Major dams in Masvingo province are 100 percent full and some are spilling despite the fact that there have been no rains in the province for more than four weeks.
According to the dam level statistics provided by Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA), all major dams have enough water that can sustain the province up to the next rainy season.
ZINWA Corporate Communications and Marketing Officer William Mugadziwa said that the dry spell has not affected the dams’ storage as they are almost full and the water can sustain those who are into irrigation and mining.
“The little rains in the province have not really affected the dams’ storage as the change that happened is not that significant and the water is enough to sustain those who use it for irrigation and mining purposes,” said Mugadziwa.
He also urged people to use water sparingly so that water levels will not quickly decrease.
“Some dams are currently spilling, but however there is need to conserve water and people are advised to continue using water wisely and efficiently. All those using raw water from ZINWA managed dams and other primary purposes, are advised to ensure that such use is in water terms abstraction agreements as required by Water Aid,” said Mugadziwa.
Tugwi-Mukosi is at 100.1, Mutirikwi 98.43, Bangala 99.56, Munjerenji 86.28, Muzhwi 101.02, Ngezi 100.15, Manyuchi 99.78, Mushandike 92.17, Bindagombe 100.00, Tokwane 93.26 Nyajena 89.07 Siya 67.12 percent while other dams which include Musaverema, Magudu, Chivake, Mhende, Tugwane among others are all above 60 percent.
The Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development held its strategic plan dissemination workshop on March 10, 2022 at Civic Centre Hall in Masvingo where they highlighted their 2021-2023 plans so as to improve implementation of the ministry’s programmes and projects.
In a speech read on his behalf by Director Strategic Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Vaidah Mashangwa, Permanent Secretary in the ministry Moses Mhike said the ministry aims to develop Its plans in line with the national vision 2030.
“The ministry successfully revealed and developed its strategic plan 2021-2023 and 2022 annual plan respectively from the 17th to the 23 of October 2021 in Kadoma in line with the national vision towards a prosperous and empowered upper middle income society by 2030 and the national development strategy 1(NDS1),” said Mashangwa.
She also said that the strategic and annual planning are very important as they help in providing a road map to the ministry.
“The strategic and annual planning are of paramount importance as they provide the ministry with a road map or a tool kit of strategies to achieve a refined vision and articulate the goals and milestones to be achieved that is outputs and incomes based on budget allocations from treasury by the key performance indicators,” she said.
Mashangwa also highlighted that it was the first time the ministry has done these strategic and annual plannings in the country.
“The ministry through the department of strategic works plan, monitoring and evaluation decided to conduct provincial dissemination workshops from the 2022 ministry strategic and annual planning to all province and district staff. This is the first of its kind for the ministry to conduct such annual plan dissemination workshops and it will be conducted in all the ten provinces.
“The overall aim of this workshop is to disseminate the revealed 2021-2023 strategic and 2022 annual plans to the province, district and ward levels. Its objectives are to equip all the ministry staff and provincial district and ward levels with relevant information to enable them have a clear understanding of the plans, to raise awareness about the strategic and annual concerns, targets and to promote purpose of unity within all arms of the ministry so as to move in one direction,” said Mashangwa.
Deputy Director of Ministry of Women Affairs Brain Guyo said they had many programmes in place for strategic planning.
“We are going to promote women access to safe markets in the all provinces and in Masvingo, we will start constructing markets next year and it will be funded by the Africa Development Bank,” said Guyo.
Strategic plan defines the Ministry vision, mission and goals that they want to achieve for the betterment of the country.
Three people died after a Toyota Hiace they were traveling in burst a tyre on March 13, 2022 at 68km peg along Chivhu-Roy road.
Masvingo provincial police spokesperson Inspector Kudakwashe Dhewa confirmed the accident and said the driver will face charges of culpable homicide.
“We will prefer culpable homicide against the driver,” said Dhewa.
The deceased are Charles Nyamungwa (26), Gilston Baloyi and Florence Ndlovu who were all confirmed dead upon admission at Gutu Mission Hospital after sustaining severe head injuries.
The circumstances are that on Sunday Innocent Damba (32) had 13 passengers in his Toyota Hiace vehicle.
When he arrived at 68km peg the rear left tyre burst, causing him to lose control of the vehicle, veered off to the right side of the road and overturned several times until it landed on its right side.
The rest of the passengers including the driver were all admitted at Gutu Mission Hospital of which four are reported to be in a critical condition.
The vehicle sustained extensive damages and is supposed to be examined by Vehicle Inspection Department (VID).
A power connection row involving Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution Company (ZETDC), Bikita Rural District Council (RDC) and Equifax contractors who constructed power lines in Duma phase 1; 2 and 3 culminated into a standoff resulting in Bikita West legislator Elias Musakwa intervening to solve the matter.
A meeting was conducted on March 11 in Duma suburb at the power transformer where ZETDC is supposed to connect to ensure power is supplied to the residents of the area. The stand-off emanated from alleged refusal by power utility and Bikita RDC to complete contractual forms legalizing power connection.
Musakwa said the fact that such a huge transformer was under-utilized prompted his office to look into the matter and thus resolve the issue while at the same time delivering power to residents of the areas in question.
“We received calls from residents that there was no transformer in the area and we responded to the call with the provision of this 250KV transformer that you can see here. The challenge now is that, I was even fearing to enter into N-Richards shop as people would enquire and pose questions to me as to when the power issue would be connected and I could not have a clear and definite answer.
“If I ask ZETDC, they would say they had no problem with connecting if relevant procedures were properly followed, would ask the contractors they say the same and so would the RDC. After realizing that all the stakeholders were clean, I then sought this meeting so that the matter is laid to rest and power connected. Now that all the relevant stakeholders are present, what would stop us from connecting power? If there are documents that need to be signed before connecting, then let it be,” said Musakwa.
One of the ZETDC representatives said they would have no problem connecting power to the residents if all the necessary infrastructure and procedures are in place.
“As ZETDC, we feel the stage at which we are needs the power lines constructed by the contractors to be handed over to us by the RDC. We would work with the RDC and from our prior agreement, there should be handover-takeover process and that is done through documentation and the RDC would have finalized their work with contracted companies.
“If the RDC hands over the infrastructure to us and we officially take over, only then would we be authorized to connect power,” said the representative.
However Bikita RDC Chief Executive Officer Peter Chibhi declined committing council towards honoring payments to the contractors on behalf of residents and urged contractors to finalize their issue with residents as they have been doing before.
“The contractors once came to my office trying to figure out an arrangement in which council would be involved in payment arrangements because they felt that if lines were to be officially handed over to ZETDC before full payment, they would not be able to recover the money. My response was that as council, when these contractors were given the job that meant that we had given the nod as an authority.
“However, I made it clear that council had no capacity to pay the contractors on behalf of residents. The contractor therefore must come out clean that the obligation to pay solely rests on residents and not council. I would not sell out council like that. I will not even commit council towards such payments.
“After the meeting with contractors who talked about having previously taken Checheche and Zaka RDCs to court over payment rows, council made it clear that residents make their payments as they used to, leaving out council. The contractors should just collect their dues directly from residents,” said Chibhi.
Part of the residents discussing the way forward after the meeting
Speaking on behalf of residents, Clever Tongonya acknowledged the meeting which he said resulted in bringing unity of purpose between the four parties and that will ensure power is connected.
“We have to acknowledge the unity between council, ZETDC and residents to resolve the matter. Normally the project should have been completed in December last year, but due to financial challenges among residents, progress stalled. After lessening of Covid-19 induced challenges, work then resumed. There was a challenge at one point where residents could not honor their part by making payments as agreed but now we are working towards finalizing payments for those yet to be paid up,” said Tongonya.
During the meeting, corruption allegations towards ZETDC were raised as the power utility employees are accused of connecting residents who are yet to make full payments.
Residents claimed that under normal circumstances, the project should have been finished in December 2021.
Masvingo football fraternity was yesterday thrown into mourning after soccer legend and veteran Coach Cuthbert Kwangwari collapsed and died at Mucheke stadium’s B arena on March 13, 2022.
Kwangwari was 63.
The gaffer collapsed at the ground doing what he loved the most at around 1500 hours coaching his youthful side K C Academy and was pronounced dead upon arrival at Masvingo Provincial Hospital.
Speaking to TellZim News, his brother Ernest Kwangwari confirmed the sad news, saying it came as a shock as the late Cuthbert did not have any health related problems and he was fit when he left home.
“The death of Cuthbert came to us as a shock as he left home fit and he was not sick neither did he have any health-related problems.
“Cuthbert was a humble, social man and people’s person. He was a pillar in the family and always available whenever you needed his advice or help,” said Ernest.
George Charumbira who was a colleague said that he was with Kwangwari around 1300 hours as he passed by his place collecting soccer balls on his way to the grounds.
“The death of Kwangwari shocked me as he passed by collecting soccer balls. He was fit and exhibited no symptoms of sickness,” said Charumbira.
He also added that Kwangwari was a good person in terms of behaviour, socialising and interacting with others.
“Kwangwari was a good person as he was friendly to everyone. He was also a very sociable person and good when it comes to interacting with people,” added Charumbira.
Kwangwari started playing football at the age of 19 for teams like Bikita Minerals, Gaths Mine, Kissmet, Triangle FC among others.
He then started coaching around and he coached teams like ZRP Central, Nyika United and Bikita Minerals.
Business owners in Mucheke, Masvingo have expressed their displeasure over the power cuts at Sisk business centre that spanned for a week as it negatively affected their businesses, leaving them counting losses.
Businesses that include butcheries as well as bars were affected by the resultant power cuts.
Last Moyo who owns a butchery at Sisk said that he was not able to slice new carcases because there was no power and also they were forced to close their businesses for good as all the meat had gone bad.
“The situation reached crisis level as meat had gone bad and even new carcases could not be sold to people because there was no electricity to slice the meat. We have been forced to close our butchery for good,” said Moyo.
Trymore Tazvishaya who works as a butcher at Chigudu Butchery said that they have closed their butchery in fear of outbreaks of diseases as big flies were already hovering around the area being attracted by rotten meat.
“How can we go for seven consecutive days without power? Now I have closed the butchery in fear of outbreak of diseases,” said Tazvishaya.
Caroline Bundo a resident said they have been heavily affected by the blackout as all their perishables in the fridges went bad.
“The blackout heavily affected us as residents, all the perishable stuff that we had in our fridges has decayed,” said Bundo.
Contacted for comment Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZEDTC) regional manager Jacqueline Hlatshwayo said that they apologise for the delays as the transformer was leaking oil but everything is now under control.
Gweru- Local authorities in the Midlands Province have been implored to enforce strict litter dumping measures to safeguard the environment.
The call was made by the Minister of State for Midlands Provincial Affairs and Devolution Larry Mavima following an increase in the number of illegal litter dumping sites.
Speaking during a cleaning up exercise in Mkoba last Friday (March 4) Mavima said it was disturbing to note how people were dumping litter at undesignated spots.
He further said sound by-laws were needed as issues of waste management in the country remained a prioritized agenda
“It is saddening to note how some people continue to throw litter at undesignated areas especially at bus stops and vending sites. Some residents have a tendency of throwing litter along sanitary lanes, drainages and street corners, a development which has posed high health risks to the community.
“Over the past month, we have been clearing illegal dump sites during the monthly cleanups but some unruly residents go back to throw waste in those cleaned areas. I therefore call upon all local authorities to enforce stiffer by-laws and bring sanity to their respective cities. We want litter bugs to be brought to book with immediate effect,” he said.
Mavima however commended Gweru corporates for taking a leading role in waste management.
“Let me recognize Gweru corporates namely Dulys, Telone, Premier Stone Crushers, Bata, Diamond Company among others for the role they have taken in the installation of bins in strategic areas in the Central Business District (CBD). This is indeed a good gesture towards good waste management practices.
“I am challenging other corporates and stakeholders to be involved and play their part by also putting waste management infrastructure in their areas of operation. This makes it convenient for the public,” he added.
Last year Gweru city council received six skip bins and 13 drum bins from the corporate community under a waste management infrastructure setup initiative.
Meanwhile various arms of government have been mandated to play effective roles in promoting sustainable waste management mechanisms.
Institutions such as the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) have been working closely with local authorities in raising awareness over solid waste management.
Speaking during a service delivery indaba held in January this year, Gweru city council Environment, Works and Town planning committee chairperson, councillor Trust Chineni said a number of by-laws such as the anti-litter and noise were going to be effectively implemented to bring order to the city.
Poor waste management practice continue to be a challenge in Gweru as most waste continue to be deposited into drainages, septic tanks and undesignated site across the community.
Gweru- Three robbers who terrorized Gweru residents through unlawful entry and theft were last week arrested by police leading to the recovery of stolen property that include electrical gadgets and groceries valued at US$ 6 186.
Reports from police reveal that during the period stretching from November 2021 to February 2022 the three suspects, Tafara Mutivavi Sibanda (30) of Mtapa, Pilot Simango (29) and Alexander Maswela Siziba (37) both of Mkoba, who were recently released from prison wreaked havoc in Mkoba and Lundi Park residential areas.
They were breaking into houses stealing television sets, radios, cellphones, microwaves, laptops, blankets and groceries.
Following the arrest police managed to recover nine Plasma television sets and groceries. Some of the recovered property has been positively identified by owners.
Midlands Provincial Police spokesperson, Inspector Emmanuel Mahoko urged members of the public who lost their property to visit the police.
“We call upon those who might have fallen victim and lost property to these suspects through unlawful entry and theft to visit Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Gweru for identification of the outstanding recovered property.
“Property still to be identified comprises of six television sets, three laptops and three cellphones,” Mahoko said.
Meanwhile the three suspects were taken to court and remanded in custody pending further investigations.
Mwenezi- In an incident that recently left villagers tongue-tied, a mentally ill man reportedly murdered his elder brother who was also a mental patient before hanging himself adjacent to the murder scene.
Zvondai Murove (32) of Mukahamari village under Chief Neshuro murdered his 35-year-old brother Tawedzerwa Murove on the night of March 4. After killing his brother, Zvondai left the dead body inside a local Zion Christian Church (ZCC) and later on hanged himself at a tree about 300 meters from the murder scene.
Masvingo provincial Police Spokesperson, confirmed and urged care givers to excecise extreme care on the patients .
“We encourage care-givers of mental patients to ensure they always monitor their patients. Chief Neshuro’s secretary Pinias Shoko confirmed the tragedy and said the two were mental patients.
“The two had been known to be mentally challenged and for years the murdered elder brother was in South Africa so when he came back, it is reported that they had a number of altercations.
“The dispute led to the younger brother to kill his sibling and left the corpse inside a ZCC church before he proceeded to hang himself at a tree adjacent to the scene of murder. The incident took place during the night and the two corpses were discovered by a passersby the following morning,” said Shoko.
Chenjerai Muzamani brother to the two deceased (sharing same mother) told TellZim News that the two had been suffering from mental challenges for quite some time.
“The two have been experiencing some interval mental problems since the 1990s and been staying with my mother. Days prior to the tragedy, the two had been quarreling. Tawedzerwa’s body was discovered inside a local ZCC church with his hands tied together with a rope while Zvondai’s was found hanging on a tree.
“Though no one eye witnessed the killing since it was done during the night, it was very clear from the look of things that the younger brother murdered his sibling before taking his own life,” said Muzamani.
The two corpses were taken to Neshuro District Hospital mortuary and burial arrangements were yet to be finalized.
Zimbabweans commemorated journalist and human rights defender Itai Dzamara’s day of disappearance seven years on with heavy hearts as civic space and human rights violations continue to spiral out of control in the country.
Firebrand Human Rights Activist Makomborero Haruzivishe who was recently released from a 10 month-long incarceration, said Dzamara was his brother and comrade in the struggle for human rights and was pioneer of the social movement that is seen now in the country.
“I worked closely with Dzamara. I can safely say he taught me all I know now in as far as activism is concerned, he really was a pioneer as he is one of the founders of the social movement as we see it today.
“He was and will continue to be the epitome of radical and consistency, he had the gift of mobilizing and together we worked between 2014 through 2015 in projects such as Youths Network Alliance (YNA),” said Haruzivishe.
He added that Zimbabwe lost Dzamara as a nation, be it his loved ones or abductors, we all lost a gem and if he was still here today, he would still preach the gospel of registering to vote.
“To those that are responsible for his disappearance, I would like to tell them that we lost him together and to all of us who valued him, we will not tire until justice is served, we will win for him.
“He disappeared as a registered voter and as such, I know he will still preach the gospel of registering to vote; hence, I urge everyone to go out and register in numbers in his honour,” added Haruzivishe.
Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) Director, Jestina Mukoko said government must walk the talk in investigating the disappearance of Dzamara and expressed her condolences to his family.
“It is so sad that seven years later no one can account for a citizen’s life. My heart goes out to his mother, wife and children.
No one just disappears without a trace, someone should talk, someone knows where he went and at some point, powerful government officials said his disappearance was a barbaric act but those were just words, we need to follow up with action,” said Mukoko
In a poster made in honour of Dzamara, Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), Zimbabwe Human Rights Association of Zimbabwe (ZIMRIGHTS) and Amnesty International wrote that they offer free haircuts at selected barbershops in Highfield on the day since he was abducted leaving a barbershop in the area.
During the third cycle of the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva, Switzerland held on January 26, 2022, Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Ziyambi Ziyambi said the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) are still investigating the disappearance of Dzamara giving regular updates to the ministry.
“The judiciary takes every matter seriously, with cases such as the disappearance of Itai Dzamara still ongoing with fortnight updates from the police,” said Ziyambi.
