Vendors during Dhalas funeral procession

Zvishavane Tailors Cooperative members

ZVISHAVANE – Members of the Zvishavane Tailors Cooperative are beaming with confidence in the future after successfully holding their first Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Zvishavane recently.
The cooperative, which was formed on July 26, 2016, comprises 17 members but many more tailors are showing interest of joining the cooperative.
Speaking at the meeting, Zvishavane district business and cooperative development officer in the Ministry of Small to Medium Enterprises and Cooperatives Development, Toverengwa Chitanda applauded the dedication and commitment shown by members.
“I am humbled by your commitment and dedication, you have started something that is unique in the whole of the Midlands province. You need to be faithful and honour your subscriptions.  I have noted a lot of positives in your cooperative from the short period you have started,” said Chitanda.
He further said that the group was one of the fastest growing cooperatives in the province and encouraged members to keep the momentum, highlighting on how a cooperative should operate.
Speaking to TellZim News, Zvishavane Taylors Cooperative chairperson Timothy Mudoti Mukomberanwa said the cooperative had since asked the Zvishavane Town Council to provide land for the setting up of a factory.local

ZVISHAVANE – The Minister of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Patrick Zhuwao last week presided over the graduation of 218 youths from the Dadaya National Youth Service centre and said plans were in place to rename the centre after deceased national hero George Rutanhire.
Rutanhire, who is said to be the ‘godfather’ of the National Youth Service, died on August 19 and was buried at the National Heroes Acre in Harare.
Zhuwao also said there were plans to establish youth centres in every constituency in order to promote youth empowerment.
 “There are plans to open up youth centres in every constituency under the name Youth Economic Empowerment Centre and these centres would feed vocational training centres with graduates.
 “We are planning to rename Dadaya School after the late godfather of the National Youth Service, George Rutanhire,” said Zhuwao.
Commander of the Dadaya training centre Commandant Mavhiki explained the aims of the training and the programmes the trainees were doing as well as the challenges encountered during the course.
“We have 218 trainees who are graduating; 182 males and 76 females and amongst these trainees, we have two degree holders, five diploma holders and several holders of national certificates.
“The training emphasised entrepreneurship programmes that are aimed at creating economic champions out of trainees. The centre grooms youths into patriotism,” said Mavhiki.local

Moses Ziyambi

HARARE – The Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network (Zesn) has come up with a draft electoral integrity assessment instrument by which it hopes to contribute to the holding of credible elections in line with the African Charter and the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) guidelines on elections.
The election eye is a checklist of various electoral thematic issues against the African Charter and Sadc models while open data alludes to the manner by which election data ought to be administered to ensure the integrity of electoral processes.
Zesn director Rindai Chipfunde-Vava told participants of a high level training on Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) that there were many critical areas that authorities needed to address in the interests of a more democratic electoral process.
The training was organised by Trace in partnership with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (Ifes).
Among other thematic areas, the Zesn election eye highlights the importance of an inclusive voter registration exercise with provisions that are favourable to the registration of eligible women and marginalised voters such as first time voters, the youth, people living with disabilities, rural voters as well as ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities.
Zesn also calls for election data to be timely made available, and to be permanently accessible in an analysable digital machine readable format and to be non-proprietary and licence-free so that it can be shared, used, reused and redistributed for any purpose.
“We believe that elections are for the public and therefore information should be given to the public for free but the challenge is that in most cases, the process is opaque leading to inadequate accountability mechanisms.
“The open data is a tool designed to ensure that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) gives information freely basing on open data principles. One of the principles is that the information must be given timely, it must be frequently updated, for example, information on BVR. Many people do not know what it is, when it is happening and how it is happening,” Chirinda-Vava said.
Election data, she said can be described as open when it is available for free on the internet and when it is granular, meaning that data is available at the shortest possible intervals, for instance, when the electorate is given voter registration statistics on a daily basis.
Chirinda-Vava also said there must be a clear aggregation of data to eliminate guess work on such important issues as the total number of voters living with disabilities.
“Election data must be non-discriminatory and this is a problem when we look at the urban/rural divide in Zimbabwe. When perceived opposition sympathisers and civil society ask for the information, it is not given to them but when the ruling party asks for the same information, it is given to them without restrictions so we are saying open data must be made available to any individual or organisation without limitations based on his/her identity,” Chirinda-Vava said.local

HARARE – The Electoral Resource Centre (ERC) has launched the second edition of its electoral barometer to gauge the country’s state of preparedness ahead of the general elections that are expected to be held anytime next year, TellZim News has learnt.
Speaking at the close of a Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) workshop last week, ERC  director Tawanda Chimhini said the barometer was an indicator of four specific elements namely voter registration, voter education, access to the media and the nature of the political environment since the disputed 2013 elections.
“Using local and regional feedback, we have been making an assessment of the electoral process to see if there is progress being made and up to 18 sticking issues have been identified. We are primarily focusing on the pre-election phase of the election cycle and our view is that we are still below half with regards to what is expected.
“On the question of voter registration, we understand that the law says it should be a continuous process but we also know that it has not been conducted in a continuous manner. There are however things that have happened since the 2013 election regarding the voter registration process.
“The barometer tests some of the things that have happened against the principles of voter registration so we are questioning the integrity of the processes, their accessibility, credibility as well as their legality. So voter education and voter registration are some of the key elements we assess,” said Chimhini.
He revealed that the barometer also measures access to public media using international best practices as the benchmark but the results, he said, have so far been disappointing.
“We also do consider what has been happening in terms of the political environment ahead of the next elections and in light of the various by-elections that have happened.
“There is fear in communities; partisan distribution of resources relating to politics, freedom of expression is not as guaranteed as it should be and state institutions that should be regulating the conduct of political parties pertaining to the election process are not discharging their constitutional mandate in a manner that reflects a positive political environment ahead of the elections.
“Our fear is that in terms of preparedness for elections, we are falling far short; we are in fact below the average. The expectation is therefore that this barometer will be an instrument that we can collectively use to begin engaging responsible authorities and say we are holding you accountable; you can’t say we are holding elections if you have not started looking at these things.
“The barometer is an instrument that we hope stakeholders will find useful and use in their engagement efforts to ensure that we improve the quality of our election processes ahead of the 2018 elections. Our argument is that there is no room for us to even accept any recommendation for an early election in Zimbabwe,” Chimhini said.local