Zim News Blog -NEWS NETWORK

Source: Zim must improve justice accessibility: EU | Newsday (News)

By Simbarashe Sithole

The European Union (EU) has challenged Zimbabwe to step up efforts to remove barriers in accessing justice for everyone regardless social status.

Speaking at the launch of the Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University (ZEGU)’s legal aid clinic in Bindura on Thursday, EU ambassador to Zimbabwe Timo Olkkonen said the government should simplify legal information, court processes and tackle corruption so that it becomes a just system accessible to everyone.

“On the demand side, the EU is supporting different strategies that are aimed at providing access to justice for those in need, for example, a project with the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) to enable quality legal representation for indigent people facing capital offences, support the Justice ministry’s Legal Aid Directorate, which provides assistance in both civil and criminal cases to those in need, support to law-based civil society organisations who provide legal services to various groups of people such as women and children,” he said.

“Supporting chiefs and headmen’s courts to improve the delivery of customary justice in line with the Constitution, supporting the revival or establishment of university legal aid clinics, has brought us here today. The clinics are also being revived or established at other universities.”

Olkkonen said many people were facing difficulties in accessing legal representation due to economic challenges, hence, the legal aid at ZEGU would go a long way in mitigating the challenge.

“In these difficult economic conditions, more people than before are finding it difficult to afford legal representation. This, in turn, negatively impacts on the protection of their constitutional rights,” he said.

“The EU commends the university for being socially responsive to the community surrounding it, realising that on the one hand, you possess a resource in the form of energetic and enthusiastic law students and their lecturers and on the other, you are surrounded by a community in need of legal aid.”

ZEGU is partnering the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and EU to establish the Bindura legal clinic.

The EU, together with ICJ, also donated an office printer, laptops, office desks, chairs and stationery to the ZEGU legal aid clinic to enhance academic and clinical education in the faculty of law.

ZEGU vice-chancellor Sunungurai Dominica Mutanga said the opening of the clinic would help the community by providing affordable and free legal services.

“As we speak, the senior law student class has began an exercise that will see them provide legal advisory services, draft legal opinions and provide legal counselling to the community free of charge,” Mutanga said. The call by EU for accessibility of justice comes at a time when LSZ reportedly hiked legal fees recently.

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Source: Cholera cases jump to 138 in Mozambique’s Beira after cyclone – NewsDay Zimbabwe March 30, 2019

BEIRA — The number of confirmed cases of cholera in the cyclone-hit Mozambican port city of Beira jumped from five to 138 yesterday, as government and aid agencies battled to contain the spread of disease among the tens of thousands of victims of the storm.

Cyclone Idai smashed into Beira on March 14, causing catastrophic flooding and killing more than 700 people across three countries in southeast Africa.

Many badly affected areas in Mozambique and Zimbabwe are still inaccessible by road, complicating relief efforts and exacerbating the threat of infection.

Although there have been no confirmed cholera deaths in medical centres in Mozambique yet, at least two people died outside hospitals with symptoms including dehydration and diarrhoea, the country’s Environment minister Celso Correia said.

A Reuters reporter saw the body of a dead child being brought out of an emergency clinic in Beira on Wednesday. The child had suffered acute diarrhoea, which can be a symptom of cholera.

“We expected this, we were prepared for this, we’ve doctors in place,” Correia said.

The government said, for the first time, there had been confirmed cholera cases on Wednesday.

Mozambique’s National Disaster Management Institute said the local death toll from the tropical storm had increased to 493 people, from 468 previously.

That takes the total death toll across Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi to 738 people, with many more still missing.

“Stranded communities are relying on heavily polluted water. This, combined with widespread flooding and poor sanitation, creates fertile grounds for disease outbreaks, including cholera,” the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement.

In Geneva, the World Health Organisation’s Tarik Jasarevic said 900 000 doses of oral cholera vaccine were expected to arrive on Monday.

—Reuters

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Source: UAE jet was donated: President | Newsday (News)

BY BLESSED MHLANGA

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has dismissed allegations that the lavish jets he used on his recent trips to the United Arab Emirates, South Africa and Bulawayo had drained Treasury, saying they did not cost the State a penny.

Addressing a Zanu PF central committee meeting yesterday, Mnangagwa said the plane hire was funded by the Crown Prince of the UAE, who had also pledged to keep a jet on standby for him as and when he wanted to travel.

“I was invited by the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed. He hosted us well. You hear people saying I flew with a luxury jet. Those are lies, they sent us a plane,” he said.

“We did not pay anything for that plane. The crown prince sent the aeroplane to pick us up and we went and it dropped us. I told him we had a problem with availability of planes, and he said whenever I want to travel, all I need to do is call.”

Mnangagwa said he laughs every time he reads or hears people comment over his travel using expensive and luxurious jets.

“Those who don’t know will just be pushing lies and saying we are spending money from the national budget. Then I just laugh,” he said.

Mnangagwa’s statements appeared to contradict what his spokesperson George Charamba said recently.

Charamba told our sister paper, The Standard, that Mnangagwa had hired the jet because it was cheaper and convenient for his entourage.

“Then coming to the Bulawayo issue, the aircraft you are talking about came in on Thursday and has been here preparing to take the President to South Africa for the Sadc Solidarity Conference on Western Sahara, scheduled for March 25 to 26, 2019 in Pretoria,” Charamba said last week.

“We booked the aircraft to be here until it brings back the President from the summit on Tuesday. If you were going to check, the aircraft is currently at the tarmac of the domestic flights and it is cheaper to hire the aircraft for days than to hire it on the day when the President wants to fly out.”

Zanu PF youth league deputy secretary Lewis Matutu challenged those who are saying government hired the plane to provide proof of payment.

“President Mnangagwa was invited to UAE and was provided with all the travel arrangements, including a private jet to and from UAE. He was also offered the same jet to South Africa before it went back to UAE. Those saying it was hired must provide proof of payment,” he said.

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Source: Women rights group probes Parly quota system’s effectiveness | Newsday (News)

BY SILAS NKALA

(SAPST) has launched a research into the extension of the women’s parliamentary quota system in Zimbabwe that was initially scheduled to expire in 2023.

The research seeks to assess the effectivenss of the women’s quota system as a means to empower them to actively and effectively participate in governance processes.

Walpe said the research findings would inform discussions on the future of the system beyond 2023.

“On one side are the opponents of the proportional representation (PR) system, calling for its abolition when it expires in 2023. The proponents argue that the 60 seats must be extended beyond 2023 as they provide a crucial window of opportunity for women representation in Parliament without which Parliament would remain a men’s club,” the organisation said in a statement.

Walpe said there were interesting points on both sides which should be examined in detail.

“Three major arguments raised are that the PR system has been hijacked by political parties and is now used to sideline women from contested seats,” Walpe said.

“In this reasoning, it is argued that political parties, mainly those dominated by men, now relegate women to PR seats and away from contested constituencies, making PR useless as it is not producing new leaders as the older women parliamentarians, who have served for many years, take ‘retirement’ in the PR ‘safe seats’.”

The organisation said there were others arguing that the PR system was a waste of taxpayers’ money as it led to a bloated Parliament.

“Given the economic hardships facing Zimbabwe, it is argued that the extra 60 seats on top of the 210 are too many for the country and are a huge burden on fiscus. This is more so given that parliamentarians often receive huge perks and benefits,” the statement added.

“The PR members of Parliament have been ineffective and just ‘seat warmers’. This argument says the women parliamentarians under the PR system have contributed nothing by means of debate on serious motions affecting the development of the nation nor have they represented the voice of women who are impoverished and oppressed.”

Walpe said proponents of the status quo claimed that removing the seats would lead to fewer women in Parliament.

“This would mean that only men would be ‘seen’ to be in leadership and thus further entrench patriarchy,” Walpe said. “Affirmative action is also another major reason raised by the proponents of PR extension. In this line of argument, women, because of historical marginalisation, are not yet at a social, economic and political level to compete with men equally in a political contest as they are hamstrung by a number of bottlenecks in a system created and shaped by men. As such, the PR seats are a window of opportunity for women to influence decision-making in the legislature.”

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MOBILE operator NetOne has increased its tariffs, following similar actions by Econet and telecel this week. This means all three GSM mobile network operators, namely Econet, Net One and Telecel, have hiked their tariffs effective 1 April. Find below the full list of SMS and call tariffs announced by NetOne: