Cephas Shava

MWENEZI – A 36-year-old passenger who was angered by the endless police roadblocks on the road threatened to commit suicide, labelled police officers thieves before disappearing with a pair of handcuffs, the Mwenezi Court heard last week.
Farirepi Nhongoviro of Mutoredzanwa village, Chief Nemauzhe in Chivi, pleaded not guilty on disorderly conduct and escaping from lawful custody charges when he appeared before magistrate Honest Musiiwa.
Nhongoviro said the police merely arrested him because he dared ask the driver of the car he was travelling in the nature of the offence he was being charged with.
He argued that he did not escape from custody, saying he went straight to the police camp after his arrest because the police officers who had handcuffed him wanted to keep him for the whole night at the roadblock as a way of fixing him.
However, one of the officers who was at the roadblock on the day in question, Brian Siyabonga told the court that Nhongoviro scolded him and his colleagues, calling them perennial thieves.
They also alleged that Nhongorivo threatened to cause a scene, blocked some motorists from freely moving and threatened to throw himself in front of moving cars.
The State’s case, as presented by prosecutor Willard Chasi was that on May 13, 2017 at the 166 km peg along Masvingo – Beitbridge highway, Nhongoviro was a passenger in a car that was stopped at a roadblock.
He allegedly engaged in riotous conduct by running around the road block shouting at police officers and disturbing the free movement of vehicles.
After being arrested at that roadblock, the handcuffed Nhongoviro allegedly ran away and disappeared into the darkness.
He was later spotted that same evening on his way to Mwenezi police station where he was arrested again.
The trial continues next month.local

ZVISHAVANE – A man who assaulted and stabbed a fellow reveler in a bottle store for trying to push him out as it was time to close the place was last week sentenced to two years imprisonment by magistrate Shepherd Mnjanja.
Abraham Sibanda was convicted on charges of assaulting Louis Pasvani over a misunderstanding at a bottle store in Muzvondiwa area.
Six months of Sibanda’s sentence were put aside on condition of good behavior, leaving him with 16 months of prison time to serve.
The court heard that the complainant and the accused were drinking beer at the bottle store before it was announced that the shop was now closing for the day and that it was time for all customers to leave.
The complainant arose from where he was sleeping and began to push customers out of the bar and that is when the misunderstanding broke out.
He went on to push Sibanda and slapped him on his back and the fight grew uglier when Sibanda pulled out an Okapi knife from his pocket and stabbed Pasvani once on the chest and six times on his left hand.
The accused was later arrested and the complainant showed the court where he was stabbed.
Monica Mungwena prosecuted.

Brighton Chiseva

ZAKA – The Rural District Council (RDC) last week backtracked on its decision to repossess what it claimed to be undeveloped stands at Jerera growth point after resident and business associations engaged the services of Mutendi, Mudisi and Shumba Legal Practitioners.
Few weeks ago, the RDC published a list of hundreds of residential and business stands which it said it would soon repossess because the owners had apparently for long failed to make any developments on them.
The decision by residents and businesses to rope in lawyers, however, has successfully stopped the local authority, cold in its tracks.
Zaka district administrator Victor Zinanga confirmed the development saying he was happy that the two parties managed to reach a consensus.
“The meeting was fruitful for the council and the residents and the business community managed to compromise,” said Zinanga
In the meeting, which took about two hours, the local authority represented by Rodney Makausi of Saratoga and Makausi, agreed to scrap the repossession plan and revisit the matter so as to shape a more amicable way forward.
The lawyers who represented the residents said they were happy that they had successfully managed to convince the local authority to stop its plan.
Council chief executive officer (CEO) David Majaura, however, said they had not succumbed to the pressure from the associations but they, instead, had already agreed to settle the matter with other residents before going to the lawyers.
“We had already met with most of the affected residents and we were not going to just repossess the stands as many people might think. We wanted the residents to come to deliberate and many residents did just that. However, with the lawyers we agreed to send the matter to the planning committee and probably wait for the full council meeting to be held next month,” Majaura said.
Other sources who attended the meeting said the council apologised to the residents for rushing to the press without informing all stakeholders.local

CHIREDZI – Chiredzi is one district which has immensely improved on the use of fireguard in Masvingo province, Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has said.
Speaking during the Provincial World Environment Day commemorations held at Sebanani Primary School in Ward 20 in Chiredzi, EMA Provincial Manager Robson Mavondo hailed villagers for implementing fireguards ain order to protect fire outbreaks in the district.
“We are happy that villagers here are taking into consideration the measures we have been teaching you to prevent veld fires. We are happy that this year you have come on the third position in the province,” said Mavondo.
“Let’s continue to work together to end veld fires, remember not to start any fire outside especially during fire season; that is, between July and October. Any offender will face three months imprisonment or $100 fine,” he added.
Villagers were also urged to use nine mitre fireguards to protect their fields from veld fires and they were also encouraged to plant trees in order to compensate for the cut down trees.
Chiredzi had the highest rate of veld fire outbreak last year, a position which has since taken over by Mwenezi district this year.local

Lawrence Mandava

ZIMUTO – The Reformed Church in Zimbabwe (RCZ) – run Copota School for the Blind and the Henry Murray Schools for the Deaf have pleaded for assistance to enable them to beat the numerous resource challenges they are facing in efficiently doing their work.
At an event to facilitate a mutual relationship between the two institutions and the Ministry of Psychomotor organised by the RCZ at Zimuto Mission last week, church moderator Reverend Ranganai Rutoro said the schools currently relied on the goodwill of well-wishers to keep going.
“Our challenges have increased with the economic hardships we are facing as a country. All the raw materials are imported and we cannot access them because of Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016.
“New technologies have pushed out of the market some of the critical products like chalk that we used to produce in bulk at these schools for sale at the market,” said Rev Rutoro.
He said the schools were debt-ridden and were in urgent need of relief, calling upon government to stretch its hand and help the schools.
“Currently Copota and Henry Murray have hundreds of thousands of unpaid electricity and water bills partly because BEAM (the government’s Basic Education Assistance Module) has not released funds since 2014.
“Our culture does not care about the education of deaf and blind children. The church makes all the efforts to keep them going to school but because of other commitments, some of the needs are not met,” said Rev Rutoro.
Psychomotor Minister Josaya Hungwe, who visited the schools, said he would make sure the government extends its support to the welfare and education of the blind as well as the deaf and dumb.local

Denford Masiya

Beatific Gumbwanda

CHIREDZI – Zanu PF supporters have accused party provincial deputy chairperson Ailes Baloyi for allegedly diverting 200 litres of fuel which was provided by the Commercial Sugarcane Farmers Association of Zimbabwe (CSFAZ) to ferry party supporters and senior government officials to the commissioning of Tokwe Mukosi Dam last week.
Baloyi signed for 200 litres of fuel donated by CSFAZ for the purposes of transporting supporters to and from Tokwe Mukosi where President Mugabe was commissioning the dam.
“He organised with the DA that they hire a bus which was supposed to transport senior government officials and Zanu PF supporters to and from Tokwe Mukosi and had instructed the DA to use the fuel which they had sourced from CSFAZ.
“He then later said all the fuel was finished after the bus had travelled only three trips leaving many people stranded,” said a source.
When contacted for comment, Baloyi denied the accusations and blamed intra-party mudslinging for what he said were attempts to smear him.
“You know people have already begun campaigning and they are trying to tarnish my image with useless things. It’s true that I signed for 200 litres of fuel and we gave 40 litres to the bus and the remaining fuel was allocated to the trucks that were hired to ferry other people,” said Baloyi.
District youth chairperson Philip Chiedza admitted there were challenges in getting some people back to Chiredzi due to errors in fuel allocation.
“We didn’t properly allocate the fuel but thank God we solved it and managed to find our way back home,” said Chiedza
Chiredzi South legislator Rtd Brigadier General Kalisto Gwanetsa was the one who bailed out the victims by supplying the required fuel to take them back.
“Yes I did provide fuel to ferry people after the DA had phoned me in desperation,” said Gwanetsa.local