CHIREDZI – Chiredzi Town Council chairperson, Francis Moyo recently donated more than 2 000 stationery items to newly-enrolled grade one pupils from various schools in the town as part of his programme to help the less privileged.
Moyo, who intends to contest for the Chiredzi West parliamentary seat on a Zanu PF ticket, has since 2015 been paying fees for some pupils at such primary schools as Tshovani, Chiredzi Government, Lowveld Adventist and Shingai.
The recent donation has however reached more pupils from many other schools in the town, with Moyo emphasising that the work must not be linked to his political ambitions.
“This is not for the purposes of campaigning but it’s an annual programme that has been going on for some time now. Grade one pupils are the base of education so children should begin the race on an equal footing.
“Many pupils are failing not because they are dull but because some of their requirements have not been taken care of. Right now, we do have parents who genuinely cannot afford to buy books for their children.
“I have seen some pupils being sent back home for such simple things as exercise book covers, meaning that their parents do not have money to buy even such cheap items,” said Moyo.local

MWENEZI – Barely 10 months after assuming office and just a little over six months before another election, Mwenezi East Member of Parliament (MP) Joosbi Omar has started a programme of identifying all areas of need and fulfilling election promises.
Last weekend, the MP organised many constituency development committee meetings in various wards to preach development and mobilise support for President Emmerson Mnangagwa ahead of the elections.
In Ward 4, Omar donated a water pump to Chizumba Primary School, uniforms to village health workers and stationery that included 1 900 exercise books to nine primary schools.
Some 20 bags of cement were donated towards the construction of enclosures for villagers of Ward 6 who are engaging in cattle fattening.
At one of the meetings, Omar said a total of 200 benches had been made to improve sitting
“The time for shifting blame is over, and the time for action is now. We must unite and work tirelessly to ensure meaningful development in accordance with the vision of President Mnangagwa; the time for empty slogans is over,” said Omar.
He also told the gathering, which included Chief Mawarire, that new projects to empower the less privileged people of Mwenezi East were being explored.
“In the coming weeks, we will kick start projects that will enable villagers to be their own masters. We also want to ensure that our dams are fully utilised for income-generating projects. Let’s all work for unity and development and ensure that President Mnangangwa wins the upcoming elections,” said Omar.
At Bongo in Chingwizi, Omar made a commitment to bring building materials for the construction of a classroom block at Nyuni Primary School.
He listened to accounts of local problems that included water shortages and the delay in fully compensating the people who were displaced by the construction of Tokwe Mukosi Dam.
Omar, who has built a state-of-the-art constituency development office at Rutenga for the reception of developmental needs, said he was committed to bringing investment to the area.local

Masvingo – All roads lead to Mamutse Stadium this Sunday where the MDC Alliance, led by acting chairperson Nelson Chamisa, will address their maiden rally in Masvingo province.
MDC-T failed to garner a single seat out of the 26 constituencies in Masvingo province at 2013 harmonised elections and they are hoping to dislodge Zanu PF in the forthcoming elections.
Chamisa said the wheels of change have been set in motion and the people of Masvingo are a very important lot in the governing of the country.
“Masvingo is very important in the politics of the country. We want to assure the people of Masvingo that the time for change has come and victory is certain.
“Masvingo has been our stronghold for all the years and we want to make sure that in the coming elections we take back all the seats,” said Chamisa.
Provincial chairperson James Gumbi said preparations for the rally are at an advanced stage and they are expecting over 10 000 people.
“This is going to be a historic rally because we have never organised something of this magnitude before. Masvingo is going to speak through the numbers that will attend the rally.
“We want to make noise so that the whole country will notice that Masvingo believes in the leadership of president Tsvangirai,” said Gumbi.
Other coalition partners among them Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, Agrippa Mutambara, Jacob Ngarivhume and others are expected to address the rally.
The MDC Alliance will have to battle it out for numbers with Zanu PF in Masvingo province since it is President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s stronghold as well. Mnangagwa enjoys a lot of support in Masvingo province.local

Precila Takabvirakare

Community Tolerance Reconciliation and Development (COTRAD) in collaboration with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) last week held a Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) road show campaign in Mpandawana town registering and encouraging potential registrants to register during the mop up exercise.
The campaign was running under the theme “Go and register to vote” and over 100 people were registered during the roadshow.
COTRAD programmes manager Zivanai Muzorodzi said that of the seven administrative districts of Masvingo province, the analysis have shown that Gutu has the largest population but with the lowest number of registered voters hence the reason for the road show.
“We are not targeting Gutu alone but also areas such as Mkwasine plantations and mining communities like Mashava encouraging aliens to take this opportunity and exercise their right through the ballot.
“We have held similar campaigns in Zaka, Chiredzi, Mwenezi, Chivi and Masvingo Central,” said Muzorodzi.
Muzorodzi said people should register to vote, go vote and protect their vote.local

The picture collage shows different scenes captured during the sports gala

Mashava – The famous quote by Greg Louganis that, “The games are just nice, positive ways to build friendships, camaraderie and, of course self-esteem. Plus, the games are a great opportunity for people to participate in sports who normally wouldn’t”—proves to be true as people from the whole Mashava community descended on King Mine grounds to support their local soccer teams during a voter mobilisation and peace building tournament organised by TellZim News over the weekend.
The usually quiet mining community of Mashava was last Sunday brought to life as they thronged Mambo Stadium to support their favourite teams.
Masvingo Journos, a team of journalists from Masvingo, battled it out in a round robin with three Mashava based teams—Temeraire United, Gaths Mine FC and Mambo Stars.
TellZim News organised the tournament to mobilise people, particularly the youth and women, to exercise their right to vote. Many said they faced a challenge of acquiring proof of residences but all was made easy as human rights lawyers from Masvingo offered certified affidavits free of charge.
The youths constituted the majority of the spectators and it made it easy for the TellZim News to communicate their message to them and many thanked the newspaper for organising an event that was both entertaining and educative.
“Since the closure of the mine, this area has become a ghost community and very few people reach out to us like what TellZim News has done.
“As you can see we are over 2 500 people here and many of us have not yet registered to vote due to other challenges like having no proof of residence,” said one spectator only identified as Uncle Joe.
Another youth spectator weighed in saying the initiative to rope in sports in campaigning for peace towards elections is step in the right direction to ensure that we have peaceful elections.
“Sports have the power to unite people. As you have seen here today that people were hugging each other when their team scores and everyone was happy. This is what we want and if TellZim News continues organising such events, they will effect a positive change,” he said.
The message to register to vote reached out to even vendors who were selling their wares to spectators.
Over 2 500 certified forms were distributed to those who did not have proof of residents.local

CHIPINGE – Angry pupils at Rimbi High temporarily blocked entry into the school in protest against alleged blatant abuse of funds and poor management by school head, Phineas Mundeta.
The rowdy demonstrations saw pupils locking school gates and making loud chants denouncing Mundeta whom they accused of, among other things, buying a faulty FAW school bus which broke down a little more than one year after purchase.
Police details were seen at the school after being called by Mundeta who reportedly felt threatened by the developments. School activities resumed only after 15:00 hrs after the police managed to calm down tempers.
School Development Committee (SDC) chairperson, identified as Douglas Chibhamu, is said to have called for an urgent meeting with parents and teachers on Wednesday, January 31, to try and resolve the conflict.
TellZim News learnt that pupils were angry that they had to find their own transport when travelling for seminars, sporting events and other school programmes because the bus, which was bought in 2015, was no longer working.
One pupil said the belief was that the school head deliberately bought the faulty bus because he had been given kickbacks by the dealer.
“The head was always hiring the bus out to Chibuwe High School and other institutions yet it was faulty and this worsened its condition. Right now, we are still required to pay the $10 bus levy but we have never used the bus,” said the pupil.
A teacher who agreed to speak to TellZim News on condition of anonymity praised pupils for demanding accountability.
“The bus is said to be in Harare for repairs but we are all not happy with how things are being handled. The head bought a different bus from the one that parents had identified,” said the teacher.
When contacted for comment, Mundeta refused to comment and referred all questions to Chipinge District Schools Inspector (DSI) Richard Gabaza who, in turn, said he had not yet received formal communication about the matter.
“We received the news and we are still to get to the school. We need to first gather more details about the strike,” said Gabaza.local