Itai Muzondo

GOKWE – A notorious Kwekwe burglar who terrorised business people at gunpoint over the past years was recently slapped with 23 years’ imprisonment after he was convicted on several counts of armed robbery.
The accused is part of a gang linked to a spate of armed robberies in Zhombe, Kwekwe and Silobela where they terrorised businesspeople, getting away with electrical gadgets and groceries.
Tafadzwa Magarisanwa (26) of House Number 1398/17, Mbizo, pleaded not guilty to all the 43 counts when he appeared before Gokwe regional magistrate Solomon Jenya.
Magarisanwa was convicted of 28 counts after nine were withdrawn by the State because witnesses had failed to come to testify. He was acquitted on six other charges after full trial.
On behalf of the State, Robert Ndlala said between the months of February and March 2015, the accused together with his accomplices who are still at large, terrorised shops mostly in Zhombe, Kwekwe and Silobela, robbing them of electrical gadgets and groceries.
“Magarisanwa and accomplices would produce a pistol and threaten to kill shop keepers whom they would force to hand over electrical gadgets and groceries.
“The robbers were targeting mostly shops in Zhombe, Kwekwe and Silobela where they robbed radios, digital video players and laptops,” Ndlala said.
He also told the court that the accused was caught after he stole property at a school where he was performing community service for a different offence.local

Clever Taperamoyo

The Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (Viset) has condemned recent utterances by President Robert Mugabe to the effect that vendors should be cleared off the streets.
Addressing members of the Zanu PF youth league national assembly from all the 10 provinces of the country at the party’s headquarters in Harare on October 7, President Mugabe spoke against the deplorable state of the capital and said government must move with speed to move vendors off undesignated selling points.
The statements almost immediately saw vendors being driven off the streets of many towns by a combination of municipal and riot police.
In response, Viset described the move as irrational and inhuman, arguing that it ran contrary to the national constitutional objective which obliges the State and all its agencies to promote private initiatives of self-reliance.
This also comes as Mugabe has failed to create the 2.2 million jobs he promised in the run-up to the 2013 elections.
“We are in the streets not because we want but your administration’s Machiavellian macro-economic policies have brought us to this stage.
“The right to human dignity, right to food and right to life cannot be realised if people are denied opportunities to earn livelihoods,” Viset said in a statement.
Viset also challenged City of Harare to take full responsibility for its failure to provide adequate designated sites for vendors.
The organisation said the forceful eviction of informal traders will not solve the current vending morass for as long as the evictions are not met with equal provision of proper sites for informal traders to do their work.
The move to drive vendors off the streets was also condemned by other organisations like the National Vendors Union Zimbabwe (Navuz).local

Gen Chiwenga takes part in the ground-breaking ceremony at a site designated for the new hospital close to Makhanani Pri Sch

Beatific Gumbwanda

CHIREDZI – Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) Commander General Constantino Chiwenga has warned that the country will never be governed by ‘traitors’ for as long as the liberation war generation is still alive.
Gen Chiwenga was speaking in the Gezani communal area where he paid tribute to the late Headman Gezani, Amos Chauke who died on May 5 2017 and his father Dumela Dumezulu, who died in 1992.
He credited the two traditional leaders for their valiant exploits during the liberation struggle, a period when he himself reportedly operated in the area.
In honour of them, ZDF will construct a hospital, repair defunct boreholes and renovate Gezani Primary School which suffered extensive damage caused by Cyclone Dineo.
Addressing members of the community at Makhanani Primary School last week Gen Chiwenga narrated the bitter version of his wartime history and the subsequent bond that developed between him and the Gezani family.
He said many people lost their lives while liberating Zimbabwe from White colonialists during the First and Second Chimurenga.
“We have to remember where we came from and where we are going. Liberation of Zimbabwe came at a cost of many Black lives who fought bravely during the First and Second Chimurenga wars.
“Zimbabwe ndeyechipikirwa yatinofana kuramba takachengetedza tese. Many people perished during Chimurenga. There are many bereaved families who still don’t know where their relatives perished and that only gives us strength to jealously guard our nation from being taken over by traitors or White colonialists again,” said Gen Chiwenga.
He told the gathering that he had come to fulfil his war time pledge to the Gezani family and community by giving thanks for the protection they gave him during the struggle, starting in 1976.
“We will not forget the good works that you did and that is why we came back. We have to do something tangible for the community as part of our condolences for the losses of the Gezani family,” Gen Chiwenga said.
It was not clear who Gen Chiwenga was referring to by the word ‘traitors’ but in mainstream Zanu PF discourse, the term is used to disparage the opposition, especially the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Morgan Tsvangirai.local

MASVINGO – The office of the Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs at Benjamin Burombo building, which had been moved from the second floor to the ground floor to accommodate the late Shuvai Mahofa who could not walk up the stairs, is being moved back up following the appointment of Dr Paul Chimedza as the new minister.
Upon being appointed minister in 2015 to take over from Kudakwashe Bhasikiti who had been fired the previous year during the ‘Gamatox’ purges, it was arranged that space be created at the ground floor for her.
This, however, squeezed the provincial medical department which had to share its little space with the new minister but now, it is back to the original office again where the new minister will enjoy a grander working space.
Sources close to the developments said it had been a hectic week at the office as employees restlessly prepared for the move back to the top.local