CHIREDZI – Mozambican cops recently tipped off their Zimbabwean counterparts leading to the recovery of 16 head of cattle that had been rustled by criminals across the border.
The crime was exposed after a payment dispute emerged between the involved parties following the delivery of the stolen cattle.
Chiredzi magistrate Geraldine Mutsoto heard that Davison Matsilele (32), Ernest Malandela (24) and Shadreck Mahungo (58) stole 16 cattle belonging to Stembeni Manyonga of Plot 3 Mpapa in Triangle and drove them across the border for sell to Gabriel Fabio Jack of Guluzu in Mozambique.
Manyonga, however, reported her missing cattle at Triangle Police Station on January 4 and the police later received a tipoff that the beasts had been sold in Mozambique.
It was heard that Jack and Malandela appeared before Chicualacuala Magistrates Court in Mozambique on 4 January facing stock-theft charges and both suspects pleaded guilty but were released before judgment since the owner of the cattle was not yet known.
The complainant, with the assistance of Chikombedzi police, recovered her cattle from Mozambique.
Police also visited Chicualacuala Magistrates Court and got confirmation that Malandela and Jack had a case to answer pending the location of the complainant.
Triangle police later arrested Malandela in Chagaliwa village, Chikombedzi, while Matsilele, who was represented by Charles Vhudzi of Zimbodza and Associates, and Mahungo were arrested at Mpapa in Triangle.
The trio was remanded in custody waiting for The Chicualacuala Magistrates Court’s response to their case.
Gladmore Gwara prosecuted.local

ZAKA – Parents with children at Nhema Primary together with the School Development Committee (SDC) have fiercely come out against school head Georgina Mushauri whom they accuse of abusing school resources.
In a letter addressed to the District School Inspector (DSI) the SDC, among many other things, complain that the head was reaping off poor parents by adding an extra fee for those paying school fees using EcoCash.
The head is also accused of organising meetings without the SDC’s knowledge, tempering with financial records like receipt books and abusing stationary fees and other school finances, as well as diverting other school resources like garden produce to her own personal use.
 “We told you about our dissatisfaction about how we work with Mushauri, we hoped that you will call us to settle the matter but nothing happened  and we have seen it reasonable to come back to you because we failed to resolve the issue alone,” reads part of the letter.
When contacted for comment, Zaka DSI Beaula Shambambeva roughly referred all questions to the Provincial Education Director (PED) Zedius Chitiga.
“Whatever happens at that school is none of your business, I don’t report to you I report to the PED. If you want to hear anything go there,” said Shambambeva.
On his part, Chitiga said he was not aware of the matter, urging members of the public to report to his office if they feel that the district was failing to assist them.
“I’m hearing about that issue from you, maybe they will report. However if the parents feels that the district is failing to handle their complaints, they are free to come here,” said Chitiga.
TellZim News was informed that on schools closing day, Shambambeva visited the school and gave teachers a hard time accusing them of leaking information to the media.local

Elliot Jinjika

CHIVHU – A 32-year-old man from Dziva Village, Chief Nyoka, in Furtherstone, who was caught raping a 15-year-old speech-impaired girl in April 2017, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Knowledge Dziva appeared before magistrate Fadzai Mtombeni who convicted him after full trial.
The State, led by Nicholas Mabvongodze, had convinced the court that on April 14, 2017, Dziva visited the complainant’s homestead and shared some beer with the grandfather’s girl who is going blind and deaf due to old age.
Dziva took advantage of the old man, who was quickly getting drunk, and dragged the girl to the main house where he raped her on the sofa.
As he was abusing the girl, a villager identified as Blessing Makova, who had seen Dziva dragging the girl to the main house, alerted other villagers who came and apprehended the rapist.
The villagers, however, later set him free but only for him to be arrested on May 13 by one Constable Mafaindi who had received a tipoff.
Reasons as to why the villagers did not handover Dziva to the police after apprehending him were not clear but State witnesses revealed that the culprit was caught red-handed molesting the girl.local

Elliot Jinjika

CHIVHU – A Bulawayo-based Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) officer Zeck Ndyara, in the company of his colleagues, recently stormed a house where his ex-wife Melissa was cohabiting with another man demanding that she moves back with him.
Ndyara and Melissa had parted ways early this year over infidelity allegations but this did not go down well with the former who threatened to kill the latter’s boyfriend if she does not get back together with him.
Melissa was now living with another man in Chivhu and was shocked to see her former husband come to storm her house demanding to have her back.
“He threatened me after discovering that I was the one living with Melissa and vowed to kill me if I would want to block the move. He was in company of his two friends in uniform and looked to be drunk.
“We were planning to officialise our relationship though we lived together. I feared for my life that is why I had to let her go back to her former husband,” said Melissa’s boyfriend who preferred anonymity.
Sources indicated that the two had been married for two and half years before the divorce and no clue had been found on how the soldier knew the whereabouts of his ex-wife but only stormed at the house where Melissa and her boyfriend were staying.
Ndyara managed to take back Melissa and went to Bulawayo with her.local

Moses Ziyambi

It is not an exaggeration that most of us have come across the old Shona dictum ‘varume pasina vamwe’ in one social discourse or the other.
The axiom disparages those men who apparently have nothing or have very little to offer materially or otherwise, such that their worth is rarely, if ever, appreciated.  
This probably provides an apt explanation of the sickening and endless cases of extreme violence against women, violence perpetrated at home mainly by husband against wife.
Oftentimes, this violence – whether we call it domestic violence or gender-based violence (GBV) – is perpetrated for the most flimsy if not laughable reasons.
Recently, a woman from Gonese Village under Chief Serima in Gutu district, sustained severe injuries after her husband allegedly bashed her to a pulp. Reason: the man had spent the whole day away and when he came back in the evening, his wife offered him supper but he wanted his lunch first.
The man, identified as Albert Chikoto, wanted to be served the lunch which he had missed during the day before he could take his supper.
“The husband came home late and asked the wife for sadza, the wife gave him his supper. Zvikachinzi ko remasikati riri kupi mukadzi ndokuti ndanga ndaripa vana sezvo musina kudzoka masikati acho. Asi murume ndokuramba achiti ndinorida remasikati acho.
“Bva kana zvakadaro chiregai ndibike. Aiwa handidi kuti ubike ndinoda iroro remasikati sezvaranga riri. Mukadzi ndokuchitanga kubikwa nechitiripo uyezve netambo yemagetsi,” narrated Jonathan Gonese, the Gonese village head who rushed the victim to Chatsworth police and later to the clinic for treatment.
The woman, identified as Charity, was badly injured such that she could not walk and her body was severely bruised as a result of the savage assault but she is now back home, fully recovered and ‘ready to move on for the sake of the children’.
On August 21, the Gutu Magistrates Court sentenced Chikoto to three months hard labour after finding him guilty on charges of domestic violence or assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
This story is just but a tip of the iceberg, a drop in the ocean of many other cases that the courts are handling every day; stories that newspapers are almost finding to be no longer ‘that newsworthy’.
Entrepreneur and women empowerment activist, Angeline Mikiri is of the opinion that abused women are largely conscious of their circumstances, and would opt out if only they had the means to look after themselves.
“Sometimes, women have no choice but to just stay there because they do not have their own sources of income. A woman just hangs on there and this seems to be most pronounced in rural areas where incomes per capita are lower, making the presence of a man in a woman’s life all the more important,” said Mikiri.
“However, some women stay in those marriages simply to live up to the gendered roles expected of them by society. Kuti ndingonzi ndakaroorwa chero pasina rudo.
“Remember, our culture still attaches tags to women who leave their men; many stereotypes are involved for example being labelled morally lose. But if a woman is economically-empowered and has access to information, she knows better,” said Mikiri.
Local cleric and president of the Christian Voice International Zimbabwe (CVI-Z) Reverend Tapfumaneyi Zenda sees poverty as a double-edged sword that can cut to pieces a man’s compassion while, at the same time, severing a woman’s capability to escape violence.
“You have men who feel disempowered by the rough economy and they decide to take out their frustration on women just to prove a point; a mistaken point for that matter,” said Rev Zenda.
At the centre of this view is the idea that if a man feels that he has failed to live up to the normative role expectations associated with his gender – that of sufficiently providing for the family – his ego is dented and the inclination to commit violence against women becomes acute.
“It is in light of this that the need to campaign vigorously against such attitudes becomes an obligation for all sections of society including churches. I fancy a world where women like Charity are empowered so that their husbands do not treat them as charity cases with no choice,” said Rev Zenda.
Gender-based violence (GBV) is the general term used to capture violence that occurs as a result of the normative role expectations associated with each gender, along with the unequal power relationships between the two genders, within the context of a specific society. (Bloom 2008, p14).local