Lloyd Shunje

A church and two humanitarian organisations have collaborated to build an orphanage soon to house 40 vulnerable children near Sikato Primary School in Masvingo.

Cornerstone Fellowship International, Window of Hope HIV and Aids organisation and Change a life Foundation are already at an advanced stage in building Emmanuel Homestead, which they expect to be completed by next month.

Having started in October last year, the homestead is expected to house 40 children and 10 foster parents, and the children will receive tutorials in life skills through agriculture, animal husbandry, carpentry and formal education.

Emmanuel Homestead executive director and Cornerstone Fellowship Pastor Alexander Chibwana said children from the home will attend their primary education at Sikato Primary School and there is also Chirichoga Secondary in Nemamwa. Plans are also in place for the construction of psycho social campsite that will help rape victims and the community at large.

“We are responding to the request by department of social service to have another orphanage home in the province as Alpha cottage cannot accommodate the whole province on its own,” Chibwana said.

“As the church we have collaborated with Window of Hope to have this project to help accommodate orphans and vulnerable children in the province as the load will be too heavy for Alpha cottage to bear the load alone. In addition we were receiving funding from Don Wooden of Change a life Foundation” said Chibwana.

“The project was expected to be through in May but it can be delayed as the labour is comes from volunteers, we only have four volunteers at the moment who help us in brick moulding. The community also helped us in planting crops with the assistance of caregivers” added Chibwana.

Volunteers are helping in the construction of the three blocks that are part of the homestead and they have so far roofed one of the blocks and the other two are nearing completion.

One of the volunteers, Verengai Chipika told Tell Zimbabwe that he is pleased to work for the church as ‘God will be the one to pay for his sweat’. He indicated that he has moved from his home in Bushmead to stay at the centre for the security.

“We are happy to work at the house of God, to build this historic home. We started from the beginning and we will be with them till them till the end of the project, currently l am staying to help monitoring activities at the project” said Chipika.

Chibwana bemoaned the unavailability of resources to cater for the volunteers’ incentives as the number of volunteers continues to drop due to lack of motivation.

“We started the project with up to 12 volunteers but now we are only left with only three men and a woman who are helping at the site,” Chibwana said.local

…as Zanu PF recommends expulsion of Masvingo top party officials

Tell Reporters

The Zanu PF’s Masvingo Provincial Coordinating Committee (PCC) has on Sunday recommended the expulsion of party heavy weight Dzikamai Mavhaire, former Minister for Masvingo Provincial Affairs Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, former deputy minister of Health and Gutu South legislator Paul Chimedza, former provincial chairperson Rtd Gen Killian Gwanetsa and Rtd Colonel Cladius Makova among others over allegations that they were supporting former Vice President Joice Mujuru.

Shylet Uyoyo, Ellias Musakwa, former Chivi North legislator Tranos Huruva and his young brother Oliver are also on the expulsion list.

The PCC meeting also recommended the five-year suspension of Minister of Tourism Walter Mzembi, MPs Ephraim Gwanongodza, (Chivi Central) Tonagi Mzenda (Gutu North), Denford Masiya (Chiredzi East) and Darlington Chiwa (Chiredzi West).

The Acting provincial chairperson Paradzai Chakona confirmed the incident saying the recommendations were forwarded to the party’s national disciplinary committee.

   President Robert Mugabe

He said the decision was reached after the realization that all the people who were either expelled or suspended were working with former VP to unconstitutionally dislodge President Robert Mugabe.

“We just made recommendations and we are now waiting for our response from the higher offices,” said Chakona.local

Tell Reporter

Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs Shuvai Mahofa stunned thousands of people who braved  chilly weather to celebrate Independence Day in Mucheke stadium yesterday when she  struggled to read President Robert Mugabe’s speech fluently.

Mahofa  started by greeting the multitude in Shona before she went on to read the speech.

“Ndinoti kwamuri mangwanani mose…,” said Mahofa before reading the speech from President Mugabe.

A lot of people failed to closely follow her speech as most of the words were wrongly pronounced. The sentences were also disjointed.

” I failed to get the message and I had to go home to follow the proceedings on television. The PA system was bad and it was very difficult to follow what she (Mahofa) was saying,” said one of the interviewees.

 Shuvai Ben Mahofa reading President Mugabe’s speech in Mucheke Stadium

Others who also attended the event said Mahofa was only jubilant at the end when she was making slogans such as ‘Long Live Zimbabwe’.

People said Mahofa needs serious coaching when it comes to address people in English.

“She really needs coaching…she was really struggling and that distorted the message,” said another person.

Some said while Masvingo is not an intellectually challenged province, having produced  the country’s greatest political and liberation luminaries, Mugabe is however, in the habit of deliberately choosing the worst possible candidates who can hardly read his speeches fluently.Local

By TafadzwaKachiko

The one day exhibition show (The Business Open Day) hosted by the Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) yesterday gave its stakeholders a platform to market their brands as well as imparting necessary knowledge to clients.

Econet Wireless  brand ambassador in Masvingo Tinashe Zenda said the exhibition held under a theme “Come Partner With Us” has particularly enabled the company to exhibit its Ecoshool promotion to students

“At the moment more than 50 students have come to our stand and applied for the Ecoschool tablets. This day made possible by Great Zimbabwe University is a real prospect to sell our brand,” he said.

He also took time to explain how useful Ecoschool is to students stressing that it aims at assisting students in accessing literature which is of use in their studies.

The Acting Director of Information and Public Relations at the university Mr Anderson Tawanda Chipatiso said the show was a platform not only for companies to market themselves but served to give career guidance to students who will soon go out for attachment as well.

“This is not for companies only. As students are visiting various stands they are interacting with companies’ representatives and get exposed to the expectations of each company when they go out for attachment,” he said.

“They get to know where exactly should they be, doing what,” added Chipatiso.

GZU Vice Chancellor Prof Rungano Zvobgo

Linda Mapfaka one of the students who visited the stands said she benefited a lot especially when she visited stands for the Forest Commission and Nyaradzo Funeral Assurance Company since she learnt things that are essential in her studies.

“I have benefited a lot especially when I was told much about Nyaradzo’s project of planting trees. I strongly support their stance of preserving environment.”

Mapfaka is studying an Honours Degree in Geography and Environmental Science at the university.local

 Theresa Takafuma

Masvingo province has recorded a sharp decrease in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the last few months, causes to which are still being investigated by the National Aids Council (NAC).

According to statistics released by NAC for the last quarter of 2014, STIs in the province dropped by 16 percent, which was partly attributed to high male and female condom promotions.

In an interview, NAC provincial coordinator Evos Makoni said some of the statistics dropped ‘all of a sudden without giving specific interventions undertaken to reduce STIs’.

Makoni said NAC is doing a research to determine the causes of the sudden drop in STIs around the province.

“We are doing a client satisfaction survey, through which we will determine the real causes for the sudden drop in STIs in the province,” Makoni said.

“We are hoping that by Thursday next week we would be through and the results of the survey will be available on Friday onwards,” he said.

Makoni said it is difficult to measure the number of STI cases in relation to the area they are treated because people have a tendency of looking for treatment from clinics far away from where they are well known.

He said college students dominate this group of people who go to seek for treatment from other health centers which are not the college clinics.

“We experience high STI rates in Masvingo when students are in session but statistics from college clinics are very low. It becomes hard to determine where the STIs are most prevalent,” Makoni said.

Meanwhile, Chiredzi District has the highest number of STI cases, followed by Triangle, which Makoni said could be an indication of STIs’ tendency of following tarred roads.local

Tell Reporter

There is no joy for the Tokwe-Mkosi flood victims as Cholera outbreak has hit the Chingwizi where over 2500 villagers were resettled.

Although an exact number of cases was  not yet established, Tell Zimbabwe was informed that Sections D and E of the resettlement area have been hit by Cholera. Sources at the Chingwizi satellite clinic said two people tested positive on the 7th of April.

The victims were discharged after treatment. However, there are fears that the disease can spread since there are no ablution facilities in the area.local

By Itai Muzondo

Masvingo City councilors have instructed the town Clerk Adolf Gusha to inform all municipal officials to immediately resign from their political offices to avoid losing their jobs.

Debating the issue in the full council meeting recently, all the ten councilors unanimously agreed that there was need to follow the country’s constitution section 266 (3) which states that employees of provincial and metropolitan councils and local authorities must not be office-bearers of any political party.

 Ward five councilor Daniel Mberikunashe said it is the town clerk’s mandate to write to all employees that they cannot hold political positions and be council workers at the same time though the right to support a political party of their choice is reserved.

“We urge you to write to all council departments that they cannot hold political positions and be council employees at the same time though we do not necessarily mean that they cannot support their respective political parties,” said Mberikunashe.

Ward seven councilor Richard Musekiwa said councilors came to this decision as they saw the implications of not aligning to the constitution saying they were being given politically biased advice which then affected their operations.

Masvingo Town Clerk Adolf Gusha

 

“At first we never saw the importance of implementing such constitutional clauses but with the turn of events at Garikai ‘Chitima’ market, the implications have caught up with us. We reluctantly accepted pseudo advice which was influenced by political ambitions,” Musekiwa said.

Gusha neither denied nor accepted the constitutional clause but argued that he could not do the mandated job by councilors as it has not yet been put in an act of law.

“I cannot do that right away as you are basing your argument on the constitution. What you must also think about is that there is no law upon which I can implement that in Zimbabwe. The best I can promise is to give you feedback of how I can handle that after I make legal consultations,” said Gusha.

Councilors however, threatened to bring their own legal expert to clarify the issue if Gusha takes long to solve the problem.

“The only resolution we can come up with on this issue is that we give the Town Clerk time to make his consultations but if he delays, we will bring in our own legal expert to iron out the issue because there is no compromise on issues of the constitution,” said ward 4 councilor Godfrey Kurauone.

Tell Zimbabwe has been informed that the Chief Health Officer at the council Zvapano Munganasa is also the current Zanu PF provincial secretary for health. Munganasa who is in the Mnangagwa camp is also eyeing Gutu East constituency come 2018.

“The major problem is that instead of giving technical advice to councilors especially on the recent flea market problems, Munganasa was giving party factional advice. He was not able to challenge Zanu PF leadership because he is  also among them.

“The worst situation is when Munganasa acts as a class monitor in chambers making sure that all councilors from his party will not go against him,” said a source who refused to be named.

MDC-T councilors said even those who were holding positions in their party were supposed to make quick decisions on whether they want jobs or politics. Sources say most top council officials have positions at ward levels.

Meanwhile, the public demands that all civil servants must not hold political posts with the ministry of youth topping the most corrupted sector in Masvingo.

A lot of Zanu PF youth executive members are also doubling as youth officers for example losing candidate for ward nine Biggie Kwangwa is the party’s commissar in the ward and  officially works as a youth officer. Other civil servants Mucharevei Chamisa (nurse) who is provincial political commissar and John Chitoro (teacher) who is vice provincial youth chairperson were urged to relinquish their political posts.local