Category: zimbabwe

Source: ‘Zim has no electronic trade agreements, treaties database’ -Newsday Zimbabwe

Foreign Affairs deputy minister David Musabayana

ZIMBABWE’s Foreign Affairs ministry has no electronic database of trade agreements and treaties signed by government, NewsDay has learnt.

This was revealed by Foreign Affairs deputy minister David Musabayana on Tuesday during a visit by the parliamentary delegation from Namibia’s Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs Defence and Security.

“Despite the commendable efforts, we have not been spared by various challenges, which we are currently refocusing our energies towards addressing them expeditiously,” Musabayana said.

“[There is] absence of an electronic database for all international treaties and agreements in contravention of international norms and practices.”

According to Musabayana, the ministry has been dragged to the courts several times by aggrieved foreign service staff because there was no workplace code of conduct to resolve labour disputes between embassies and local workers.

“[There are] widespread labour disputes involving locally-recruited staff at embassies and international organisations accredited to Zimbabwe, with some cases being eventually adjudicated at the courts. The absence of a workplace code of conduct for dispute resolution between locally-recruited staff, embassies and international organisations has compounded the problem,” he said.

“In view of some of the challenges, the Legal and Consular Services Directorate is considering establishing an inter-ministerial taskforce for the purposes of drafting a statutory instrument setting out modalities for resolving labour disputes for locally-recruited staff at embassies and international organisations accredited to Zimbabwe.”

He also said ZimTrade has also faced a number of challenges in satisfying its mandate.

“While ZimTrade has made tremendous strides in fulfilling its mandate, it has also faced a number of challenges which include: Capacity constraints in implementing and participating in numerous bilateral, regional and international negotiations and programmes; slow progress in the conclusion of negotiations in regional and international initiatives such at the World Trade Organisation (Doha Development Agenda), tripartite, Continental Free Trade Area as well as bilateral engagements; and low participation of the private sector and stakeholders in policy formulation and international negotiations.”

The leader of Namibia’s Delegation on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security Lucia Witbooi said the two countries should maintain cordial relations.

Source: Corpse found floating in Kwekwe River – The Southern Eye

Inspector Emmanuel Mahoko

A MUTILATED body of a 27-year-old man was on Monday found floating in Kwekwe River in a suspected case of a crocodile attack.

Midlands provincial police spokesperson Inspector Emmanuel Mahoko confirmed the incident yesterday.

“Police in Kwekwe are investigating a case of sudden death whereby the body of a male adult was found floating in Kwekwe River with arms and legs missing. The incident occurred on February 4, 2023,” said Mahoko.

“It is alleged that Isaac Kanukamwe aged 27 of Grasslands in Redcliff left home alone for Kwekwe River to take a bath, but did not return home. The body was discovered on February 6 by a villager who had gone to the same river to get a bath.”

Mahoko said police from the sub aqua unit retrieved the body which has since been conveyed to Kwekwe General Hospital for post-mortem.

Police urged people to desist from getting into crocodile-infested water bodies.

In an unrelated incident, Mahoko said the body of a Silobela woman who went missing in November last year was found hanging from a tree on Monday.

“Two boys from village 3B under Chief Malisa in Silobela were herding cattle when they discovered human remains of a female which have since been identified as those of Rumbidzai Sibanda,” he said.

In an unrelated matter, Mahoko said Kwekwe businessman Jameson Chimanya lost US$3 000, 5 000 rand and a cellphone valued at US$300 to a four-member machete-wielding gang on Tuesday night.

He said Chimanya was woken up by a barking dog and when he went outside to investigate, he encountered a machete-wielding man.

Three other men then appeared from the dark and Chimanya jumped over the pre-cast wall calling for help.

He said the four stormed into his house where they threatened his wife and three children with machetes.

They ransacked the house and got away with money and a cellphone.

Source: US$88m govt deal raises stink –Newsday Zimbabwe

Harare’s Mbudzi interchange project

THE controversy surrounding funding for Harare’s Mbudzi interchange project has deepened amid reports that the project costs were inflated.

Wednesday confirmation by Finance minister Mthuli Ncube  that one of the companies involved in the project was its chief financier after signing a US$88 million loan deal with government at an interest rate of 5%, adds a new dimension to the saga.

Observers yesterday also questioned why government chose to borrow at high interest rates after initially claiming that part of the proceeds from  the InternationalMonetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights would fund the road project.

Ncube announced in a Government Gazette that government had signed a US$88 million loan deal with Obey Chimuka’s Fossil Mines (Pvt) Ltd to find the project at an interest rate of 5% per annum.

Fossil Mines is a sister company to Fossil Contracting – one of the firms involved in the road infrastructure project.

NewsDay yesterday contacted one of Fossil Mines’ top officials Simbarashe Kaseke seeking clarity on the matter but he declined to comment.

“We are not allowed to comment and the Minister of Transport (Felix Mhona) is the one who has to speak to the media,” he said.

Mhona could not be reached for comment as his mobile phone went unanswered, but a government source close to the deal told NewsDay that the project costs were inflated.

“The loan agreement was inflated …as it was initially US$42 million, but the figure was inflated,” the source claimed.

In December, the United States  government placed Fossil group chief executive officer Chimuka and two of his companies, Fossil Contracting and Fossil Agro, on its sanctions list “for their ties to the previously designated individual Kudakwashe Tagwirei and his company, Sakunda Holdings”.

Chimuka and Tagwirei are business allies.

Yesterday, political analyst Rejoice Ngwenya said the loan facility was ridiculous.

“This is ridiculous,” said Ngwenya.

“This deal is just similar to the Pomona waste management deal on how it has been handled. I am urging the opposition party to discuss the matter in Parliament and reverse the deal.

“We need to ask ourselves why in most controversial deals we have the same companies because the government should have got that money from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe,” Ngwenya added.

Former Finance minister Tendai Biti said: “This is something else and ridiculous.”

The Mbudzi Interchange project is expected to ease congestion at the intersection of Harare-Beitbridge Highway and Simon Mazorodze Road.

Source: Food shortages loom in Mberengwa – The Southern Eye

VILLAGERS in Mberengwa district, Midlands province, fear food shortages after their arid lands received little rains this agricultural season.

Generally Mberengwa is a semi-arid district, which often experiences frequent severe droughts that limit growing of large grains. It falls under agro ecological region 4, which is characterised by low rainfall.

Chief Ngungumbane of Mberengwa told Southern Eye that villagers now fear drought-induced food shortages as their maize and sorghum crops could be a write-off.

“We are worried that if the situation continues like this, hunger will be imminent in Mberengwa. Villagers will soon face serious water shortages if the dry spell persists. The area is likely to face serious water shortages.”

Climate change has triggered harsher and more frequent droughts in Zimbabwe, threatening the staple maize crop in the drought-prone regions of Matabeleland, Masvingo and Midlands provinces.

Farmers in parts of Matabeleland and Midlands provinces have in recent years turned to climate-smart practices such as reducing tilling and using water-saving drip irrigation, with others growing drought-tolerant grains such as sorghum.

Zimbabwe requires about 2,2 million tonnes of grain each year for human and livestock consumption.

Source: Chiefs demand wildlife policy review – The Southern Eye

TRADITIONAL leaders in Matabelelend have accused government of taking long to introduce a new wildlife policy to ensure that locals benefit from natural resources and hunting concessions under Campfire programmes in their communities.

The country’s wildlife policy is currently being reviewed because it no longer serves the interests of villagers in wildlife areas, who often experience human-wildlife conflicts.

Last year, the Environment ministry in conjunction with the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) conducted a consultative meeting aimed at revamping the policy to benefit local authorities and surrounding communities.

The meeting, held in Bulawayo, discussed efforts being made to ensure co-existence between communities, wildlife and rural district councils.

Nothiwani Dlodlo, former secretary to Chief Maduna, told Southern Eye that government was taking long to craft a new policy.

“For five years now, the Environment ministry has failed to implement the policy. They are very incompetent because they have failed to deliver what we have been requesting. The ministry has disappointed villagers who live in wildlife areas and experience conflicts with wild animals,” Dlodlo said.

“Mberengwa is experiencing problems with amakhanka (jackals).  We contacted ZimParks and the Environment ministry to assist us, but up to today nothing has been done.”

He said villagers continued to lose livestock and crops to wild animals.

In October last year, Environment ministry national co-ordinator Prosper Matondi said reviewing the policy would be a game-changer in wildlife management, considering that a lot has changed in the past two-and-half decades.

Matondi said the ministry would take into cognisance the growth of the human population in the past 25 years because it is a major contributor to human-wildlife conflicts.

Chief Jabulani Mphini of Bulilima said review of the policy would bring change to communities which are not benefiting from wildlife resources in their area.

“Elephants are destroying our fields. When professional hunters kill them, villagers do not benefit anything,” Chief Mphini said.

He said rural district councils should share proceeds from ivory sales with communities.