By Tell Reporters in Gutu

Gutu Central constituency Member of the House of Assembly Lovemore Matuke has constructed a school in his constituency.  The school which is going to be the flagship of academic excellence is situated at Matuke’s Farm about 15 km from Mpandawana town along Harare road.

                          MP Lovemore Matuke

Speaker after speaker who gathered at the ground breaking ceremony at the school last week praised Matuke for promoting education in his constituency. Villagers praised their MP saying he was taking the right steps in promoting development in their area.

 However, Matuke said the school was going to  service not only people from his constituency since he was planning to set up international standards which would attract students from even beyond the country’s borders.

“We are going to be the best in terms of quality of education. We are setting high standards so that we become the province’s if not the country’s first preference whenever  parents think of sending their children to school,” said Matuke.

Teachers who attended the ceremony were already approaching Matuke seeking to be recruited at the school.

However, Matuke announced that he was not going to take teachers who do not have a very good track record.

“I will only take teachers who can bring 100 percent pass rate here,” he added.

Eight classrooms and five hostels have already been constructed at the school and work is in progress to complete all outstanding buildings before the end of the year..

Matuke said the school is going to open its doors any time from now.

The ground breaking ceremony was attended by several Members of Parliament from Masvingo Province.Local

Kennedy Murwira

A Gutu woman died last month while she was on her way to attend a funeral in the Chihota Communal Lands in Mashonaland East leaving her relatives dumbfounded as to what actually transpired as she was and fit and well when she embarked on the journey.

The woman, Liliosa Mutero, nee Hapanyengwi, was married to Alphonce Mutero, a teacher by profession, and was travelling to attend to her mother-in-law’s sister’s funeral when she suddenly fell ill and died. Her husband left the profession a few years ago to run his businesses in the Chirumhanzu area in the Midlands Province. Liliosa remained a teacher at Chaka Primary school until the time of her death.

                                          Liliosa Mutero

A  family spokesman, Simon Mutero, said his sister-in-law was not ill at the time she departed for the funeral but started complaining of heartache and stomach pains just after the funeral cortege had left the Masvingo-Harare highway enroute for Chihota, She started started vomiting and the combi in which she was travelling had to stop several times while other mourners tried to diagnose the problem. Her situation deteriorated and other relatives had to abandon the journey to Chihota and made a u-turn to Harare Central Hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival. Her medical history, however, revealed that she had hypertension problems which may have resulted in her death.

Liliosa was buried  In Mutero Village in Gutu on 31 December where obituary messages from a number of organisations, including the Better Schools Programme in The midlands Province, were well received by the mourners

 By Moses Ziyambi in Jo’burg

Hundreds of Zimbabwean immigrants housed at the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg are living in suspense following the lapsing of the December 31 2014 deadline of a directive to vacate the building.

The building has been sheltering desperate Zimbabwean refugees and asylum seekers for the past fourteen years.

Several refugees who spoke to Tell Zimbabwe said they did not have anywhere to go as they were homeless and unemployed.

“We have been told to leave but we don’t have else to go. For some of us, this church has been our only home for the past ten years,” said John Rutete.

He also said that some of his friends have already left the place although they did not have any definite place to go.

          Central Methodist Church in Jo’burg

“We are living in suspense because we have been told that force will be used to eject those who fail to meet the deadline,” he said. “The deadline has already passed and we don’t know what will happen.”

Other immigrants, however, vowed to stay put, saying they will not accept being chucked into the streets.

“If they don’t provide alternative accommodation, I won’t go anywhere. They failed to evict us in 2010 and they will fail again this time around,” said another immigrant who requested anonymity.

Under the stewardship of Paul Verryn, the church has provided sanctuary to thousands of mainly Zimbabwean homeless immigrants over the years.

Verryn, who has earned himself enemies in his church for housing the immigrants, is set to be promoted and transferred to a different circuit. Church trustees have ordered that when he leaves,  the building can also be restored to its primary purpose of housing worshipers.

“Many have already left the building and others are in the process of leaving,” a dejected Verryn told Tell Zimbabwe, imploring well-wishers to come on board and assist.

“It has not been an easy journey for me. I hope it’s not going to be a helpless situation for the people,” he added.

Previous attempts to evict the immigrants through the courts have been strongly resisted by Verryn, who argued that it was inhuman to throw poor people into the streets.Local

Tell Reporter

There was pandemonium in Zimhofu village under Chief Ndanga in Zaka when villagers woke up to see over 30 pythons coming out of a grave last week.

Over 40 people from Zimhofu village and surrounding areas who were visibly shaken were still at the scene when Tell Zimbabwe reporters arrived on Sunday. Officials from Parks and Wildlife Management were called but they only managed to capture 20 small pythons as their efforts to capture all the snakes were hampered by heavy rains.

 Village head Jeremiah Matumbike(center) is still in shock

Zimhofu village head Jeremiah Matumbike told Tell Zimbabwe that he was in shock since it was his first time to encounter such a situation. He said he was in a process of identifying people who are related to the person buried in that grave.

“I am shocked by this incident…it all started as a fairytale when people told me that there were about 10 pythons at a grave in my village. However, when we came here on Wednesday, we discovered that in fact the pythons were more than 30.

Some of the small pythons which came out of the grave

“Everyone is in shock and I am now in a process of identifying people who might be related to the person buried in this grave,” said Matumbike.

Matumbike said he could not rule out that there could be something mysterious behind the coming out of the pythons.

“We have never seen not even one python here so where are these ones coming from… I think this is mysterious and the relatives of the person buried here will assist us in mapping the way forward,” said Matumbike.

Officials from Parks could not be drawn into commenting.

Chief Ndanga said he was aware of the incident. Local.

Tell Reporters

Residents from all wards in Masvingo city have described their councillors as hardworking and responsible. Although some said there were areas which need urgent attention, it was unanimously agreed that the current crop of councillors have great potential in as far as local governance is concerned. When these councillors were elected in 2013, residents thought they were going to be the worst in the history of the city, however, they have proved otherwise.

Our team went out to get the views of the people concerning the performance of each councillor in 2014 and residents placed the 10 councillors in four groups.

Group one comprises of Godfrey Kurauone of ward 4, Lovemore Mufamba of ward 10 and Masvingo mayor Hubert Fidze of ward 6. The three were rated the most hardworking this year. The mayor has been described as the most improved politician in the council. When he was elected, he had no idea in terms of public relations and at times issuing statements that would turn against him. Initially people thought that there was a great blunder in voting Fidze to be the mayor. However, 2014 has groomed him to become a mature and fine politician who would be there for the people. In fact, our reporters were informed that Fidze is likely to be the best mayor in the history of Masvingo. Fidze is being praised for being there with the people. ” He is always communicating, he is good in giving feedback, he demystified the position of the mayor because we are always with him,” said another interviewee. Although he is the youngest in council, Kurauone’s performance this year was impressing – his contribution in the debates as well as influence on the final decision by the council cannot be downplayed. Kurauone therefore remained popular in his ward as he constantly engages the youths for feedback – his public relations strategy is not bad. 

Godfrey Kurauone is in Group 1

Councillor Mufamba has remained in touch with his ward. He is always there to assist the people in ward 10. With several projects in his ward and immense contribution in council chambers, Mufamba has remained a true representative of the people. 

              Lovemore Mufamba is in Group 1

Some people were saying Mufamba has a potential to deliver even if given a higher office. They were pegged at 76 %.

Mayor Hubert Fidze is in Group 1

Group two comprises of Councillor Gashia Mundondo of ward 1, Cllr Daniel Mberikwazvo of ward 5, Cllr Richard Musekiwa of ward 7 and Cllr Tasicio Mandava of ward 2. The four councillors have remained fairly visible in their wards. They are approachable and have potential to be in group one but sometimes they are not active in debates in council chambers. The four councillors are still popular in their wards but they also need to come up with initiatives that will see them having more interaction with the people. They were pegged at 65 %.

Group three comprises of Cllr Against Chiteme of ward 8 and Cllr Babylon Beta of ward 9. The two need to improve in making their voices heard in chambers. Residents said the two councillors are people shy since they are hesitant in meeting them for feedback. They are rarely heard in the press. However, they have been described as the only two who are unlikely to be involved in any scandal throughout their term. ” These two act like twins, they are very calm and innocent …however we want them to come to us with feedback,” said another resident. They were pegged at 51%.

Group four comprises of one man of his own class, Cllr  David Chiwara of ward 3. Ironically, Chiwara is the deputy mayor. A survey by Tell Zimbabwe revealed that 9 out 10 people in Masvingo think that the city does not have a deputy mayor. Chiwara remains the least known deputy mayor in the history of the city. His performance is pegged at 30 %. Residents said Chiwara’s new year resolution number one should be that of becoming a true representative of the people. Some said the council should reconsider giving Chiwara a vote of no confidence.

David Chiwara was rated the worst in 2014

“We don’t want placeholders, they must just give him a vote of no confidence and elect another deputy mayor for the city,” said another resident.

Do you want to tell us how you rate your councillor or MP? Send email to editor@tell.co.zw. Local