Zim News Blog -NEWS NETWORK

Source: New site for cyclone-hit school? | The Herald April 2, 2019

Rumbidzayi Zinyuke Manicaland Bureau
The Roman Catholic Church (Diocese of Mutare) has engaged Government for an alternative site for St Charles Lwanga Secondary School which was destroyed by Cyclone Idai, leaving the institution isolated with no direct access by road.

The school was one of the first areas to be hit by landslides that destroyed infrastructure in Chimanimani, killing nearly 200 people.

Two learners, as well as a security guard, lost their lives when the landslide dislodged a huge rock which crashed into the school’s dining hall and a dormitory where the learners were sleeping.

Diocese of Mutare education secretary Mr Lawrence Chibvuri said the school authorities had decided that the site was not safe for the learners, hence the decision to relocate to another site.

He said the boarding facilities had been suspended but the church had received authorisation from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to continue running the day school.

“St Charles is isolated, there is no communication, no roads even to try and do any reconstruction. We would not have means of transporting material because it’s sealed off. To get to the school, we have to get to Skyline and go down 3,5km on a very precarious road.

“We are in the process of engaging some experts in engineering and geology to assist us to substantiate our opinion that this place is not sustainable. However, as a pro-action, we have sent a request to Government through the District Administrator in Chimanimani and the Provincial Administrator for alternative sites which we will then build on in the medium to long term,” he said.

He said once the church got land, the secondary school would be a priority adding that they wanted to build the new school in Chimanimani.

“We do not want to take St Charles out of Chimanimani, it must remain there. However, it has to be at an ideal site which has guaranteed security for our learners,” he added.

He said the day school would continue serving about 87 pupils from the community but the 171 boarders would be accommodated in other Diocese of Mutare schools.

Out of the 11 teachers who were at the school, he said the Ministry of Education is expected leave about five to cater for the remaining children while the rest would be redeployed.

Mr Chibvuri said the Diocese of Mutare had engaged eight of its schools in the province to accommodate the learners but should the schools fail to absorb all of them, they would engage sister schools in the Archdiocese of Harare, since the majority of the learners were from Harare.

“We will contact the parents with the offer once it has been finalised. What we are trying to do is to reduce the burden on the part of the parents to start running around. But if a parent feels they are not happy with the available schools and they would like to find a vacancy elsewhere we will not stop them,” he said.

Mr Chibvuri said the church was giving priority to the O-Level students and would ensure that they attended vacation school classes to enable them to catch up.

He said they were also providing psycho-social services to both the learners and parents in Mutare and Harare to help them cope with the traumatising experience.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development is conducting an assessment of all mines in Manicaland to evaluate the extent of damage inflicted by Cyclone Idai on equipment and possible impact on the sector’s performance.

An initial assessment done by the ministry showed that Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) mmines in Marange and Chimanimani as well as Shawa Mine in Buhera suffered significant damage as pits were flooded and some equipment lost.

Provincial mining director Mr Omen Dube said the ministry had teams that were continuously assessing the situation to come up with strategies for the mines to resume operations.

“We have done the assessment on affected mines, especially those in Chimanimani, and we are still conducting assessments on small-scale mines as well,” he said.

“Since the floods weakened the ground, it is not safe for the mines to resume operations without assessing the area in which they are operating. In Chimanimani, the teams have not had access to the mine to assess equipment damage, so the value of property that was damaged is yet to be determined.”

Mr Dube said Redwing Mine was currently dewatering pits using pumps, while Dorowa Mine was working with ZESA to assess damage to electric poles and cables.

“Shawa Mine in Buhera, which was partially affected, has been experiencing power shortages as a result of damage to infrastructure,” he said. “The road was also damaged and the conveyor belts were buried by mud, thus delaying the resumption of work.”

Mr Dube said the ministry was working on establishing the number of small-scale miners who were affected by the floods.

The Rusitu Valley, which was hardest hit by the cyclone, is home to hundreds of artisanal miners, most of whom are not registered with the ministry.

This, Mr Dube said, is expected to create challenges in coming up with the exact number of miners that were affected as most will remain unaccounted for.

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Source: President to lead Vic Falls clean-up | The Herald April 2, 2019

President Mnangagwa declared every first Friday of the month a national clean-up day from 8am to 10am

Leonard Ncube Bulawayo Bureau
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa will this Friday lead the National Clean-Up Day campaign in Victoria Falls as Government intensifies efforts to clean cities.

On December 5 last year, President Mnangagwa declared the first Friday of every month a National Clean-up Day, a time when all citizens are supposed to clean-up their surroundings between 8am and 10am.

Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs Minister Richard Moyo confirmed that President Mnangagwa would lead the clean-up in Victoria Falls.

“The President will be coming this Friday to lead from the front as we clean-up our tourist resort town. We know Victoria Falls is the cleanest city in Zimbabwe and the President will be coming to ratify that hence we are happy as a province as this will be an opportunity for our people to mix and mingle with him for a good cause,” said Minister Moyo.

He said the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) is preparing for the day. Minister Moyo urged people to turn up in their numbers for the clean-up, adding that the programme would be availed during the week.

The Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Mr Munesu Munodawafa, recently said Victoria Falls has the potential to become the world’s cleanest urban centre as he led the clean-up exercise in February.

Environmental and conservation organisations in and around Hwange district have started initiatives to complement the Government’s programme through a schools’ quiz competitions aimed at raising awareness about keeping the environment clean.

Recently, Environment Africa and Alert organised a quiz competition where nine primary schools from in and around Victoria Falls namely Sikebelo, Bethesda, Chidobe, Masue, Mizpah, BH36, Chimbombo, Chewumba and Sacred Heart Mission participated.

The competition was also used as belated commemorations for the Africa Environment and Water Day (Wangari Maathai Day) and World Wildlife Day to educate school children about keeping the environment clean.

Last week, Painted Dog Conservation in Dete organised a similar event for schools from Dete.

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Source: JUST IN: Tongaat in the eye of storm over farmers’ US$52 million | The Herald April 2, 2019

The post JUST IN: Tongaat in the eye of storm over farmers’ US$52 million appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

Source: ED ignores Motlanthe advice – NewsDay Zimbabwe April 2, 2019

BY BLESSED MHLANGA

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa, who came to power on the back of a coup in November 2017, is reportedly skirting critical recommendations contained in the former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe report on the August 1, 2018 shootings, to avoid unsettling his military backers.

The report on the August 1 post-election violent protests recommended that Mnangagwa’s government should bring to book soldiers and police who shot and killed six unarmed civilians during the post-election protests, some of whom were captured live on camera firing live ammunition on civilians.

The commission, in a report presented to government over four months ago, also recommended that: “Those particular members of the military and the police found to have been in breach of their professional duties and discipline on August 1, 2018 should be identified as soon as possible for internal investigations and appropriate sanction, which should include hearing from the victims and their families for impact assessment and to provide the necessary compensation.”

The commission’s report also called for an international and national-mediated multi-party dialogue to ease the political tensions and facilitate the healing process.

“The commission recommends the establishment of a multi-party reconciliation initiative, including youth representatives, with national and international mediation to address the root causes of the post-election violence and to identify and implement strategies for reducing tensions, promoting common understandings of political campaigning, combating criminality and uplifting communities,” the report reads.

Victims and relatives of the August 1 deadly shootings have accused Mnangagwa of dumping the report for political expedience.

Four months after the report was presented to government with recommendations which included compensating victims of the shootings, payment of school fees for children of those killed by the military and holding the killers to account, there seems to be no movement on the ground.

A sister of one of the victims shot dead during the riots said they had not heard or received any help from the government.

“We are waiting, but it’s been hard. My brother was the breadwinner and at the moment, we are struggling to make ends meet. We don’t see the benefits of the commission other than that it was used to create an image of a government that cares. They don’t!” she fumed, speaking on condition of anonymity.

But Justice ministry secretary Virginia Mabiza denied reports that government had ignored the Motlanthe report.

“Remember, the President set a special taskforce of ministers to deal with these issues and we are already at an advanced level of dealing with these matters, including compensation of victims, security sector reforms and multi-party dialogue, which is already being implemented,” she said.

Mabiza said the special taskforce would table its recommendations to Cabinet for approval before compensation and other matters are rolled out.

“We have already started with the realignment of laws, and other issues have been discussed at the taskforce. You should know that things like compensation involve mobilising resources and this is why we have roped in the Ministry of Finance to assist us, but work is being done and the report has not been dumped,” she added.

Opposition MDC leader Nelson Chamisa said it would be foolhardy to expect Mnangagwa to reform the military or own up to mistakes made by the army as it would be tantamount to biting the hand that feeds him.

“Mr Mnangagwa’s government is much worse at everything than any other government Zimbabwe has ever had. It is incompetent; it lacks the brains; it has no capacity; it has no central thought; it is without a philosophy of governance and it is fairly weak. It requires a bit of brain to survive on the basis of military activity. There’s no way Mr Mnangagwa could have been genuine about dealing with military excesses,” Chamisa said through his spokesperson Nkululeko Sibanda.

“We have said it that there was no will to implement the recommendations of the commission. It was just a public relations stunt to try and wash their hands in the eyes of the international community, but they were exposed when they went on to shoot dead 17 people in January. Again, the army is their centre of power and they won’t touch it. This is why Zimbabwe needs a transitional mechanism to implement genuine reforms and change our trajectory from a troubled and divided nation.”

Chamisa said Mnangagwa would not be moved to do anything.

“The army will always do what it wants and Mnangagwa can do nothing about it. He does not even dream about doing anything about it. Part of the problem, even with the army, may be that he is actually its titular leader and maybe causing so much confusion within its ranks,” he said.

“This means that even if the army would let him carry out reforms, it would be easy to notice that he is the problem. We have an unhinged President who has an untold level of intellectual capacity. He just does not have a good history as a thinker throughout his nearly eight decades of life on earth.”

Mnangagwa has moved to open multi-party dialogue with minority opposition parties after Chamisa and other opposition leaders boycotted the process, accusing the Zanu PF leader of being conflicted.

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Source: UPDATED: Parliament defends Matanda-Moyo | The Herald April 2, 2019

The post UPDATED: Parliament defends Matanda-Moyo appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.