A Zvishavane police officer stationed at Dzivaresekwa in Harare is in serious trouble after he appeared before Zvishavane magistrate for defaulting paying maintenance for his child since October  2014.

Tinodaishe Kayeni (28) failed to pay $145 maintenance stipend per month for a child he sired with a Zvishavane woman since October 2014.

Magistrate Story Rushambwa told Kayeni that the court was going to be tough on him because he deliberately defaulted despite him being a law-enforcement agent.

“I’m going to punish you accordingly because you deliberately chose not to maintain your own child” said Rushambwa.

He sentenced him to 12 months in prison before he wholly suspended the sentence on condition that Kayeni paid the outstanding maintenance amount of $2 030 on or before May 15, 2016. 

Talent Tadenyika prosecuted.news

Bad blood between Zaka District Administrator (DA), Tapson Chivanga and Zaka Rural District Council (ZRDC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) David Majaure which played itself in a closed- door council meeting, threatens to derail service delivery efforts, TellZim News has learnt.

At the meeting, Chivanga complained that the CEO was undermining his authority and demanded remedial action, lest he disrupts the smooth running of council business.

Minutes of the meeting reveal that Chivanga is not pleased with Majaure whom he accuses of provoking him by sending negative reports to his superiors.

“The DA reported that he is under attack from the CEO further revealing that the C.E.O never recognises the DA as his supervisor. The DA highlighted that the CEO attacked him through the Provincial Administrator’s (P.A) office before he went on leave. It was reported that the CEO wrote a letter to the PA attacking the DA but he was acting as if he was defending council against the newspaper article which was written in the Herald in early December (2015),” reads part of the minutes.

“The DA also said if the CEO intended to defend the statement he should have consulted him (DA). He further made the house aware that he is under charge in the PSC office since the CEO wrote again some allegations that he cannot work with council properly,” the minutes read.

The minutes further reveal that Chivanga threatened to disrupt council business if they did not resolve the sour relations in time.

“The DA therefore requested the human resources committee to handle this issue and said if the issue is not handled properly, it would affect the smooth running of Council, he promised. He further went on to say the CEO resists advice from the DA which shows negligence and incompetence,” read the minutes.news

City of Masvingo has blamed the poor state of roads in the city on the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (ZINARA), whom they allege are not honouring their duty to disburse funds for road maintenance.

Council last year made a survey on the state of roads and the findings suggest that there is a grand total of over $25 million needed for the rehabilitation of the city’s roads.

City Engineer Tawanda Gozo told TellZim News that council has three accounts, ZINARA, council rates and roads levy, from which they get money to rehabilitate roads in the city but there is not much coming from these accounts.

“ZINARA has let us down by failing to disburse adequate funds for us to upgrade and maintain our roads. You find that all our roads are full of potholes and we are trying to remove the rugged strips of tar left in some of them so that we remain with dust roads.

“Many residents are however, complaining of dust. The rains received in the last few weeks left the roads in worse shape but council has no money to attend to all the roads,” said Engineer Gozo.

He said the little money they are getting from the roads levy is being channelled towards rehabilitating the main roads, with some being resurfaced and others being patched.

“ZINARA has completely failed us. Since 2012 we have been receiving very meagre disbursements and we could not do much with that. In 2012 we received $51 000 in the first half which we used in the rehabilitation of the industrial roads and $47 000 which we used to do touch ups on all the other roads.

“In 2013, we did not receive anything. In 2014 we received $28 000 in the first half and $50 000 in the second half which we used in road markings and drainage system in the city,” Gozo added.

Until 2014, ZINARA did not have a stipulated amount of money that they were supposed to disburse to local authorities.

“Over the years ZINARA just determined the amount which they wanted to give to us without telling us the criteria used in the allocation. It was only in 2015 when they decided to come up with proper allocations of $345 000 but again, only 50% of the money was released in two tranches.

“This year we received only $51 000 and nothing has been said over the remaining balance from last year and we are trying to engage them so that we get the disbursement,” said Gozo.news

A Zvishavane man was left with egg on the face after the local magistrate’s court threw out his application for maintenance from his wife, Chipo Mainge, whom he accused of leaving him without following proper divorce procedures.

Innocent Hungwe was seeking a $150 monthly stipend from his ex-wife saying he needed the money for survival as he was no longer employed and since he was the one who sponsored her college education when they got married. 

Magistrate Shepherd Munjanja, however, dismissed Hungwe’s request after it was revealed that it was Mainge who was staying with the former couple’s three children.

To support her refusal to pay, Mainge said she was the one catering for all the needs of the children and she produced her pay slip showing that she earns only US$133.78 per month.

After seeing Mainge’s pay slip, Hungwe revised his maintenance demands down to any amount of money which could help him to survive or even buy a loaf of bread.

Innocent Hungwe had also demanded that Mainge repay him the money he had used to send her to college saying had been intended at securing their future together.

Mainge however argued she owed Hungwe nothing since she was the one staying with the children and paying their school fees.

“We both have equal duties to look after our children but he is not doing anything for his children and now he wants to be ‘maintained’. This shows how selfish he is because he even earns more than I do from rental proceeds off his late parents’ house,” said Mainge.

Mainge also dismissed Hungwe’s claims that he had sent her to college, saying it was her own brothers who had helped her through college.news

Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa last week stunned war veterans in Chiredzi when he dismissed their requests for a free reign over agricultural land, saying like everybody else, war veterans must follow the law and proper procedures if they want land.

The drama started when Killer Makuni, the ZANU PF Chiredzi District Chairman who also claims to be the district’s war veterans chairman, stood up and read a speech which was directed to the president bemoaning the long processes of applying for land.

Makuni requested that war veterans to be exempted from the application process, and be allowed to take any land they want anytime.

Mnangagwa, however, would have none of it, openly telling the present war veterans that like everybody else, they have to observe the constitution and other systems in place if they want land.

“I understand you fought for the land but you didn’t fight so that the land will benefit you alone but all the people of Zimbabwe so I urge you to apply for land and get offer letters just like any other people,” said Mnangagwa.

The Vice President told the gathering the law does not have any exemptions when it comes to procedural application for land.

“The constitution requires that everybody follows the law with no exceptions,” said Mnangagwa.

Prior to Mnangagwa’s response, Makuni had displayed confidence, expecting the VP’s support.

“We as war vets are against the fact that we have to apply to get the land which we fought for. It’s our benefit and we should access the land without any hindrance because it’s ours and some of our comrades died for that land so we, the remaining ones, should be left to enjoy our benefits.

“These estates like Arda should be given to us since we are the exact people who should benefit from this because we are the ones who fought for this land,” said Makuni.

Makuni complained for the lack of attention to widows of war veterans, stressing that government is doing nothing for them.

“We are not happy with what the Ministry of lands is doing and most widows of war vets tend to lose their allocated land once the husband has passed on and we do not know the criteria the Ministry of Lands is using in allocating offer letters,” said Makuni.news

‘Hell hath no fury like a scorned man’ sound like the best words to describe the situation of Gutu villagers who are living in fear after a garden boy working for one of the villagers stole his former boss’ wife and eloped with her, leading to reprisal arson attacks against many villagers.

Sources say the garden boy ran away with his boss, Andrew Muchemwa’s wife to his uncle’s place in Makanda Village under Chief Gutu.

In a fit of rage, Muchemwa followed his garden boy and burnt down a house belonging to Lazarus Makanda, who is uncle to the garden boy, accusing him of harbouring the two.

Muchemwa is also said to have destroyed vegetable gardens belonging to Makanda’s neighbours after launching an axe-attack on Makanda’s nephew leaving the victim with severe leg injuries.

Though TellZim News could not get hold of Makanda, a neighbour whose vegetable garden was destroyed said she was shocked to wake up at night to see Makanda’s house on fire on 20 April at around 2300hrs. 

Makanda escaped unscathed as he was sleeping in a different house when the attack happened.

Muchemwa allegedly went ahead to burn a house belonging to Thomas Makanda and another to one Chirimuhanzu, who are both neighbours to Makanda.

“Everyone is now fearing for their lives and property because Muchemwa does not care if you are involved or not. He has destroyed vegetables in our gardens and he lit my neighbour’s house shouting that everyone would suffer if they did not show him where his wife was,” said the neighbour.

“The whole village is being victimised now. We are having sleepless nights because anyone can be the next target. The police came but they could not get him but I think he is staying in the forests. 

“Some people here are now leaving their cars in Mpandawana fearing that they may be torched as well,” said a villager who identified himself as Chibisa.

Acting Masvingo Provincial Police Spokesperson Assistant Inspector Kudakwashe Dhewa confirmed the incident but could not give further details.

“A case of malicious damage to property was reported on the 20th of April and the suspect is Andrew Muchemwa. We however do not know the cause of this behaviour since the suspect has not been arrested. We are currently looking for the suspect,” said Assistant Inspector Dhewa.news

Following rumours that some Masvingo Zanu-PF executive members were mooting passing a vote of no-confidence against President Robert Mugabe and block his candidature in the 2018 elections, the nonagenarian leader has confronted the party’s most senior member in the province Josaya Hungwe, seeking his assurances that the restive province was still behind his continued leadership of the party and country, TellZim News can reveal.

Speaking to this publication soon after the Provincial Coordinating Committee (PCC) meeting at Masvingo Polytechnic College on Sunday, Zanu-PF Masvingo Provincial Chairperson Amasa Nhenjana confirmed the development saying the President recently called Hungwe asking whether it was true that some provincial executive members had unanimously agreed that they no longer want Mugabe to lead.

“The purpose of this meeting was to confirm if all the districts are behind the President and rallying behind him for the coming 2018 elections as we agreed at the December congress and all assured me that they are still in support of him (Mugabe). 

“The consultations with the districts came soon after Hungwe was called by the President himself to confirm whether the message he heard, that Masvingo no longer rallies behind him, was true,” Nhenjana said.

Nhenjana said since all districts had pledged their support for the president, the provincial leadership has a job to find who was behind the messages in question.

“We are therefore in a process of finding out who those people are since we have stood with one voice as a province that President Mugabe is our leader at our December congress. 

“The messages are being communicated via texts and it’s these texts that we wish to use to find the culprits and follow disciplinary procedures as given by the party’s constitution in dealing with the issue,” Nhenjana added.

Also present at the Sunday meeting was Josaya Hungwe, Pupurai Togarepi and Lovemore Matuke.politics

A self-made fashion designer in Zvishavane is making waves designing clothes and school uniforms, refusing to be limited by her lack of formal education in the field of garment designing.

Faith Nyengeterwa (51), who owns Onai Fashion, has made a number of impressive designs of both formal and informal wear as well as school uniforms.

“I never had a chance to study fashion and fabrics at school and I don’t have any formal qualification in a related field,’ said Nyengeterwa. 

A qualified mathematics teacher, Nyengeterwa resigned from her job in 2013 after 25 years of service, opting instead to fully concentrate on her dream of being as fashion designer.

“My parents encouraged and gave me the motivation to become who I am today. Our family is made up of innovative people who do their own things, my father being a self-employed carpenter of note,” said Nyengeterwa.

She opened her business in 2010 while still employed as a teacher, operating in the open before pulling together some resources for a place to rent. “I have been passionate about designing for a very long time and I will hang on in the industry despite the challenges I face because this is where I find the pleasure of work,” she said, adding that she sometimes has to go to Harare for cheaper material and a bigger market.

On her bigger plans, the talented Nyengeterwa said she wishes to build a private designing college that will give talented designers a chance to unleash their talents.

“I believe women should create an identity for themselves and must not rely on men for everything” she said.entertainment