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Police officer assaults woman at quarantine centre, bites her finger

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Police officer assaults woman at quarantine centre, bites her finger

TellZim Reporter

A male police officer assigned to
Masvingo Teachers College quarantine centre allegedly punched a female inmate
and bit her finger after a misunderstanding over Covid-19 test results.

The incident happened on Saturday,
May 30, after inmates had complained over prolonged delays in the release of
their results.

Masvingo provincial police acting
spokesperson Assistant Inspector Kundakwashe Dhewa said he had not received a
complaint of that nature but promised to investigate.

The woman, who cannot be named
now to protect her identity as she eventually tested positive and got isolated,
sustained a severe injury on her right hand little finger but was not afforded
any medical treatment.  The police
officer was identified only as S. Mashonganyika.

The woman, refused to talk about the
incident when she was contacted for comment saying she feared further
victimisation.

Eyewitnesses, however, said the
woman was left shaken and afraid after the assault.

“There was so much tension on
that day and authorities were not providing the information that people sought.
Some people who had spent only eight days at the centre were released ahead of
those that had spent more than 21 days and nobody bothered to explain so the
woman got caught up in the scuffle. The officer punched her on the face and bit
her finger only to release her after other inmates restrained him,” said a
source.

Another source said there was
nobody to report the incident to since police officers, nurses and social workers
in charge of the facility were ‘rude and uncaring’.

 

 

 

 

Mutilated baby corpse found in garden

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Mutilated baby corpse found in garden

Brighton Chiseva

MASVINGO – Residents woke up to a shock today May 29 morning
when a dismembered corpse of an infant was found in a garden at a homestead in
Mharapara Street, Hillside residential area.

Masvingo Provincial acting police
spokesperson Assistant Inspector Kudakwashe Dhehwa confirmed the matter and said
the police were investigating.

“We appeal to members of the
public who may have information which can help us to investigate to come
forward. Anybody can get in touch with the officer in Charge Criminal
Investigation Department (CID) Detective Inspector Muchedzi on 0775535810 or
visit any nearest police station. You can also call or App the police on
0775996945,” said Dehwa.

Sources said the corpse was discovered
by Blessing Sabarauta in her garden with its left arm and both legs cut off.

The baby is suspected to have
been less than a month old but its sex could not be ascertained due to the
mutilation.

The mother of the child has not
been found and no report of a missing child had been made by the time of writing.

 

 

White farmer faces eviction in Mwenezi

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White farmer faces eviction in Mwenezi
Brad Field's sugarcane has been targetted by 'soldiers'

Cephas Shava

MWENEZI – A
fresh land seizure has happened in the Mpapa area of Mwenezi where four men who
claim to be soldiers on Monday, May 25, invaded a sugarcane plot which belongs
to one Ann Brad Field and declared themselves new owners of the property.

The
four men reportedly forced their way into the premises by hacking off the gate’s
lock and demanded that workers accord them unrestricted access to all
properties at the place.

The
leader of the group was identified only as Chikura who reportedly hails from
Harare.

Plot
supervisor Joram Muvhuzhi said the four men had visited the plot before and had
introduced themselves as soldiers.

“The
four men forcefully drove into the premises by cutting the gate’s locks saying
they were now the new owners of the place. They demanded access to all places
at the plot. As I tried to get hold of the police, I left the place and they
started preparing food for themselves. The owner of the plot was away when all
this happened,” Muvhuzhi told TellZim News by phone.

White
sugarcane plot holders in the area continue to face an uncertain future, with
many of them receiving threats of eviction over the past three years.

In
the run-up to the 2018 harmonised elections, some politicians made several
attempts to evict one white farmer from his plot.

Mpapa,
which fall under Mwenezi Rural District Council (RDC) Ward 13, is an area
situated between the borders of Triangle and Mwenezi districts.

It
has a total of 17 sugarcane farmers; 13 of them being Blacks while four are
whites. Each farmer has an average sugarcane plot measuring 35 hectares.   

 

 

  

14 quarantined Malawians repatriated after hunger strike

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14 quarantined Malawians repatriated after hunger strike

…as ambassador reacts to TellZim report

TellZim Reporter

A group of Malawians who recently
staged a three-day hunger strike to protest their prolonged detention at
Masvingo Teachers’ College quarantine centre were finally repatriated back to
their country after a long struggle.

TellZim reported on May 17 that
the 14 Malawi citizens, who included a pregnant woman, had staged the hunger
strike because processes to clear them and release them were taking too long.

They had been there for nine days
and they had argued that Zimbabwe had no authority to detain them as they were
in transit to Malawi from South Africa when they got detained.

Though some reports said the
immigrants had been intercepted by Zimbabwe security agents while illegally
travelling to South Africa, one of them told TellZim that they were in actual
fact travelling to their own home country when they got detained.

The TellZim report was picked by
the East African newspaper and also by NewZimbabwe.com, leading Malawi
ambassador to Zimbabwe Anne Kumwenda to work repatriation processes for the
immigrants.

Subsequently, a commuter minibus
was sent to Masvingo in the evening of May 22 to collect the 14 to Harare from
where they were put on a bus to Malawi.

 

Seven Gweru cops up for lockdown-related extortion

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Seven Gweru cops up for lockdown-related extortion

Tinaani
Nyabereka

Some police officers
stationed at Gweru Rural Police Base were recently arraigned before Midlands
Provincial Magistrate Tayengwa Sangster for abuse of office and were remanded
out of custody to June 18 on $1000 bail each.

They were charged for
criminal abuse of duty as defined in section 174(I) (a) (b) and for extortion
as defined in section 134 (I) (a) (b) of the Criminal Law Codification and
Reform Act Chapter 9.23.

Magumise Mugwagwa (42),
Goodhope Chitimbe (31), David Mandimutsira (35), Bruce Chikwanda (35) Freddy
Mahupete (35), Tonderai Gomana (39) and Joyful Magumise (32) were not asked to
plead.

The State’s Margaret
Mukucha says on April 25, the group hatched a plan to swindle Khumbulani
Ngwenya’s shop at Shimrock Mine in Lower Gweru.

Driving an unregistered
private Honda Fit, they accosted Khumbulani’s younger brother Tawanda for
selling beer without a licence.

They seized some
alcohol and loaded it into their car but Tawanda quickly informed his brother
Khumbulani who tried in vain to reason with Magumise whom he knew at personal
level, and he had to pay them $1000 for the stock to be released.

They however demanded fuel
for their car and he gave them 20 litres of diesel

On another day
Chikwanda, Magumise, Freddy Mahupete and Gomana conducted a raid at 5
Kitchenburg Farm Matobo Rd Gweru where they approached Alice Kwangari (a
shopkeeper) and told her they were investigating drug peddling at the property.

Kwangari tried to bar
them from getting into the property but they forced their way and ransacked the
place, threatening to arrest her after finding cases beer.

They ordered her to immediately
take stock of the beer and it amounted to $10 000, and in a bid to be spared
arrest, Kwangari agreed to pay $1000 and she informed the shop owner who later
came and managed to get the figure revised downwards to $500.

On another day
Chikwanda and Magumise approached Dumoluhle Ngwenya at Shimrock Mine and
threatened to arrest and confiscate his beer and that of surrounding shop
operators whom they accused of contravening Covid-19 lockdown regulations by
selling beer.

They ordered the
complainant to go around collecting $150 from each of the six shop owners and
they earned themselves $1050 in the process.

Dangamvura beekeepers eye ecotourism

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Dangamvura beekeepers eye ecotourism
Willet Mtisi showing off what she does best

Felix Matasva

MUTARE – Two Dangamvura-based
professional beekeepers have established a bee sanctuary on a deforested
mountain surrounding the western high density suburb as part of efforts to
rebuild biodiversity and establish ecotourism.

Ishmael
Sithole and Willet Mtisi established the sanctuary also as part of conservation
efforts for bees that look increasingly endangered by human activity.

Sithole,
who is also vice chair of Manicaland Apiculture Platform told TellZim News the
sanctuary exists to help bees flourish in face of many dangers that include
climate change, pollution and human intrusion into their natural habitat.

“There
was no proper place to rehabilitate bees. We are therefore offering removal
services meant to limit human and bee conflict in neighbourhoods. Bees no
longer have a safe habitat within mountains so they invade neighbourhoods for
some space on the trees.

“After
removing the bees, we rehabilitate them at this sanctuary where they have less
interaction with humans. The sanctuary is also promoting growth of various plant
and animal species thereby helping to prevent them from going extinct,” he
said.

Sithole
said that they had plans to turn the bee sanctuary in Dangamvura Mountain to a
hub of ecotourism.

“Some
people who live in Mutare have never seen a bee hive. We aim to change residents’
negative perceptions about bees. We want to turn this place into a hub of
ecotourism where people visit and interact with bees without any conflict.

“By
visiting our sanctuary, people will appreciate that when we take care of our
environment, it also takes care of us. The sanctuary is also ideal for
bee-keeping training leading to employment creation as honey is needed for
consumption, medicinal purposes and production of beverages,” Sithole said.

He
said they planned to reverse the massive deforestation and land degradation
happening in the mountain.

“We
have started to see results of the conservation efforts. We now have a number
of big acacia trees surrounding our apiary. We want to fence the whole
sanctuary, put signage so as to avoid trespassers and then put more hives.

It
was in 2011 when Mtisi started to practise beekeeping as a career after
Environmental Africa accorded her a training opportunity.

In
2016, she was part of a team which trained people in various districts under the
auspices of Environmental Management Agency (Ema).

Mtisi,
a Manicaland Agriculture Show Society board member, believes beekeeping is a
passion and she has registered a company called Climate Smart Bees.

“I
love this work but it’s unfortunate that many people consider it to be a
preserve for men. So many times I lost customers who thought a woman could not
offer removal services. I however thank Ema, Forestry Commission and MC Johnson
Apiaries for believing in my capabilities,” said Mutisi.

MC
Johnson Apiaries, which was registered by Sithole, and Climate Smart Bees also run
a workshop at Boka Shopping Complex where they produce honey, beehives,
smokers, bee wax candles and many other accessories needed by beekeepers.

With
over 20 000 species, bees play  a crucial
part in the ecosystem as they support the growth of trees​ and flowers which
serve as food and shelter for many creatures, and they are vital to food
security for people.

According
to World Wide Fund for Nature, 70 of the top 100 food crops worldwide rely on
pollinators like bees and without them, the world will lose such foods as
apples, almonds, oranges and avocados.

The
United Nations (UN) says close to 35 percent of invertebrate pollinators, particularly
bees and butterflies, and about 17 percent of vertebrate pollinators such as
bats are facing extinction globally.

 

 

 

Illegal settlers threaten Mushandike Irrigation Scheme

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Illegal settlers threaten Mushandike Irrigation Scheme


Brighton Chiseva

MASVINGO – Farmers at Mushandike Irrigation Scheme have told the
Deputy Minister of Agriculture Douglas Karoro that illegal settlers who
occupied their grazing lands were a threat to the resuscitation of the scheme.

Karoro visited the scheme on a ‘look
and learn’ tour as government plans to build a canal which will channel water
from Muzhwi Dam in Mashava to complement Mushandike Dam which is failing to
supply enough water.

The scheme’s chairperson Denhere
Bhusvumani said if no action is taken against the illegal settlers then the
plan will not succeed.

“We have our friends who occupied
our grazing lands. We should now be focusing on cattle to survive since we have
no adequate water for crop farming. If you do not remove them, even the canal
plan will be difficult to implement because some of them are settled along its
envisaged route.

“Before they came, we could let
our cattle enjoy free reign on the veld but we can no longer do that now
because of these people. We have to tend our cattle the whole day.

He said they were serious farmers
who required not food handouts but an enabling environment to thrive.

“Give us water and leave us, we
are not used to surviving on food handouts. We only need to be provided with water
and you need to address the issue illegal settlers. That’s all,” said
Bhusvumani.

Karoro assured the famers that
they were looking into the issue of illegal settlers as well as mapping a way
to construct the canal from Muzhwi Dam.

“We will deal with the illegal
settlement. From here we are going to sit and agree on the time frame to start
constructing the canal. All the relevant authorities will get copies so that
each one them gets to play their own role,” said Karoro.

The Minister of State for
Masvingo Provincial Affairs Ezra Chadzamira warned village heads not to sell
land and assured as they were not authorised to do so.

“You must report illegal settlers
in time because if government destroys their homes now, we would be accused of
all sorts of things. We now have to look at how best we can deal with the issue
for the benefit of all,” said Chadzamira

The irrigation scheme, which closed
down in August 2019 due to water shortages, is divided into 11 blocks with more
than 800 farmers.

Indications are that if a canal
from Muzhwi is constructed, it will supply water to an area three times bigger
than the current scheme.

 

 

 

Chiredzi grass project: RDC chair chased from meeting

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Chiredzi grass project: RDC chair chased from meeting


…villagers query July Moyo’s ‘questionable’ interest in project

Beatific
Gumbwanda

Chiredzi Rural District Council
(CRDC) chairperson, Edward Matsilele was recently chased away by enraged
Chilonga villagers after he visited their area for an audience with their
leaders over the envisaged multi-million dollar lucerne grass project which is
likely to displace more than 1 000 villagers from their traditional homes,
TellZim News can report.

Dendairy, a private milk producer
wants more than 10 000 hectares of arable land for the grass farming project in
the area which lies south of Runde River in Chiredzi East and South
constituencies.

Villagers are resisting
government plans to relocate them from the land of their forefathers, fearing
they might meet the same fate as of more than 3 000 fellow villagers displaced
in 2014 during construction of Tugwi-Mukosi Dam and dumped in the arid Chingwizi
with no basic amenities.

A few years ago, hundreds of families
were displaced to pave way for a bio-energy company Green Fuel to grow
sugarcane and set-up an ethanol plant in the Chisumbanje area of the
neighbouring Chipinge district

This week, Matsilele visited Chilonga
with a heavy accompaniment of State security agents in a bid to discuss a more
amicable way forward.

He however failed to address the
meeting as he was chased away from the meeting venue by furious villagers who
demanded to meet the District Development Co-ordinator (DDC) Lovemore Chisema.
Matsilele later told TellZim News
that he failed to convene the meeting as several villagers turned up for a
meeting he said was meant only for their leaders.

“I failed to convene the meeting
because there were too many people. I only wanted to meet village heads and
councillors only,” said Matsilele.

Ward Councillor Hardlife Tiisa
said villagers were unhappy with Matsilele whom they felt was biased against
their interests and was working to force them to accept the project.

“Villagers are very angry and
disappointed. They don’t even want to hear about this project and they complain
that they are being victimised on the basis of tribalism.

“There is abundant irrigable land in Chiredzi
so we wonder why risk a conflict with people by targeting the land where they
are settled,” said Tiisa.

Villagers say it surprises them
that the project was being pushed hardest not by the most relevant ministries;
Agriculture and Industry, but by July Moyo who is the Minister of Local
Government.

Moyo last month visited Chiredzi to
force village heads and councillors to welcome the project. The private media
journalists were ejected from the meeting which was held at council offices in
Chiredzi town.

Touch not Maboke, says Mwonzora

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Touch not Maboke, says Mwonzora


Upenyu Chaota

Masvingo Mayor Collen Maboke
should be allowed to do his job without any disturbances and any move to
suspend him is null and void, Douglas Mwonzora has said.
Mwonzora has wasted no time to
assert his authority since the Supreme Court judgement took the biggest
opposition movement back to its 2014 structures at least on paper.
The Supreme Court faulted the
late MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai for appointing two additional deputies;
Elias Mudzuri and Nelson Chamisa in 2016 saying the decision was
unconstitutional.
The court also ruled that Chamisa’s subsequent rise to the
position of MDC-T after the death of Tsvangirai in 2018 was unconstitutional
therefore invalid.
With Mwonzora supposedly now
running the party affairs, he has moved to reverse all decisions made by Nelson
Chamisa who has been declared an illegitimate leader of the MDC-T.
Chamisa had picked a fight with
mayor Maboke over his controversial ascendency to the position which was
against the party’s directive.
Chamisa had on numerous occasions
and platforms called on Maboke to resign or be recalled but Mwonzora this week
told TellZim News that Maboke remains the legitimate mayor of Masvingo.
“The issue of who is legitimate
and illegitimate has been addressed. 
Maboke is our legitimate mayor and he should be allowed to execute his
duties without any disturbances.
“Chamisa has no power to recall
or fire anyone because he is illegitimate. I am the secretary general and no
one will challenge the case of mayor Maboke. We have written to the Local Government
minister telling him that our mayors in Victoria Falls, Chegutu and Masvingo
should not be disturbed,” said Mwonzora.

MDC Masvingo 2014 structures reject reinstatement

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MDC Masvingo 2014 structures reject reinstatement
Douglas Mwonzora

… as province endorses Chamisa

… ‘Mwonzora has sold the
struggle’

Upenyu Chaota
The contentious Supreme Court
judgement, which took MDC-T back to its 2014 structures and nullified the
ascendancy of Nelson Chamisa to the presidency of the party after the death of
Morgan
Tsvangirai, has found no takers in Masvingo, with the 2014 structures pledging
support for Chamisa.

The Supreme Court judgement
recognised Thokozani Khupe as the true leader of the MDC-T which was a key
stakeholder in the electoral pact of the MDC Alliance heading into the 2018
harmonised polls.

Though Khupe broke away and contested
the 2018 elections with her own party, the Supreme Court made her the
legitimate leader of her former party and fissures have started to show at the
top echelons of the biggest opposition movement.

Douglas Mwonzora, the 2014
secretary general of the MDC has taken control of the driver’s seat stamping
his authority.

In Masvingo, the 2014 structures
which were led by provincial chairperson James Gumbi retained most positions
during the 2019 district and provincial congresses but were later on suspended
by Chamisa for allegedly failing to properly lead the province.

Mwonzora, however, this week told
TellZim News that the Gumbi executive was off the hook and was back in charge
of the province.

“Every decision made by Chamisa
has been nullified. All suspensions have been reversed and leaders are back to
their duties,” said Mwonzora.
Gumbi, however, told TellZim News
that they recognised only Chamisa as their leader; adding that they will not be
‘led astray by blind people’.

“Mwonzora should not drag us into
their trivial fights. We have one leader and we remain loyal to president
Chamisa. The executive which I led since 2014 is no longer existent that the
one that came in 2019 is currently on suspension on the orders of president
Chamisa and we will not be fooled into believing otherwise.

“We follow what president Chamisa
says and until he says we have been cleared we remain on suspension,” said
Gumbi.

He said Chamisa was their leader
and the whole country is pinning its hopes on him to lead them to the ‘promised
land’. Every struggle has one visionary. We had Morgan Tsvangirai and we walked
with him. God decided to take him from us and the vision was passed on to
Chamisa and he will lead us.

“If two people think that they
have a vision then there will be division. We should not betray our people by
engaging in petty fights.

“Khupe has her party and I do not
see why she wants to come back to ours. Mwonzora and his team have betrayed the
struggle. It is a shame,” said Gumbi.

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