Shumirai Zhou

GWERU – Polite Tekwane (22) of Marere village under Chief Mukoka, Gokwe appeared before Gweru High Court Judge Justice Martin Makonese facing charges of culpable homicide following the death of Zanele Ngwenya in a bury alive game.
Tekwane, whom the State had chosen to charge with culpable homicide instead of murder, pleaded guilty and said he did not intend to kill the girl since they were playing.  He was sentenced to four months in prison which were wholly suspended on condition that he does not commit any crime involving violence for the next five years.
Prosecutor Tafadzwa Mpariwa told the court that Tekwane and the deceased were pupils at Muyambi Primary School. On September 12, 2010 the two were among other pupils sent home from school for non-payment of fees.
On their way home, they passed through Mandisarara River to play the sand burying game; taking turns to bury and exhume each other.
Tekwane dug a shallow pit in the sand and got hold of the deceased who was only eight-years-old and buried her. He laid the deceased on her stomach, sat on her back and started covering her body, including the head, with sand. 
The young girl tried to free herself but failed as Tekwane would press her head down until she was too weak to keep trying.
Another pupil noticed that Tekwane had buried the girl’s head and decided to rescue her but was threatened by the accused who later left the scene leading to the victim’s death due to suffocation.
The deceased’s body was discovered by other school pupils who then made a report to the police leading to Tekwane’s arrest.
On November, 15 2010, Dr E. T. Manyarara examined Ngwenya’s body and concluded that the cause of death was suffocation.local

Elliot Jinjika

CHIVHU – In a stranger than fiction case, a 27 year-old man shocked many when he was arrested for allegedly attempting to sell his eight-year-old daughter for US12 000.
The man fell for a trap and disposed of his daughter to police detectives whom he thought were genuine body parts traffickers engaging in some juju-driven business practices.
It was heard in the Chivhu Magistrates Court that on March 27 this year, Tapiwa Vhutani contacted Obert Juru, a Chivhu businessman, through phone messages asking him if he would want to buy children for use in rituals to grow his business.
Vhutani was not asked to plead but was placed on remand pending trial at the High Court where he will face charges of conspiracy to commit murder after full investigations by the police
Led by prosecutor Nicholas Mabvongodze, the State alleged that Vhutani kept on pestering Juru about the matter saying he was in dire need of cash.
The businessman decided to alert the police and a trap was set against Vhutani. It was heard that Vhutani was then told that prospective buyers from South Africa will be in Chivhu in two days’ time and he was misled into believing that he could finally sell his daughter.
Vhutani allegedly travelled from Kadoma to Chivhu in order to meet the said prospective buyers.
Upon his arrival in Chivhu, intelligence details from the police were introduced to Vhutani as the prospective buyers and they agreed on the $12000 buying price.
In no time, Vhutani departed to Yuli farm, his rural home in Wedza, where he took his daughter and brought her to Chivhu.
Vhutani allegedly surrendered the child to the ‘buyers’, telling her that one of them was an uncle who was going to stay with her for some time.
He was then handed a brown envelope with US$50 inside but was marked $12 000 and, as he left the scene, was subsequently arrested by other detectives who were hiding close by.
It was disclosed that Vhutani had seen Juru’s South African-registered vehicle and thought he could make a deal with him out of conviction that body parts business was good in the neighbouring country.local

CHIREDZI – A Chiredzi man who was frightened with the possibility of going to jail, begged the father of a five-year-old girl he was caught sodomising to beat him up as penalty instead of reporting the matter to the police.
The Chiredzi Regional Magistrates Court heard that the father of the victim allegedly caught Dzingai Gwenzi of Plot 72 Zvidozvevanhu, Dhika, Buffalo Range in his (Gwenzi’s) bedroom having anal sex with his daughter.
The court, led by Regional Magistrate Judith Zuyu, heard that Gwenzi called the girl, who was in the company of her two little brothers, into his bedroom and ordered the brothers to vacate the room.
He then removed the girl’s pants and had anal sex with her once without the girl’s consent.
The court also heard that Gwenzi was not aware that the father of the girl was cutting bushes in a nearby field and the two little brothers, upset with being separated from their sister, cried out loudly and attracted the attention of their father.
The father then rushed to Gwenzi’s homestead only to find his two kids outside the yard and that was when he asked about the whereabouts of their sister and was told that she was in Gwenzi’s bedroom.
The father then opened Gwenzi’s bedroom only to find him abusing the little girl.
“I was shocked when I saw the state of my little girl, Gwenzi was having sex with my child from the back. He then pleaded with me to beat him and not report the case to the police…I was so hurt and I told him that if I were to beat him, I would kill him so it was better to report the matter,” said the father.
Gwenzi denied abusing the girl saying she was simply playing on his bed when her father arrived.
He was later remanded in custody waiting for his judgement tomorrow (Friday).
Moreblessing Rusere Prosecuted.local

GWERU – The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Zimbabwe country representative, Cheikh Tidiane last week praised Midlands State University (MSU) for leading the fight against sexually transmitted infections.
Speaking during the launch of a state-of -the-art model health resource centre at the MSU Gweru campus, Tidiane praised the university for placing great importance on the sexual health of young people.
“Let me commend the leadership of this university for placing such great importance on equipping young people with the necessary life skills and information related to their sexual reproductive health and rights by opening this resource centre. UNFPA is extremely proud to be part of this because it strongly resonates with our mandate,” Tidiane said.
The health facility, which boasts pool tables, computers, HIV and Aids literature, a boardroom and counselling room, is the brainchild of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Students and Youth Working on reproductive Health Action Team (SAYWHAT).
Tidiane also indicated many young people were exposed to the danger of STIs due to inadequate access to sexual and reproductive health information.
“Many young people in Zimbabwe continue to suffer from such problems as unwanted pregnancies, HIV and Aids, unsafe abortions and STIs due to, among many other reasons, lack of access to sexual and reproductive health information and services thus limiting their full potential,” Tidiane said.
Students also celebrated the efforts of the university in the fight against STI’s, and recommend that the model be replicated in other institutions with urgency to protect the country’s demographic dividend.
“As students, we are celebrating a library on sexual reproductive health and recreation centre in the same breadth. We thank MSU, Saywhat and UNFPA. It reminds us that rights come with responsibility. We are looking forward to the extension of this service to other tertiary institutions,” said Hastings Tengende, a student and peer educator at the university.
Youths constitute over 60 percent of the country’s 13 million population. The 2015 Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey states that one in 10 adolescent girls give birth each year while HIV prevalence stands at 6,7 percent in the same group.local

Cephas Shava

MWENEZI – The Mwenezi Rural District Council (RDC) last week embarked on a district-wide whirlwind sensitisation campaign for proposed by-laws with the public expressing divergent views on the matter.
Many contributors said they fully acknowledged the intended purpose of the proposed by-laws especially those that seek to protect the environment from further harm but pointed out that awareness has always been inadequate.
Among other things, they said many environmental offences were fuelled by lack of knowledge of the regulations.
“As council, you should vigorously disseminate information concerning the contents of the by-laws so that everyone becomes fully informed. You should not just come and arrest people for violating the by-laws they are not aware of.
“Besides that, some departments are merely existing in name; since we were resettled in 2000, the department responsible for pegging contour ridges in our fields has never visited us,” said a participant from ward 16.
Contributors who live in areas close to the Masvingo – Beitbridge highway expressed concern over cross border buses which they accused of being among the worst offenders when it comes to littering.
They pointed out that they often wake up to the sight of piles of scattered garbage that would have been dumped in the night by cross border buses that stop at undesignated points for recess along the highway.
The by-law sensitisation programme, which saw an interactive two-way communication between the community and the RDC, were also supported by the Ministry of Health and Child Care.local

CHIREDZI – The seeming reluctance on the part of government and the corporate sector to clear their rate arrears with Chiredzi Town Council is militating against efforts to improve service delivery, TellZim News has been told.
In an interview, town secretary Charles Muchatukwa revealed that council was owed in excess of five million US dollars mainly by government and the business sector.
“The business community owes us $3 047 225, government departments and institutions $332 883, the markets $872 666 and residents $833 684. Business seems unwilling to pay rates and we are suing those who do not want to pay what they owe,” said Muchatukwa.
He praised ordinary residents for making huge efforts to clear their rate arrears from a whopping two million US dollars last year to the current figure.
Muchatukwa also said council had a huge service delivery backlog especially in the neglected areas like Makondo and its workers were going for months without pay due to erratic revenue inflows.
Town chairperson Francis Mayo also lamented what he called was a propensity to quickly complain over perceived incidences of poor service delivery when no similar zeal is displayed when it comes to payment of rates.
“The problem we have as council is that the very people who complain over service delivery are the same people with high bills yet to be paid. We have workers with four months without pay and all that is caused by non-payment of rates; our main source of revenue,” said Moyo.
In most towns and cities, government departments like security services, education and health institutions owe millions of dollars’ worth of unpaid rates.
Earlier this year, City of Masvingo cut off water supplies to the provincial education offices at Wigley House due to continuous non-payment of rates.
As of January 2016, the city was owed in excess of 16 million US dollars by government departments, a factor that has contributed to the deterioration of service delivery in the city.local