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Chiredzi JOC summons activists over Chiredzi’s peaceful shutdown

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Chiredzi JOC summons activists over Chiredzi’s peaceful shutdown

                                                                    Dusty Zivhave



…local MDC Alliance leadership
targeted
Beatific Gumbwanda
CHIREDZI – After being unsettled
by residents’ overwhelming response to the national shutdown last week, the
local Joint Operations Committee (JOC) summoned MDC leaders and activists,
accusing them of forcing businesses to close.
MDC Alliance provincial spokesperson,
Dusty Zivhave, independent political activist Simbarashe Baloyi and MDC supporter
Brighton Dzvova were summoned for allegedly threatening business and warning
them not to open.
Zivhave told TellZim News in a
phone interview that he was shocked when he was called to explain what he said
were false allegations that he forced businesses not to open on the three days
of the stay away.
“I, Dzvova and Baloyi were summoned
at once. The issue was that we threatened business owners at the bus terminus to
close their shops. The Dispol first indicated that he condemned any acts of
violence before accusing us of engaging in violence.
“I told them to stop basing their
allegations on unverified facts and that I had never been to the bus terminus for
the past three weeks. I told them we only had a meaningful discussion on a non-violent
stay away which is what happened in Chiredzi,” said Zivhave.
Chiredzi responded peacefully to
the national stay away as all businesses in the CBD, the bus terminus and
locations were brought to a halt for two days, with children being sent back
from school.

Chiredzi is 2018 best cotton-producer

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Chiredzi is 2018 best cotton-producer

Beatific
Gumbwanda

CHIREDZI – The Cotton Company of
Zimbabwe (Cottco) has congratulated Chiredzi district for being the top
producer of cotton in the 2018 cropping season.
The district produced 35 000 tonnes
of cotton, with Ranganai Muzivirwa – who was named best farmer – winning a tractor,
a farm trailer and a three-disc plough worth more than $100 000.
Muzivirwa, who has won many merit
awards from Cottco over the past years, last season delivered a record 13.3
tons to Cottco from his 3.5 hectare dry plot; the best single production by one
farmer among all the country 400 000 cotton farmers.
At the prize-giving ceremony in
Ward 27, Chiredzi District Administrator (DA), Lovemore Chisema said government
was serious about revamping the agricultural sector.
“Cottco has four business units in
the whole country which are Sanyati, Honde Valley, Gokwe and Chiredzi. In the
last season, more than 400 000 farmers participated in the presidential cotton
input scheme in which Mr Muzivirwa was confirmed to be the best farmer of the
year,” said Chisema.
 Chisema said the decision to award the price
was reached after considering many issues.
 “Cottco considered so many things before
giving Mr Muzivirwa this prize. They considered the size of the yield, cotton
grade and tonnage per hectare. On the 3.5ha he planted, he produced 60 bales
with an average weight of 250kg. This translated to 13 200kg and this happened
in the Lowveld which is in natural farming region 5.
“This is a clear testimony that
government through the Cottco is committed to the upliftment of the lives of
our farmers. Good farmers must be supported; Mr Muzivirwa has set an example that
even if we are in region 5, it is possible to produce the best cotton yields in
the whole country,” Chisema said.
Cottco Chiredzi business manager, Munyaradzi
Chikasha urged local cotton farmers to emulate the good work which done by
Muzivirwa.
“This is a clear testimony that if
you follow what your extension workers teach you, it becomes possible to
produce more tonnage per hectare. As we enter into the new season, let us press
on and double our production capacity,” said Chikasha.

Clap nearly lands teacher in jail for murder

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Clap nearly lands teacher in jail for murder

                                                              Wright Masunda
Moses
Ziyambi
A Zaka teacher, who is a
father to four children, has his lucky stars to thank for being a free man after
the State and the defence team unanimously agreed to alter a murder charge he
was facing at Masvingo High Court to assault.
In July last year, Wright
Masunda (49), a teacher at Rudanda High School who runs Skippers Sports Bar at
Rudanda business centre, slapped Tarirai Chakona (42) after a dispute at the
bar.
Little did Masunda know
he was soon to be arrested for murder after Chakona died under almost unclear
circumstances a few days later.
As fate would have it, Masunda
ended up appearing before Justice Garainesu Mawadze facing a murder charge.
However, his lawyer Knowledge
Mabvuure of Chihambakwe Law Chambers, successfully argued that a mere clap could
not possibly have caused Chakona’s death under the given circumstances, leading
to the alteration of the charge from murder to assault.
On January 18, Masunda
was convicted of assault and was given 30 days to pay a $200 fine or face a
custodial sentence.
The facts, as agreed by
the defence lawyer and the State’s Takunda Chikwati, are that on July 31, 2018
at around 21:00hrs, the now deceased was drinking at Skippers Sports Bar when
Masunda slapped him once on the face for allegedly harassing other patrons.
After being slapped,
Chakona, who was heavily drunk, fell down and Masunda, with the help of the now
deceased’s brother Marufu who was also in the bar, helped him back onto his
feet and he later on continued drinking.
When it was time to close
the bar, Marufu tried to convince his brother that they should go home but he
refused and spent the night at the business centre, only for Marufu to find him
the following morning, shivering and warming himself on a fire in the open.
Marufu took Chakona to
his work place where he gave him a warm place to sleep but the now deceased
began to sweat and he took him home.
The following day, Marufu
asked Masunda to help him take Chakona – whose health had deteriorated – to
Musiso Hospital in his car. At the hospital, Chakona was admitted and treated
of epilepsy and was referred to Masvingo Provincial Hospital for further
treatment.
Chakona died on his way
to Masvingo Provincial Hospital, and a postmortem report listed subdural
hemorrhage (a condition when blood collects on the
brain’s surface beneath the skull as a result of head injury), severe
skull contusion and head trauma as the causes of his death.
Among other things, the
defence argued that the post-mortem did not attribute Chakona’s death to
assault and that many other things could have happened to him after the
slapping incident since he spent the whole night in the open at the business
centre.

Masvingo Poly in HEXCO exam scandal

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Masvingo Poly in HEXCO exam scandal

…students refuse to re-write, threaten legal action
Upenyu
Chaota
Masvingo Polytechnic is reportedly embroiled in a
Higher Education Examination Council (Hexco) exam cheating scandal which has
seen some results of the November 13, 2018 being suspended.
Students from commerce, diesel plant fitting,
technical graphics and engineering among others could not get their results.
The disaffected students have now refused to re-write and they have threatened
to approach the minister before taking legal action.
On November 13, 2018, students across various
disciplines used the Masvingo Poly’s dining hall as the examination venue and
during the course of the examination, Hexco external assessors are said to have
caught some students cheating.
The cheating students are said to have written
formulas on rules and the external assessors are said to have taken down the
names of those students but had to let them proceed with the examination.
Under normal examination rules, if a student is caught
cheating, they are immediately withdrawn from the examination and suspended from
school, with all other results nullified.
Though Masvingo Poly vice principal Albert Somerai professed
ignorance on the matter, various sources at the institution complained that
Hexco external assessors’ own ineptitude were disadvantaging many innocent
students.
A source close said the assessors should have punished
the students at that instant not to suspend the results of all students.
“They tried to put the blame on our lecturers here but
they are the ones who failed to do their job. They discovered an anomaly and
decided to let it go. They did not even have the names of the students they
said they had caught cheating. Masvingo Poly was against the idea of punishing
all students for the crimes of a few.
“So the institution decided to give everyone the
benefit of the doubt and offered to have them write another paper which would
be marked quickly and results published,” said the source.
Hexco Masvingo board member, Mbewe admitted he knew of
the matter but distanced the examination body from the scandal saying when it
happened, their people were not there.
“We only got to know about the matter after it had
already happened. We are yet to sit down with Masvingo Poly to map the way
forward. Our people were not there as is being said,” said Mbewe. 
Results for those who wrote their examination on
November 13 in the dining hall came with an R which means deferred.
Higher and Tertiary Education minister Amon Murwira
could not be reached for comment by the time of going to print.
TellZim News has, however, been informed that the
disgruntled students have refused numerous offers to re-write the exams.
“After the publication of results, all the students
who wrote their exams on November 13 in the dining hall had an R symbol on the
result slip which means deferred.
“We then asked why this is so and they lied to us
saying our results were still being processed. On January 15, they called some
students saying there was a rewrite on January 18. We asked why a re-write and
they told us that some of us cheated.
“We refused to re-write and we are going to approach
the minister and take legal action against them. They should not play with our
future like this,” said one student.
Another student weighed in saying it was instead, the
assessors who should face disciplinary action because they failed to do their
jobs properly.
“Imagine police officers getting into a club searching
for drugs and find them. They leave the drugs there and go away only to come
back saying we do not remember who had the drugs so we are arresting everybody.
That is our situation,” said the student.

Mukuru launches WhatsApp Business Solution

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Mukuru launches WhatsApp Business Solution

TellZim Reporter

Mukuru has announced that they are one of the first money transfer
companies in South Africa to allow customers to use
WhatsApp to initiate transactions.
The WhatsApp Business API integration adds
immensely to the world class service Mukuru provides to customers.
“We have integrated with the
WhatsApp Business API to allow our customers to both create money
transfer orders as well as managing their account details”
says Oliver O’Brien, head of strategy and
business development at Mukuru.
“It has taken a few months, and being one of
the first to market, the overall process of integration has been relatively
smooth sailing,” he said.
Mukuru customers can be in any country in which the company
operates and still interact with Mukuru through WhatsApp. The service is
multilingual and has been translated into French, Shona, Ndebele, Chewa,
Sesotho, and Portuguese. Customers can easily
request to chat with an agent in their home
language.
WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption applies to all interactions, which means that even WhatsApp
cannot see the contents of a user’s messages to Mukuru.
“The introduction of WhatsApp will not replace our existing
methods of sending money, rather this is a new and innovative use of existing
technology that helps to replace inefficiencies of the old (SMS/USSD),” said O’Brien.
Adding to Mukuru’s long list of industry firsts, the
addition of the WhatsApp Business Solution allows the company to provide more
convenient and reliable as well as safer services to customers.

Presidential inputs distributed at Zanu PF offices in Zaka

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Presidential inputs distributed at Zanu PF offices in Zaka

A recent Presidential Input Scheme distribution exercise in Zaka

Brighton Chiseva


ZAKA – Agricultural inputs under the Presidential Input Scheme are being distributed at Zanu PF district offices in Zaka, with widespread conceptions that the move was meant to side-line non-ruling party supporters.
At its national conference held in Matabeleland South recently, Zanu PF adopted – as one of its resolutions – the fair and none partisan distribution of agricultural inputs.
Zaka RDC Ward 19 councillor, Peter Imbayarwo, however, confirmed that the ruling party was not practicing what it preached but added that he was not shocked as that had always been the ruling party’s approach in rural areas.
“I was not surprised when they started distributing inputs at their party offices because the programme is done by Zanu chairpersons since. Since the programme reached my ward, I was never consulted because I am from the opposition. Where the councillor’s signature is required, Zanu PF ward chairpersons sign on my behalf and do the rest,” said Imbayarwo.
Some people in Jerera accused Zanu PF ward chairpersons, Milton Chikwenhere and Gladys Chari of politicising the distribution of inputs.
Asked why the programme was being undertaken at ruling party offices, District Administrator (DA) Ndeya Nyede said he was not aware of it.
“When the programme started, we only gazetted the number of bags each ward was supposed to get and the rest is done at ward level. We don’t know how they transport their allocations and from where they carry out the distribution,” said Nyede.
The matter was raised in the Zaka RDC full council meeting held on Tuesday, December 18, with the three MDC Alliance councillors complaining that they were being excluded from the programme.
The DA and other councillors, however, remained silent and failed to give an answer.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has never missed an opportunity to emphasise his so-called ‘new dispensation’ as a reminder to his perceived departure from former president Robert Mugabe’s approach, but this claim is proving to be largely hollow.

Married Mwenezi teacher bashed over ‘affair’ with Catholic priest

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Married Mwenezi teacher bashed over ‘affair’ with Catholic priest



Cephas Shava


MWENEZI – A 33-years-old man recently assaulted his wife for allegedly having an extra-marital affair with a Catholic priest.
Appearing before magistrate Mandlenkosi Ndlovu, Makhosini Mangena who resides at Stand Number 35 Neshuro growth point, pleaded guilty to a charge of domestic violence.
He admitted that he assaulted his wife Sikhanyisiwe Msiza who is employed as a teacher at the Roman Catholic-run’s St Vitalis Primary School in Mwenezi.
Mangena was sentenced to two months imprisonment or alternatively to pay a fine of $100. Three months of the sentence were suspended on condition that he did not commit a similar offence within the next five years.
The State’s case was that in October, the accused came home and began to accuse his wife of having an affair with a priest who also works at St Vitalis. A misunderstanding ensued and Mangena assaulted his wife several times using a whip.
Immediately after the assault, Msiza rushed to the police where she filed a report leading to Mangena’s arrest.
Caroline Pasipanodya prosecuted.

Don’t let your animals stray into Jerera, Zaka RDC warns

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Don’t let your animals stray into Jerera, Zaka RDC warns

Stray cattle oftenly roam freely at Jerera growth point


…vet dept to shoot stray pigs

Brighton Chiseva

Zaka Rural District Council (RDC) has resolved to build some cattle pens to keep stray livestock from Jerera growth point, with owners risking steep fines and seizure of the animals.
In a full council meeting held recently, Zaka RDC chairperson Cornelius Mapuranga asked the veterinary department to shoot stray animals like pigs that often roam freely in Jerera and in the villages.
“We are tired of talking about these stray animals. We call upon the vet department to help us by shooting the pigs because they are causing havoc on the streets and in the villages day and night,” said Mapuranga.
Representatives of the vet department, however, said council needed to first identify owners of the animals, give them tickets and confiscate the animals if the owners continue letting their animals roam free.
District Administrator (DA) Ndeya Nyede said the issue of wandering pigs and cattle had been discussed on several instances, with village heads and chiefs being encouraged to help end the problem.
“We talked about this a long time ago. Pigs must not roam around. We can’t continue having a situation whereby pigs and cattle turn rubbish bins upside down at market places,” said Nyede
Ward 19 councillor Peter Imbayarwo said those who did not take good care of their livestock could be easily identified.
“People who let their animals stray into Jerera are known and we can identify them so that they can be punished,” Imbayarwo said.
The planning committee said the place for the cattle pen had already been identified and construction work will begin soon.

ZNA 4 Brigade pays $1 million towards ballooning water bill

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ZNA 4 Brigade pays $1 million towards ballooning water bill

Moses Ziyambi

The Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) 4 Brigade has been commended for making a huge payment to offset its enormous water bill owed to City of Masvingo, TellZim News can report.
Town Clerk Adolf Gusha confirmed that towards the end of 2018, the army paid a total of $987 000 as part of efforts to clear the arrears that have been accumulating for years. This is the first time in recent history that the local unit of the army has paid cash to settle its water bills.
Being one of the biggest council debtors, ZNA water bills have never been paid in cash and in full, with desperate council settling for debt swaps negotiated with government through the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra).
“We are delighted by the payment that the army made. The money will go a long way towards the improvement of service delivery in our city and we would like to encourage other government departments and private companies that owe us to make efforts to clear their debts so that we can make our city better. We thank the army for leading the way,” said Gusha.
He would, however, not reveal how much exactly does the army still owe, but it is believed the bill runs close to $15 million.
In his 2019 budget proposals, Finance minister Prof Mthuli Ncube allocated the Defence and War Veterans ministry $546.9 million; the fourth largest allocation behind Primary and Secondary Education, Agriculture and Health.
Masvingo Urban Ward 10 councillor, Sengerai Manyanga also thanked the army for the payment, saying council needed every coin it could find to get the day to day business of the city going.
“We celebrate this remarkable commitment to settle the water bill. It is something that others should emulate. Ward 10 hosts the army barracks so I am really pleased with this gesture and I hope more will be done,” said Manyanga.
Below is part of a related story published by TellZim News in February 2018:
City of Masvingo is owed in excess of US$65 million by various government departments, schools, businesses and residents; an amount huge enough to drastically reduce the service delivery backlog once paid in full.
According to council records, institutional debtors as on December 31, 2017, owed a total of US$22 805 064. The Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) leads the pack at a whopping US$11 838 487 while their Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) counterparts trail at US$4 165 157. The Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) owes US$2 433 596.
The mothballed Cold Storage Commission (CSC) has a US$1 333 263 debt to settle with the local authority.
Low density areas that enjoy largely uninterrupted services, have accrued US$36 131 973 while the majority of high density suburbs, that often get mediocre service delivery, owe US$7 301 843.

Parents pose for a picture with Mdumo and Mhlanga

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Parents pose for a picture with Mdumo and Mhlanga
Parents pose for a picture with Mdumo and Mhlanga

Darlington Kanyongo/
Exsto Makunzva


ZVISHAVANE – Shabani Dolphins Aquatics last week held a farewell party for their patron; former Shabani Primary School head Joy Mdumo who retired on December 11, and her deputy Chenai Mhlanga who retired early August this year.
The function, which was held at Shabani Primary School, saw Mdumo and Chenai Mhlanga being presented with an assortment of gifts from the club and from various individuals.
The farewell celebrations where held in style as swimmers competed in different races while Mdumo also had her last time with the club members in the pool.
She also competed against the club’s coach Sungano Zhou and other club members in the individual medley race.
After the swimming, club members, parents and teachers had time to braai and enjoy their last day with Mdumo and Mhlanga.
The club’s chairperson Conilous Mhlanga hailed the two women for their sterling work at the school.
“Your retiring from your positions does not mean you are no longer part of us. You have pioneered many developmental projects at this school with your leadership skills. We will continue to engage you when advice is needed,” he said.
Addressing the gathering at the same occasion, Mdumo said the idea of coming up with a swimming club came when swimming legend Kirsty Coventry, who is now the Minister of Sports and Recreation, visited the school.
“We were inspired by Kirsty Coventry when she visited the school. At that time, the pool was not working and renovations were carried and the formation of the club followed,” Mdumo said.
She encouraged club members not to give up their talents but gather all the courage to pursue and cultivate them.
The club was founded in 2014 by Gordon Misihairambwi with the blessing of Mdumo and her deputy Chenai Mhlanga.
Shabani Dolphins is registered with Midlands Swimming Board which is also under the Zimbabwe Aquatic Union (ZAU).
The club has competed at provincial and national level, winning a number of medals in the process.

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