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Source: Sadc should harmonise data regulations: Machengete | Newsday (News)

BY STAFF REPORTER

ZIMBABWE has made an indelible mark in the regional telecommunications industry, championing various Sadc postal sector reform initiatives which will see the sector leveraging on e-commerce and innovation for sustainability.

The country took part at the five day 8th annual Communications Regulators’ Association of Southern Africa (CRASA) which ended yesterday in Tanzania, where it was represented by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz).

CRASA is the Sadc’s body responsible for the harmonisation of ICT and postal policies, standards and procedures for the region and it is also responsible for steering ICT and postal sector development in the region, through research and policy interventions.

Potraz director-general Gift Machengete said there was need for the harmonisation of data within the Sadc region.

“There was need for more effort in data collection and provision by Sadc member States in order to inform the report on the baseline status of the region against the Sadc broadband targets,” he said.

“Zimbabwe had already started collecting gender disaggregated ICT access and use statistics and made reference to the census on ICT access and use by health and educational institutions which was recently launched by Potraz.”

Machengete also highlighted the need for detailed definitions or use of standard International Telecommunications Union (ITU) definitions for ICT indicators to ensure countries provided comparable data.

“Cost of broadband per month, as an ICT indicator, for instance, was subject to interpretation, as bandwidth packages differed from one country to another,” he said, adding: “The cost of international internet connectivity was a major input to the overall cost of broadband, especially for landlocked countries.”

Zimbabwe is the convener of the postal committee, which is championing various Sadc postal sector reform initiatives. The reforms will see the sector leveraging on e-commerce and innovation for sustainability. Under its purview, Zimbabwe worked on the Sadc postal, e-commerce and trade facilitation guidelines, which will be forwarded to Sadc for approval and implementation.

The country is also a member of the CRASA roaming taskteam, which is seized with implementing the “roam like at home” project for Sadc member States, an initiative aimed at eradicating roaming tariffs across the region.

Zimbabwe is actively involved in the Sadc TV bouquet project, under the CRASA communications committee. This project will see the creation of TV content for Sadc countries aimed at promoting and safeguarding African values and heritage.

The South African Broadcasting Corporation will start pilot testing this bouquet in May 2019.

Zimbabwe will be hosting the Pan-African Postal Union (PAPU) Plenipotentiary (elective) conference in 2020.

In this regard, Machengete reminded delegates that during the meeting of Sadc senior officials responsible for ICTs held in Kasane, Botswana, from March 19 to 22, 2019, member States were urged to start the process of identifying a Sadc candidate for the position of secretary-general of PAPU.

Machengete hinted that Zimbabwe was considering fielding a candidate for the position.

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A LECTURER who works for a city college has been sentenced to an effective eight years in jail for raping his 19-year-old student. Felistas Kwenda, who is employed by Debmar College, raped the girl in February when she enrolled for a five-day till-operating course with the institution. Initially, Kwenda was sentenced to 12 years in jail by regional magistrate Gloria Takundwa. However,

Source: Sniffer dogs recover 16 bodies in Ngangu | Daily News

As Cyclone Idai slowly revealed the victims of its deadly march, search-and-rescue sniffer dogs have started scouring remote patches and gutted villages, going door-to-door in the storm-crushed Ngangu area in Chipinge so far leading to the recovery of 16 bodies.

The dogs are racing to reach the injured, the dead and those in need of help, hoping to chip away at a long list of people reportedly missing after one of the most powerful storms in Zimbabwean history.

The death count is hovering around 300 but is likely to rise.
Search-and-rescue personnel are working in affected areas, now with help from sniffer dogs from South Africa.

The dogs, trained to sniff out human life, are looking for the tiniest signs of life, cutting through brush, debris, trudging through snake-infested grass.

The sniffer dogs are trudging through a pile of ruins, and they are trying to smell something: a scent that disaster veterans fear. One that suggests a pile of rubble has become a grave.

The sniffer dog retrievers trained to sniff out human life, are barking each time they sniff out human remains.
The team of rescuers and dogs are undertaking their latest grim mission.

Search and Recovery Team Leader Justin Colbert, who is leading a team of six experts and two sniffer dogs, said the progress made so far is encouraging despite the fact that huge stones and massive debris is slowing their pace.

“16 suspected bodies were identified today and with the right support we are receiving, we hope to find more,” Colbert told State TV.

Chimanimani East legislator Zanu PF Joshua Sacco said: “We are now appealing to government to make available recovery machines to rescue the identified bodies.”

The post Sniffer dogs recover 16 bodies in Ngangu appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

A LECTURER who works for a city college has been sentenced to an effective eight years in jail for raping his 19-year-old student. Felistas Kwenda, who is employed by Debmar College, raped the girl in February when she enrolled for a five-day till-operating course with the institution. Initially, Kwenda was sentenced to 12 years in […]

MDC secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora, says he has the capacity to lead the country’s biggest opposition political party if the structures nominate him to contest for that position at the MDC congress to run from May 24 to 26. It will be the first congress since the death of the MDC founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai who died of colon cancer on February 14, last year. Tsvangirai’s death saw