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Minister Mthuli Ncube vouches for Chinese vaccine

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Minister Mthuli Ncube vouches for Chinese vaccine

 Veeslee Mhepo

While the government is at pains to
explain the efficacy and effectiveness of the Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac
Covid-19 vaccines, the minister of Finance and Economic Development Mthuli Ncube
has joined a band wagon of government officials in trying to convince the
nation to get vaccinated.

Speaking at the Chombwe pfumvudza
demonstration field day programme on Saturday in Chivi, Ncube said the Covid-19
vaccines were very safe saying he actually got his second dose of the vaccine
and was still lucid.

Though Ncube could not disclose which
jab he took, he said Zimbabweans should embrace vaccination to save themselves
from Covid-19.

“Covid-19 is real and it kills. We are
lucky as a country that we have begun a vaccination rollout programme and it is
my plea to the nation that you get vaccinated.

“The vaccines we are getting from China
are very safe and people should take them without any hesitation.

“I have actually taken my second dose
of the vaccine and I am feeling ok. We have to get our people vaccinated,” said
Ncube.

He dismissed speculations and
misinformation surrounding the Chinese vaccine saying the government would
never expose its people to risk and danger by passing an unverified product.

“There has been a lot of negative
information on the vaccine from different social  media platforms and its time people understand
that we can never do anything unprofessional to risk people’s lives, the
vaccine is safe and I assure 
everyone  that it is the only way
to fight this pandemic,’’ said Ncube.

He said Zimbabwe would be receiving
about a million doses of Covid-19 vaccines monthly to ensure that a huge
population gets vaccinated.

Speaking at the same event, Minister of
State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs and Devolution Ezra Chadzamira said
Masvingo expects to receive another consignment of Covid-19 vaccines after
using up the first batch of 22 000 which was enough to vaccinate 11 000 people.

Quorum headache at Masvingo City Council

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Quorum headache at Masvingo City Council

 …audit committee suspended

Upenyu Chaota

The axe
wielded by MDC-T president Douglas Mwonzora claiming the scalp of four City of
Masvingo councillors has affected operations at the local authority with
council struggling to constitute standing committees resulting in the
suspension of the audit committee.

Mwonzora
expelled Tarusenga Vhembo, Godfrey Kurauone, Daniel Mberikunashe and Richard
Musekiwa as councillors for Wards 3, 4, 5 and 7 respectively among many others
across the country.

Special
council meeting minutes of January 14, 2021 said that the recall of the four
councillors has left standing committees without enough members to constitute
membership and quorums.

Following
the recalls, all the committees with the exception of Health, Housing and Environmental
Services Committee remained with two members instead of three as prescribed by
the Urban Councils Act.

Section
96 (9) of the Urban Councils Act reads ‘…a standing committee shall consist of
such number of members being not less than three as the council may determine.’

Traditionally,
City of Masvingo committees had a membership of four in all committees with a
quorum of three.

“Having
remained with six councillors including the Mayor and deputy Mayor, it was
impossible to maintain the current committees with four members and a quorum of
three.

“In
light of the reduced number of councillors, it was suggested and agreed that
the membership of the committees be reduced to three with a quorum of two
councillors,” reads the minutes.

Masvingo
is now left with six councillors out of the ten voted for in the 2018
harmonised elections.

City of
Masvingo has five standing committees namely Health, Housing and Environmental
Services committee, Public Works and Planning committee, Human Resources and
Gender committee, Finance and General Purposes committee and the Audit
committee.

After
the reconstitution of the standing committees, the Health, Housing and
Environmental Services committee will remain with Ward 1 councillor Alderman
Sellina Maridza, Ward 9 councillor Babylon Beta and Ward 8 councillor Against
Chiteme.

The
Public Works and Planning committee will see cllr Maridza joining Ward 10
councillor Sengerayi Manyanga and Ward 6 councillor and deputy mayor Wellington
Mawende.

“It was
suggested and agreed that council maintains the tradition in which the Finance
and General Purposes committee would consist of chairmen of other committees
excluding the chairman of the Audit committee.

“The
membership of the Finance and General Purposes committee will consist of councillor
Beta as the chairperson, councillor Maridza and two members elected to chair
the Public Works and Planning committee and Health, Housing and Environmental
Services committee,” reads the minutes.

Councillors
Maridza, Manyanga and Chiteme will chair the Human Resources and Gender
committee.

After
the recall of the four councillors, there were no adequate councillors to
constitute the audit committee and council agreed to suspend its operations and
engage with the minister of Local government on the way forward.

“In
terms of Section 97 (2) of the Urban Councils Act Chapter 29.15, the mayor,
deputy mayor and chairpersons of every committee of council shall not be a
member of the audit committee.

“After
the recall of the four councillors, there were no adequate councillors to
constitute the Audit committee. It was suggested and agreed to suspend
operations of the Audit committee in the meantime whilst the Acting Town Clerk
(Edward Mukaratirwa) would engage the minister of Local Government and Public
Works on the same.

“In the
interim period, the Chief Internal Auditor would report to the Acting Town
Clerk who will in turn report to council where necessary,” reads the minutes.

Masvingo
is faced with a myriad of service delivery problems with residents up in arms
with the local authority over the recent 500 percent rates hike which the
council says will improve services.

Chadzamira lobbies Govt for more dams, irrigation schemes

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Chadzamira lobbies Govt for more dams, irrigation schemes
Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Ezra Chadzamira in long sleeve shirt

Blessed Chauke

The Minister of
State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Ezra Chadzamira has
applauded government for the many agricultural projects planned for the
province, saying the province was ready to make a bigger contribution to the
success of the National Development Strategy through farming.

Speaking at the
Chombwe Water Scheme in Chivi North on April 10, Chadzamira said the province
needed to be supported with more water projects and irrigation schemes.

“We are pleased
that government will soon fund construction of the Muzhwi-Mushandike Canal to
harvest water from Muzhwi for farmers in Mashava, Chivi and Mushandike. There
will be other irrigation schemes in such districts as Bikita which will harness
water from Mutirikwi,” said Chadzamira.

He also said
government had agreed to fund construction of another dam at the confluence of
Runde and Tende Rivers in the district, a project he said would enable Zimbabwe
to export water to South Africa.

He thanked
President Emmerson Mnangagwa for initiating the pfumvudza programme which he
said had enabled perennially dry districts as Chivi to increase their crop
yields this year.

He said
government had many irrigation projects in the pipeline, all of which are aimed
at making Masvingo a green belt of agriculture.

Speaking at the
same event, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mthuli Ncube said
Masvingo was potentially a very rich province whose natural resources needed to
be developed.

“Masvingo
province has a lot of wealth; your roads, your tourism facilities, the
agricultural land. You can see the whole of Zimbabwe from Masvingo alone. You
have a lot of water bodies but we need to build more irrigation schemes so that
the water can be put to work.

“So you are a
very rich province but we want to make sure that we support you as central
government so that you make your rightful contribution onto the size of the
national cake; the national GDP,” said Ncube.

Chivi Rural District
Council (RDC) chairperson Godfrey Mukungunugwa said people in the district had
benefitted a lot from the pfumvudza programme.

“People in this
area have for long been harvesting poor yields but with
pfumvudza, they now expect a bumper harvest this year. Even if they receive low
rainfall, it will no longer be much of a problem since they can now be
supported by the Chombwe Irrigation Scheme,” said Mukungunugwa.

Mutare owed $400 million by residents

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Mutare owed $400 million by residents

 



…
‘debt a setback for optimum service delivery’

Perpetua
Murungweni

City of Mutare has
attributed the deterioration of service delivery to unpaid debts which have
ballooned to $400 million.

TellZim organized a
feedback and engagement meeting between city officials and residents yesterday,
April 09, and it was heard that residents owed council enormous amounts of
money.

Speaking at the event,
Mutare Mayor Blessing Tandi said the situation was a setback which militated
against efforts to provide optimum services to all residents.

He said the local
authority failed to provide adequate services because residents were failing to
pay their bills in full and in time.

“The council is failing
to provide adequate services because the residents are failing to pay their
bills and they owe us up to $400 million. Residents should assist council to do
its job by paying their bills in order to get better services,” said Tandi.

He said the debt was
the reason why the city did not have a grader and other road-making equipment,
and was also the reason why the city could not maintain sweet lights and could
not pump water to Dangamvura.

The mayor also revealed
that the recent rate hike was necessitated by the need to improve revenue, and
not to make profit as local authorities are nonprofit-making organizations that
survive on what residents pay to it for services.

“The hike in rates is
because the council is trying to raise money to improve service delivery and
not to make a profit from the residents. Council survives solely on money paid
by the residents,” said Tandi.

He said council could
barely afford to maintain infrastructure such as roads, sewerage, and water
pipes that often burst across the city.

“As council, we are
failing to maintain the roads, sewerage and the some pipes that burst. As
things stand, we also do not have adequate capacity to provide all the water
that is needed in such residential areas as Dangamvura,” said Tandi.

Some residents,
however, said council should not continue making life harder for residents, but
should rather find ways to force Zinara to fund the maintenance of some council
roads as it was making enormous amounts of money at the tollgates and in vehicle
licensing fees.

Gutu in 10 day Covid-19 vaccination campaign

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Gutu in 10 day Covid-19 vaccination campaign

Clayton
Shereni

Health authorities in Gutu have
intensified the Covid-19 vaccination campaign in the district where frontline
workers are being urged to take the Chinese Sinopharm jab amidst resistance and
a low uptake across the country.

The programme which started on March 29,
in an effort to improve the uptake of the vaccine, has seen over 200 people get
their first jabs on the second phase of the vaccination programme.

Gutu District Medical Officer (DMO),
Doctor Brian Takayidza, told TellZim News that the campaign was on course and teams
were being dispatched to different schools and vaccination centers.

“For the second round so far we have
managed to vaccinate 263 people, but for the first round I don’t have the exact
figure. What I am sure of is that we achieved 89 percent of the targeted
frontline workers.

“We have two teams which are moving
around clinics and in schools helping out with the vaccination process on a
daily basis,” said Dr Takayidza.

Dr Takayidza bemoaned the low uptake of
the vaccination saying the campaign was likely to be extended so as to reach
other remote areas.

“Our campaign hasn’t been that much of
a success because we were affected by the Easter holiday. However, we stand
guided by the provincial authorities on whether we extend the 10 day campaign
or not but it is most likely that it is going to be extended.

“We are also working with Community
Based Health Workers (CBHW) and they have been capacitated so they will be
helping on mobilization,” said Takayidza.

Masvingo province received a total of
22 000 doses of the first batch of Sinopharm vaccine which was distributed
among the seven districts for the vaccination of frontline workers.

So far, at least 3 600 frontline
workers have been vaccinated out of 6 000 leaving a deficit of over 2 000 of
the targeted 6 000 in the province.

Buhera councillor raises flag after 13-year-old drowns in Dewure River

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Buhera councillor raises flag after 13-year-old drowns in Dewure River

 Believe Mpofu

Buhera
South Ward 33 councillor Success Nkomo has called on
parents to closely monitor their children to avoid tragedies like the death of
a 13-year-old boy who drowned while swimming in Dewure River on Tuesday, April
6.

Jefter
Mufundirwa from Gwangwa Village in Birchenough drowned while swimming alone at
around 1600 hours.

Councillor
Nkomo said parents were to blame for neglecting their children which has
resulted in the loss of life.

“I
am pleading with parents to look after their children. We lost a lot of
children in these rivers and we have to put a stop to it.

“We
cannot cry the loudest at funerals and blame God on things which we should do
as parents. Children should be monitored at all times,” said Nkomo.

Several
drowning cases have been reported in Manicaland and the police have been on
record calling on citizens to be alert of possible dangers at all times.

The
body of Mufundirwa is yet to be recovered and the Sub Aqua time has since been
called to do the search.

Covid-19 exposes inequalities between countries: WHO

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Covid-19 exposes inequalities between countries: WHO

 Theresa Takafuma

The
Covid-19 pandemic has shone a light on inequalities between countries as
African states have been pushed to the back of the queue in accessing test
kits, personal protective equipment (PPEs) and now vaccines, World Health
Organization (WHO) has said.

In a
statement commemorating World Health Day on April 7, WHO Regional Director for
Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti said only 2 percent of the 548 million Covid-19
vaccines administered worldwide have been in Africa which however accounts for
nearly a fifth of the global population.

“Only
11 million or 2 percent (vaccines) have been in Africa, whereas the continent
accounts for around 17 percent of the global population.

“There
are also inequities within countries; discrimination based on gender, place of
residence, income, educational level, age, ethnicity and disability intersect
to disadvantage vulnerable populations,” said Dr Moeti.

She
said the prominent challenge in addressing the inequalities stem from the
unavailability of data regarding citizens, therefore creating a gap between
nations and communities in Covid-19 response.

“A key
challenge in addressing inequities is that there is limited data showing who is
being missed and why, and to address this, national health information systems
need to capture age, sex and equity stratified data, information that can then
be used to inform decision and policy making,” said Dr Moeti.

She
said WHO was working with countries to strengthen capacities to collect, manage
and use data, and to enhance monitoring and action to address inequities.

She
urged WHO member states, partners, civil society, communities and other
stakeholders to intensify work with the organization to achieve universal
health coverage and to invest in addressing the social and economic
determinants of health, to tackle inequities and build a fairer, healthier
world.

Embrace entrepreneurship, Midlands youths urged

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Embrace entrepreneurship, Midlands youths urged

 Ian Kadziya

GWERU-
Women of Africa (WoA) has urged youths in the Midlands province to venture into
entrepreneurship and start business in order to make a living and curb
unemployment.

Speaking
to youths during a Youth Empowerment workshop in Gweru recently, WoA intern
programs officer, McAurthur Mkwapatira, said it was important for youth to
engage in idea sharing as efforts to curb poverty.

“About
90 percent of youths in Zimbabwe are not employed if we exclude side hustles.
So looking at this figure, there is need to be innovative for us to do away with
poverty, create jobs and sustain ourselves as young people.

“We
want youth’s businesses to grow all over Midlands province and our next port of
call is to expand our wings to other provinces,” said Mkwapatira.

Ministry
of Small to Medium Enterprise provincial officer, Tsitsidzashe Shumba, said it
was important for youth to join businesses but it was important to equip them
with proper planning and management skills.

“We
decided to assist the youths on how to become entrepreneurs, how to manage businesses
and to be goal oriented.

“The
idea behind this training is to curb high unemployment rates as a way of
creating job opportunities for every youth in Zimbabwe. To everyone who have
big or small business idea, don’t be shy to come to the ministry as our doors
are open for help.

“Never
compromise on goods or quality service when operating a business, also use your
time wisely because time is never enough,” said Shumba.    

Gweru visually impaired youth donates clothes, foodstuffs to children’s home

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Gweru visually impaired youth donates clothes, foodstuffs to children’s home
Jim Arshar, (in grey t shirt) , J .H Properties Sales and marketing  Precious Muzadzi ( In black) pose for a photo with Midlands Children of Hope Centre ,Children

Tinaani
Nyabereka

It was a dream come true for Jim Arshar, a Gweru based youth,
who demonstrated that disability was not inability as he went on and donated three
bags of clothes to Midlands Children Hope Center in Gweru a fortnight ago.

The donation which was done in a collaborated effort with
Just Homes (J.H) Properties, a local property developer, also comprised of
foodstuffs.

Arshar, who became visually impaired in 2017 after suffering
from an (undisclosed) eye ailment, said disability was not inability and
disabled persons have to fight to get their place in the society.

He said the society still stigmatizes and discriminates
against persons with disability and remains difficult for them to break even.

“This is my first initial donation and am very happy because
it has been my dream to reach out to vulnerable children.

“It was always my desire to make my community a better place
for vulnerable members of our society.

“I would like express my sincere gratitude to our partners
Just Homes Properties, my family and friends who have made this donation a
success,” said Arshar.

Just Homes (J.H) Properties sales and marketing officer Precious
Muzadzi said they were humbled by Arshar’s commitment to help other vulnerable
members of the society.

“Arshar has shown that being disabled is not inability. He
has moved from being dependent on others and taken it upon himself to be better
and improve himself.

“He has taken it upon himself to help others despite his
condition. We have decided to join him in his quest because his idea was very
noble,” said Muzadzi.

The children’s home currently houses 18 inmates.

Zinwa, Mushandike farmers repair broken canal

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Zinwa, Mushandike farmers repair broken canal

 

File picture

Veeslee Mhepo

Zimbabwe National Water Authority
(Zinwa) and Mushandike farmers have joined hands to repair the canal at
Mushandike Irrigation Scheme which has been broken for three years.

Zinwa communications officer Marjorie
Munyonga said they were on their feet fixing the broken canal with the help of farmers
and dismissed allegations that they were forcing famers to work on the canal.

She said they were fixing the canal in
order to meet the farmers’ target for winter wheat planting on April 25.

“We are working together with the
farmers to meet the wheat planting target and we are almost halfway and we hope
to complete it in time as we promised since the resources are there,” said
Munyonga.

Mushandike Irrigation Scheme
chairperson Enere Butsumani said famers were happy with the work Zinwa was
doing and expressed optimism that work would be completed in time for planting.

He said farmers pledged to work together
with Zinwa to speed up the process so that they meet winter wheat planting
deadline.

“We are happy that the repairs on the
canal have started and we are helping Zinwa with labour because we want the
irrigation scheme to be up and running.

“A lot of livelihoods depend on the
success of this irrigation scheme so as farmers we agreed that we would provide
the resources at our disposal to make it work. Winter wheat planting season is
upon us and we are working against the clock,” said Butsumani.

The canal draws water from Mushandike
Dam.

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