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ZEC ignores SI 142, charges accreditation fees in US$

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ZEC ignores SI 142, charges accreditation fees in US$

                                                         Zex Pudurai
TellZim Reporter
MASVINGO—
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) has come under fire from members of the
media, civil society and elections observers who argue that the charging of
accreditation fees in US dollars is unjustified.
Government recently gazetted
Statutory Instrument (SI) 142 of 2019 banning the use of foreign currency to do
local transactions. This meant that only the RTGS$ became the sole legal tender
for local transactions.
The Zec Masvingo provincial office
is, however, charging $10 for accreditation to cover or monitor the Bikita East
Ward 31 by-election which will be held this Saturday, July 13, 2019.
Various stakeholders who visited the
Zec provincial offices today seeking accreditation were shocked after being told
that accreditation fees were pegged at US$10 or the RTGS$ equivalent using the
interbank exchange rate of the day.
“This kind of selective application
of the law and inconsistency is what makes every government policy defective.
Other organisations will also ignore the US dollar ban,” said one journalist.
Zec provincial boss Zex Pudurai
could not be reached for comment as his mobile was not available, with his
office saying he was in the field assessing preparations for the election.
Three political parties are battling
it out in the by-election; with Zanu PF being represented by Thomas Mataga
while the Nelson Chamisa-led MDC is being represented by Moses Maposa. The National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA) is being represented by Peter Mavenga.

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‘Politicians supporting illegal settlements in wildlife areas’

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‘Politicians supporting illegal settlements in wildlife areas’

Beatific Gumbwanda
CHIREDZI – The Minister of Environment, Water and
Climate, Prisca Mupfumira has lambasted top Zanu PF politicians for supporting illegal
settlements in wildlife reserve areas, saying their actions were detrimental to
the building of investor confidence.
Speaking during a tourism
indaba at Triangle Country Club recently, Mupfumira said she was on a move to
restore sanity in wildlife areas as part of efforts to prevent human wildlife
conflict and promote tourism.
Mupfumira warned top
government officials and politicians whom she said were defending illegally-settled
people thereby discouraging investment in the tourism sector.
Hundreds of people are
settled in the Save Valley Conservancy and they have vehemently resisted
eviction amid claims that they enjoy support from top Zanu PF politicians who
are using them for political expediency.
Mupfumira said the tourism
sector was losing money from such possible funding partners as KFWF and EU
due to the disorder in the sector.
“Some people invaded
wildlife areas, places that must never be invaded. We want to make sure that
both animals and humans are safe by erecting strong fencing in identified areas.
We are being seen as a disorderly people and that is an obstacle to investment,”
said Mupfumira.
She said citizens of the
country were very much known for their failure to respect the law and were
regarded as disorganised people.
“Top government
officials who are resettling people in restricted areas should stop that
behavior so that we can have positive reviews from important stakeholders. No
one is above the law and we will soon alert the President that we are not being
funded by EU and KFWF due to the actions of people who think they are above the
law.
“They just invade farms and
wildlife areas where they are not allowed and resettle people arbitrarily.
There are many people who invaded forests, parks and plantations,” said
Mupfumira.
Many people were also
resettled illegally in Chiredzi North, leading to land degradation and
incidences of human-wildlife conflicts.

AFM pastor in church break-in drama

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AFM pastor in church break-in drama

                                     Robson Makuvise




Beatific Gumbwanda
CHIREDZI –
A pastor with the Rev Cossam Chiyangwa faction of the Apostolic Faith Mission
(AFM) in Triangle stands accused of breaking into church premises and raiding
church furniture that belong to members of a rival faction.
Rabson
Makuvise, who used to minister at the church’s Mount Hermon assembly in
Triangle, acrimoniously broke away in October 2018 with some congregants and
started his own factional grouping at Terry Goss.
He,
however, is now back with a vengeance; allegedly harassing his rivals and
disrupting their own sermons.
A
few weeks ago, he wrote to his former assembly’s leadership requesting that an
arrangement be made for both camps to share the premises.
He
reportedly did not get a favorable reply from the Mount Hermon fellowship and
he allegedly hired a gang with which he stormed the premises and broke in by
destroying three locks in attempts to have access to the furniture.
“Makuvise
has been causing chaos at Mt Hermon despite the fact that he left on his own
accord some eight months ago. A farewell service was even held for him and he
left elder Ndlovu in charge of the assembly so we don’t understand why he has
suddenly become vengeful,” said one concerned church member.
Another
source said Makuvise went on to lay malicious criminal charges against rival
congregants whom he accused of disrupting his sermons when in actual fact it
was him who repeatedly disrupted services at Mt Hermon.
One
of the victims of the alleged malicious charges is Petros Mazodze who said he
was summoned to appear in court on July 15 after Makuvise and team filed for a
protection order against them.
“What
amazes is that they are saying we disrupted their church service when they in
fact always disrupt ours. We should be seeking a protection order against them,”
said Mazodze.
When
contacted for comment, Makuvise admitted that he broke locks at Mt Hermon so
that he could take furniture for use at his new assembly.
“Yes
I did break into the church because they had locked us out. When we split, we
told church elders that we will come back for deliberations on how we could use
the church premise.
“We
left the church premise in October last year and we quickly wrote to them so
that we could discuss how to share premises but they did not cooperate. We
decided to break into the church and for the past many Sundays, they came and
disrupted our church services in revenge,” said Makuvise.
He
could, however, not explain why he chose to come back despite having left on
his own accord without any conditions.

When army is deployed, expect deadly force: Matemadanda

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When army is deployed, expect deadly force: Matemadanda

… ‘ED should stop listening and start biting’

Upenyu
Chaota
Zanu PF national political commissar Victor
Matemadanda has warned would-be protesters that the army will be readily deployed
to quell any political unrest, saying if that happens; the use of maximum force
should be expected.
Addressing a Zanu PF Provincial Coordinating Committee
(PCC) meeting in Masvingo recently, Matemadanda, who is also Defence and War
Veterans deputy minister, said government would not be intimidated by violent
demonstrations.
 “You can play with
the police but not with the army. The police get trained to use minimum force
but in the military, it is a completely different story. The army is trained to
use deadly force whenever it gets deployed.
“I am not threatening anyone but all I am saying is
let us work to build our country and not destroy it. Regular protests are dealt
with by the police who will pick you up and throw you into a car when you
misbehave – that is child’s play – but when you start destroying property, the
army is constitutionally mandated to step in,” said Matemadanda.
Matemadanda said he was surprised that people tried to
make an issue of who deployed the army in times of trouble like the August 01,
2018 demonstrations which saw six people being shot dead and 35 more being
injured in Harare.
 “We hear people
asking about who deployed the army but the answer is right in the country’s
constitution. The army is mandated to step in to help the police when they are
overwhelmed and from that moment, it will be deadly force. So I am warning
people to desist from engaging in violent protests because violent protests
will be dealt with violently.
 “We had been
complaining of potholes on our roads for a long time. Now when those roads are being
fixed, someone comes with a tyre and burns it to create new potholes. Do you
then expect us to fold our hands and do nothing?
“We have faced bigger threats before and many people
paid the ultimate price and we are here today because of that,” Matemadanda
said.
He said it was high time President Mnangagwa stopped being
a listening President and started ‘biting’.
“President Mnangagwa is a listening President but
people have abused that. He should stop listening and start biting. I was
angered by one Mkwananzi (Tajamuka/Sesjikile leader Promise Mkwananzi) who said
there would be a blood bath in Harare yet he is in South Africa, what a coward.
Whose blood is he talking about? Whose child’s blood? He should come here and
lead from the front and not mislead people into harm’s way while he remains
safe in South Africa. When we said ‘It Can’t’, we did not go out of the
country. We were here and we even forgot that we had passports,” said
Matemadanda, referring to his campaign of defiance against former president Robert
Mugabe’s alleged plans to set up his wife Grace as his successor.
Matemadanda warned that Zanu PF will never surrender
power to ‘people who burn tyres on the streets’, saying that would disappoint
even the dead party cadres who fought in the liberation struggle.
“If the heavens were to open up one day and our
departed comrades like Hebert Chitepo asked us what became of the country they
fought for, and we told them that the country was taken from us by people who
burnt tyres…ahhh,” said Matemadanda to loud applause.
Earlier on, Zanu PF secretary for security in the
politburo, Lovemore Matuke had given a summary of his department’s national outreach
work, warning that the party will not allow ‘shutdowns’.
“We have been going around the country briefing the
people on government programmes. We are asking the people to accept the new
Zimbabwe dollar introduced by government and not engage in misguided shutdowns.
We will not sit around and let provocateurs mobilise our people for shutdowns,”
said Matuke, who is also Labour and Social Welfare deputy minister.

Broke Masvingo City Council fails to build Rujeko Sec Sch

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Broke Masvingo City Council fails to build Rujeko Sec Sch



…sends
SOS to churches

Brighton Chiseva
City
of Masvingo has failed to build a secondary school in the high density suburb
of Rujeko and is now set to put the land on sale to possible private buyers
with capacity to do the work.
The
city has made several false promises regarding plans to build a secondary
school in the area, with candidates for the Ward 7 city council seat in many
elections promising to deliver on the project.
Indications
are that the secondary school project had been provided for in the 2019 council
budget but the local authority failed to commence the project ‘due to financial
challenges’.
Council
has therefore decided to invite potential church organisations that may have
the capacity to do the work.
It
was resolved in the recent full council meeting that the housing director should
advertise an institutional stand for the establishment of a secondary school in
Rujeko.
Some
councillors, however, argued that the land should not be sold but be given for
free in return for council having some control of the school.
Ward
10 councillor Sengerayi Manyanga argued that if the land was to be sold, then
the responsible school authority may then seek to charge high fees to recover
the money used to buy the land.
“Let’s
give the land for free so that we will be able to regulate the fees and other
services. If they start charging similar amounts to what boarding schools charge,
we would then be empowered to stop them,” said Manyanga.
Mayor
Collen Maboke, however, said the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education will
regulate the fees and everything else to suit the normal standards expected of
a high density residential area school.
Housing
and Community Services director Levison Nzvura said a lot had been taken into
consideration before the decision was made.
“We
considered that council need some money to operate and since the project is of
community benefit, we decided to sell the land at half price to a church
organisation,” said Nzvura.
However,
many believe that council has diverted some of the money that was budgeted for
the project as they hurriedly try to surface the Nyaradzo Road whose own
budgeted funds they misappropriated.

Prophet tricks another into confessing murder

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Prophet tricks another into confessing murder


Munyaradzi Goche

MUTARE –
A 23-year-old self-styled prophet recently appeared in court facing allegations
of murdering his own father for a Mazda 323 motor vehicle after he was tricked
by another prophet into writing a confession of the murder.
Derrick
Chitakatira of Chitakatira Village under Chief Zimunya, who is a prophet at
Jekeniseni Church, was remanded in custody after he pleaded not guilty on his
initial appearance.
It
is alleged that on some day in 2018, Chitakatira took the now deceased to his
shrine for spiritual cleansing where they prayed and fasted for three days.
On
the last day, Chitakatira gave his father poisoned water as part a ‘cleaning
process’ but the concoction killed him.
The
matter came to light after the accused consulted a prophet in Burma Valley
asking for spiritual protection and cleaning.
Chitakatira
allegedly told that other prophet that he was responsible for the death of his
father and wanted spiritual cover as he feared the deceased’s spirit will haunt
him.
The
prophet told him to write a letter confessing the criminal act as a
precondition for spiritual help but he then called the deceased’s relatives
from Burma Valley and showed them the confession.
The
matter was later reported to police station leading to Chitakatira arrest.
       

Cash strapped Zaka RDC splashes cash on smart phones

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Cash strapped Zaka RDC splashes cash on smart phones

….looks forward to new motorbikes

Brighton Chiseva
ZAKA – The cash-strapped Zaka Rural District Council recently
splurged thousands of dollars on expensive smartphones for the 34 councilors, a move
which has drawn sharp criticism from residents who accuse the local authority
of misplaced priorities.
Residents accused the local
authority of failing to prioritise more important issues like refuse collection
and provision of safe and reliable water for domestic use.
“Jerera has no dumpsite and
council cannot even collect refuse regularly. We therefore feel that the
councillors and council management are serving themselves,” said a Jerera
resident.
When contacted for comment, council
chairperson Cornelius Mapuranga justified the purchase but refused to divulge
the type of cellphones bought for councillors.
Some sources, however, said each
councillor got a 10-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 which trades in some South
African retail outlets for R8 000, an equivalent of US$572. The phone comes
with a standard 34 gigabytes of internal memory.
Mapuranga said councillors were
now looking forward to getting motorbikes when the authority’s financial
position ‘improves’.
“We wanted to ease the burden of
communication so we bought the cellphones. Our wards are big and we cannot be
travelling all the time. We need to use the cellphones to communicate. The type
of phones we bought doesn’t matter, what matters is that we now have easy
communication with our people. We are now looking forward to getting motorbikes
in the near future,” said Mapuranga.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
David Majaura refused to comment, saying he was out of office and referred all
comments to administrator Nancy Chatikobo who was also not available.
A 2017 full council resolution
rejected demands by some councillors for motorbikes and only approved
cellphones which, however, could not be bought until now.
Zaka District Development
Coordinator (DCC) Ndeya Nyede defended the move and said the money will be
recovered during the councillors’ term of office in the same manner that a
stands-for-councillors scheme works.
“The money will be recovered
during their term of office. For effective communication, it’s important that
they got those phones. The government is preaching E-governance so it’s a
positive start,” said Nyede.

Chipinge DDC laments deforestation

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Chipinge DDC laments deforestation

CHIPINGE – Chipinge
District Development Coordinator (DDC), formerly District Administrator (DA) William
Mashava has lamented the wanton destruction of trees in Chipinge, saying people
should at least plant as much trees as they destroy.
Mashava was speaking at
a belated commemoration for the World Environment Day and World Desertification
Day that held recently at Tanganda Halt.
The event was jointly organised
by Environmental Management Authority (Ema) and Forestry Commission in
collaboration with Ensure.
Ensure is a programme
incorporating such partners as Care International, World Vision and Safire.
Mashava said Human-Wild
Conflict would never end if people continued with their uncaring attitude
towards nature.
“There used to be a lot
trees and animals here at Tanganda but they are nowhere to be found. Humans
have been responsible for the disappearance of wildlife during the years. It is
unfortunate that some of our kids here haven’t seen a live monkey because they
have disappeared.
“We should desist from
the culture of destroying trees and animals at will. Desertification leads to
hunger, starvation, poverty, food insecurity, conflicts over resources, and
increased natural disasters like heat-waves, floods and cyclones. Chipinge has
experienced the devastation of tropical cyclones so it’s high time everybody
took part in efforts to conserve nature,” said Mashava.
He said people must take
responsibility and replenish the landscape with trees since they are responsible
for their destruction.
“It is wise that we
start participating in bringing back our forests. If each one of us had a
target of planting three trees per year, it would help a lot. If Zimbabwe had 20
million people and each planted three trees we would have 60 million trees by
year end,” he said.
Mashava went on to
plant a tree at Tanganda Clinic while officials from Chipinge Town Council,
Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education,
ZimParks and Ensure also planted theirs.

Gweru Mayor’s Christmas Cheer Fund pays fees for orphans

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Gweru Mayor’s Christmas Cheer Fund pays fees for orphans

Mayor Josiah Makombe and other officials with some of the beneficiaries
Tinaani Nyabereka

GWERU – The
Mayor’s Christmas Cheer Fund recently reached out to disadvantaged school children
in the city, with a total of 82 pupils having their school fees paid.
Mayor
Josiah Makombe handed over the school fees payment confirmation letters to
heads of such schools as Solace College, Bumburwi Primary, Takunda Primary,
Chikumbiro Primary, CJR Primary, Chaplin High, Senga Secondary, Budiriro
Primary, Thornhill High, Mambo High, Mkoba 3 High among others.
Makombe
pledged to support the school fees needs of the children for as long as he
remained the mayor of Gweru.
“We
have dedicated the fund towards the education of these disadvantaged children.
We worked with schools heads who helped us identify them. A total of 32 primary
and secondary schools were covered and I would like to thank the Gweru
community and all stakeholders who contributed towards the fund,” said Makombe
Makombe
thanked Gundu, Dube and Pamacheche Legal Associates for partnering the fund and
supporting a girl who is studying law at Midlands State University (MSU) and a
boy who is at Mkoba Teachers’ College.
“Our
partners Gundu, Dube and Pamacheche Legal Associates are sponsoring a girl’s
university education. The girl had dropped out of school but she is now at MSU
thanks to the support of those partners. We also have a boy at Mkoba teachers College,”
Makombe said.
The
event was also attended by Gweru District Schools Inspector (DSI) Ella Dakwa who
pledged that government will support the children by providing their stationery
requirements.
“We
will also make our contribution to the welfare of these 82 children by
providing the books they require. We want them to enjoy a hassle-free
educational experience,” said Dakwa.
Budiriro
Primary head, Herbert Matimba said the fund had come at a critical time when
many children at his school risked dropping out.
“With
the help of SDC committees and councillors, children who really deserve to
benefit were selected and we are pleased with the process,” said Matimba.

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