MWENEZI – A 46-year-old Chiredzi man, Hasani Chisiwapi of village Hlabeni under Chief Sengwe in Chiredzi was last week convicted by the Mwenezi Magistrate Court after he was found guilty of wearing a camouflage shirt.
Chisiwapi was convicted on his own plea of guilty by magistrate Honest Musiiwa who sentenced him to five days behind bars or to pay a fine of US$20 as an alternative.
Led by prosecutor Willard Chasi, the State charged that on September 16, 2017 at around noon, Chisiwapi was spotted by police detectives at Rutenga growth point wearing a camouflage shirt.
Police detectives approached Chisiwapi and informed him of the offence before arresting him.
The law forbids civilians from wearing any camouflage material without permission from authorities.local

Itai Muzondo in Gweru

GWERU – Informal traders who previously had steadfastly defied efforts to move them from undesignated selling points – often challenging municipal officials to their face – have eventually caved in following threats from President Robert Mugabe that he will no longer tolerate the disorder on the streets.
The browbeaten vendors began to move out on their own following a notice from Town Clerk Elizabeth Gwatipedza warning that stiff measures would be taken against anybody found selling their wares on undesignated sites as from October 22 2017.
A handful of vendors who tried to operate from the same selling points on Monday morning were displaced by riot police.
“Tinozivisa vatengesi vese vemusika vakabva panzvimbo dzavo dzakatarwa kuti vadzokere panzvimbo musi wa 22 October usati wadarika.
“Kubva musi uyu zvichienda mberi, vose vachawanikwa vachitengesera panzvimbo dzisina kutarwa vachasungwa huye zvinhu zvavo zvichatorwa,” reads part of the statement.
Shop owners welcomed the withdrawal of illegal vendors from the streets, saying the vendors’ trade was harming formal businesses through unfair competition.
Recently, City of Gweru mayor Charles Chikozho had stated that council had given up on vendors but the tide suddenly turned when the national police intervened following Mugabe’s condemnation of illegal vending.
Some few weeks ago, vendors who had complied with calls by the city council to relocate to designated sites demonstrated against their counterparts whom they accused of undercutting them by holding onto their illegal selling points in the CBD.
On her recent visit to Gweru, Environment minister Oppah Muchinguri labeled Gweru the dirtiest city in the country.local

…don’t expect any improvement in service delivery, residents told

Itai Muzondo in Gweru

GWERU – City of Gweru this week approved its US$38.6 million budget during a stakeholders meeting held in the Mayor’s Parlour and was quick to tell residents that the money was not enough to improve service delivery.
After a short moment of no response to the mayor’s request to move a motion of budget adoption, one participant finally moved the motion saying there was no need to further argue over the budget.
“You have called us here for nothing new but to approve a budget that we once debated on. There is no need then to further debate but to just approve the budget and see how it performs in the coming year,” said the participant.
As the budget was being presented, Town Clerk Elizabeth Gwatipedza warned people not to expect anything new, saying the current budget was only adequate for the maintenance of current operations, and not for the improvement of service delivery.
Her sentiments however come at a time Gweru residents have accused her of being extravagant while the city is struggling to deliver services to residents.
“We should not really expect major developments from this budget as it is not enough to cater for all our arrears. An example is our Zesa debt which sits at $24 million. Once we try to settle that, then our coffers would be empty and I should say Zesa has been very lenient with us.
“That is the same challenge we face in improving other services like water. The pumps cost a lot and with this budget and the current economic situation, we cannot really do anything other than to maintain the already existing infrastructure.
“It would have been a good idea to introduce levies for such services as water and roads so that we have an extra fund to take care of all that. I however heard the finance director saying it was not yet time for that but cities like Chinhoyi and Masvingo have greatly benefited from those,” Gwatipedza lamented.local

Clever Taperamoyo

MASVINGO – Hwiru Primary School in Mpandawana has won the National Aids Council (NAC) national quiz competition held at Prince Edward School in Harare.
The competitions saw nine provinces battling it out for the trophy and other prizes but it was Hwiru Primary which performed the best.
Chinorumba High School of Zaka district was also in attendance to represent Masvingo province and they came out fifth in the high schools category.
The Hwiru team put up a spirited performance throughout the competition and outclassed other primary schools such as Murambinda B and Kaguvi to win the trophy, a heavy duty printer and three desktop computers for the school.
Anesu Marwizi, Panashe Musada, Precious Murera and Lizza Tarupiwa won E-readers as individual prizes from NAC, the sponsor.
On Tuesday, the team went and presented their trophy to Masvingo Provincial Education Director (PED) Zedius Chitiga who said the school had set a good example for others.
“We would like to thank the coach of Hwiru Primary School for representing the province with distinction and coming back on top. That can only be achieved through hard work and we understand that the best coach produces the best results,” said Chitiga.
NAC provincial Aids coordinator Evos Makoni said the main objective of funding the competition was to spread awareness on HIV as well as helping to create an HIV-free environment.
Hwiru team coach Tariro Mazonde said the pupils learnt a lot on HIV and Aids from the quiz competition.
“I would like to thank my pupils for their dedication towards the quiz competition. We did better than our previous performance as we had managed to learn from our past mistakes,” Mazonde said.local

Siyabonga Sayi

GWERU – Three brothers on Wednesday last week appeared before Gweru magistrate Vimbai Makora facing charges of assaulting municipal police during a blitz against illegal vendors in the CBD.
Master Mbeure (25), Kennias Mbeure (21) and Kudakwashe Mbeure (23) of Ascot allegedly assaulted council cops who wanted to confiscate their goods.
The court heard that Master allegedly hit Brilliant Minyamana with a half brick once on head while Kennias assaulted Ratidzo Mpofu. Kudakwashe was accused of assaulting Charles Machangira and Martha Mudamburi.
The trio were remanded out of custody on US$40 bail and will appear in court on different dates.
Master will appear in court on November 13 while Kennias and Kudakwashe will come back to court November 16 and 17 respectively.
It is the State’s case that on October 23, municipal police officers were patrolling the streets to get rid of vendors operating at undesignated sites in the city.
Master is said to have resisted attempts to confiscate his wares before hitting Minyamana with a half brick once on the head.
Kennias allegedly assaulted Mpofu while Kudakwashe hit Machangira and Mudamburi as they resisted arrest.local

CHIREDZI – Two Chiredzi Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers have appeared before Chiredzi magistrate Geraldine Mutsotso facing charges of corruption after allegedly taking US$302 in bribes from the driver of a Mercedes Benz sprinter.
The complainant is Samuel Moyo who resides in Dulibadzimu, Beitbridge.
The accused, who were represented by Norman Mugiya, argued that the complainant should also be charged for corruption as he has admitted to paying the alleged bribe.
According to the State papers, Tenson Chipembere and Cleopas Nhamburo, who both reside in the Chiredzi ZRP police camp, stopped the motor vehicle which was carrying various grocery items at Chisase business centre.
The incident happened on October 30, 2016 along the Ngundu – Chiredzi Road.
They requested the driver, Doge Patsikwa, to produce declaration papers but were not satisfied, leading them to demand that the vehicle be driven by a police officer to Chiredzi Police Station for further ‘investigations’.
The complainant revealed that he had previously been made to deposit money into EcoCash accounts of the accused persons who had consistently been impounding his vehicle to force him to pay bribes.
He went on to supply account numbers where he was previously made to deposit the money
The court also heard that a warrant for search and seizure was done and forwarded to Econet Wireless Zimbabwe for a printout of the transactions that totaled some US$302.
The two were remanded out of custody and will make another appearance on November 27 for continuation of trial.
Chiedza Muhwandawake appeared for the State.local

Prince Danda

MBERENGWA – Two brothers have appeared in court over an inheritance dispute which is happening three decades after the death of their father.
Innocent Mthethwa (47) and Rodger Mthethwa (58) from Mazvihwa, appeared before Zvishavane magistrate Shephard Munjanja to settle their dispute over the distribution of their father’s cattle.
Innocent claimed that his brother has been selling cattle for the past 30 years without involving him and he appealed for all the remaining cattle to be given to him.
Their father passed away in 1987 and all his properties was given to his two sons, who have separate mothers.
Magistrate Munjanja told Innocent to re-file his case categorising it as an estate case as it requires redistribution of property of a deceased person.
Mthethwa is expected to file an estate case against his brother next week and start a fresh court case.local

CHIREDZI – The Chiredzi Residents and Ratepayers Association (CHIRRA) together with the United Chiredzi Residents and Ratepayers Association (UCHIRRA) has expressed concern over what they called is an unfair rates regime.
The residents’ organisations say there should be a clear cut difference in rate charges for ordinary people and the business community since the latter are heavy users of council services particularly water.
CHIRRA chairperson Jonathan Muusha said there was gross inequality in the way council is charging residents for water as those who enjoy uninterrupted supplies are charged similarly as those who receive rationed supplies.
“It is very unfair for the resident who receives water for 30 minutes a day to be charged the same as those who enjoy uninterrupted services. You find that the business community and parastatals do not pay their rates and owe council large amounts of money.
“The ordinary folk is paying for the water which is being used by those people who do not pay for the service. This has to stop. The people who receive rationed water should pay less and those who receive the water more often should pay more,” said Muusha.
UCHIRRA secretary general Bernard Dhachi said council should make use of a performing budget which will cater for all Chiredzi residents.
“Council should work on a performing budget which will cater for all Chiredzi residents as others are unhappy with the below average service delivery levels,” said Dhachi.
Chiredzi Town Council has approved a US$4. 5 million budget for the year 2018.local