CHIREDZI – The Lowveld Youth Development Services Association (LYDSA) last week rejected the Chiredzi’s 2017 draft budget at a consultative budget meeting held in Tshovani saying the draft does not create new revenue streams for the town.
Aleck Macharaga, the youth organisation’s chairman for Chiredzi ward 4, said the budget lacks provisions for projects that will bring new revenue to the council.
He said authorities must have explored other avenues of earning new revenue rather than rely solely on residents’ water bills.
“Council should consider other possible ways that can bring revenue to Chiredzi for instance the Chitsanga Hall where people used to come and pay to watch movies every Thursdays. We also have swimming pools that need renovations for them to attract paying swimmers,” Macharaga.
Another member of the LYDSA, Lloyd Simango also criticised the budget saying it does not provide for infrastructural upgrades and renovations.
“Let’s not rely on water revenue alone because, after all, proposed improvements of the Magwaza water systems in previous budgets have yielded nothing. Council has been budgeting for that project for a long time now but no change has been made. We are tired of empty promises,” said Simango.
Other young people who attended the meeting also criticised council plans to lease Chigarapasi beer hall saying the move would deprive the town of an important revenue source and worsen service delivery.
“Council should renovate Chigarapasi beer hall so that it regains its status as a thriving business that make money and pay the salaries of workers. We must follow the contemporary trends and install new technologies there; people no longer want to watch a soccer match on a small screen,” said one attendant.news

Brighton Chiseva

ZAKA – Jonah Mugarajira Mushaya, who is Headman Mushaya, has attacked the apostolic sects known as Madzibaba for their practice of tying red and white cloths to trees, which he claimed offended members of other church denominations as well as non-believers.
Speaking at the burial of Muringidzi Hurudza in Chivhuru village, the headman demanded that the practice immediately stop saying if it is part of worshipping, those who practice it must then do it at their places of worship and not everywhere along the roads.
“Kana chiri icho chitendero chenyu itirai pamba penyu kwete panzira kana pane dzimwe nzvimbo dzeruzhinji (if it is your belief, do it at your own places and not everywhere),” said Mushaya
He rebuked the ‘kushandirwa’ practice which sometimes involves the dumping of broken pieces of clay pots at junctions as barbaric and said it was not welcome in his area.
“Zvekunyora mazita evanhu pachipepa mosunga netambo tsvuku mokanda muhari motsveta munzira handidi kana kuzvinzwa.
“I will send my advisors to investigate and if you are found, you must know that you will pay a heavy fine for it,” warned the chief.
Mushaya also said all people in his area should build toilets at their homes and declared that open defecation was punishable in his area.
He urged his people to move with time and stop using bush toilets so as to preserve their health and said he was giving those without toilets a short period to build before he starts punishing those without toilets at their homesteads.
Recently, Chief Marozva of Bikita threatened to impose a fine in the form of a goat on every homestead that does not have a proper toilet.news

City of Masvingo has erected solar-powered traffic lights at the intersection of Robert Mugabe Road and Leopold Takawira Street in the CBD.
The intersection is one of the busiest in town and has seen a number of fatal accidents over the years.
Residents were pleased by the prospect of safer passage through the intersection with lower chances of getting involved in accidents.
“The place was a black sport. Motorists were prone to accidents at that place. Last Saturday evening, two cars collided at that spot and it was fortunate that nobody got hurt,” said one taxi driver.
Other motorists urged council to erect more traffic lights in the city saying there are other dangerous intersections that cannot be ignored any longer.
“The intersection of Robert Mugabe and Simon Muzenda close to Puzzey and Payne is quite dangerous. Let’s have traffic lights there,” said one motorist.news

CHIREDZI – The Chiredzi Town Council is planning to lease Chigarapasi beer hall, a move which has divided opinion within the local authority as others stand opposed to the idea on the grounds that they consider the beer hall one of the most significant revenue earner for the town council.
Samuel Mashonganyika, the town council’s financial committee chairperson and ward 7 councillor, confirmed the move during a recent full council meeting saying running the beer hall was no longer sustainable.
Chigarapasi is one of the biggest council beer halls in the country but is understood to be making vast losses and authorities are now eager to dispose of its interests in the business.
“We are making losses so we feel we should put the bar on rental rather than for us to keep operating it. We would be wasting money.
“Some council beer halls are now crèches and some are lying idle. For long, we have been putting money into the beer hall but at the end, we fail to pay the staff,” said Mashonganyika.
Chigarapasi operates 24 hours a day and is an entertainment hub for low income earners in Chiredzi; where many workers of the town’s sugar plantations converge for drinks.
Another ward councillor, Blessings Mazinyane was however not pleased by the new plans saying council should look for creative ways of sustaining the beer hall without disposing it.
“It is better for us to take a closer look and find where we are losing control resulting in the losses. Let’s try by all means to see how we can improve our management for we are the leaders of the day and make sure we put an extra effort to make the business viable,” said Mazinyani.
“So many activities are done at the place and people are making a living out of it. It’s better we try and manage the finances better,” he added.news

Itai Muzondo

MASVINGO – The late Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF) provincial spokesperson, Retired Colonel Kudzai Mbudzi received a decent send off at his Charumbira rural home on Tuesday this week.
Col Mbudzi passed away on Sunday at West End clinic in Harare after a short illness.
He was 55.
His brother, Cephas Mbudzi described Mbudzi as a fearless figure who worked to foster development.
“Mbudzi was half what his father was; a fearless man. He castigated top officials openly, not for his own gain but for the betterment of the nation as a whole. Sometimes I feared for him for his outspokeness but at the end of the day, he would laugh at me and say I should not be worried.
“Mbudzi’s calibre is the kind of honest needed in this country. I admired him though I even feared for him. He lived with his wives and six children,” his brother said.
Fellow ZimPF members who attended the funeral also described Mbudzi as a development-oriented man who stood for the truth.
“I almost stroked when I heard of Mbudzi’s death. He will however be remembered for his boldness. Mbudzi was a fearless man whom I wanted to have in all my meetings. He only stood for the truth and I assure you that people like Mbudzi are hard to come by in life,” said ZimPF President Joyce Mujuru.
ZimPF spokesperson, Jelousy Mawarire also had glittering words for the respected former member of the national army.
“We suffered a loss as a party. Mbudzi was an icon who was able to unite everyone for one cause. He was also one of the most experienced political cadre we had in the party. Mbudzi’s death is huge loss for ZimPF and the nation at large”.
Some MDC-T officials also attended the funeral and said the nation needs people who are focused on development like the late Col Mbudzi.
“Mbudzi was a no-nonsense man. He was my uncle and I am speaking from my observation through the days we spent together. If he felt people were no longer focusing on development, he would simply stop working with them.
“I am however disappointed by the fact that people who worked with my uncle for a long time, the army, are not here in their numbers to give him their last respects,” said one MDC-T official, Tichaona Chiminya.

MASVINGO – The late Francis Zimuto, popularly known as Black Jesus – the war veterans leader famed for his one man march from Masvingo to Harare to press for British financial support for the country’s Land Reform Programme, has been described as a hard worker.
Zimuto died in the early morning hours of Tuesday, October 18 2016, at his mother’s rural homestead in Mugoni, Gutu district.
Though no cause of his death had been officially ascertained by the time of going to print, Zanu-PF provincial chairperson, Amasa Nhenjana said Zimuto had been having problems with his health for some time.
“Cde Zimuto had been unwell for some time and it is tragic that he has left us so early. We had expected him to live and continue working for the party and the country,” said Nhenjana.
He described the late radical war veteran as a dedicated party cadre.
“We are really saddened by the loss we have suffered. We have made submissions to the relevant structures to see if he can be declared a hero and we are awaiting the decision,” Nhenjana said.
Provincial war veterans leader, Tendeukai Chinooneka said he was devastated by Zimuto’s death.
“It is very sad indeed; Cde Black Jesus was a hard worker who had the interests of the party and country at heart. He will be greatly missed,” Chinooneka said.
Zimuto staged the one man march to Harare and carried a cross to the British Embassy, demanding to be crucified unless Britain agrees to bankroll the country’s agrarian reforms.
After his petition to Queen Elizabeth had been met with derision by Whitehall bureaucracy, Zimuto single-handedly invaded a white commercial farm close to the intersection of Gutu – Chiredzi and Masvingo – Mutare highways in 2000, helping to trigger the Land Reform programme.
He went to Zambia to join the war as a young boy in 1973 and later became a member of the ZIPRA command.
Alongside the late Chenjerai Hunzvi and current Buhera South legislator Joseph Chinotimba, he vigourously campaigned for Zanu-PF in the 2000 parliamentary elections and other successive elections.
Zimuto had lately become fiercely critical of First Lady Grace Mugabe, telling her she was just a “young girl”, whose behaviour was “unmotherly” and in sharp contrast to her predecessor, the late Sally.news