Upenyu Chaota

MASVINGO – Masvingo City Council has once again lost the war against disorder in the Central Business District (CBD) and elsewhere with illegal traders having now totally recolonised the pavements and street corners barely a year after it successfully sent them to designated vending sites.
There is also an unprecedented rise in illegal house stores in Masvingo’s high density suburbs as people try to eke out a living in a desolate economy.
Masvingo mayor Hubert Fidze said council was worried by the sharp increase of vendors in the CBD and authorities were trying to negotiate friendly terms with the vendors to map the way forward.
“It is a worrisome problem. The economy is bad hence the continuous influx of vendors onto the CBD pavements. Vending has become the only source of income for many and that is why we have this problem today. There are no jobs and the writing is on the wall for everyone to see. People have resorted to honest means of survival but some of them are selling their wares at undesignated sites,” Fidze said.
“We are trying to come to a negotiating table with the vendors so that we can agree on the friendliest of terms on the way forward. We do not want to apply brute force on the vendors. Our municipal police often run operations to chase them out but they always come back. That is why we need an ever lasting solution,” he added.
Fidze said council will also take action against the house stores which are now a very common sight in all high density residential areas.
“People have also resorted to house stores which operate outside the regulations of council. As the council, we sat and deliberated on the matter and action will be taken soon,” said Fidze.news

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MBERENGWA – The persistent water woes at Mnene Hospital have taken a turn for the worse, with residents complaining the little water the hospital receives now comes virtually untreated, thereby worsening the welfare of patients.
Mnene Hospital is the biggest referral hospital in Mberengwa district, servicing 35 clinics and four rural hospitals and used to be regarded highly as an epitome of excellence in the health services in the district.
Residents who spoke to this publication said conditions at the hospital were now horrible, with services fast deteriorating by the day.
“The water at the hospital is dirty. I wonder how they are operating under such conditions. We have been expecting some intervention to rescue the deplorable conditions there but nothing is being done. We now fear getting admitted at the hospital in case you get sick,” said Taurai Shoko, a resident of Mberengwa.
Another concerned resident said people had become desperate and cannot afford to fall ill because they would be faced with unhealthy conditions at the hospital.
Other residents said they now prefer going to Zvishavane District Hospital where conditions seem to be a whole lot better because they have now totally lost faith in the once glorious Mnene.
The hospital’s Medical Superintendent, Dr Nyasha Makura was not available when sought for a comment.
In 2011 the hospital was given money which was meant to rehabilitate the water and sewer systems but the money was reportedly misused with a string of corruption scandals which saw some top officials suspended.
The government 2014 granted US$13000 to the hospital for the refurbishment of its vandalised water system but nothing seems to have changed. The hospital draws its water from Diringindi Dam in Ngezi River.news


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Upenyu Chaota

Masvingo – The war veterans who have been up in arms with their patron President Robert Mugabe over the bitter succession issue in Zanu PF have said the revolutionary party is doomed without them as the fight for allegiances rages on with covert operations under way to supplant the veterans’ top brass and replace it with ‘rubber stamps’.
War veterans, fronted by the likes of Christopher Mutsvangwa, Douglas Mahiya and Victor Matemadanda, have been pushing for embattled Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa to succeed the nonagenarian.
However their fortunes have been waning of late following the brutal sacking of Mutsvangwa, Mahiya and Matemadanda from Zanu PF with the party carrying out meetings with the lower structures of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) so as to influence them to turn against the Mutsvangwa- led executive.
Mahiya rubbished the claims that the union will have elections soon to replace him, Mutsvangwa, Matemadanda and the rest of the national executive and warned Mugabe that Zanu PF he is nothing without the support of the war vets.
“There is a new initiative being pushed by G40 which is aimed at dividing war veterans. They want to apply divisive tactics so that the lower structures turn against their leaders. We are aware of those machinations. There is mutual dependence between Zanu PF and war veterans. Zanu PF without war veterans is nothing, it is that simple. Mathematically, Zanu PF minus war veterans equals zero,” said Mahiya.
“Zanu PF must work with the leadership of the war veterans not with those being led. They carry out meetings behind the backs of the leadership. We need to be appreciated and be respected but as it stands we are playing the underdog,” he added.
Last week Saturday, a group of war veterans held a clandestine meeting at the open space at Gutu turn off near Roy apparently without the knowledge of the provincial leadership.
Mahiya said G40 members are on a mission to see to it that war veterans’ legacy is destroyed and completely erased from the history of the country.
“They want to erase our contributions from the books of history. They are mobilising some war veterans to turn against the executive chaired by Mutsvangwa because it is vocal in safeguarding and defending the gains of the revolution. We cannot let anyone grab power without proper credentials. This is what G40 wants and knowing that we will stop them, they want to replace us with people they can easily manipulate,” Mahiya said.
Asked if war veterans are not the ones who need Mugabe more than Mugabe needs them and whether they will not be reduced to nonentities if they detach from Zanu PF, Mahiya diplomatically say time will tell who is really a nonentity.
 “We are the ones who nurtured the revolution to be where it is today. So to say we will be reduced to nonentities without Mugabe, it boggles the mind. Mugabe needs us as much as war vets need him. For him to enjoy the power he has today, it is because of us. He should not let the born frees step on us willy-nilly; anyway time will tell who really is a nonentity,” said Mahiya.
On the unsanctioned Gutu turn-off war veterans meeting, Masvingo provincial war veterans’ chairperson, Tendeukai Chinooneka said he stumbled upon the meeting on his way to supervise Zanu PF Bikita West constituency primaries but was unaware of the agenda.
“I passed by the area and saw there was a meeting but I had no knowledge of who organised it and the agenda. I do not even know who was there. The provincial leadership was not notified otherwise we would not have had a meeting in such an open place. It shows something was being planned but for now we do not know.
“Whatever is going on, it will come to light and we will see who has the last laugh. Maybe it was not a war veterans meeting because if it was, we would have been notified and attended,” said Chinooneka.news

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