Health Cluster will be led by Women In Communities (WiCO).

Other cluster leads are ZimRights which leads the Human Rights and Legal Affairs, while Gender and Women will be led by Ebenezer Trust. The Debt, Trade, and Economic cluster went to MACRAD while the Residents Association leads went to Masvingo Residents Forum.

ZIMCODD National Chairperson, Rosewitta Katsande said as Zimcodd they were confident in the leadership of the Central Region in pushing socio-economic justice issues.

“As Zimcodd we are very excited and appreciate the formation of the Central Region Commitee. We have been reflecting on how best we can broaden our membership.

“So ushering the central region will help grow men, women, and youths to champion Social Economic Justice.

“So we expect the new committee to interface with citizens and different clusters, sharing experiences and ideas among other things,” he added.

The Central Region’s new chairperson, Selipiwe said, as a newly established committee there was a need to tackle social economic justice issues without fear or favor.

“Besides being a committee, first and foremost we are- socio-economic justice ambassadors, we are always aware of the issues we stand for.

“We need to take our leaders into account, on socio-economic issues. One thing is for sure, no one can assume chairmanship of a region if he or she doesn’t know what needs to be addressed or how to grow membership.

“We are now saying going forward as a committee, we need to create a convergent zone for networking and sharing ideas with the community. We are there to hear from the people and implement what they say,” said Selipiwe.

In a solidarity message, ZIMCODD Programmes Manager, John Maketo, urged the newly established committee to unite to grow the region.

Chiredzi schools shine at grade seven

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Chiredzi schools shine at grade seven

Beatific Gumbwanda

Schools in Chiredzi District have produced remarkable grade seven results with Chiredzi Town Council run Tshovani Primary School lighting a shining candle with close to 100 pupils scoring 10 units and below.
The school which has a huge enrolment due to shortages of Primary Schools in Chiredzi Urban has one teacher, Nyasha Chamisa who is on the School Development Committee (SDC) payroll, whose class has 12 leaners with six units.
304 pupils sat for the examination, 93 them scored 10 units and below. Of the 93, 27 pupils scored six units, 18 pupils scored seven units.
17 leaners scored 8 units while14 pupils scored 9 units and 17 with 10 units and the school recorded an overall pass rate of 92.43%.
Chiredzi Government Primary School though has 99.35% pass rate with 18 pupils who scored 6 units.
17 pupils scored 7 units, 16 with 8 units, 9 scoring 9 units and 11 scoring 10 units adding up to 71 pupils who have scored 10 units or better.
Hippo Valley Primary School recorded a 100% pass rate with two highest performers scoring 7 units, three pupils with 8 units.
One pupil scored 9 units and three others scoring 10 units adding up to nine pupils with 10 units or better.
Shingai Primary School recorded 85.03 percent with four pupils scoring six units, 8 pupils with 7 units, 11 pupils with 8 units, 13 pupils with 9 units and 7 pupils with 10 units adding up to 43 pupils with 10 units or better.
Lowveld Adventist Primary School (LAPS) scored slightly above Shingai Primary, with 89% pass rate.
Three pupils scored six units, six pupils with seven units and eight pupils with eight units.
Nine pupils scored nine units then 12 pupils had 10 units adding up to 38 pupils with 10 units and below.
Kyle Primary School in Triangle did better with 34 pupils who registered 10 units and below. Of the 34, four pupils have six units and 13 leaners had seven units.
Four pupils scored eight units, six got nine units and seven leaners scored 10 units.
Ratidzo Primary School at the Zimbabwe Sugar Association Experiment Station (ZSAES) has only one leaner with seven units and the rest registered units above ten.

2996 graduate at NUST’s 29th graduation

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2996 graduate at NUST’s 29th graduation

Tanyaradzwa Tizora

2996 graduands were capped at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST)’s 29th Graduation ceremony held on Wednesday December 6 2023 in Bulawayo where 250 students graduated with first class and distinctions.
44 students were foreigners from Botswana, Malawi and Zambia and 46 percent of the graduates were female and 54 percent were male.
A number of students graduated from new programmes including Masters of Science in Big Data Science, Bachelor of Construction Studies in Construction Management and Bachelor of Construction Studies in Quantity Surveying.
Among notable faces were Information Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Jenfan Muswere who graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Development Studies, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) employees Lisa Masuku and Mthokozisi Dube.
Minister Muswere’s degree is his second PHD and his thesis was titled “Corporate Governance Practices and Performance of State-owned Enterprises in the Information and Communication Technology Sector in Zimbabwe: A New Public Management Approach”.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony, Nust Vice Chancellor (VC) Professor Mqhele Dlodlo said the University was building two factory stores in collaboration with Masvingo Polytechnical College.
“NUST is setting up industries on campus through construction of aid factory shells. Working together with Masvingo Polytechnical College, we have started constructing one of the factory shells and by the end of 2024, two factory sheds will be completed. The University has since introduced new programs to support the construction sector.
“NUST is ranked 24 out of 88 universities in 20 countries in teaching, research and societal impact by the Times Higher Education Sub-Saharan Africa University rankings,” added Professor Dlodlo.
Professor Dlodlo said the University partnered with Katswe Sisterhood in setting up a Gender Knowledge in a bid to support female students and academics. He said that will also impact the increasing enrollment of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education.

Peeping tom in court for taking semi nudes of employer’s kid

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Peeping tom in court for taking semi nudes of employer’s kid

Beverly Bizeki

A man from Mhere Village in Chief Nyajena area is lucky to be free after he was given a wholly suspended sentence after he was hauled before Masvingo magistrate Elizabeth Hanzie for taking semi-nude pictures of his employer’s daughter while she was sleeping.
Hanzie gave him a wholly suspended six months sentence on condition that he does not commit a similar offence and had his phone forfeited by the state.
It is the State’s case as presented by Godknows Mugondo that on November 25 at around 0200 hours Spencer Mawesere took pictures of the girl whilst she was sleeping half naked thereby impairing her dignity.
Circumstances are that on the given day while the complainant was sleeping together with her young sister in their bedroom when she felt someone touching her legs and ignored, at first, as she thought she was mistaken.
The girl felt the touch once again and asked who it was after which she woke up to see that no one was in the room and switched a torch on to check who was outside as they had left their window open due to the high temperatures experienced lately.
The complainant saw someone standing by the walls although she could not see who it was exactly and the person ran away after which she reported the incident to her parents.
Her father went on to wake up Mawesere but could not find him. On December 6 the complainant’s brother brought Mawesere’s cellphone with the complainant’s pictures saying he had been shown the pictures by their neighbor who had been shown the pictures by the accused.
The two went on to send the pictures to their mother’s phone after which the cellphone locked and reported the matter to her.
Mawesere admitted to committing the crime upon questioning by the complainant’s mother and the matter was reported to Renco Mine Police Station.

Hope for 21 Runyararo West flood victims

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Hope for 21 Runyararo West flood victims

Beverly Bizeki

A ray of hope is shining on the Davis Mugabe Street residents in Runyararo West flood victims as Masvingo City Council is set to identify residential stands in Runyararo West for the affected families.
This was revealed in the Health, Housing and Environment Minutes dated November 6 where council made the recommendation in regards to the perennial challenges of flooding experienced each year and council sought to find a lasting solution for the residents.
“Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Housing and Social Services on the relocation of Davis Mugabe residents. It was reported that each year, residents of Davis Mugabe Street in Runyararo West experience perennial challenges of flooding.
“Last season, those residents were temporarily moved to the District Development Fund (DDF) Training Centre, but a long-lasting solution is required,” read the minutes.
Council therefore recommended that it identifies stands in Runyararo Northwest and advise the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works of the availability of the stands so that the Disaster Protection Unit can map a way forward for the affected families.
“Council has resolved to recommend that the Director of Engineering Services in liaison with the Director of Housing and Social Services be instructed to identify 21 residential stands in one of its areas preferably Runyararo Northwest and advises the Ministry of Local Government of the availability of such stands wherein the Ministry’s Disaster protection Unit will map the way forward,” read part of the minutes.
In March this year, Masvingo Town Clerk Engineer Edward Mukaratirwa said council had plans to identify stands for the victims and put-up structures as they have so that the spaces they are used to do not change.
The victims were this year affected by the heavy rains that hit Masvingo before Tropical Cyclone Freddy.

Assisted voting should be criminalized – Chitando

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Assisted voting should be criminalized – Chitando

Beverly Bizeki

Former Masvingo Central MP Jeffreyson Chitando and one of the provincial Citizens Coalition for Change leaders has said being assisted to vote must be a criminal offence in Zimbabwe unless in extreme cases where aid is genuinely needed as way of curbing voter intimidation.
Chitando was speaking during the presentation of a report on Voting Trends from the 2023 Harmonized Elections by the Election Resource Centre (ERC) at Flamboyant Hotel recently where different election stakeholders including ZEC, political parties and Civic Society Organizations participated.
Commenting on the report which showed that the rural population counted for more than normal number of assisted voters, Chitando said the majority of Zimbabweans were literate and the number of people who should be assisted to vote should be very small.
“Zimbabwe has literate people, I worked as a teacher in rural areas some time ago and we never witnessed such a number of illiterate people as we are seeing now. Legislators should push for an amendment to the constitution where being assisted to vote is criminalized unless there is a genuine reason.
“I was the provincial chief election agent for my party and I witnessed a number of cases where able people were assisted to vote and they were assisted in most cases by people who are less well up than them and that showed they were being forced to be assisted,” said Chitando
He also went on to recommend the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to increase voter education and involve all political parties during blitz to avoid misinformation by other political parties who lie to supporters that they can see who they voted for.
”ZEC should increase its voter education and tell people that their vote is their secret. To do that effectively, they should involve all political parties and they should all be present during the processes so that no political party will tell its supporters that they will be seen when voting,” said Chitando
He said voters were not supposed to carry phones to the booth as some were forced to take pictures of the ballot paper before casting to show their authority.
Zanu PF representative and the Party’s deputy provincial youth chair Charles Munganasa said there was need to have an in-depth analysis of the voting patterns so as to understand the reasons why people were assisted.
He also said the variance between urban and rural number of assisted voters could be attributed to age since a number of old people retreat to rural homes and also that’s where the number of illiterate people is bigger compared to urban areas.
“For this to be comprehensive enough, we should have reasons for why these people were assisted. We should also take note of the fact that the number of old people is higher in rural areas. Also, the number of illiterate old women is high because some of them are the ones who were disadvantaged by patriarchy where boys were given preference when it comes to going to school,” said Munganasa
The report showed that 2 348 people were assisted to vote out of the 188 sampled polling stations targeting constituencies with a rural-urban voting demographic sampled for the study and the rural population accounted for 60.9 percent while the urban population accounted for the remaining 39.1 percent.
According to the report, the polling station with the highest percentage of assisted votes was Chalala Primary School in ward 1, Kariba Constituency which had 149 assisted votes out of the 349 who voted making up 46.3 percent assisted votes at the station.
On second position was Ndiyadzo Primary School in ward 9 Chipinge Central Constituency where 591 votes were cast with 131 voters assisted to make 22.2 percent assisted votes.
ERC noted that on some observed polling stations, 25 percent of the ballots cast in the first two hours of the morning were assisted votes.
“ERC notes that on average 5.4 percent of votes cast between 0700 hours and 0900hours were assisted votes. Alarmingly at 8.6 percent of observed polling stations, statistics show that over 25 percent of the ballots cast during this period were cast by assisted voters,” reads part of the report.
It was also noted that the number of assisted votes reduced by 1.6 percent between 0900hours and 1200hours.

Mureri to channel CDF towards water provision

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Mureri to channel CDF towards water provision

Tanyaradzwa Tizora

Masvingo Urban Constituency’s 2024 Constituency Development Fund (CDF) will be directed towards water provision in the city through drilling of boreholes and aiding council’s for water augmentation project.
This was revealed during a strategic meeting by the CDF committee, that was established in October this year, held at Downtown Harvest House Church building where a number of projects were proposed for funding through CDF.
The committee noted that CDF was supposed to be used for borehole drilling projects, council water augmentation, bigger toilets and market stalls at Chitima market and a community hall for ward 4 and the MP advocate Martin Mureri said the fund was not allowed to be used for income generating projects.
“In Masvingo Urban, we shall embark on borehole drilling projects, we shall do the costing and determine the number of boreholes to be sunk per ward before we embark on the second project. We need to construct bigger toilets and market stalls and we also need to renovate Mucheke Old People’s Home.
“The fund has a clear task and it falls within the auspices of development of the constituency. Income generating projects are no longer allowed under the CDF act,” said Mureri.
Other critical areas that were noted for consideration were street lights, renovations at critical areas the charity homes.
The committee also noted that there was need for the construction of classroom blocks at Rujeko secondary school in ward 7 and Hillside Primary School in ward 6.
The constituency development committee comprises of teachers unions, SDC, Churches, Health ,Music and Arts, Disabled and disadvantaged, Senior Citizens, Alderman cluster, Students , Youths, Women, Informal traders, Business persons, Resident associations, Civic society, Mayor and the Deputy Mayor.

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