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Masvingo General Hospital struggle to complete ICU

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Masvingo General Hospital struggle to complete ICU

Semi finished isolation centre at Masvingo general hospital

 … As sole Covid-19 isolation centre gets overwhelmed

Terrence Ndowora
Masvingo Provincial Hospital seems to be struggling to complete its Intensive Care Unit (ICU) whose construction work started last year.
The ICU project which will cater for severe Covid-19 patients is now at roof level.
Contacted for comment on the delay of the ICU completion, Masvingo Provincial Medical Director Doctor Amadeus Shamhu said he had no idea when the project would be complete.
“I have no idea on when the ICU would be complete but the Public Works department can assist you with information on when exactly the project be complete,” said Dr. Shamhu.
When the former Vice President Kembo Mohadi toured the provincial hospital last year in June to assess the progress of the construction of the ICU, he was promised that it would be complete in no time but it’s been almost a year now.
Construction of the 21 bed structure was stalled in January 2021 due to lack of construction materials. 
Meanwhile, Masvingo’s sole Covid-19 isolation center in Rujeko suburb is reportedly overwhelmed with insufficient oxygen stocks as eight out of its 10 beds are occupied, TellZim News has learnt.
Masvingo Provincial Covid-19 taskforce Rodgers Irimayi confirmed that there are coronavirus patients admitted at the isolation center.
“There are eight patients who were admitted as of June 24 at Rujeko isolation center with Covid-19,” said Irimayi.
Masvingo is one of the provinces in the country with the highest number of active coronavirus cases.
According to statistics availed by the Provincial Medical Director Amadeus Shamhu recently, the district has a surge in the cases of the infection.
“Masvingo urban recorded 17 new positive cases as on June 24, 2021 bringing the total number of cases to 53. More screening should be done in order to identify suspected cases for testing,” said Shamhu.
Colleges in Masvingo have recorded more Covid-19 cases lately, putting the district on the hotspot map for over two weeks.
Masvingo Polytechnic recently recorded a total number of 16 Covid-19 cases on June 23 bringing the total number of active cases to 19 at the same institution which puts Masvingo total of cumulative cases to 3106.
A total of 73 people have succumbed to Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic last year.

Bad roads affect farmers in Gutu North

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Bad roads affect farmers in Gutu North
Deure bridge which was left unfinished in 2019.The Bridge links Soti Source and Gutu North Constituency with Gutu town

. . . as they struggle to ferry fresh farm produce to markets during Covid-19 pandemic

Matilda Nehohwa ( CORA)

GUTU–Over 1000 farmers in Gutu North constituency are pleading with Government to complete the tarring of Gutu-Kurai road, saying the bad road network has affected them as they struggle to transport their fresh farm produce to Mpandawana town.

The Gutu-Kurai road is being tarred using Zinara and devolution funds, and when complete it will link Mpandawana and Buhera in Manicaland Province. 

Farmers and villagers from Soti Source, Chiguhune, Domborenhikiti and Nyazvidzi as well as schools and clinics use this road to connect with Buhera and Mpandawana town. 

Farmers who spoke to this publication said Gutu Rural District Council (RDC) and Government should prioritise the completion of this major road which is used by many farmers and villagers from Gutu North to connect to Mpandawana town.

“We have a number of horticulture farmers in Gutu North and they use this road to go and sell their fresh produce at Mpandawana. The government started tarring of this road sometime in 2018 if not before but up to now they have completed less than 10km. We have more than 10 000 families who are surviving through farming so we plead our RDC and government to prioritise the completion of this road,” said one farmer.

A supervisor at the site who spoke on condition of anonymity said the project is being funded by devolution funds and council was waiting to receive this year’s disbursement. 

“Zinara funds are also being channelled towards this project but the challenge is that they don’t disburse the funds in time,” said one of the project supervisors.

There have been reports of abuse of the raw materials that are meant for the construction of the roads by workers who steal and divert the resources. One of the workers stole over 100 bags of cement that were later recovered by the police in Gornvile suburbs where they hidden.

When contacted for comment, Gutu RDC chief executive officer Alexander Mutembwa said the road was not under his jurisdiction, asking this reporter to contact the Department of Roads.

Efforts to get a comment from the provincial roads engineer were fruitless as his mobile phone went unanswered for days. 

Covid-19 vaccination slips to be passport for ZANU PF meetings

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Covid-19 vaccination slips to be passport for ZANU PF meetings
File picture: Christopher Mutsvangwa

Brighton Chiseva

MASVINGO– ZANU PF Deputy Provincial Chairperson and Zaka North member (MP) of Parliament Robson Mavhenyengwa has said Covid-19 vaccination slips will soon be used as gate passes to party meetings.

Mavhenyengwa was speaking at the Provincial Coordinating Committee Meeting held at Great Zimbabwe University’s Julius Nyerere School of Social Sciences recently.

He said party leadership was supposed to lead by example and get vaccinated first so that they encourage their subordinates to get vaccinated.

“You as the leadership should be vaccinated so that the people you lead will copy from you. How can you encourage people to be vaccinated when you are not?

“Soon we will introduce a system where only those who have been vaccinated will be allowed into our meetings. You will be asked to produce your vaccination slip here as proof to be admitted into the meetings. If you cannot walk around with the slip you will have to scan it and bring the picture here in your phone,” said Mavhenyengwa.

Mavhenyengwa went on to warn party leadership against campaigning for positions saying it was too early for that and said they can only campaign for ZANU PF and the President.

“We only campaign for the party and the President only. We still have our PCC, Councilors and MPs, those positions have people so there is no need to campaign. We will be told when time is rife to start campaigning,” said Mavhenyengwa.

His warning came at a time when a number of people are warming themselves for the PPC positions following the completion of District Coordinating Committees elections.

The guest of honor at the event, Christopher Mutsvangwa who is a Politburo member and Secretary for Science and Technology praised the way people were being vaccinated in Zimbabwe saying a number of countries were admiring Zimbabwe in terms of the vaccination role out.

He went on to say the government was doing its best to make sure that all people get vaccinated saying more doses were coming from China.

“Zimbabwe is among the few countries that have so far managed to vaccinate a huge number of people. Even the likes of Julius Malema from South Africa have acknowledged that. People in Australia and other European countries have acknowledged that,” said Mutsvangwa.

He went on to say the reason why they have managed to progress is because they have partnered China which has been helping out Zimbabwe.

“We have our friend China which has been supporting us since the liberation struggle. They gave us guns and other war equipment to fight for our liberation struggle. So we cannot abandon a friend like that, that is why when we were affected by Covid-19 we rushed to our friend that is why we have been ahead,” said Mutsvangwa.

Vaccination process open to manipulation

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Vaccination process open to manipulation
Covid-19 vaccination card 

Kimberly Kusauka

There has been rising concern over the vaccination program’s lack of foolproof ways to avoid double vaccination with calls being made to computerize the process, TellZim News has learnt.  

Talking to TellZim News, Masvingo Provincial Medical Director Amedeous Shamhu said that it cannot be ruled out that a person can get two Sinovac jabs after getting two Sinopharm ones since the process is not computerized, even though it would be very far-fetched.

“We cannot really say that it is not possible for a person to receive two doses from two different vaccines since our system is not computerized.

“We would however really wonder why a person would get vaccinated from two different vaccines because a normal person would not do such a thing. Actually we will consider it total madness,” said Shamhu.

The concern may have emanated from the depletion of first doses of vaccines in many health centers at a time when people were warming up to the idea of getting vaccinated.  

Masvingo Provincial Taskforce spokesperson Roders Irimayi told TellZim News that people were being educated on the vaccination process, and it would be very unfortunate to find people who are getting double vaccination.

“We are on the ground educating people on the vaccination process, and it would be unfortunate to have people who take advantage of the system and get double vaccination, which will deprive others.

“No one knows what will happen if a person gets two different vaccines and I do not think anyone would do that to themselves, because when one gets vaccinated they are given a vaccination card,” Irimayi said.

In the past few months, people were raising concern on the simplicity of the vaccination card, with some saying that there were chances one could manipulate the system using the vaccination card since it was not computerized.    

The country is expected to receive 25 000 Sputnik V doses from Russia and 500 000 Sinopharm doses from China which are expected this Saturday.

As at June 24 a total number of 724 582 people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in Zimbabwe.

Covid-19 positive cases continue to rise in Zimbabwe

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Covid-19 positive cases continue to rise in Zimbabwe

 …as Masvingo province tops the list

Blessed Chauke

Covid-19 positive cases in Zimbabwe continue to shoot up with Masvingo province recording more cases in the past few weeks.

In Masvingo province, Chiredzi and Masvingo districts have since been declared hotspots.

On June 4 only two positive cases were recorded, but the number has already shot up to a total of 325 Covid-19 positive cases by June 23.

Masvingo Provincial Medical Director Amadeus Shamhu confirmed to TellZim News last week that investigations have since been launched to ascertain the cause of the rising numbers of Covid-19 cases, but the results are yet to be released as they do not want to speculate.

“I am yet to receive the findings of the investigations we launched in Chiredzi after noticing the rising number of Covi-19 cases there, but if you contact me on Monday (June 21) I should have them by then,” Shamhu said.

Masvingo Provincial Covid-19 taskforce spokesperson Rodgers Irimayi also told TellZim News that the risk communication team is on the ground doing awareness campaigns in Chiredzi, which has increased the number of people being tested.

“We have a risk communication team on the ground doing awareness campaigns and the number of people being tested has definitely increased, which also contributes to the high number of positive cases.

“Increase in number of cases could also mean there is increased testing, which is a good thing,” Irimayi said.

Irimayi however added that it has already been established that those who have been vaccinated are more resistant to Covid-19 than those who are not.

“Vaccination has given those who have been jabbed some immunity against Covi-19, and even when they test positive, the effects are much better for them than those who have not been vaccinated,” Irimayi added.

Meanwhile, together with Chiredzi, Masvingo district Covid-19 cases have lately been dominating provincial statistics after an outbreak at Morgenster Teachers College last week.

The institution has been placed under lockdown and Covid-19 restrictions have been tightened across the two districts, which have been on the national hotspot map for over 2 weeks now.

IcodZim engages Masvingo local authorities on disaster preparedness

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IcodZim engages Masvingo local authorities on disaster preparedness

Veeslee Mhepo

Institute of Community Development Zimbabwe (IcodZim) has engaged councils in Masvingo province on how they can mitigate Covid-19 effects on women with disabilities to improve their legal, policy and administrative challenges.

The engagement aimed at placing women with disabilities at the center of sustainable and resilient Covid-19 response and recovery plan.

IcodZim director Talent Maposa said there is absence of localized disaster preparedness and response plan to help affected women with disabilities to a greater extent and urged councils to   find ways to deal with Covid-19 in case another wave strikes again.

“Councils should have plans and resources set aside for disasters especially this pandemic because no one knows how it is going to end and what is going to come next.

“The available structures are in form of taskforce Committees at district level and lack of a localized disaster preparedness and response plan during the Covid-19 affected most women with disabilities,” said Maposa.

Bikita Rural District Council (RDC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Peter Chibi said Covid-19 affected women with disabilities on accessing information due to absence of community engagement, adding that there is need for inclusion of women with disabilities in engagements that increase their participation.

“The inclusion of people with disabilities in socio- economic activities is of paramount importance especially during the Covid-19 period and women with disabilities have not been able to access information during the pandemic due to lack of participation and representation in the taskforce.

“RDCs should have specific funds reserved for disasters in order to help reduce economic problems in the event of a disaster,” said Chibi.

Mwenezi RDC representative Sinikiwe Mhlanga said women with disabilities were subjected to inhuman treatment and discrimination at quarantine centers and lack of disability friendly infrastructure is a major challenge to women with disabilities.

“The quarantine centers were not disability friendly and this resulted in ill treatment of women with disabilities, exposing them to stigma.

“The other major challenges we are facing is that our infrastructure is not disability friendly and we working at building ramps at all council offices,” said Mhlanga.

Chiredzi Town Council representative Washington Mbaura said they witnessed a spike in gender based violence (GBV) cases involving women and girls with disabilities during the lockdown period.

Masvingo City Council represented by Ashley Jinjika also said women with disabilities faced numerous challenges but they managed to find solutions to some of the challenges.

“Women with disabilities faces a lot of challenges such as lack of information kiosks, water challenges and resource mobilization challenge.

“We managed to launch a Covid 19 support fund, council rented houses and stands to women with disabilities, provision of market stalls, payment plans, piped water scheme and provided Jairos Jiri with five hectare stands for their income generating projects,” said Jinjika.

Viset launches Medical Aid facility for vendors

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Viset launches Medical Aid facility for vendors

Tinaani Nyabereka

Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET) last week launched a medical aid facility to cater for their membership.

The initiative will cover the needs of victims of police and municipality brutality particularly in light of the ongoing demolition exercises in Harare, TellZim News has learnt.

VISET Director Sam Wadzai said the establishment of the facility was necessitated by the rising disregard for human life by the law enforcement agents

“We have established this facility so that we offer medical assistance to our membership as we discovered that many members experience injuries at the hands of riot police.

“This facility does not cater for Covid-19 testing. However VISET is working with partners like OXFAM on vaccination campaigns for their membership and the general public to counter fake news and conspiracy theories. The facility is available for all VISET members countrywide,” said Wadzai.

He however noted that the informal sector had been greatly affected by lockdown restrictions that had limited movements for both farmers and customers across the country.

“Our vendors have been affected by the current restrictions and the ban on commuter omnibus operators outside of the ZUPCO facility looking at the current surges in the Covid-19 cases.

“Another disturbance is the recent crackdown by the Provincial Development Coordinator for Harare Metropolitan Province, Tafadzwa Muguti who decided to embark on the destruction of informal traders’ work places in defiance of a High Court order barring him from doing so.

“There is no alternative site at all to relocate our people. The City fathers just decided to destroy the existing markets without plan B or an alternative. This is why we are against the whole exercise because it’s not informed by any planning ethos,” Wadzai said.

No printers at Zaka registry

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No printers at Zaka registry

Finance deputy Min Clemence Chiduwa

Brighton Chiseva
ZAKA – The deputy Minister of Finance and Economic development and Zaka East Member of Parliament has said there are no printers at Zaka registry offices and people in the district are failing to access identity documents.
Clemence Chiduwa who is ZANU PF Zaka District Coordinating Committee (DCC) chairperson was speaking at the Provincial Coordinating Committee (PCC) meeting at Great Zimbabwe University’s Julius Nyerere School of Social Sciences over the weekend.
Chiduwa said they have discovered that more than 40 percent of the people in their party cells had no identity documents and could not register to vote. 
“We have finished cell structuring in Zaka district but we have discovered that a number of people in the cells have no IDs and cannot register to vote. So we approached the registry offices in Zaka with the intention of making sure that they get IDs.
“We were however told that the district office has no printers for the past three months and people are not getting IDs,” said Chiduwa.
When contacted for comment, Zaka District Registrar Cuthbert Mataruse said he was not allowed to comment to the media.
“I am not allowed to speak to the media, maybe you can get a comment from the provincial registrar,” said Mataruse.
However, other sources close to the matter said the computers malfunctioned when the registry offices opened after the long Covid-19 induced lockdown saying they were taken to Harare but were condemned and need to be replaced.
The sources indicated that the machines are too old, which resulted in them malfunctioning when registry offices reopened after lockdown last year.
“There were indications that the machines were complaining of a number of malfunctions and they were then taken to Harare for maintenance but were condemned and need to be replaced,” said the source.
The source further said the office had resorted to manual means and is now issuing the green pass (paper ids) which has a long process. 
“People are being given paper IDs, which means we have reverted back to the old system. 
“The process takes time because of film issues, with the IDs also at risk of getting wet and will need to be replaced at some point and this is inconvenient to the people of Zaka,” said the source.
The registry offices are also still centralized at Zaka Office and people are calling for the migration to Jerera for easy accessibility.
Strides have also been taken to address the registry issue with Zaka MP Ophias Murambiwa facilitating for the establishment of registry sub offices at Veza and Chivamba business centres.

Trio to perform community service for aborting baby

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Trio to perform community service for aborting baby

George Chimwayange 

MASVINGO-Two women and a man from Rujeko suburb in Masvingo will each perform 280 hours community service after they connived to unlawfully terminate a pregnancy.

The three who appeared before Masvingo Magistrate Grace Tupiri were initially slapped with a 14 month prison term each before six months were suspended on condition that they do not commit a similar offence in the next five years and the rest of the sentence was set for community service.

Lessly Ncube (22), Tatenda Zivuku (25) and Nicholas Matemera (25) all from Mwenezi, Rujeko and ZBS suburbs in Masvingo were arrested on June 17 after police found a lifeless foetus dumped in a plastic bag in Pangolin suburb.

The state case as presented by Prosecutor Precious Takuva was that sometime in early June, Ncube told Zivuku, who is her friend that she was pregnant and that she wanted to terminate it.

Zivuku then informed Matemera that her friend wanted to terminate a pregnancy and if he could assist, after which he agreed.

On June 16 2021 at around 6am the three accomplices connived to insert a pill into Ncube’s genitals leading to the abortion after which they placed the foetus into a plastic bag.

The following day, Zivuku took the plastic bag and threw it into a sewage drainage canal near Pangolin suburb.

Acting on a tip off, police the arrested the three who led them to the recovery of the foetus and Ncube was taken to Masvingo Provincial Hospital where she was medically examined.

Treasury not committed to fund health sector: ZIMCODD

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Treasury not committed to fund health sector: ZIMCODD

Blessed Chauke

The Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD)   has blasted the government for the failure of the Treasury to prioritise funding the health sector in its report to the Zimbabwe Parliament on June 16 this year.

Commenting on Auditor General Mildred Chiri’s 2019 report, ZIMCODD noted that the Ministry of Health and Child Care made several budgets to ensure smooth service delivery but only a few funds are released from government coffers. 

“Treasury is not committed to fund the health sector regardless of the deplorable state of the sector. 

“While the Ministry of Health and Child Care budgeted ZW$155 464 000 for the implementation of key programmes including the procurement of ambulances, provision of water at referral centres, medical equipment and refurbishment of health institutions, treasury only released $2 137 277 which is only one percent of the budget which was utilised on construction works of four provincial hospitals,” read a statement by ZIMCODD.

The Auditor General’s report also highlighted the deteriorating conditions at Masvingo Provincial Hospital, the province’s biggest referrals hospital which sometimes goes for years without disposing expired drugs.  

“Service deliveries continue to plunge, posing a health risk. Masvingo Provincial Hospital had expired drugs classified drugs not disposed of contrary to section 90 of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act which requires disposal of all obsolete, surplus, and unserviceable assets.

“The drugs had expired between the years 1995 and 2019. In addition the, AG was not availed with application letters for the disposal of expired drugs worth $31 696 whose board of surveys had been conducted in April and November 2019,” read the ZIMCODD statement.

Masvingo Provincial Hospital was previously in the papers for having challenges of acquiring an incinerating facilities that meet the Environmental Management Agency standards, which will assist in disposing expired drugs.

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