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A new dispensation that was never was

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We were surprised last week to
learn that Zimbabwe had sent a delegation of over 30 people to attend the
Kimberly Process plenary in Belgium at a time when government is talking about
austerity and the need for citizens to ‘take the pain necessary to revitalise
the economy’. To make matters worse, one of the delegates from the country was
Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) boss, Tafadzwa Musarara whose job
has got nothing to do with the diamond mining, polishing or trading unless
there is something we do not know. We also heard how countries with far much
higher diamond output or those with a bigger stake in the polishing and trade
of the precious stones had sent just two delegates or three to that meeting. So
here is broke Zimbabwe again, ruled by a profligate elite with an insatiable appetite
for patronage, perks and expensive foreign travel sending dozens of delegates
to do nothing in Brussels. All that not at the elite’s cost, but at the painful
cost to the poorest of the poor in this wretched country. We wonder then if
President Emmerson Mangagwa’s call for belt-tightening only applies to ordinary
citizens because it seems members of the elite are still travelling wherever
they want, eating whatever they want and leaving the country whenever they want
or, at least, when the slightest opportunity presents itself. Zimbabwe earns
around US$300 million in diamond revenue per annum but it sent all those people
to Brussels, with the likes of Israel, India and UAE – countries that earn
billions from diamond business per year – reportedly sending less than four
delegates each. This is the parasitic culture created by the great destroyer
Robert Mugabe and his henchmen for 37 years whose remnants are still festering
sore a year after his disgraceful departure despite claims of a new
dispensation by his successor. What new dispensation really if the police get a
fleet of quality cars when hospitals have no ambulances and drugs? What new
dispensation when the State-controlled media never reports such issues in an
objective manner that satisfies the public interest? Old habits have proved yet
again that they do die, but hardly. Mnangagwa is indebted to too many interests
that supported his fervent bid for power and it will therefore be very
difficult if not impossible for him to inculcate a new incorruptible culture of
responsibility and service without compromising his interests.

Light aircraft accident kills three in Renco

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                                                              Part of the wrecked aircraft 

TellZim Reporter
At least three people died at around 07:00 hrs this morning
when an aircraft they were traveling in crushed in the Chamanjerenje Hills
Village 5 in Tokwane Ngundu.
It was not yet clear by the time of writing the direction
that the aircraft was traveling towards or from, but eyewitnesses said at
least three white males died on the spot.
Though Masvingo provincial police were not immediately
available to comment, sources said police, civil aviation, and army officials
in Renco attended the scene.
No registration details of the plane could be deciphered on
the wreck, but unconfirmed reports say it belongs to the Chiredzi-based Hippo
Valley sugar estates.
By the time of writing, graphic pictures of broken bodies
mingled with the wreckage were doing the rounds on social media.

More to follow….

Rutenga vendor’s leg crushed as kombi runs over market

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Cephas Shava
MWENEZI – A grisly scene
was witnessed last week Tuesday night after a stationary kombi was hit by a
cross border bus trailer, forcing it into a group of vendors selling their
wares on the roadside.
A
total of eight people sustained varying degrees of injuries, some of them
horrible to see.
The
accident, which happened at around 22:00hrs, left a vendor critically injured
on her leg which was completely crushed.
The
trailer of the MB Transport Bus, registration number ABQ 5575, hit the kombi
which was parked on the side of the road leading to the mishap.
The
kombi driver, Gerald June who was coming from Beitbridge, said he was hit from
behind while parked to drop some passengers.

“I
was carrying a total of nine passengers and six of them were injured and
ferried to hospital together with the two vendors.
“I
had not engaged the handbrake so I managed to have some control over the vehicle
for the around 40 metres that we got moved by the impact of the crash. If I had
parked the car with a handbrake, I am sure we could have been squashed inside,”
said June.
The
bus driver, Mutanga Hamandishe, said he swerved off the road to avoid a
possible head-on collision with an oncoming truck.
“There
was an oncoming truck which was being disturbed by a cow in the middle of the
road. To avoid a head-on collision, I slightly went off the road and as I tried
to move back onto the road, the trailer did not fully comply due to the load,
resulting in the accident,” said Hamandishe.
All
the injured people were ferried to Neshuro District Hospital while two others were
very critical were further referred to Masvingo Provincial Hospital.
Towards the end of last year, a vehicle
ran over vendors at the same spot.  

MP Tekeshe in Rusape Hospital visit

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Shingirai Vambe

RUSAPE – Member of Parliament
(MP) for Makoni Central, David Tekeshe has paid a visit to some of the
survivors of the recent Rusape bus accident horror who are being hospitalised
at Rusape General Hospital.
The
accident claimed 50 lives and maimed many more after a Smart Express bus
side-swapped a Bolt Cutter bus while trying to overtake a truck along the
Harare-Mutare highway.
Tekeshe
said he was in Bulawayo for a pre-budget seminar when the accident happened,
saying the news distressed him beyond measure.
He
said by the time he made it to Rusape General Hospital for the first time after
the accident, most survivors of the accident had already been transferred to
other hospitals in Harare, Marondera and Mutare.
“I
send my condolence massages to all the bereaved families around the country for
the loss of their family members, friends and relatives. I also wish those who
got injured a speedy recovery,” said Tekeshe.
The
MP also visited an old homeless man who used to stay at Vengere bus terminus
and has been waiting to undergo surgery at Mutare Provincial Hospital. The man was still admitted at Rusape General Hospital where he is being fed pending an
operation on his private parts at Mutare Provincial Hospital.
Tekeshe
rescued the gravely ill man from the bus terminus and took him to hospital but
attempts to get the Social Welfare Department help him with funds for treatment
have not succeeded.
As
a member of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Service, Labour and
Social Welfare, Tekeshe is pushing for government to pay social grants for such
highly vulnerable members of society as the blind, the deaf and people with
other forms of disabilities.

News farmers are lazy, says Zanu PF

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Beatific
Gumbwanda

CHIREDZI – Zanu PF Masvingo
provincial vice chairperson, Ailes Baloyi has savaged resettled farmers in the
district for just sitting idle on the land without producing anything of value.
Speaking during the Zanu PF inter-district
meeting at Tshovani Stadium recently, Baloyi said the resettled farmers were a
waste of time as they could not even feed themselves at a time they are
expected to feed the nation.
He singled out indigenous sugarcane
farmers resettled on part of formerly Tongaat Hulett estates in Mkwasine, Hippo
Valley and Triangle.
He described the farmers as lazy
and a big let-down, saying by now, they should be producing enough to make a
meaningful contribution to the economy.
 “In Mkwasine, Triangle and Hippo Valley’s new
and old farmers are failing to produce even a single crop. Where did you get
that piece of land? Did you buy it? You just had a privilege to get that land
which someone else could have been given.
“We need to work hard in our
fields, we are preaching the gospel of production in Masvingo province which
everyone must heed. We are no longer entertaining laziness! Every inch of your
farm should be productive so that we will identify where the problem is,” said
Baloyi.
He said the district had vast
deposits of coal and other resources which could be exploited by other
investors as not everybody could be a farmer.
 “There are vast of coal deposits in Chiredzi
especially in Mutapurwa, Hippo Valley and Gonarezhou. Coal can be turned into
fertilizer and even diesel. We know it’s expensive but that’s the business
opportunity we have,” Baloyi said.

ILO takes Simuka-Phakama Green enterPrize to Masvingo

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                   Alice Vozza makes a presentation at the Masvingo leg of the promotional tour 




Clayton Shereni
The
International Labour Organisation (ILO) on November 21 held a promotional tour
in Masvingo; meeting entrepreneurs in the Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
sector to share information on the upcoming Simuka-Phakama Green enterPrize Innovation
Challenge.
The initiative,
which is being supported by the Government of Sweden, is a national event aimed
at helping formal and non-formal businesses in the country to develop.
Alice Vozza, who
was part of the ILO team that visited Masvingo, said the competition was open
to every entrepreneur running even a small business which showed some potential
to grow.
“This excellent
opportunity is open to any innovative idea aimed at sustaining or expanding
businesses. Young women and men above the age of 18, who run an SME with a
focus in the growth of a green economy, are a special area of interest,”
said Vozza.
It was also
heard that many awards that include Best Green Business, Best Agribusiness,
Best Entrepreneur, Best Woman Entrepreneur, Best Entrepreneur With Disability
will be up for grabs.
The promotional
tour has so far been in Mutare and Masvingo while two more are yet to be done
in Gweru and Bulawayo.
Deadline for
submission of applications is December 9, 2018 and those who are willing to
apply can log on to our website, www.greenenterprize.co.zw .
The Awards
ceremony and the adjudication event is slated for February 7 – 8, 2019 at a
venue to be announced in due course.

Masvingo residents reject 2019 budget

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…‘proposed rate
hike unjustified’

Tiyani Hahlani

Some 70
residents on November 20 filed letters of rejection to the 2019 budget proposed
by the Masvingo City Council, saying proposals to hike water rates by 66 percent
were unjustified.
Masvingo
Residents and Ratepayer Association (Murra) helped the residents to file their
letters of objection with council as provided for by the Urban Councils Act.
In the budget,
council proposes a 66 percent increase in the amount charged for water, meaning
that residents in high density suburbs, who are currently paying around 66 cents
per cubic metre of water, would be paying around $1.26 for the same amount of
water.
Those in low
density suburbs are currently paying around 88 cents per cubic metre of water,
but they would be paying around $1.54 for the same amount.
Most of the
residents rejected the proposed increase on the basis that council was
currently not supplying water reliably, and that the economy was too tough to
merit a rate hike.
One resident,
Sungano Zvarebwanashe said she disagreed with the proposed increase as she already
found the current charges exorbitant, adding that council was not doing enough
for the rates she is currently paying.
 “As a resident of Ward 4, I have gone through
the proposed budget of 2019 and I do not agree with the proposed increment as these
changes are too exorbitant. I cannot afford them as the economy is not
approving and also not getting the good service delivery we are expecting from what
we are paying for,” said Zvarebwanashe.
Murra spokesperson, Godfrey Mtimba told TellZim News
the organisation was fully supportive of residents’ stance as current water
supplies did not correspond with the money being paid by residents.
“As Murra, we
stand with residents in rejecting this planned rip-off. It is many weeks now with
not even a single drop of water for many residents yet we are being asked to
pay more. We are dealing a council that in August and September failed to give
residents water for four weeks and now it’s back to the same thing. Why then
try to increase rates? Can’t they see many people cannot even afford the
current charges,” said Mtimba.
Last week, the
Women Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) presented a petition to council officials,
saying the current water crisis was a threat to the health, safety and security
of women especially.

WCoZ petitions City of Masvingo over water crisis

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                                      Maboke accepts the petition from WCoZ members
Clayton Shereni
The Women
Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) Masvingo Chapter last Tuesday held a workshop at
the Mucheke Hall where it was agreed that a petition will be send to council
over poor service delivery punctuated by recent water shortages.
The petition was
later sent to city council officials as part of efforts to force them to
urgently address a severe water crisis.
Many parts of
the city are now in their fourth weeks without a single drop of water coming
through the taps.
WCoZ Masvingo chapter
chairperson, Joyce Mhungu said it was high time the city took heed of people’s
cries and took urgent corrective action.
“This situation
is a threat especially to us women because we wake up in the wee hours to go
out and fetch water. We are vulnerable to robbers and rapists we cannot
withstand the pressure at the boreholes and water bowsers’ delivery points.
“We are
going to deliver our two petitions covering issues of lack of adequate water
supplies and poor refuse collection schedules to the city council leadership
including the mayor, town clerk, city engineer and director of health.
Participants
also slammed council workers in charge of bowser water distribution for corruption.
“We have
seen some people getting water from bowsers even before the bowser had reached
its destination. They give water to their relatives and friends before anybody
else,” said one female participant.

Rautenbach guards nearly kill Mwenezi man

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Cephas Shava

MWENEZI – A
40 year-old Mwenezi man who resides in Mudzungudzi village, Chingwizi under
Chief Chitanga was recently left nursing a serious head scar after security
guards with the Zimbabwe Bio Energy (ZBE) game ranch hit him with the butt of a
gun.
Samuel
Mudzungudzi Told TellZim News he was attacked by the security guards after a misunderstanding
which arose after his son was accused of trespassing into the game ranch.
“Five
ZBE game ranch security personnel arrived at my homestead and wanted to take
away my son with them. They accused him of getting into their area without
permission when he was trying to gather up his cattle.
“We
had an argument and I was insisting that they could not take him alone as he
was still a minor. I was sure they were going to severely assault him if he was
to go alone. One of the security guards then hit me on the head using the butt
of his gun. I fell down and remained unconscious for some time,” said Mudzungudzi.
Mudzungudzi,
who received treatment at Mwenezi Clinic and was advised to see a doctor for
further treatment, said he was surprised by how the police handled the case.
“When
we arrived at Mwenezi Police Station, I was surprised when I was ordered to pay
a fine of $10 for an offense I didn’t know. I was instructed to pay that fine
before 15 November,” said Mudzungudzi.
Although
repeated efforts to get the side of the story from the police and ZBE Mwenezi
were fruitless, Ward 13 councillor Takura Mudavose also confirmed the incident
and expressed concerns over the increase in cases of abuse of villagers by ZBE game
security personnel.
“We
are receiving complainants almost on a daily basis with regards to the conduct
of ZBE game security. Some villagers could be wrong in their conduct but the
game ranch security are always heavy-handed and are taking the law into their
own hands,” said Mudavose.
ZBE,
which is often in the limelight all for the wrong reasons that include the
abuse of workers, is owned by controversial businessman Billy Rautenbach.
  
  

Three days of Umhandara hwaAmai Art

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Samuel
Njinga

The Umhandara hwaAmai Art exhibition took place over three days at Charles
Austin Theatre after being officially launched by the Youth Cultural Arts
Festival (Yocal) board member Dr Fredrick Kasese on November 08.
The exhibition was the
brainchild of 23-year-old Gracious Joto, an Interior Design and Fabric Art
student at Chinhoyi University of Technology (Cut).
When asked why she opted
for the name Umhandara hwaMai which literally means ‘mother’s virginity’, Joto
said she wanted a name which could aptly capture the unique visual appeal
offered by her work of art.
“In the literal sense,
you can’t see your mother’s virgin days so our work gives you the opportunity
to see something equivalent. It’s a work of art that you would not want to miss
as it is uniquely appealing. That is the message behind it all; something that
no eye has ever seen before,” said Joto.
To make her art, Joto
makes use of such readily available materials as cardboard boxes, rags, shrubs,
leaves, wood and twigs.
The art is made all the
more distinct by Joto’s choice of theme titles; contemporary issues that
revolve around culture including gender stereotypes inherent in conservative
societies.
In one of her pieces
titled ‘Me and my mind’, she presents a woman who is seen to be yelling for
help as she is bound by chains on her throat. Closer examination shows human
footprints dominating the part of her body that should ordinarily contain her
brain, highlighting the African woman’s struggle against a highly patriarchal
society.