Elizabeth Demo

CHIPINGE – In an incident that left Chipinge villagers tongue-tied, a jilted pregnant woman committed suicide by taking rat poison last week.
 Sharon Moyo Malanga (27) decided to take her life after husband Tafadzwa Muyambo denied taking responsibility of the pregnancy.
Chipinge District Police Spokesperson, Assistant Inspector Blessing Kadzuraumera confirmed the incident and said Sharon committed suicide by taking rat poison.
“Memory was found lying on the ground complaining of stomach pains and later revealed that she had consumed rat poison following a misunderstanding with her hubby in which the later denied to take responsibility of the pregnancy. She later passed on before she was rushed to the hospital. A suicidal note was later recovered,” Asst. Inspector Kadzuraumera said.
Police said her body was taken to Chipinge District Hospital Mortuary awaiting postmortem. Asst Inspector Kadzuraumera urged people to seek counseling from police officers or leaders in their respective areas when they are facing problems instead of taking their own lives. news

Upenyu Chaota

MASVINGO – Former Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) councillor for Ward 8 Misheck Gapare, who defected to Zanu PF last year in a move viewed as seeking protection from persecution against fraud involving 50 residential stands, was sentenced to four years imprisonment.
Gapare was charged on two counts of fraud as defined in Section 136 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23. The first was against the Remainder of Victoria Ranch Consortium represented by Wellington Mahwende and the second against Vashandi Housing Cooperative represented by Godhati Dunira.
It is the State’s case that on January 31, 2012, Gapare made a misrepresentation intending to deceive the Remainder of Victoria Ranch Consortium that the list of names he tendered to them was for councillors and employees of Masvingo City Council, whilst in actual fact he knew they were not, causing the consortium to act upon the misrepresentation to their prejudice by offering 25 residential stands to Gapare which he converted to his own use causing an actual prejudice of $100 000.
On the same day Gapare made a misrepresentation intending to deceive Vashandi Housing Cooperative that the list of names he tendered to them was for councillors and employees of Masvingo City Council, whilst in actual fact he knew they were not, causing Vashandi Housing Cooperative to act upon the prejudice by offering 25 residential stands to Gapare which he converted to his own use causing an actual prejudice of $100 000.
Masvingo provincial magistrate Langton Ndokera slammed him with four years in prison. He however, suspended two years on condition that he returns the stands to the complainant.  Tawonga Musina prosecuted.news

Peter Chawapiwa

GUTU – The business community in some parts of Gutu district is abusing recipients of the CARE EcoCash transfer programme by forcing them to buy groceries instead of giving them cash to acquire maize grain, TellZim News has learnt.
The CARE EcoCash transfer programme was introduced to assist the rural folk to buy maize grain in view of the persistent food shortages that are being experienced in some parts of Gutu district. The programme replaced the old system which saw the organization ferrying maize grain into the various wards for distribution to the people. The old system was costly and involved a number of logistical problems that were done away with by the new system.
Some recipients of the CARE EcoCash transfer programme who spoke to TellZim News said they were encountering problems when they wanted to access their money through the Ecocash agents.
“When the programme started we were told to open Ecocash accounts so that the money could be transferred directly into our cellphones.
“This is what we did and while CARE International has honoured its side of the bargain we are finding it difficult to access the money.
“Business people who are EcoCash agents however force us to buy groceries before they can give us anything from our cash-out proceeds. At the end of the day we cannot acquire the maize grain to feed our families,” the recipients said.
Some business people who spoke to this reporter said the current cash crisis in the country was forcing them to ask recipients to spent part of their proceeds before they could cash out their money.
“You see, we cannot fork out cash without receiving anything in return. What will happen at the end of the day is that we will not have any cash to order more provisions. By asking them to spend a portion of their money we ensure that we continue giving them that service,” they said.
Ward 19 councillor, Cleophas Muzindi, said they were aware of what is happening.
“We are trying to engage the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) so that recipients can transfer their money to the organization and receive maize grain in return. That way they will bypass the EcoCash agents and use the money for its intended purpose,” Muzindi said.news

CHIPINGE – A Chipinge man, who could not wait for his wife to return from a trip, is alleged to have raped his maid on different occasions recently.
Tawanda Dheka (27) of house number 375 Gaza Township in Chipinge has since appeared before Chipinge magistrate Vusomuzi Gapara facing rape charges and was remanded in custody to October 21, 2016.
Magistrate gapara encouraged Dheka to apply for bail at the High Court within 10 days.
It is the State’s case that on March 15, 2016 at 0200hours, Dheka arrived from Gweru where he had gone with his wife and found the complainant sleeping on sofa in the dining room.
The court heard that the two started to chat and the accused narrated how he travelled all the way from Gweru whilst the complainant was sitting opposite to him.
The State alleges that Dheka then started to demand to sleep in the same blanket with the complainant but the request was shot down. He is alleged to have forced himself on top of the girl and forcibly had sex with her once.
The complainant screamed for help but to no avail. Dheka allegedly threatened to kill the complainant if she ever revealed the matter to anyone.
It was further alleged that July 12, 2016 around 1200hours when the accused’s wife had gone to work, Dheka was eating sadza and soon after he demanded to have sex with the complainant. He is said to have immediately pushed her onto the floor and raped her once.
The complainant later revealed the matter to a friend and a report was made to the police in July 2016. Complainant was referred to hospital for medical examination where the doctor confirmed that penetration was effected.  Edith Phiri prosecuted.news

CHIVI – Farmers in Chivi district, who have been encouraged to grow small grains in order to counter the little rainfall they receive annually, are regretting the move after the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) has failed to pay for the sorghum they sold in 2014.
Presenting their grievances to Chivi Central legislator Ephraim Gwanongodza, farmers fronted by Tawanda Mapurisa who is also Zanu PF ward 17 vice chairperson, said the GMB has completely neglected them and they had since lost hope of getting paid for their 2014 produce.
“We sold maize and sorghum to GMB in 2014 and they gave us money for maize only. Since then we have been demanding money for our sorghum but to no avail. Things are tough and if we could get the payment it would help us a lot. Schools have opened and we need to pay our children’s fees,” said Mapurisa.
“It would have been better if someone talked to us about our money than to be ignored completely like nothing happened. Right now there is ravaging hunger and we would be happy if GMB give us maize equivalent to our money,” he added.
GMB Chivi manager Kudakwashe Masiyambiri said they are working hard to clear all the money they owe Chivi farmers.
“We may be moving at a tortoise pace but we will eventually pay off all the farmers. The list was big but now we have less than 10 people. The farmers have given us an option to either give them maize equivalent to the money we owe them or pay them in full but the former was shot down by the head office saying it has never been done before. The head office is running around sourcing funds and once the money is available we will clear the debt,” said Masiyambiri.
Gwanongodza promised to push on behalf of the farmers so that they receive their money.news

Zaka – The cash-strapped Zaka Rural District Council (RDC), which is struggling to pay its workers, has hired Paul Mangwana of Mangwana and Partners Legal Practitioners as their debt collector in a desperate effort to force hungry villagers to pay their taxes.
Zaka RDC gets much of its revenue from villagers in the district but they have not been paying their taxes in time due to the ravaging hunger. 
In his report to the Full Council Meeting recently, Zaka RDC’s chief executive officer David Majaura said hiring debt collector will improve revenue collection.
“We have limited tax inflow and this is affecting council’s operations. There have been delays in paying the management and we hope the debt collector will improve revenue collection,” said Majaura.
Mangwana, who was invited to the Full Council Meeting to explain to the councilors how he will operate before they could hire him, warned the local authority to improve its service delivery so that the ratepayers won’t complain.
He however assured council that he will work hard to ensure that villagers pay their debts, just like what he is doing with the other 30 RDCs which engaged him throughout the country.
Councillors were told that hiring Mangwana to do debt collection will increase the cash inflow hence the finance committee in its 2017 budget reduced business taxes by 3%, market rates by 5% and business outside Jerera Central Business District (CBD) by 10%.
The social services committee also reduced Market fees from $5 -$3 but introduced pay toilets costing $0.50 and $0.25 respectively.
Zaka District Administrator (DA) Tapson Chivanga advised council to make sure that reducing the rates will not lead the local authority into another cash crisis
However, the move by Zaka RDC was challenged by the business community who were saying the council was supposed to have consulted or notified them before calling debt collectors.
Zaka business community chairperson Cleophas Ziki, who was equally astonished as some councilors who seemed not to understand who called Mangwana and yet they are the policy makers, said the council was supposed to give civic education to them first before they call debt collectors.
“Council should not take us by surprise; it is important that you inform stakeholders of the developments you intend to do than hiring a debt collector without notifying us,” said Ziki.news

Tatenda Shunyai

CHIVI –   Two gold panners from Chivi are facing murder charges after they were linked to the murder of Henry Takorekana at Mhandamabwe Business Centre last week.
Tavonga Marufu (34) of Gudhe village, headman Madyangove in Chivi and Tunhidzai Mukwasha of 3679/17 Mbizo, Kwekwe, have since initially appeared before Chivi resident magistrate facing murder as defined in Section 47(1)(a) of the Criminal Law, Codification and Reform Act Chapter 9:23.
It is alleged that on the fateful day, Marufu and Mukwasha accompanied the late Takorekana from his place of residence to number 72-73 Mhandamabwe Business Centre and the trio had a misunderstanding on their way back resulting in the duo allegedly beating up the deceased with copper wire.
Takorekana is said to have staggered till he got home where he then, upon arrival, fell unconscious and was rushed to Chivi district hospital where he was pronounced dead upon arrival.
The deceased’s young brother Isaac Masarakufa helped the police locate the accused leading to their arrest.
Marufu and Mukwasha were remanded to October 17, 2016 and their case has since been transferred to Masvingo Magistrates Court.news