Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement Perence Shiri
Beatific Gumbwanda
CHIREDZI – The Minister of Agriculture, Lands, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement, Retired Chief Air Marshal Perence Shiri has written to Tongaat Hullet Zimbabwe cancelling housing leases for 29 new farmers.
Many Zanu PF bigwigs including Zaka North MP Robson Mavhenyengwa had allocated the houses to themselves and were evicting the sugar company’s employees.
They had with them leases purportedly from the ministry, authorising them to occupy the houses.
Mavhenyengwa was elected chairperson of Chiredzi Production Sugarcane Association last year after an acrimonious tribally-motivated split in the Lowveld Sugarcane Association.
He went on to spearhead the evictions before the Zimbabwe Sugar Milling Workers Union (ZSMIWU) intervened to defend the hapless workers.
“What I am doing is above board and legal, because I have a five year lease from the government. In fact, when we were allocated land here – arrangements were made that we will be given houses, so there is nothing amiss with what we are doing,” said Mavhunyengwa was recently quoted in a local daily as saying.
ZSMIWU secretary general, Rtd Major Faster Gono thanked government for intervening and cancelling the leases.
“The government made a good decision to cancel those leases that were designed to favour the selfish interests of a few. We thank Minister Shiri for his decision and the workers are relieved. He is a real leader and has shown that by cancelling leases that had been written by his own office,” said Gono.
The 29 new farmers, made up entirely by known Zanu PF members, sympathisers and other politically-connected people, are part of a bigger group that seized 4 000ha of sugarcane land from Tongaat Hulett.
They have also positioned themselves to benefit from a new empowerment project called Kilimamajaro which is being undertaken by the sugar giant.
The project involves Tongaat Hulett clearing vast tracts of land to create new sugarcane plots meant for indigenous small-scale farmers.
Zanu PF bigwigs’ invasion of Tongaat Hulett houses stopped
New Masvingo residents’ organisation seeks to counter ‘partisan’ representation
Moses Ziyambi
Masvingo has a new residents’ organisation; the Masvingo Service Delivery Residents and Ratepayers Association (MSDRRA) formed apparently to fill the gap being left by the ‘partisan’ conduct of the two organisations that have been present for some time.
The new organisation boldly announced its arrival on the scene on Tueday, January 12, with a radical press release against poor service delivery.
“This association is formed to fill the gaps left by some partisan associations who (sic) have neglected their mandate of sufficient and adequate representation of residents regardless of political affiliation. MASDRRA is being formed because of the need to ensure adequate checks and balances are executed for our city council and that we strengthen the needs and demands of rate payers.
“The mandate of MASDRRA will be to reach out to all neglected ratepayers and ensure that their rights are equally represented in line with our Urban Councils Act,” the welcome because it puts the interests of ratepayers first.
“We do not want spendthrifts at the city council. Why would they demand such expensive smartphones from the council coffers?
“They get salaries that are hefty enough for them to buy the smartphones at their own expense. If they are sincere, they could have chosen cheaper phones.
“The word these days is austerity for prosperity so why would a public office holder want to waste money like that?” said Mtimba.
He said council should rather buy a new water pump and new refuse trucks.
“The city council is unable to give water to its residents especially those on higher ground. The water problem can only go away if a new pump is purchased because the current ones are always breaking down. Council also has only two refuse trucks servicing the whole city and that has to change,” said Mtimba.
An Apple iPhone 7 has 256 gigabytes (GB) of internal memory and costs a whopping US$3 088 while a Samsung Galaxy S9 which has 64 gigabytes (GB) of internal memory costs US$2 708.
No Apple Iphones, Samsung Galaxy S9 for city bosses
Adolf Gusha
Upenyu Chaota
City of Masvingo has shelved a resolution to purchase condition of service Apple iPhone 7 and Samsung Galaxy S9 smartphones for heads of departments and their deputies respectively.
There was a public outcry after it emerged that the city council was willing to spend over $30 000 of rate payers’ money on the expensive smartphone range at a time when service delivery is poor.
Town Clerk Adolf Gusha said the decision to purchase the smartphones was made at committee level but was then presented before a full council meeting where it was shot down.
“The decision to buy smartphones for the heads of departments and their deputies was made by the finance committee and presented before full council meeting where it was shot down.
“In the full council meeting, it was agreed that the council does not have money to spend buying phones when the money could be channelled towards service delivery,” said Gusha.
The council bosses’ demands were viewed by many as frivolous and self-centred.
Masvingo United Residents and Ratepayers Alliance (Murra) spokesperson Godfrey Mtimba said the shooting down of the proposal to purchase smartphones was most
Chiredzi villagers graze cattle in Gonarezhou
…plead for Govt permission
Beatific Gumbwanda
CHIREDZI – The long dry spell being experienced in most parts of the country have led to the rapid disappearance of pastures, with desperate villagers now encroaching into Gonarezhou National Park to graze their cattle.
The park’s fence, funded by the European Union to the tune of US$5 million to lessen human-wildlife conflict, is also under threat from villagers who are desperate to get into the park to access grazing.
TellZim News understands the fence, which stretches from Chipinda to Gonakudzingwa, has more than 106 porous gaps created by communities to access grazing land.
Chiredzi district, since the beginning of the rainy season last year, has hardly received rainfall and cattle are starving.
The fencing, which should help prevent wildlife from destroying crops and livestock as well as from endangering humans in nearby communities, is being cut off by desperate villagers.
Chiredzi South Member of Parliament, Kalisto Gwanetsa told TellZim News communities were pleading to be allowed to have an access point into the park where there is better grazing.
“Communities have been damaging the fence in order to illegally access grazing in Gonarezhou National Park. That attracts a fine of $2 per each beast and $30 for a human who is caught.
“The communities are pleading with government for their cattle to be allowed into the park through one access point so as to avoid many illicit entrances that damage the fence. There is also Tunde River in the park, which does not does not dry up easily, so people want that water for their cattle.
Gwanetsa’s Chiredzi East counterpart, Denford Masiya said some villagers were having trouble maintaining their herds in light of the drought.
“This is the result of climate change. Communities used to have enough pastures all year round but it’s all gone now. There are some pastures in the park’s buffer zone which people are now breaching,” said Masiya.
Abusive Zanu PF Mwenezi Cllr sets wife alight
Cephas Shava
MWENEZI – Zanu PF Ward 9 councillor, Gilbert Gondo recently assaulted his wife using a burning log following a domestic dispute, resulting in the woman’s clothes catching fire.
This was heard at the Mwenezi Civil Court last Tuesday where Gondo had been dragged by his wife Upenyu Regayi.
She was claiming maintenance for the upkeep of their children as well as seeking a protection order from her husband’s abuses.
For the upkeep of the couple’s two children, magistrate Honest Musiiwa ordered Gondo to pay a monthly maintenance of $100 to his wife.
Regayi accused his husband of being abusive.
“He does not give me any money to look after the children but I would always see messages in his phone showing that he was receiving some money from his work place. I am struggling to put food on the table for the children.
“He always assaults me whenever I try to question him about how he uses money. He recently beat me up with a burning log and I sustained some burns. I can even produce my clothes which were burnt during the assault, I have them in my bag right now,” Regayi told the court.
Gondo, however, said he was not getting any salary as a councillor and claimed that it was Regayi who was abusing him.
“Your Worship, as a councillor I am earning nothing, we do not have any salary. As for the abuse, she is lying. In actual fact, she is the one who abuses me. Right now I am sleeping in the kitchen hut because she chased me away from our bedroom. As I speak, all my clothes are in the kitchen hut,” said Gondo.
Magistrate Musiiwa granted Regayi the protection order and took time to counsel the couple, advising them to always observe peace.
Devolution cliffhanger
Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs, Ezra Chadzamira
… US$310 million in development money stuck in banks
… as provincial councils fail to sit
Upenyu Chaota
Over US$300 million dollars allocated by the government for devolution remains stuck in banks as provincial councils that are supposed to superintend over the funds have never sat since the July 30 harmonised elections, with government making half-hearted moves towards coming up with an enabling act as required by the Constitution.
During the presentation of the 2019 National Budget in November last year, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube allocated US$310 million to provincial councils to be shared equally by the coun-try’s 10 provinces.
The devolution clause was included in the 2013 Constitution after strong lobbying by opposition parties but government has not balanced rhetoric with action. It was only recently that the Princi-ples of the Provincial Councils and Administration Amendment Bill has been drafted and is awaiting parliamentary approval.
Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs, Ezra Chadzamira, confirmed that the money was there but could not be used without the provincial council sitting and approving a budget.
“We got our share of the money but we await for the provincial council to sit and deliberate on key areas which need attention. As you may be aware, the provincial councils are yet to sit across the country because the government is working on the legal framework to operationalise provin-cial councils.
“The cabinet has already done its part and it is now up to Parliament to deliberate on the enabling act and if it passes, the provincial councils will meet and get to work.
“I cannot tell the time frame but I hope it will be soon because we want to see our province bene-fiting from the initiative,” said Chadzamira.
Under the proposed devolution, provincial governments will get five percent of government rev-enue for the development of local authorities.
The proposed devolution concept will be modelled along the Chinese model which has economic centres that compute their own gross domestic product data for competitiveness purposes.
Masvingo province hopes to achieve a US$5 billion economy by 2030 exploiting its vast potential in agriculture and mining.
“We have the brains and the human resources but we remain underdeveloped because we have of late been focusing too much on politics at the expense of the economy.We now need to take a lead in development and we have great potential. We are targeting a US$5 billion economy by 2030.
“The giant Tugwi-Mukosi Dam’s potential to irrigate 25 000ha of land will be exploited to the maximum. We have plenty of minerals and Masvingo province will be leader in terms of the GDP,” said Chadzamira
If wholeheartedly implemented, devolution will result in wholesale changes to the national gov-ernance design as it will decentralise and devolve power and authority including fiscal, invest-ment and economic responsibilities to each of the country’s ten provinces.
Constitutional ambiguity stalls High Court’s NPRC judgement
Chaota
– Glaring ambiguities
in Section 51 of the Constitution has seen Masvingo High Court Judge, Justice
Joseph Mafusire reserving judgment in a case by which a Harare woman has
mounted a legal challenge against President Emmerson Mnangagwa for allegedly failing to operationalise the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) in time.
Parliament in January 2018, with its mandate scheduled to end in 2023.
opposition MDC, filed a High Court application demanding that the 10-year
lifespan of the commission should end in 2028, and not in 2023 since government
did not operationalise it immediately after the adoption of the new Constitution
in 2013.
suffered enormous abuse in the hands of State security agents after the sham
2008 election results were announced.
backed by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR).
applicants argued that by operationalising the commission in 2018, President
Mnangagwa was in violation of Section 51 (1) of the Constitution.
commission for political reasons. Zanu PF did not want to be have their
atrocities investigated hence the reason it took them five years to set up the
commission.
2013 and expire in 2023 according to the Constitution. So we want to know what
will happen to the other wasted five years. We submit that the 10-year lifespan
of the commission start in 2018 so that it will have time to look into the
atrocities committed against the applicant,” said Biti.
ambiguous in the whole supreme law document.
commissions but this one has a problem. We are finding it difficult to
interpret. Judgement will be reserved and both parties will be notified once it
becomes available.
lifespan of the commission or it is the stipulated time frame within which the
commission has to be setup,” said Mafusire.
after the effective date, there is a commission to be known as the National
Peace and Reconciliation Commission…”
from the Attorney General’s office who had a torrid time presenting his defence.
responses each time the judge sought clarifications, drawing the ire of Biti
who scorned the AG’s office for sending an ‘inexperienced’ representative.
which demands that constitutional obligations be performed diligently without
delay, and asked him if he did not feel that by spending five years without
operationalising the commission, government had not violated the law.
Chingwizi villagers struggle under the Rautenbach yoke
Life at Chingwizi camp
Moses Ziyambi
Hundreds of families that are still concentrated at the Chingwizi camp where they were hastily relocated in 2014 following the flooding of the Tugwi-Mukosi basin are now fighting a new battle.
This time, it is not about being relocated to a more spacious area where they can practice their traditional economic practices of subsistence farming and livestock rearing – for they seem to have long lost that hope – but about a man they consider to be an invader who has made their lives all the more difficult.
The man is none other than Billy Rautenbach (pictured), the feisty businessman who has managed to exploit his far reaching connections to the ruling Zanu PF party top leadership to become some kind of an untouchable god.
Rautenbach was recently given vast stretches of land in Mwenezi and has set-up many commercial ventures that many local people, however, consider exploitative.
Among the bitterest ‘victims’ of Rautenbach are the wretched people of Chingwizi who feel his presence in their area is squeezing them out of existence.
He has fenced off the land, and has used part of it to establish a game ranch, one of the many ventures under his Zimbabwe Bio Energy (ZBE) project.
The game ranch has eaten up much of the grazing area on which the displaced people at the overcrowded Chingwizi camp had depended for the survival of their livestock.
Their cattle now have to feed from less ground, and the long El Nino-induced dry spell which has already been described as a drought by some has seen the little pastures available diminishing under severe heat.
This has triggered even more resentment against Rautenbach whose presence in the area many people who spoke to this publication described as ‘imperial’.
“He has fenced off the land on which our cattle depended. His guards are brutal, and they do not want to see anybody anywhere close to his ranch. Many people have been beaten badly on allegations of trespassing and others have ended up in police custody. The problem is that there are many water holes in the ranch that can sustain our few cattle in this arid district. How can one person be allowed to monopolise such a scarce resource like water in an area with so many people,” said one middle-aged man.
ZBE has been in the local press mostly for the wrong reasons; from exploitative labour practices to brutality meted out against people in surrounding communities.
Recently, ZBE guards left a local man for dead after he had moved to rescue his minor son whom they had held for ‘trespassing’ when his cattle strayed into the ranch.
In response to the growing tension between ZBE and local communities – Chingwizi camp in particular – the Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs, Ezra Chadzamira visited the camp on January 22 on a ‘familiarisation’ mission.
Many people at the camp, however, dismissed Chadzamira’s attitude to their gloomy conditions as nothing but mere political posturing which they have seen many times before.
“We have become their pawns. Remember Chadzamira is only the fifth provincial minister to visit us with promises that were never fulfilled. They are good with words when it suits them, and they would occasionally remember you to appear sincere,” said one female resident of the camp.
Recently, this publication reported on the people of Chingwizi complaining that their living conditions were worse than anything experienced even during colonial rule.
The floods occurred in February 2014 during the tenure of Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, who scored his own political points out of the disaster before he was booted out when the ‘Gamatox’ purges began in Zanu PF later that year.
Bhasikiti was later replaced by Shuvai Mahofa who also made many promises including expediting the flood victims’ compensation, but most, if not all of those promises came to nothing.
Mahofa died in August 2017 and was replaced by Dr Paul Chimedza, who made some indications that he was going to attend to the plight of the people of Chingwizi, but his term in office was abruptly cut short by the coup of November 2017 before he could do anything much.
Having been identified with the ‘G40’ faction which the coup targeted, Chimedza was sidelined from political office and his job was given to Josaya Hungwe, a lethargic member of the Zanu PF old guard who is brother to the late Mahofa.
Being an expert of empty talk, Hungwe made all the right promises to the people of Chingwizi but achieved nothing until he was replaced by Chadzamira in a new cabinet set-up announced by President Emmerson Mnangagwa post July 30, 2018 harmonised elections.
This publication contacted Mwenezi East Member of Parliament Joosbi Omar, who, in the run up to the elections, campaigned partly on the promise that he will work to make sure that the people of Chingwizi are relocated to a more ‘humane’ settlement and that the over US$6 million government owes them in compensation will be paid out.
“We recently had a meeting with (Mwenezi District Administrator) the DA (Rosemary Chingwe), the Provincial Affairs minister (Chadzamira) and Billy’s representatives and we agreed that they should remove their fence and the boom gate until further notice. We also told them to connect water to the clinic and they agreed but I will soon go there to find out if they have done that,” said Omar.
With promises and more promises from authorities piling up, it remains struggle as usual for the shattered people of the overcrowded Chingwizi camp.
Inept Zesa leaves residents without power for 2 months
Clayton Shereni
Residents of some parts of the Rujeko A high density in Masvingo disappointed by the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission Distribution Company (ZETDC)’s failure to replace a damaged transformer in their area, resulting in them spending almost three months in the dark.
Some 125 houses in Rujeko A are affected by the problem which began with a transformer explosion on December 07, 2018.
One resident accused the Zesa subsidiary of being the most inept government parastatal, saying their Masvingo office was manned by reckless people with no regards to what is expected of their work.
“We had an electricity fault here in Rujeko on December 07 last year but up until now, ZETDC has done nothing to rectify the problem. They have condemned us to darkness for all these weeks and there is no hope they will act,” said the resident.
A WhatsApp group created in a bid to get answers from the authorities has Masvingo Urban Member of Parliament (MP) Jacob Nyokanhete, Mayor Collen Maboke and Ward 7 Councillor as members.
In the group, Nyokanhete says he approached ZETDC who told him they did not have transformers, while attempts to engage the office of the Minister of Energy Jorum Gumbo also yielded nothing.
In a follow-up interview with this publication, Nyokanhete said one of the engineers told him they had dealt with a similar problem in Ward 1 (Mucheke) and were now moving to attend to the Rujeko problem.
“The last time I talked to Engineer Shungu, he only told me about the restoration of power in Ward 1 and that they were now moving on to deal with the Rujeko issue. He however did not provide any time frames.
“I am in Harare and I will try to see the Minister of Energy so that we map the way forward on the issue,” said Nyokanhete.
Eastern Region ZETDC network manager Jacqueline Hlatshwayo declined to comment on the issue but referred all matters to the marketing officer.
“I am not allowed to speak to the press so let me give you the contact of our marketing officer who will help you. I will send the contact to you,” said Hlatshwayo.
However, Hlatshwayo did not sent the contact as she promised and when this publication tried to make a follow up she began hanging up the calls.
Shutdown victimisation: MDC Cllr still holed up in SA
Staff Reporter
Masvingo Urban Ward 4 councillor, Godfrey Kurauone remains holed up in South Africa where he sought refuge in the wake of a national crackdown against perceived instigators of the national shutdown protests that rocked the country last month.
Kurauone fled the country after learning that a Zanu PF vigilante group was apparently looking for him in connection with his alleged incitement of people to engage in violent activities and stay away from work.
There was virtually no violent activities in Masvingo during the shutdown, with very few scattered incidents of blocked roads being reported in some high density suburbs like Runyararo.
Speaking to this publication via WhatsApp, Kurauone said he was contemplating coming back home now that reports of security services pulling opposition members and supporters, real and perceived, out of their homes seemed to be residing.
“I learnt with apprehension the arbitrary arrests and detention of opposition members and supporters on allegations of participating in violence. I left the country after being warned that a group of ruling party supporters that included national youth service graduates were planning to make my life miserable,” said Kurauone.
He also said the group’s interests were purely political as they wanted to force him out of his ward and create chances for a named ruling party candidate to take over the ward through a by-election.
“We must respect the people who went out to vote. They considered whom they understood to be a better candidate for the council seat. To then use dirty tactics to snatch the ward is not the right thing to do. I did not rig myself into office as I am an opposition member without access to the rigging machinery of the State so why must I be targeted?” said Kurauone.
On the second day of the shutdown on January 15, a group of Zanu PF youth members accompanied by others from the National Youth Service Graduates Association (NYSGA) besieged local community-based peace and reconciliation organisation, Cotrad before calling riot police to arrest its staff.
Seven Cotrad staff members were rounded up and taken to Masving Central Police Station where they only got released after the intervention of rights lawyers.
The organisation’s Toyota D4D double cab vehicle was impounded and spent three days in police custody.
The organisation condemned the actions as uncalled for, saying they had not engaged in any illegal activity to warrant the persecution.