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Conservation groups warn the trend threatens the management of underground water and the availability of the resource in general

Source: Zimbabwe Wetlands Construction Triggers Environmental Worries – VOA

HARARE — In Zimbabwe, migration from rural to urban areas has created a demand for housing, leading to construction on wetlands, and concerns about the environment and water supplies.

Conservation groups warn that the invasion of the country’s wetlands for infrastructure development and stream bank cultivation in urban areas threatens the management of underground water and the availability of the resource. They say the problem has been exacerbated by people moving from rural to urban areas.

Those people include Zivai Muchichwe, a father of three. Muchichwe says he built his home on a wetland three years ago as Harare battled to contain the migration from the rural parts of the country. Now, he says part of the dwelling has cracked and collapsed.

Muchichwe says he is waiting for authorities to tell him whether he will be there permanently as the structure needs to be reinforced. He says it was built hurriedly with cheap material and because of the location, the problem of water underground exists. “We thought we would be here for just a year,” he said.

Harare authorities say they will soon start water rationing because of low levels.

Dorothy Wakeling of the conservation group Harare Wetlands Trust says she was not surprised by the announcement. She says people are disturbing wetlands which are supposed to be gradually releasing water into the city’s water bodies.

“If you don’t have this and you have monoculture (the cultivation of a single crop in a given area), all you have is run-off. And you have lost the opportunity to get water into the ground which is so laid out by nature. It’s not there by mistake. And we are discarding it for buildings when that is the way we get our water; we can’t make water come any other way,” Wakeling said.

The group says it hopes that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government does not allow construction on the Monavale wetland which it says holds water for most Harare water bodies.

Steady Kangata from Zimbabwe’s environmental agency says the agency is working to ensure any disturbance of wetlands and stream banks is minimal.

“We must not be selfish when it comes to the environment. We are urging anyone who would want to do any form of construction to ascertain the nature and status of the piece of land they want to undertake their development…. The entire world…is about a green economy, the economy of the environment, where the environment is the pinnacle of any economy and we should mainstream environmental issues in anything we do,” Kangata said.

For now, Muchichwe’s family and neighbors remain uncertain as to whether they will have a place to stay. Given that the rainy season is not set to end until about late March, they might be sleeping on wet floors.

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Source: Zimbabwe makes Venice Biennale selections amid political turmoil | The Art Newspaper

The post Zimbabwe makes Venice Biennale selections amid political turmoil appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

Political parties that fielded presidential candidates in the July 30, 2018 harmonised elections yesterday met at State House in Harare and committed themselves to the principle of dialogue and working together to resolve the challenges facing the country. Out of the 23 parties that fielded presidential candidates in the internationally-observed harmonised elections, 21 were represented. […]

Source: Parly seeks industry revival | Herald (Business)

Africa Moyo Senior Business Reporter
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Industry and Commerce has begun visiting the country’s manufacturing sector to appreciate the challenges it contends with, so as to prod Government to intervene with matching solutions.

This was said by the Portfolio Committee’s chairperson Mr Joshua Sacco in an interview with The Herald Business in Harare yesterday after touring Dairibord Zimbabwe Limited (DZL)’s Rekayi Tangwena plant.

The initiative comes at a time when the Ministry of Industry and Commerce is also touring companies that were destroyed and/ or looted during the January 14 to 16 violent demonstration instigated by the MDC Alliance and its partners in the NGO and civic sectors, to establish the quantum of assistance required by the affected firms so that they can be capacitated.

Mr Sacco said the Portfolio Committee’s tours will start by focusing on the food industry, before being extended to other sectors.

Said Mr Sacco: “As the Committee on Industry and Commerce, we have resolved to visit industries in different sectors. So we have started with the food industry, we have done Dairibord today, just to understand the challenges and the direction which they are going and how Government can also come in to facilitate an environment which is conducive for them especially around issues of producing local products in Zimbabwe.

“We are very proud of Dairibord as a Zimbabwean company so I am happy to say at least we are happy with what we have seen and I think it’s now issues around the value chain, improving the supply of the raw materials, which is milk in this case. So the industry can definitely expand.”

DZL chief executive officer Anthony Mandiwanza, told the parliamentarians that the company, which has a market capitalisation of $62 million, is being hampered by a number of challenges principally the decline in national milk production.

Due to the shortage of milk, a key raw material for their business, DZL has mothballed operations at its Bulawayo, Gweru and Kadoma plants, while the Chitungwiza plant has moved to making maheu.

Milk production sharply declined from 260 million litres in 1999 to 39 million litres in 2009.

Said Mr Mandiwanza: “By the year 2008 into 2009, milk production had dropped from the peak of 260 million litres to 39 million litres.

“Thank goodness that we as Dairibord Zimbabwe had developed our footprint into the areas of food and beverages, so we survived.”

Worryingly, milk production declined at a time when the sector had been deregulated, and now boasts of over 15 players.

During the time of high production in the ‘90s, there were only two milk processors; Dairy Marketing Board (DMB) and Nestle Zimbabwe, with DMB consuming 90 percent of the milk.

Mr Mandiwanza said the diminishing milk production base comes against a backdrop of Government — previously a shareholder in DZL — having had invested significantly in infrastructure such as a brand new dairy in Bulawayo, a completely refurbished dairy plant in Gweru and a cheese making plant in Kadoma.

The new plant and equipment at the Harare plant was producing ice-cream, yoghurts; with the Chitungwiza plant having been designed for 300 000 litres of milk per day.

“We had massive excessive infrastructure against a diminishing milk supply base, to the extent that the national milk production had dropped to 39 million litre by 2009, and with many others having come on board.

“So, today as we are talking, there are only two major processors who have remained on two feet (and) the demand for milk as at last year is 120 million litres (per annum) and the supply side is 70 million litres, which means a deficit of 50 million litres.

“Now, when you have a deficit of 50 million litres, you ought to ask the question, ‘so what is happening between the demand and the supply?’” said Mr Mandiwanza.

He said the industry has been furiously importing powder and butter into the country at a cost of $7 million a month.

“This is a very important issue for your Committee . . . which then speaks about the competitiveness of that industry going forward.

“When you have a demand or supply gap that is being plugged by importation of powdered milk, it means the country is consuming foreign currency and yet you have got scarcity in foreign currency,” said Mr Mandiwanza.

The dairy sector is spending $7 million per month, which could be more given that some unregistered firms could be importing too, at a time the ability to export and earn in foreign currency has disappeared due to low milk production.

Mr Mandiwanza said foreign firms are sending their products to Zimbabwe due to the attractiveness of the US dollar, which when converted in other countries, fetches more.

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Source: Zimbabwe’s opposition MDC snubs Mnangagwa talks, wants outside mediator | Reuters

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s main opposition on Wednesday snubbed talks with President Emmerson Mnangagwa meant to try resolve a political and economic crisis, saying any dialogue with the president must be brokered by an independent outside mediator.

Mnangagwa, who is under pressure over the deteriorating economy and a crackdown on anti-government protests last month, invited 23 opposition leaders to a meeting to draw up terms for national dialogue.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said it would take part in the talks only if they were held under the supervision of the United Nations, African Union or regional bloc Southern African Development Community.

“The MDC’s position is that the dialogue process must be convened by an independent mediator and not one of the disputants,” the MDC said in a letter responding to Mnangagwa’s invitation to the talks.

The MDC has said Zimbabwe’s problems stemmed from last year’s presidential vote. Mnangagwa won but MDC accused his side of rigging the results, which he denies.

Joice Mujuru, an opposition leader and former vice president to Robert Mugabe, also did not attend the meeting although other smaller parties met Mnangagwa at state house offices in Harare.

In a speech before the talks, Mnangagwa said his opponents should accept his election win, and he urged them to call for the removal of U.S. sanctions on ruling party and government officials.

“Peace can never be imposed from outside but must issue from within our own society,” Mnangagwa said, in an apparent reference to the MDC demand for an outside mediator.

Zimbabwe has held disputed elections since 2000, which coincided with an economic recession, but in 2009 the ruling ZANU-PF party and the MDC formed a unity government, which ushered economic and political stability.

Last July’s vote, the first since Mugabe was forced to resign after a coup in 2017, was seen as an opportunity to pull Zimbabwe out of its diplomatic isolation and prompting an economic recovery. Instead, the vote left the nation polarised.

Rights groups and witnesses say armed men in police and army uniform have continued to make night raids at homes of opposition activists where they beat up occupants, a charge denied by security forces.

A video surfaced this week of a soldier beating women at a house in a Harare township while another man held a pistol and frogmarched three young men.

Army’s Major General Nyikayaramba told reporters that the army used proportionate force against protesters and that no one had reported rights abuses against the military.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO forum said on Wednesday that 17 people had died since the mid-January protests although police still insist three people were killed.

In Harare, a strike for better pay by public sector teachers entered its second day as some stayed at home while others attended school but did not teach, with unions accusing security agents of intimidation.

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