Tinaani Nyabereka

Gweru City Council says it has become the second urban local authority in the country to have a sustainable waste management plan after Kariba, with efforts to deal with solid waste management challenges being intensified.
Speaking to TellZim News after a waste management workshop recently, deputy mayor Cleopas Shiri said council had used the platform to urge stakeholders to play their part towards environmental cleanliness.
“We have engaged stakeholders so that we help each other to deal with management of waste in our city. We have talked to community-based organisations and such companies as Chicken Inn, Bata and Duly’s as well as various churches to do regular clean-ups and make sure their surroundings have as many bins as possible.
“We have also talked to institutions such as MSU, Gweru Poly and Mkoba Teachers’ College to join ward clean-up campaigns and partner community leaders in efforts to make our environment cleaner. It is the duty of all residents to make this city clean and more enjoyable,” said Shiri.
He said council looked forward to engaging schools under the concept ‘catching them young and watch them grow’, saying schools had a bigger role to play in nurturing children with a greater sense of responsibility to their surroundings.
“We want to incorporate schools under the catch them young and watch them grow concept because we believe for children be better citizens, it begins at school where they spend most of their time. We want our children to grow knowing the dangers of disposing waste everywhere,” he said.
Gweru Residents and Ratepayers Association (GRRA) president Cornilia Selipiwe said residents applauded council for including them in critical programmes including consultations for the 2019 budget.
“As residents, we would like to applaud council for being more consultative. Residents know what they want and as long as the engagement is based on mutual respect, there will be progress.
“We have since embarked on a ‘demonstration through paying’ campaign by which we encourage citizens to go pay their rates because we know every local authority needs money to operate efficiently. We are therefore playing our part to bring back the seemingly long-lost culture of paying rates timely and in full,” said Selipiwe.

Brighton Chiseva


ZAKA – A female teacher at Muparuri Primary School, Rosemary  Kwangwari, committed suicide by hanging herself in the school storeroom in the early morning hours of Wednesday January 09, TellZim News has learnt.
Zaka District Schools Inspector (DSI) Samson Chidzurira confirmed the tragic incident and dismissed rumours circulating on social media that the teacher had committed suicide in the school head’s office.
“I can confirm that I received a report of a teacher who committed suicide at Muparuri School. She is believed to have been a psychiatric patient on medication. However, contrary to what is being said on social media that she committed suicide in the head’s office, she was found in the school storeroom,” said Chidzurira.
He said reports were that the teacher went to the toilet and did not come back. After noticing that she had taken too much time, her children began looking for her; searching in the toilets and surrounding places.
They then saw a light in the storeroom whose keys she kept and they found her body there.
Zaka police attended the scene.
Other sources said Kwangwari had stayed at the school for a long time and would not go home even during school holidays.

Beatific Gumbwanda


CHIREDZI – The Community Tolerance Reconciliation and Development (Cotrad) Trust has marked its first campaign for more citizen involvement in governance issues of 2019 with workshops at Chishamiso Stadium, Hippo Valley, and at Chitepo, Triangle.
Women and youths were encouraged to participate in community development by actively engaging political leaders to fulfil their election promises.
Participants shared ideas on how communities could work together to enhance non-partisan dialogue that can lead to development and accountability.
The meetings were facilitated by Zivanai Muzorodzi and Brighton Ramusi.
In Triangle, Muzorodzi said the programme was part of a bigger project to bridge the gap between political leaders and communities by creating platforms for frank discussions.
“We work to bring constructive engagement between communities and political leaders. These are platforms we want to create and maintain for the sake of dialogue. Remember, elected public officials are not the bosses but you are the bosses for you give them the authority.
“They are your representatives, for example a councillor as your representative in council and an MP as your representative in parliament. These representatives should consult their communities and understand local people’s developmental goals. Sooner or later, the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) will be disbursed and as a ward, you should have your development priorities so that your MP does not impose his/her wishes upon you,” said Muzorodzi.
On his part Ramusi said people had a constitutional right to demand accountable leadership from their elected representatives.
“These politicians are your tenants and you are the landlords. They should fulfil what they promised in the run-up to elections and they must be your servants,” said Ramusi.
He also said Cotrad was working to create action for accountability groups that will help strengthen community capacity to demand accountable leadership and further the goal of development in such areas as education and health.

Clayton Shereni

A 16-year-old girl from Tapesana village under Chief Mapanzure, recently appeared before Masvingo magistrate Candice Kasere for allegedly dumping her new-born baby girl at Musogwisi River bank after secretly giving birth.
The juvenile was charged with concealment of birth as defined in Section 106 (1) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 09:23.
Magistrate Kasere remanded the girl out of custody for further trial and sentencing.
It is the State’s case that on November 28, at around noon, the girl felt labour pains and left her home without notifying her boyfriend whom she was staying with.
The girl went to a bushy along the river bank where she gave birth but left the baby for dead and went back home.
She however went back to check on the baby on November 30 at about the same time but she found her already dead.
After seeing the dead body, she fled the scene but was spotted by a passer-by Admire Museva who got suspicious. When he went to investigate, he saw the lifeless body of the baby and went to report the matter to the police, leading to the juvenile’s arrest.
The body was taken to Masvingo Provincial Hospital where a postmortem was conducted but the actual cause of death could not be figured out due to the body’s advanced state of decomposition.
Andrew Ndaramira represented the State.