MASVINGO – A 40-year-old man facing three counts of murder and one attempted murder for allegedly hacking and axing three children to death in Zaka last year told the Masvingo High Court that he was seeing mermaids surrounding him.
Munyaradzi Kudzidzvara, of Gonovi village under Chief Chikwanda, was appearing before the High Court’s Justice Mawadze for a pre-trial session last week.
Omen Mafa of Mutendi Mudisi Shumba Legal Practitioners, on behalf of the accused, argued that his client had mental health issues.
Justice Garainesu Mawadze ordered that the accused undergo a mentally examination first before setting the trial date.
It is alleged that Gonovi, who had visited his old aunt in Zimhungu village under Chief Ndanga, 60 km away from his own home, ended up butchering Ernest Dzinorumwa’s family after he passed through his homestead and thought he had reached his own house.
The incident took place in the early hours of Tuesday, May 10, 2016.
It is the State’s case that Earnest Dzinorumwa went outside to relieve himself after midnight and saw Kudzidzvara in his yard standing and starring at him and when he asked him what he was doing at his homestead, Kudzidzvara approached him instead asking why he was coming out of his bedroom and accused him of having an affair with his wife.
The misunderstanding led to a physical fight as the accused allegedly picked an axe which was lying beside Dzinorumwa’s bedroom door and chased him with it.
Dzinorumwa’s wife, Angela Kwangari went outside to see before locking her three children Leticia (8), Margret (4) and Liona Anesu (2), inside the house.
The accused allegedly struck her on the head and shoulder with an axe before breaking the door where the children were sleeping and dragged each one of them some few metres away from the hut where he allegedly axed them to death and left the axe stuck in Anesu’s head.
Neighbours are said to have found the accused lying close to his dead victims and was later arrested.
Takunda Chikwati represented the State.local

ZAKA – Heal Zimbabwe Trust is preaching peace through sport in the country and the first tournament it organised in Masvingo province was held at Zaka High School last weekend.
Speaking to TellZim News after the tournament, Heal Zimbabwe advocacy and programmes manager Cleto Manjovha said the organisation had lined up 20 tournaments to be played this year.
He said the tournaments were meant to promote peace among youths of different political persuasions by putting them in the same teams that play together.
“We want to promote peace by making sure that the youths spend at least eight hours in co-existence. We also invite their political leaders and this sends a strong message to the youths that if their leaders can mingle, they too can do the same,” said Manjovha.
He said it would be good if more resources can be mobilised so that the 20 tournaments planned can be increased in order to expand the ’15 million voices talking peace’ initiative.
Zaka district MDC senator Misheck Marava thanked Heal Zimbabwe for the initiative which he said had shown the way by which people should coexist in peace.
“I want to thank Heal Zimbabwe for the programme. They managed to preach peace to the people who were present and they overcame the politicking that some people wanted to bring in,” said Marava.
Zaka Central legislator and the initial organiser and sponsor of the tournament, Paradzai Chakona praised the event as fruitful and thanked Heal Zimbabwe for solving differences that had initially threaten to derail the exercise.
“We disagreed on the issue of the venue and the theme but we managed to resolve the small dispute and the event was successful and we were together with guys from the opposition, the likes of Marava,” said Chakona.
Twenty teams participated in the tournament which saw Chinounye Stars walking away with the floating trophy, with only two coming from outside Zaka Central.local

…fight for ceremonial custody of Great Zimbabwe monuments

Moses Ziyambi

MASVINGO – There is no harmony between acting Chief Mugabe and neighbouring Headman Nemanwa over chieftainship in an area which carries great historical significance as a host to the Great Zimbabwe monuments, a national heritage site from where the country derives its name.
The disagreements stem from a host of issues including boundaries, rights to preside over cultural rites as well as each other’s legitimacy.
Acting Chief Mugabe, born Matubede Mudavanhu, whose area currently covers the monuments, accuses Nemanwa of encroaching into land that traditionally belonged to his lineage before the onset of colonial rule.
Family spokesperson, Henry Makusha told TellZim News that headman Nemanwa’s area consisted of less than 10 villages but was working with some powerful individuals to gain promotion at all costs.
“They are irregularly creating new villages and parceling out land to cronies in areas like Sikato and Longdale that were previously White-owned farms so as to bolster their numbers and reach the threshold needed for an area to be recognised as a chieftaincy. Nemanwa is a headman but he desperately wants to be chief at our expense,” Makusha said.
Many pre-colonial records, including the writings of German explorer Carl Mauch, say the area covering Great Zimbabwe belonged to the Mugabe people, of the moyo totem, until after the onset of colonial rule when the reigning chief, Chipfunhu Mugabe Mushenjere was forcibly removed and executed for asserting his rights in around 1892.
There are however divergent accounts and oral traditions that claim the area was ruled by the Nemanwa people, of shumba totem, but they were forced out and relegated for resisting colonial systems, with the Mugabes being elevated in their stead.
“At all functions, the Nemanwa people demand the same courtesies that are reserved for the Mugabe name yet Nemanwa is merely a headman under Chief Charumbira. He already recognises himself as chief but the land he claims to be his belongs to our forefathers and everything is there in black and white. The government does not recognise his claims and that is why he doesn’t have the perks that are given to real chiefs,” said Makusha.
There was a near skirmish during a traditional dance festival held at Great Zimbabwe monuments late last month when, during the cultural kuisa maoko courtesy ritual, Headman Nemanwa’s clansmen went and grabbed the microphone so that they too could accord their own name the same reverence as given to the Mugabes.
The brawl only ended when Provincial Affairs minister Shuvai Mahofa intervened and asserted that the event was taking place in Chief Mugabe’s land therefore Nemanwa had no right to demand equal courtesy.
The disagreement between the traditional leaders has also come at a huge expense for the environment with people from Nemanwa allegedly ignoring Chief Mugabe’s regulations against cutting down trees for firewood along Lake Mutirikwi.
Headman Nemanwa, Paul Mavhima however accused the Mugabes of a poor grasp of history saying the Nemanwas had lost their chieftainship during colonial rule and were working to restore it.
“They don’t want to face the truth because they know that when our chieftaincy is restored, as we are confident that it will happen soon, it will come at a huge expense to them. Many villages that we lost will come back and the genuine boundaries will be restored.
“There is no question about Great Zimbabwe because that’s our land. The Mugabes are late comers and they are only there because our ancestors welcomed them, gave them and other chiefs like Shumba land to settle. If they say Great Zimbabwe is theirs, then why was the Zimbabwe Bird which was recently returned from Germany came through Nemanwa and not Chief Mugabe?
“Chokwandi ndechekuti Nemanwa akazotorerwa nyembe yake nemaBhunu ndobva idzikiswa kuitwa headman saka hazvingarambi zvakadaro. Chiefs Shumba, Murinye and Chikwanda are old enough to know better and they can teach the Mugabes a true account of history,” said Mavhima, who said he had engaged government to have the Nemanwa chieftaincy restored to pre-colonial boundaries.
He dismissed claims that his people were destroying trees along Lake Mutirikwi saying it was the Mugabes who were encouraging their people to build villages along the shore and practicing stream bank cultivation.
“There are many homes being built at Zero Farm and those are not our people but are from Chief Mugabe. They are the people who are causing deforestation and siltation yet they want to shift the blame,” said Mavhima who also claimed his area was made up of up to 40 villages, not the less than 10 as alleged by Makusha.local

MASVINGO – There is absolutely no joy for companies that cut corners, evade the rules and try to go it alone in the construction industry because specifications governing implementation of big projects can only be met by working together, the Zimbabwe Building Contractors Association (ZBCA) has said.
This was heard during a ZBCA stakeholders breakfast meeting held in Masvingo last Friday where it was heard that some contractors were dodging their statutory obligations like registering with the relevant authorities and/or failing to pay their dues to the regulatory bodies.
ZBCA president Engineer Ransom Nherera lamented failure by the construction industry to work together and confront the challenges of the sector as a united front.
“We are failing to regulate our own playing field yet we want a stake in such big and important projects like the dualisation of the Harare – Beitbridge road. Let’s do things the proper way lest we remain marginalised as sub-contractors while foreigners continue to take the main contracts. The next thing which will be said is that the indigenous contractors never do their work properly and they do not finish projects,” Eng Nherera said.
The main contract to dualise the road was won by an Austrian consortium Geiger International due to perceived incapacity of the local civil engineering sector.
Eng Nherera said much of the work in the construction industry was being done by unregistered contractors taking advantage of the prevailing economic conditions to undercut formal contractors.
“Masvingo is growing as evidenced by the many new suburbs emerging and we have so many unregulated players doing a great deal of the work and when the regulated contractors go there, they don’t find the work.
“We are talking about unfair competition here and it is bad because when the unregulated people fail to do the job properly, there is no easy recourse and you end up taking each other to the courts,” said Eng Nherera.
National Employment Council for the Construction Industry (NECCIZ) representative Charity Sithole, who stood in for general secretary Taruvinga Dzokamushure, urged players to register their businesses.
“Those who want to do construction work on the road or anywhere else please register with us in accordance with the statutory requirements. Registration is a qualifying requirement for you to be able to go to the tender board,” said Sithole.
Construction sector trade union, ZCATWU general secretary Nicholas Mazarura said the industry was taking a battering due to the proliferation of informal players.
“Employers and employees let’s all unite and safeguard the interests of our industry. The informal sector is getting work at our expense by charging hand to mouth rates because we are not united. Let’s work together, register with NECCIZ and work to improve productivity,” said Mazarura.
The event was attended by many stakeholders including ZBCA Masvingo region leader Otinniere Tavirai, Standards Authority of Zimbabwe (SAZ) technical services director Cyril Siringwani, Construction Industry Pension Fund (CIPF) CEO Elisha Ngunga, engineers from the rural district councils as well as insurance sector representatives.local

MBERENGWA – A 36-year-old Mberengwa man who raped his four-year-old daughter in front of his two elder sons was last week sentenced to 18 years in prison.
The accused (named withheld to protect the minor), from Hlupheko village under Chief Mataruse, appeared before regional magistrate Morgan Nemadire on the charge of raping his own daughter.
The court heard that the matter came into the open when the child yelled while urinating and she told her mother what had happened.
The father had ordered his two other children aged 12 and 8 to stand still and watch while he raped their sister.
After raping the child, he threatened to stab the other children with a machete if they dare report the matter to their mother or anyone else.
The mother had gone to fetch water from a nearby borehole about a kilometre away, and on her return, she did not notice anything amiss.
The mother confirmed the matter from the duo and reported the matter to the police on the following day leading to the arrest of her husband.local