Zim News Blog -NEWS NETWORK

Source: Zanu PF-linked space barons invade Byo CBD – The Southern Eye

A GANG of suspected Zanu PF space barons illegally parcelled out new vending bays to illegal traders in Bulawayo’s Central Business District (CBD) on Thursday this week.

The bays were reportedly dished out at corner 5th Avenue and Josiah Tongogara Street.

A shop owner who preferred to remain anonymous fearing victimisation told Southern Eye that they were surprised to see a group claiming to be Zanu PF members dishing out trading bays close to their premises.

“I can confirm that there were people going around here claiming to be Zanu PF comrades, they cleared the area allocating vending bays to traders. They came in the morning and said they will come back again today (Friday),” the shop owner said

One security guard in the area said: “I saw them in the morning cleaning up the alleys in front of the shops.. They said they are Zanu PF members and we just left them to do their business.”

 Zanu PF Bulawayo provincial spokesperson Archibald Chiponda said he was not aware of the CBD invasions by any member of his party.

“I am not aware of that because no one informed me about it. But if l may ask how do you know they are Zanu PF (members), because people can go around claiming to be who they are not? Go and first confirm before consulting me because l am not aware of the issue,” Chiponda said.

Zanu PF Ward 1 Councillor Forest Mutangi said such culprits should be brought to book for breaking the laws.

“These people illegally allocating vending bays should be arrested because all trading bays belong to the city council. We have already warned the culprits to stop. But speaking as a Zanu PF member, we are not aware of what was happening in that area. l am hearing it from you as it is right now,” Mutangi said.

Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association (BVTA) executive director Micheal Ndiweni said none of the traders association members were part of the dubious Thursday vending bay allocation process.

“BVTA members were not part of that process and they are not,” Ndiweni said.

The Bulawayo City Council has over the year had running battles with Zanu PF-linked people over illegal parcelling of vending bays in the city.

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Source: Harare workers ordered to cut short their leave –Newsday Zimbabwe

HARARE City Council has ordered more than 300 workers to cut short their leave days as city fathers intensify efforts to curb a serious cholera outbreak ravaging the capital and country.

The local authority is under increasing pressure to act on the deadly disease after being accused of aiding and abetting the outbreak by failing to attend to burst sewer and water pipes as well as provide constant water supplies.

Zimbabwe had, by January 2 this year, recorded a cumulative total of 14 885 suspected cholera cases, 67 laboratory confirmed deaths, 266 suspected cholera deaths and 1 676 laboratory confirmed cases.

The outbreak has now spread to nearly all the country’s 64 districts.

In an exclusive interview with NewsDay yesterday, Harare mayor Jacob Mafume said the capital recorded a spike in cholera cases after the festive season

“We have called back more than 300 workers who were on leave so that we can deal with the cholera outbreak and sewer bursts,” said Mafume.

“We are having a spike in cases of cholera because of the festivities and people were travelling from across the country and all over the world. These people were holding parties, enjoying food, while the situation has also been made worse by the floods which contaminated water sources in the city.”

Council is currently stepping up efforts to treat water to households and set up more clinics in cholera hotspots.

“Also because of flooding there have been spikes in the number of sewer bursts which are contaminating our water sources. We have called everyone who has been on leave, increased working hours and approved overtime for them to deal with the current challenges,” he said.

The mayor, who bounced back to town house following the recall of two previous mayors elected in the August 2023 harmonised elections, has since met council workers as the local municipality prepares to embark on a major clean-up campaign across all the city’s shopping centres and markets.

“We have deployed resources for every district office in the city with a budget of US$2 000 to US$5 000 to hire tipper trucks and frontend loaders for them to clear the rubbish, simultaneously, with a view of clearing the dumpsites that have accumulated in the suburbs, and after that we will do the roadside clearances,” he said.

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Source: Two village girls hogging global limelight -Newsday Zimbabwe

Newly appointed United Nations Women official Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda

“I AM worried about the drought and food security at the household level, mostly in rural communities. I just hope that we have more rains so that many girls will not drop out of school,” says the newly appointed United Nations Women official Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda.

Despite her new engaging role at the world’s biggest organisation, she remains humble and firmly rooted in Zimbabwe’s countryside where she grew up and began to understand the plight and struggles of a girl child in rural Africa.

Her history, whose genesis in the largely impoverished Murehwa communal lands — an outlying rural outpost 93km east of Harare — is as inspiring as her present achievement of having been appointed deputy executive director for Normative Support, United Nations System Coordination and Programme Results at the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).

It a mouthful title which perfectly highlights the road she has travel.

“The world we are in today demands boldness, vision and accountability whereby resources are used according to prioritise that face women and girls from outlying rural communities. I need to amplify women and girls’ voices against violence, shaping equality and economic empowerment,” says Gumbonzvanda as she continues her journey which started from an unassuming Zimbabwean village.

“Women and girls need the best from any decision-making table, so that their rights are respected,” is one of her many mottos which expose the source of the energy that has landed in one of the world’s most esteemed posts.

Ever humble as she is, she remains firmly committed to creating opportunities for the girl child in marginalised communities, where she hardly dreams of ever gracing such high offices as the UN.

“I am grateful for the support I received from my family, community and the nation, Africa and the world over. This appointment is not for personal recognition, but for everyone who has seen me rising … It’s an affirmation in many people who invest in girls living in rural areas to grow up and be what they can potentially be in life,” she elucidates.

Gumbonzvanda is the founder and executive director of Rozaria Memorial Trust (RMT) based in Murehwa, Mashonaland East Province. The organisation was named after her late mother and has become a beacon of hope in transforming the rural girl child against violence, and forced marriages among other vices afflicting the girls and women.

Gumbonzvanda holds a Doctor of Laws degree (Honoris Causa) from the University of Massachusetts, USA, a Master in Laws degree from the University of South Africa, a graduate Certificate in Conflict Transformation from the Uppsala University, Sweden, and a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) degree from the University of Zimbabwe.

And west of Gumbonzvanda’s Murehwa outback — 260km on the opposite side of the Zimbabwe capital, Harare — is Hurungwe district, where yet another marginalised community birthed yet another village girl who has hogged the global limelight.

Her name is Tererai Trent, a women of similar virtues as Gumbonzvanda, that of raising the rural girl child from the dustbowls of society.

Born in Matau village, Zvipani in Mashonaland West province, she is an epitome of resilience and proof that dreams can come true, having been denied schooling and married off at a tender age, but still managed to achieve her wishes which were to go to America to get a bachelor’s degree, a masters and eventually a PhD.

She grew up far from the big city lights, was denied education by her father who married her off after being given a cow as dowry, she self-taught herself to the United States where she now resides and has rubbed shoulders with such celebrities as Oprah Winfrey.

Tererai, whose name loosely translates to “listener”, is an oasis of inspiration, commitment and dedication.

Like several girls, she was raised in a poverty-stricken family with females failing to access education.

However, she rose above the subjugation, landing in the US, where she met Winfrey and life blossomed, not only for her, but for other girl children she had left back in Zvipani.

Winfrey helped to raise US$1,5 million to build a school in Zvipani at Matau where the funds constructed a high school which has since launched many girls into better futures. The seed money later gave birth to many other schools.

“Dr Tererai Trent came here and was full of praise to school staff, and the community after Sarah came up with flying colours that saw her enrolling at the University of Zimbabwe. It was such a profound moment for us all. She cried with happiness saying she lost the chance but is happy that it is being achieved by younger generations,” said one of the teachers at Matau High School.

Two more girls have enrolled in different universities.

“These girls silenced those who thought girls in rural schools couldn’t achieve such academic performance. One of the girls, Sarah, is the first in her family to enter into a university. She represents her mom, grandmother, and generations of women before, forever changing and redefining the baton she will pass down to the next generation,” Trent said.

As an academic, motivational speaker and humanitarian, Trent is now a pacesetter for rural village girls who are now determined to excel beyond her.

Her life story was featured in the 2009 book Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, and in an excerpt of that book published by The New York Times Magazine.

Just like Gumbonzvanda she is making a difference so that rural girls can rise from the dustbowls, excel and be champions of women’s emancipation and gender equality.

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Source: Hunger knocks on 2,7m villagers’ doors -Newsday Zimbabwe

DAYS into 2024, indications are that it will be a tough year for millions of the country’s rural folk as the latest Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC) Rural Livelihoods Assessment report projects that more than 2,7 million people in the countryside are starring at hunger.

“During the peak hunger period (January to March 2024), 26% of the rural population is projected to be food insecure. This translates to 2 715 717 people. At least 100 482 metric tonnes of cereal will be required to feed the food insecure population during the peak hunger period,” the report said.

This is despite repeated government assurances that nobody would starve and the country had adequate food stocks to fend off famine.

Late last year the World Food Programme HungerMap LIVE remote monitoring platform showed a deteriorating food security situation in the country and estimated the number of people facing insufficient food consumption at five million during the first week of last month, which was an increase from the 4,1 million during the first week of September 2023.

A typical lean season is characterised by communities’ heightened incapacity to access sufficient food. The lean season occurs in the middle of the rain season when harvests from the previous year have been exhausted and prices of food are at their highest.

Zimbabweans, in general, have had a tough time feeding themselves over the years due to the southern African nation’s unrelenting economic downturn and a changing climate, with increases of basic commodities prices worsening their plight.

The United States Agency for International Development late last year said: “The depreciation of the ZWL (Zimbabwe dollar) is limiting household purchasing power … Relatedly, prices of wheat flour, maize meal, sugar and rice are over 400 to nearly 545% higher than last year (2022) in ZWL, with bread and vegetable oil prices increasing by around 240 to 300% in ZWL compared to prices last year.”

In April last year the country’s Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency also reported 11% and 11,6% increases in the food poverty and total consumption poverty datum lines, respectively, compared to March of the same year, highlighting the country’s ever deteriorating food situation.

National Consumer Rights Association coordinator and human rights advocate Effie Ncube said the ZimVAC report exposes people’s worst fears.

“There is going to be massive food and water insecurity which will lead to severe and acute malnutrition and thousands of livestock dying. What is now needed is for the government to ensure an adequate budget for vulnerable people. This means budgeting for both the people and livestock,” Ncube said.

“Equally important, food distribution should be completely divorced from partisan politics which has become a culture and norm. Every person should have access to food regardless of the political party they support.”

Development practitioner and Speaker of Nkayi Community parliament Nhlanhla Moses Ncube said it is very concerning that such a huge number of people will be food insecure.

He said the number is conservative and the stifling of non-governmental organisations’ activities will come into the spotlight.

“I would advise the citizens to try the best they can to stock food and help those who cannot, including child-headed families. On the part of the government, an enabling environment should be created in which independent organisations are allowed to assist. We have always relied on them. Government should desist from engaging in what one would term food propaganda and do the right thing as soon as possible,” Ncube said.

Ncube said the projected food situation will have a devastating effect, especially on marginalised communities in Matabeleland.

“Child malnutrition will worsen. It will exacerbate poverty levels as more attention and resources will be channelled to sourcing food than economic advancement. Some children are also likely to drop out from school due to failure to pay school fees. The picture is very gloomy, to say the least,” Ncube said.

Esigodini-based farmer who is also Kirton Farmers Association chairperson Moksesti Basuthu said food insecurity is the reality on the ground.

“Significant crops have failed already and livestock are not necessarily in the best of conditions. Veld is fair, but too early to comment given that it’s early January. In addition the rampant mine/farm disputes with lots of agricultural land being under gold panning … many farmers who depend on rivers for dry season irrigation cannot anymore due to intense siltation caused by panning upstream,” Basuthu said.

“Direct barter trade of livestock for grains will be to the disadvantage of livestock farmers, given high grain prices which will likely increase while livestock body conditions drop and thus, market value will be depreciating. In addition the introduction of Zimra tax on livestock enterprises when the major factors affecting livestock farming as a sector have largely remained unaddressed is adding to the problem.”

Matabeleland North Rural Community Empowerment Trust coordinator Vumani Ndlovu said the majority of people have already started experiencing drought because of the poor harvest in the last agricultural season.

“Another serious drought is looming because of the erratic rains … We hope the government has already started coming up with mechanisms of dealing with  this drought by ensuring that there is adequate food supplies. The government must also start engaging the international humanitarian non-governmental organisations that deal with food aid,” Ndlovu said.

Ndlovu said political manipulation also becomes rife as food aid gets politicised and distributed along political party lines or affiliations.

“A serious multi-stakeholder mechanism needs to be established in every rural district to ensure equal, fair access and distribution of food aid to citizens,” he said.

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Source: Widow fights eviction from stepsons –Newsday Zimbabwe

AN ELDERLY Harare woman was yesterday granted a protection order against her two stepsons who wanted to evict her from the family house after learning that she had been omitted in their deceased father’s will.

Harare Civil Court magistrate Tamara Chibindi heard that Enia Hunda was living in fear of being evicted from her matrimonial house by her stepson Victor and his younger brother.

She told the court that she was legally married to her deceased husband in 2012 and they lived together at the house before he died in 2015.

Hunda said she was surprised to receive an eviction notice from the respondent’s lawyers ordering her to leave the house by December 21 last month.

The respondents admitted to trying to evict their stepmother, saying their father’s last will and testament appointed one of their siblings as the executor and owner of the property.

Victor said they had, however, followed the legal route in their pursuit to possess their late father’s property from their stepmother.

Victor denied harassing the applicant and accused her of shunning them and unwelcoming ever since she married their father.

The courts granted Hunda a protection order in her favour and ordered the respondents to maintain peace with the applicant as they pursue their intentions to legally evict her.

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