.  Negligent nurses, demotivated doctors blamed for high infant mortality rate

Moses Ziyambi  

There is an outcry over allegations of worsening conditions at Masvingo General Hospital after several patients approached Tell Zimbabwe complaining of suffering abusive treatment at the hands of nurses and doctors at the hospital.

One woman claimed that she witnessed six expectant mothers losing their newly born babies due to inadequate care and outright recklessness on the part of nurses in the maternity ward.

“It’s not comfortable being in the maternity ward at Masvingo General Hospital because the nurses are rude. Worse still they can leave you alone for a long time if they think you are overreacting to labour pains,” said the woman who gave birth at the institution late last month.

“Some six mothers I shared the ward with lost their babies as a result of the carelessness,” said the woman.

“They were rushed for Caesarean operation after the nurses realised that it was too late. One of the nurses came back telling expecting mothers that anyone who would act like those women taken for caesarean operations would risk losing their babies,” she added.

Another woman who spoke to Tell Zimbabwe said she was roughed up during her entire stay at the hospital.

“When I was in labour they would shout at me and say I must push enough or else I would die with the child like many other women who came before me. I was lucky to get out of there alive with my child,” she said.

The hospital could not confirm nor deny the allegations, saying patients needed to register their complaints with authorities at the hospital.

“We have proper structures that are designed to cater for the complaints of our patients if they have any,” said Ruth Zulu, the hospital’s Public Relations Officer.

“Our mission is to help our nation achieve its health goals and we do all that we are supposed to do to meet patient expectations. I often interact with patients in the absence of nurses so as to give them room to report such issues freely,” she said.

She urged patients with complaints to feel free to approach her office at any time.

“If they fear victimisation, they can do it anonymously by writing on small pieces of paper and sliding them under my office door or they can do so upon being discharged from the hospital,” she added.Local

Tell Reporter

Three traffic officers from Zaka police station were arrested over the weekend after they were caught red handed demanding bribes from motorists.

The three (names supplied) are appearing before disciplinary hearing in Bikita today.

Sources told Tell Zimbabwe that the trio who were at Chivamba roadblock – some 87 kms along Jerera – Chiredzi highway demanded a $7 bribe from a motorists. The motorist who did not have the money decided to remain at the roadblock for 30 minutes thereby denying the officers a chance to hide their loot.

While still at the roadblock, officer from internal police intelligence and contacted a spot check and they were found with US$ 84 which they failed to account for. A motorist who was still at the roadblock narrated how the three were demanding bribes leading to their arrest.

File photo …Officers who dispersed members of Masvingo Residents Trust who wanted to stage a demonstration in Masvingo recently.

“The three were found red handed and they were immediately arrested. They are supposed to court to our internal court in Bikita East today,” said a source at Zaka police station.

Efforts to get comment from Masvingo police spokesperson were fruitless.local

By Tell Reporters in Gutu

Gutu Central constituency Member of the House of Assembly Lovemore Matuke has constructed a school in his constituency.  The school which is going to be the flagship of academic excellence is situated at Matuke’s Farm about 15 km from Mpandawana town along Harare road.

                          MP Lovemore Matuke

Speaker after speaker who gathered at the ground breaking ceremony at the school last week praised Matuke for promoting education in his constituency. Villagers praised their MP saying he was taking the right steps in promoting development in their area.

 However, Matuke said the school was going to  service not only people from his constituency since he was planning to set up international standards which would attract students from even beyond the country’s borders.

“We are going to be the best in terms of quality of education. We are setting high standards so that we become the province’s if not the country’s first preference whenever  parents think of sending their children to school,” said Matuke.

Teachers who attended the ceremony were already approaching Matuke seeking to be recruited at the school.

However, Matuke announced that he was not going to take teachers who do not have a very good track record.

“I will only take teachers who can bring 100 percent pass rate here,” he added.

Eight classrooms and five hostels have already been constructed at the school and work is in progress to complete all outstanding buildings before the end of the year..

Matuke said the school is going to open its doors any time from now.

The ground breaking ceremony was attended by several Members of Parliament from Masvingo Province.Local

Kennedy Murwira

A Gutu woman died last month while she was on her way to attend a funeral in the Chihota Communal Lands in Mashonaland East leaving her relatives dumbfounded as to what actually transpired as she was and fit and well when she embarked on the journey.

The woman, Liliosa Mutero, nee Hapanyengwi, was married to Alphonce Mutero, a teacher by profession, and was travelling to attend to her mother-in-law’s sister’s funeral when she suddenly fell ill and died. Her husband left the profession a few years ago to run his businesses in the Chirumhanzu area in the Midlands Province. Liliosa remained a teacher at Chaka Primary school until the time of her death.

                                          Liliosa Mutero

A  family spokesman, Simon Mutero, said his sister-in-law was not ill at the time she departed for the funeral but started complaining of heartache and stomach pains just after the funeral cortege had left the Masvingo-Harare highway enroute for Chihota, She started started vomiting and the combi in which she was travelling had to stop several times while other mourners tried to diagnose the problem. Her situation deteriorated and other relatives had to abandon the journey to Chihota and made a u-turn to Harare Central Hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival. Her medical history, however, revealed that she had hypertension problems which may have resulted in her death.

Liliosa was buried  In Mutero Village in Gutu on 31 December where obituary messages from a number of organisations, including the Better Schools Programme in The midlands Province, were well received by the mourners

 By Moses Ziyambi in Jo’burg

Hundreds of Zimbabwean immigrants housed at the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg are living in suspense following the lapsing of the December 31 2014 deadline of a directive to vacate the building.

The building has been sheltering desperate Zimbabwean refugees and asylum seekers for the past fourteen years.

Several refugees who spoke to Tell Zimbabwe said they did not have anywhere to go as they were homeless and unemployed.

“We have been told to leave but we don’t have else to go. For some of us, this church has been our only home for the past ten years,” said John Rutete.

He also said that some of his friends have already left the place although they did not have any definite place to go.

          Central Methodist Church in Jo’burg

“We are living in suspense because we have been told that force will be used to eject those who fail to meet the deadline,” he said. “The deadline has already passed and we don’t know what will happen.”

Other immigrants, however, vowed to stay put, saying they will not accept being chucked into the streets.

“If they don’t provide alternative accommodation, I won’t go anywhere. They failed to evict us in 2010 and they will fail again this time around,” said another immigrant who requested anonymity.

Under the stewardship of Paul Verryn, the church has provided sanctuary to thousands of mainly Zimbabwean homeless immigrants over the years.

Verryn, who has earned himself enemies in his church for housing the immigrants, is set to be promoted and transferred to a different circuit. Church trustees have ordered that when he leaves,  the building can also be restored to its primary purpose of housing worshipers.

“Many have already left the building and others are in the process of leaving,” a dejected Verryn told Tell Zimbabwe, imploring well-wishers to come on board and assist.

“It has not been an easy journey for me. I hope it’s not going to be a helpless situation for the people,” he added.

Previous attempts to evict the immigrants through the courts have been strongly resisted by Verryn, who argued that it was inhuman to throw poor people into the streets.Local

Tell Reporter

There was pandemonium in Zimhofu village under Chief Ndanga in Zaka when villagers woke up to see over 30 pythons coming out of a grave last week.

Over 40 people from Zimhofu village and surrounding areas who were visibly shaken were still at the scene when Tell Zimbabwe reporters arrived on Sunday. Officials from Parks and Wildlife Management were called but they only managed to capture 20 small pythons as their efforts to capture all the snakes were hampered by heavy rains.

 Village head Jeremiah Matumbike(center) is still in shock

Zimhofu village head Jeremiah Matumbike told Tell Zimbabwe that he was in shock since it was his first time to encounter such a situation. He said he was in a process of identifying people who are related to the person buried in that grave.

“I am shocked by this incident…it all started as a fairytale when people told me that there were about 10 pythons at a grave in my village. However, when we came here on Wednesday, we discovered that in fact the pythons were more than 30.

Some of the small pythons which came out of the grave

“Everyone is in shock and I am now in a process of identifying people who might be related to the person buried in this grave,” said Matumbike.

Matumbike said he could not rule out that there could be something mysterious behind the coming out of the pythons.

“We have never seen not even one python here so where are these ones coming from… I think this is mysterious and the relatives of the person buried here will assist us in mapping the way forward,” said Matumbike.

Officials from Parks could not be drawn into commenting.

Chief Ndanga said he was aware of the incident. Local.