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Zaka teacher warned for conducting classes during lockdown

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Zaka teacher warned for conducting classes during lockdown
Tsiga Secondary School

Ratidzo
Munembi

A science teacher at
Tsiga Secondary in Zaka has been warned by his school head after he reportedly
conducted several classes in contravention of the national lockdown order which
was pronounced to help fight the spread of coronavirus.

Parents in surrounding
villages complained that they were left with no choice but to let their
children attend the classes after being informed some pupils were moving
forward with learning.

They claimed that
Watson Chikati, who teaches ‘O’ level science subjects, conducted many classes
with some children at his house in the teachers cottage to avoid detection by
authorities.

“When I learnt that
some children were making progress with their teacher, I was very worried that
my own child was being left behind. I was apprehensive at first knowing the
dangers of people gathering at a place but I had no choice but to let him join
others,” said the parent on condition his family name is protected.

Others said Chikati was
a hard worker but had made a mistake by violating lockdown restrictions to
conduct classes clandestinely.

“We know him. He is
passionate about his job and wants nothing but the best for his pupils but that
was a mistake on his part. I am glad that he has now been stopped,” said the
parent.

When contacted for
comment, Chikati denied the allegations, saying they were formulated by people
with their own malicious motives.

“I did not conduct any
classes as being alleged by those people. I only had a discussion with two
children who had come to collect some past exam papers for revision. One is a
child to a fellow teacher, so to claim that I gathered pupils for classes is
not correct,” said Chikati.

However, Tsiga Secondary
School head John Museba admitted that Chikati had indeed conducted some classes
but had now been warned to stop.

“I have been in
Masvingo town for some time and had not learnt about it. I however carried out
some investigations and found that he had been conducting some lessons with
pupils. I have ordered him to stop and I have also sent the School Development
Committee (SDC) chairperson to go and have a word with him,” said Museba.

Schools have been shut
since the end of March but government now plans a phased reopening starting
next month (July) though teachers’ unions are vehemently opposed to the move.

 

Masvingo Provincial Hospital shuts doors to public

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Masvingo Provincial Hospital shuts doors to public
Entrance to Masvingo Provincial Hospital


…as doctors, nurses go
on ‘indefinite’ strike

…all patients
discharged, no more new admissions


Moses
Ziyambi

Masvingo Provincial
Hospital is no longer admitting or treating any patients after virtually all
nurses and doctors went on strike late last week to protest deteriorating
working conditions underlined by poor pay, shortage of medicines and lack of
personal protective equipment, TellZim News has can report.

The strike reportedly started
on Friday, June 19, coinciding with Vice President Kembo Mohadi’s visit.

Chances are, however, that the vice president did not notice it after local officials reportedly choreographed his tour of
the hospital carefully to make everything look normal.

During Mohadi’s address
after the tour, there was a thin sprinkling of nurses and other hospital staff
members at the gathering.

TellZim News, however,
spoke to many people who said their relatives had been discharged after
hospital authorities said they will no longer be caring for anybody.

A man whose aunt
required surgery and had been asked by doctors to buy some consumables at the
pharmacies had to carry her home after doctors suddenly told him they were no
longer going to operate on her.

A girl who fell ill in
town on June 23 and was taken to a local private clinic where she was denied
admission on the basis that she had to be tested for coronavirus first.
Attempts to get her tested failed as she did not meet the criteria of suspected
cases, having no recent travel history outside the country.

However, Masvingo Provincial
Hospital also turned away, with staff telling her that every patient had been discharged
and no new arrivals were being attended to.

A nurse who spoke to
TellZim News on condition of anonymity said the hospital was as good as closed
down because all health personnel were united in their demands for a complete
overhaul of their working conditions.

When contacted for
comment, Provincial Medical Director (PMD) Dr Amadeus Shamu said operations at
the hospital had been drastically scaled back in response to the strike.

“They are operating
with a very thin staff complement as most nurses have gone on strike. The few
available nurses are only attending to the most critical sections like the maternity
ward where some care has to be given to expectant mothers at all cost,” said
Shamu.

He said only senior
nurses were manning the maternity ward and other critical areas where, however,
no new patients were getting admitted.

He also said some
doctors were available to work but they could only attend to cases that have
been referred to them by nurses.

Two doctors who spoke
to TellZim News, however, said it was not correct that some of them were
available to attend to cases.

“Don’t be fooled. As
far as I know, we are all on strike and the sooner authorities attend to our
grievances, the better in terms of welfare of patients,” said one doctor.

 

Masvingo education inspector Mutonono dies

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Masvingo education inspector Mutonono dies
The late Jemias Mutonono

TellZim
Reporter

A non-formal education
inspector with the Masvingo provincial education office, Jemias Mutonono has
died.

A close relative who confirmed
his demise said Mutonono had been unwell for quite a long time but his
condition deteriorated recently leading to his death today, June 23.

He is said to have died
at his home in the high density suburb of Mucheke F in Masvingo city.

Masvingo Provincial Education
Director (PED) Zedius Chitiga said the education office was robbed of a dedicated
leader.

“We are saddened by the
loss. He was a hard and dedicated worker who has now left poorer as a province.
The void he left will be difficult to properly fill,” said Chitiga.  

Burial arrangements
were yet to be announced by the time of writing but it was hinted that he could
be buried at his rural home in Chiponda village, Renco Mine.

Mutonono was once
stationed at Zaka district education offices as district literacy coordinator
before he was transferred to the provincial office in Masvingo city.

A devoted Zanu PF
member, Mutonono contested in the party’s Masvingo South constituency primary
elections in 2018 but lost to Claudius Maronge who went on to win the
parliamentary seat in the July 30, 2018 harmonised elections.

During his time in Zaka,
Mutonono was in Zanu PF district leadership which campaigned vigorously for
then President Robert Mugabe in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election
run-off during which some opposition members were killed and maimed.

 

 

Bikita RDC registers over 120 informal traders

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Bikita RDC registers over 120 informal traders

Ratidzo
Munembi

BIKITA
– A
total of 120 informal traders some of whom had been operating illegally prior
to the Covid-19 induced national lockdown have now registered their operation
with the Bikita Rural District Council (RDC), TellZim has learnt.

The local authority is
on a drive to encourage more informal traders to register their operations so
as to avoid future inconveniences should the lockdown be fully lifted.

In an interview with
TellZim News, Bikita RDC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Peter Chibhi said
council wanted orderly and lawful informal trading going forward.

“We are pleased that a
significant number of our people in the informal trade have come forward to
regularise their activities. We encourage others to come forward as this is a
continuous process allowed as per the SI 136 (Public Health [Covid-19 Prevention,
Containment and Treatment] [National Lockdown] Amendment Order, 2020, No 10).

“Council is working
hard to improve market stalls at Nyika growth point and other business centres
to make sure that people do their business in dignity and with decreased
chances of contracting the coronavirus and spreading it to others,” said
Chibhi.

He warned that the
future was bleak for those who fail to take advantage of the existing
dispensation to register anybody who wants to get into the informal trade.

“Our desire is to give
our people a chance to fend for their families in a lawful manner since things
will never be the same even if we are to have a post-Covid-19 era. Council
wants to maintain lawful control of informal traders so that we can plan
accordingly and be able to provide optimum service delivery as per our mandate,”
he said.

He also said those that
have already registered were being allowed to do some business at stipulated
timeframes with a requirement that they strictly adhere to maximum hygiene
standards possible and social distancing rules.

In April, the Ministry
of Local Government Public Works and National Housing ordered local authorities
to take advantage of the lockdown to destroy illegal market stalls and build
proper market places.

 

 

Four weeks of no water at Nemanwa

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Four weeks of no water at Nemanwa
The dirty open well along Munzviru stream where residents have been fetching water over the last four weeks

Virginia
Njovo

The Zimbabwe National
Water Authority (Zinwa) has for the past three weeks been battling pump
breakdowns, electrical faults and theft of components at its intake tower
installed on Lake Mutirikwi, leaving the people of Nemanwa growth point without
water right into the fourth week.

Distressed residents of
the sprawling growth point told TellZim News they had been fetching water in
the nearby Munzviru stream whose waters are significantly polluted.

“These have been very
difficult weeks for us because we don’t have a better alternative source to the
stream whose water might be suitable for laundry but definitely not for
drinking and cooking. The water has become dirtier in recent weeks due to the
increase in numbers of people going to the stream,” said one resident of the
area.

Due to deep-seated
grievances in services delivery, some residents have organised themselves and
formed the Nemanwa Residents and Ratepayers Association (Nerra) which has since
submitted a letter of grievances to Masvingo Rural District Council (RDC).

The organisation wants Masvingo RDC to drill boreholes for residents as water supplies from Zinwa are hardly reliable.

When contacted for
comment, Zinwa Masvingo regional manager Stanley Nazombe said he understood
residents’ protestations as his organisation had been grappling with many
challenges over the weeks.

“There was a whole
array of problems in our supply system. We had to move our pump to a different
place in the lake in response to declining water levels. We then had a breaking
down in the pumping system, and then an electrical fault. We had also
experienced theft of some components in the pumping system and all this built
up the crisis we had. I am confident though that supplies are most likely to be
restored today (June 22) as everything is now in place,” said Nazombe.

He said Great Zimbabwe
Hotel, which also receives water through the same supply system, had assisted
in the restoration efforts.

However, the following
day (June 23) many residents reported that they still had not received any
water.

 

 

Covid-19: More US funding for Zim

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Covid-19: More US funding for Zim
US ambassador to Zimbabwe Brian Nichols with President Emmerson Mnangagwa

Ratidzo
Munembi

The United States has
committed an additional $10 million to help Zimbabwe fight the spreading
coronavirus, and the money will be allocated to the World Food Programme (WFP) which
is feeding nearly 100 000 food-insecure people in the country in eight urban
areas.

In a statement released
on June 16 by the United State embassy public affairs section, the country
reiterates its commitment to help the people of Zimbabwe through their most
difficult times.

The latest funding,
released through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
brings the total amount of money committed by the world’s largest economy to
Zimbabwe to over $18 million.

USAID alone has provided
nearly $15 million while the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
has provided $3 million, with PEPFAR reprograming $150,000 since the virus
reached Zimbabwe.

“Through this $10
million in new funding, USAID will collaborate with WFP to address increasing
food insecurity in urban areas.  In September 2019, the Zimbabwe Vulnerability
Assessment Committee (ZimVAC) determined that more than 2.2 million Zimbabweans
in urban areas face food insecurity as a result of rising food prices.

“In May 2020, WFP
estimated that this number had increased by as much as one million people as a
result of the Covid-19 lockdown, which further constrained the economy and
severely affected Zimbabweans whose livelihoods depend on the informal
sector.  This funding will ensure that nearly 100,000 people in eight
urban districts have access to cash transfers that will ensure adequate food
supplies between July and December 2020,” reads part of the statement, quoting
US Ambassador to Zimbabwe Brian Nichols.

USAID’s emergency
assistance to urban areas complements the more than $110 million that the
agency provided to rural areas in 2019, which reached more than 1.8 million
rural Zimbabweans across 22 districts.

Despite political and
policy differences with Zimbabwe’s leaders since year 2000, the United States
remains the largest donor to the country, providing billions of dollars for the
country’s health and food sectors over the past 20 years.

 

 

Masvingo to have ICU for the first time

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Masvingo to have ICU for the first time

 

Work on the ICU is ongoing


Ratidzo Munembi

Masvingo province will soon have
its first Intensive Care Unit (ICU) when work being done at Masvingo Provincial
Hospital is completed, TellZim News has learnt.

This came out during a tour of
the referral hospital by Vice President Kembo Mohadi who visited today, June
19, to assess the province’s state of preparedness to deal with a possible
upsurge in cases of coronavirus.

The 21-bed ICU is being built at
the hospital by Mimosa mining company as part of its contribution to the fight
against the spread of coronavirus.

Accompanied by the Minister of
State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs Ezra Chadzamira, Minister of Mines and
Mining Development Winston Chitando and Minister of State in the Vice President’s
Office Davis Marapira, Mohadi was shown around the construction site where men
were hard at work.

An old female medical ward was
partly razed down, with extensive renovations and extension work being underway.

Mohadi was told that Masvingo
Provincial Hospital was established in 1896, and that it will be the first in
the province to host an ICU which will serve severely diseased coronavirus positive
patients.

He was also told that work on the
construction site was being done by artisans from the Zimbabwe National Army
(ZNA) Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) and the Zimbabwe Prison and Correctional
Services (ZPCS).

In his address after the tour,
Mohadi urged people to remain vigilant in face of rising cases of locally-transmitted
coronavirus cases.

“The best way to deal with this
virus is to prevent it; we must remain vigilant because if we don’t we will all
die. This is not a job for leaders alone but for each and every one of us,”
said Mohadi in reference to the 20 locally-transmitted cases that were part of
the 62 positive cases recorded yesterday, June 18.

Before his tour of the referral centre,
Mohadi had also visited Mashava Hospital which is almost ready to serve as an
isolation centre with a capacity of 300 patients.

 

 

 

 

Masvingo vendors look forward to immediate return

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Masvingo vendors look forward to immediate return

 Ratidzo Munembi

Informal traders in Masvingo say
they are looking forward to a return to business by the beginning of July,
saying further delay will be catastrophic to many families.

Informal traders are amongst the
hardest hit group by the coronavirus-induced national lockdown, and have been
out of work since end of March.

City of Masvingo has also taken
advantage of the lockdown to raze down much of the market stalls for
renovations and new planning, but many informal traders feel the process will
not help them much.

“We want to go back to work
because our families are suffering and there is no respite for us. We had
proposed to council that we be allowed to conduct some trade for a limited
number of hours at the open grounds close to Mucheke Stadium under strict
social-distancing rules but we got no response. How do they expect us to
survive?” said Rutendo Shaisanai who used to do her trade at Chitima Market.

Another trader, Fungai Mashandure
said 2019 had been the most difficult year for her family and she could not
wait for the lockdown to be fully lifted.

“I see they have razed down much
of the structures we had put up. The new arrangements will never accommodate
everybody when they finally allow us to move back and it means most of our
colleagues will not be able to move back. It’s very sad,” she said.

Last month, Masvingo carried out
a re-registration exercise for all vendors, and there were many scenes of commotion at Mucheke
admistration offices where the exercise was taking place.

 

 

 

‘Do not ignore constitutional amendments consultations’

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‘Do not ignore constitutional amendments consultations’
Many people turned up at Chivi RDC Hall for the consultative process

Ratidzo Munembi

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee
on Justice legal and Parliamentary Affairs’ country-wide consultations on the controversial
Constitutional Amendment II has today, June 07, reached Masvingo province with
the first gathering at Chivi growth point.

Many people gathered at the Chivi RDC hall where strict social distancing rules were observed with the help of health
workers and members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP).

Representatives of civil society
organisations Heal Zimbabwe and the Women Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) were
also present as key stakeholders.

Tomorrow, June 18, the committee
will be in Masvingo for yet another consultative programme which is also
expected to attract a sizeable crowd.

In an interview, WCoZ Masvingo
chapter coordinator, Belinda Mwale said it was important that members of the
public turn up for the meetings which are critical in gathering citizen input
on the envisaged amendments.

“This is a critical phase in our
democracy because government is proposing to make far-reaching changes to our
young constitution which came into effect only seven years ago. It is critical,
therefore, that citizens take this seriously and get their voices heard,” said
Mwale.

She said many women were against
the proposed extension of the women’s quota parliamentary system which they
criticise as mere tokenism which relegates women’s participation in politics to
the whims of men.

“Many of us prefer a level
playing field where women will be able to assert themselves with equal measure.
The women’s quota is open to exploitation by male politicians who can use the
system to advance abusive patronage whereby only women who give in to perverted
sexual advances are put on the list,” said Mwale.

Among other changes, the proposed
amendments would remove the running mate clause which requires that a candidate
in all future presidential elections fields a running mate who will
automatically be the vice president in the event of electoral victory. A vice
president elected under such a system cannot be fired by the president.

The amendments also seek to give
the President exclusive powers to appoint and promote judges of superior courts
without going for interviews as is currently the case.

 

 

Driving schools petition Govt as lockdown bites

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Driving schools petition Govt as lockdown bites


…apply for exemptions
and tax holidays, TSCZ advises

Ratidzo Munembi

The Zimbabwe Driving
Schools Owners Association (ZDSOA) has written to the Traffic Safety Council of
Zimbabwe (TSCZ) seeking facilitation for the immediate reopening of the Vehicle
Inspectorate Department (VID).

The association, which
has a membership across the country, contends that the sustained closure of VID
services is driving them to bankruptcy, to the detriment of thousands of
employees.

In the letter, ZDSOA claims
the continued suspension of operations by at both TSCZ and VID was also putting
them at the risk of losing experienced instructors to other sectors thereby
impacting on the quality of future drivers.

“Driving school sector
falls in the category of formal sector and contributes to the fiscus in several
ways. It also benefits other sectors such as the fuel sector, spares shops and
vehicle repairs.

“On the other hand, our
sector is required to meet obligations such City Council shop licences, vehicle
insurance, certificates of fitness, learner’s liability, NSSA and ZIMRA
payments. We also have to pay office rentals, the parked vehicles are also
accumulating day and overnight parking fees.

“Our employees are
suffering due to non-payment of salaries. Instructor’s identity cards or
driving school certificates of registration are expiring and there is no
communication from your institution to inform us of a waiver on late renewals,”
reads part of the letter.

The organisation wants to
know the fate of such documents as provisional driver’s licences, motor vehicle
certificates of fitness, learner’s liability insurance and instructors’
identity cards or penalties, all of which cannot be regularised without the
input of TSCZ and VID.

When contacted for
comment, TSCZ acting managing director Clifford Gobo said it was not within the
ambit of his organisation to reopen VID.

“This is done by the
principal institution which is the Ministry of Transport. We acknowledge receipt
of their later outlining their concerns and we have forwarded them to higher
authorities. We are liaising with the ministry so that an amicable way forward
can be found,” said Gobo.

He also said it was
difficult to expect an immediate reopening of those services when coronavirus
cases are increasing in the country.

“How do you guarantee
that the learner driver you want to bring through the processes is free of the
virus and wouldn’t pass it on to others in the line of duty? We appreciate the
work being done by the government to ensure a cautious reopening of the economy
at the least possible risk. Our door remains open for further consultation,”
said Gobo.

On the issue of
financial obligations to such institutions as local authorities, Zimra and
Nssa, Gobo said the driving schools should look at possibilities of applying
for exemptions, waivers and tax holidays.

 

 

 

 

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