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Source: Tobacco merchants suspend purchases – The Standard March 24, 2019

Tobacco farmer Edina Mayanga with her two children waiting anxiously for the pricing of the golden leaf on the first day of tobacco auction at TSF on Wednesday. Picture: Shepherd Tozvireva

BY FIDELITY MHLANGA

Tobacco merchants have suspended purchases of the crop this year, demanding an exemption from paying the 2% tax on intermediate transactions, Standardbusiness has learnt.

According to industry sources only four out of the 32 registered merchants participated in the first two days of tobacco sales, which were punctuated by low participation of growers as well. Growers are also angry with the payment methods and the currency that is being extended for payment.

Boka Auction Floors did not trade for the first two days of the marketing season, while two contracting firms, Mashonaland Tobacco Company (MTC) and Curverid, have pushed forward their opening dates to April 1 until the pressing issues are addressed.

The tobacco marketing season officially started last Wednesday with auction floors opening for trade, while contract floors were expected to commence on Thursday.

Tobacco associations and merchants have since requested audience with the central bank governor seeking resolution of the issues.

“We had a meeting with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) yesterday (Thursday) and merchants are saying we are bringing money in USD so why punishing us with this tax. As you know, tobacco is sold in foreign currency but current RBZ exchange control regulations require merchants to liquidate their foreign currency on the market so that they purchase tobacco in RTGS$. The tax is an extra cost to them considering that most of them use borrowed funds to finance the purchase of tobacco and cannot easily negotiate the prices of tobacco with the final offtake so as to absorb the additional cost from the 2 percent intermediate tax,” Bullion Leaf managing director Persistence Gwanyanya said.

“As you have seen, prices so far are not good at all because big merchants are not on the market. The RBZ governor (John Mangudya) said he was going to engage with Finance minister Mthuli Ncube since it was a fiscal issue. ”

The 2 cents per dollar tax imposed by treasury last year applies to transactions of $10 and above. There is a cap of $10 000 on the amount of tax to be paid with transfers above $500 000 attracting a flat tax of $10 000.

Statistics from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board show that the highest price which was offered on the auction floors dropped to $4,50/ kg from $4,99/kg last year.

The average price on the first and second day of the sales was $1,83/kg and $1,46/kg, respectively, much lower than the $2,22/kg which was achieved on both days last year.

Trade on the other two floors dipped 97% and 64%, respectively, during the first two days of the buying season as compared to last year with only 59,134kg being traded compared to 684 786kg last year.

Another tobacco associative executive confirmed that merchants were pressing the RBZ for a solution.

“Yes, we met yesterday (Thursday). There will be a new circular released soon covering all the issues of concern raised this week; some resolved, others may need continual engagement during the season, depending on how events unfold. Main issues discussed were RTGS/USD loans separations, with the RBZ to set minimum RTGS loan separation percentages. The RBZ circular will confirm the percentage,” he said.

But insiders say the matter of loans was concluded and it was resolved that contractors be repaid 70% in foreign currency and 30% in RTGS dollars.

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Source: Heroic boarding master relives how he saved 190 boys | The Standard (Local News)

BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA

It is midday last Wednesday an uncharacteristic silence envelopes St Charles Lwanga Seminary and Secondary School near Skyline in Chimanaimani.

The place looks deserted and there does not seem to be any sign of life.

It is  impossible to ignore the devastation that was wrought by Cyclone Idai at this Catholic-run institution, with some buildings reduced to rubble.

A week ago, two students and a staff member died on the spot after they were buried under mud and rocks.

For three days, the boys remained stuck as it was impossible to get aid to where they were.

In the Form 1 classroom, there are still blood stains on the desks where the deceased boys’ bodies were placed before villagers came to take them away.

The destroyed dormitory tells its own story, as coat-hangers, shoes, neck-ties and clothes lie scattered all over.

It is at this school that Charles Magureyi (68) works as the boarding master.

Magureyi is an unsung hero, who played a crucial role of taking care of the traumatised boys while two of them and a security guard were lying dead in a classroom.

Magureyi narrated how he laboured in the dark and rainy night to make sure that the 190 boys were safe.

“It was terrible. I had just done my routine check to make sure that the boys were safe in the dormitories,” he said.

“At around 9.45pm, I heard a loud bang, like a dynamite, at the Form 1 dormitory and I rushed to check.

“There was rubble and the boys were screaming.

“I realised that two of the boys were buried in the mud and that it was already too late to rescue them.

“With the help of Father Abraham Nemaisa, we evacuated the other boys to safety.

“We then returned to retrieve the trapped ones.

“We managed to retrieve one that night.”

The boarding master recalled how they searched for the security guard’s body.

“The security guard would always be at the gate, but on this day there were heavy winds.

“We have gumtrees near the gate and some time back one of the trees fell.

“So the security guard had taken shelter from the heavy winds in the kitchen.

“Unfortunately he was buried in the mud.

“We could not locate him.

“But the dog at the school kept on milling and shifting around a mound of mud.

“We later discovered blood flowing from the mud and that is when we dug up his body,” Magureyi said.

The teaching staff offered counselling services to the traumatised boys.

“After the disaster, I discovered that 14 of the boys had sustained injuries and urgently needed help,” Magureyi said.

“The authorities at Skyline told us that they were not coming to the school and that we had to leave on our own.

“After three days, we gathered enough courage and decided to take the risk by travelling to safety with the boys.

“Some villagers arrived and we made stretcher beds known as uchanja, to carry the bodies of the deceased boys.

“We had two groups, the first one was of the boys and some teaching staff, while the second one had the villagers ferrying the bodies.

“I took my own blankets to cover the bodies.

“We travelled at night, up the mountain, there was no road but we finally made it to safety.

“We had no choice, as we had been promised help but none was forthcoming.

“I read on social media that we had walked for 15km, that’s not it, we only walked about 4km to safety.

“The good thing is that God enabled me and others to take care of the boys. It’s unfortunate we could not save the two boys,” he said.

The school will not be re-opened soon, as it still remains inaccessible due to the destroyed Wengezi-Chimanimani road and it is clear that the school won’t open for at least this term.

Father Nemaisa, who is in charge of the school, said the boys could transfer to other schools so they do not lose out on learning time.

“The problem is the road,” he said.

“As it stands, we are stuck here and isolated.

“We can only speak of resuming operations once the road is rehabilitated. For now, we wait to see what will happen.”

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Source: Robbing the poor in the name of patriotism – The Standard March 24, 2019

Corruption watch WITH TAWANDA MAJONI

The post-Robert Mugabe administration led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa fancies itself a new dispensation. That is a useless fantasy, of course. Things are as old in the “new” administration as they ever were, sometimes worse.

Under Mugabe, they used state resources to persecute people. That narrative persists post-2017 when the military moved Mugabe out and installed Mnangagwa in his stead. People have fresh memories of what happened last January. Soldiers were deployed to brutalise an angry and also hungry urban population that rioted due to festering frustration over a worsening economy. There was lots of that during Mugabe’s time.

And, lately, the government has been threatening to toss civil society under the bus. The crime that civil society keeps committing is failing to zip up when the administration is doing things wrongly. So, the gooks have not only tried to shut one or two civil society organisations down but will also be using the spooks to peep into the bank accounts of those naughty institutions. In its weird newness, the Mnangagwa administration assumes that civil society is a hideout for terrorists. Again, we saw lots of that during Mugabe’s time.

When it took over, the “new dispensation” claimed that it was going to make politics a back bencher and focus on the economy. Clearly, having comprised the foot soldiers in the previous regime, it knows that an obsession with power politics was one of the biggest undoings of the Mugabe era. But then, old habits die hard. The economy has once again taken a back bench and its back to politics, politics and politics.

Hoping that we would get fooled, the post-Mugabe establishment got busy jaw-jawing about eradicating corruption once the coup tanks had gone back to the armouries. The anti-corruption mantra formed the core of the ruling party manifesto ahead of last year’s elections, and there were bits of political gardening to create a mirage of fighting graft.
There was so much of that rot under Mugabe’s tenure. But it’s robustly clear that the “new” administration is as rotten as a whole pile of whales washed out of the sea.

The list is far much longer than this, of course. But the Mnangagwa administration seems to have forgotten that there is no way in which a political dispensation can get different if it doesn’t start with giving its own house a new coat of paint. Put differently, there is no way in which you can change the way you run the country if you don’t change the way you run your party. All this time, President Mnangagwa and his lieutenants have been hollering about how they are going to change the culture of running the government — as if that day will ever come — but hardly anything about how they are going to reform Zanu PF.

Zanu PF suffers legendary notoriety for trampling on citizens, especially the hapless rural population. There was lots of that during Mugabe, and things have remained pretty the same under the current order. Predictably, ahead of the Independence anniversary in April, the tiger is showing its stripes once again, robbing poor villagers in the name of patriotism.

Many people out there — particularly the urban elites — might not know this, but there is a lot of corrupt injustice already happening out there. Local Zanu PF leaderships are forcing hungry villagers to pay at least $5 per head as “contributions” towards the Independence celebrations. Everything is worryingly wrong about this. The party representatives are saying the payments will be used as gauge to determine how patriotic the villagers are. Worse still, they are saying the payments will be used to decide who will get food aid and who will not. We all know that, because of poor rains and failed crops, there will be acute hunger this year. Naturally, the villagers are anxious to get onto the list of food aid beneficiaries, so they have no choice but to get the money from somewhere, by hook or crook.

The amount the villagers are being forced to pay may look small, but that is not the case. We are talking here of people who go for weeks, if not months, without a single bond coin passing through their hands. We are talking of parents whose children are failing to attend school because they don’t have a single dollar to buy notebooks. And we are talking of villagers who can’t afford the bus fare to go to the nearest clinic for medical attention.

Consider the absurdity of the conditions that Zanu PF is setting for the poor villagers. The president and government have a constitutional obligation to ensure that needy citizens don’t suffer socio-economic vulnerabilities and shocks. That is because citizens have a constitutional right not to suffer those vulnerabilities and shocks. So, where food aid is concerned, it is the legal duty of the government to provide to the citizens. Food aid must, therefore, never come with crude conditionalities like the ones the ruling party is setting. The villagers did the best they could to fend for themselves by tilling the land, and it’s not their problem that the rains failed them.

You don’t judge the level of patriotism in a person by whether or not they will contribute to Independence celebrations. Patriotism is far much nobler than that and resides in the heart and psyche of an individual. And patriotism is cultivated in, rather than foisted on, people. If you force them, you are bound to reap the opposite of patriotism. People will get disgusted, frustrated and angry with their political leaders and, in turn, their own government and country.

But who doesn’t know why the Zanu PF local structures are forcing the people to pay money towards the Independence celebrations? This is an age old tradition whereby party members use national events to fleece poor people by taking advantage of their vulnerability. There is no reason to believe that the money will go towards the celebrations, never mind the fact that citizens have no obligation to make contributions towards national events.

There is no reason, too, to believe that the party’s top leadership is not aware of what’s happening. That makes it an accomplice in this whole scam, which was also common during Mugabe’s time.

Tawanda Majoni is the national coordinator at Information for Development Trust (IDT), a member of the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) and can be contacted on tmajoni@idt.org.zw

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Source: Cyclone sweeps entire township | Sunday News (local news)

Nyore Madzianike in Mutare

AN entire township and its amenities including a police station, schools, business centre and Government offices were swept away to ‘‘ground zero’’ in Chimanimani by the Cyclone Idai-induced floods, a scary confirmation the death toll in the area could be higher than being estimated, a Cabinet Minister has said.

Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing July Moyo yesterday said indications were that 39 schoolchildren including their head and three teachers, in Rusitu Valley, were swept to their death by the strong waters that characterised the cyclone.

The township was totally wiped with the area where it used to be now occupied by huge boulders and soil that was dragged by the water from adjacent mountains. Speaking in Mutare yesterday after receiving a donation of various goods worth $400 000 from Inscor Africa, Minister Moyo, said: “At first, we were saying we were missing 147 people, now it is turning out that we are missing people whose 147 houses have been destroyed. So it is no longer people, but households which have been destroyed. 

“In Rusitu (Valley), we had a police camp which was wiped out, we had Agritex officers who were housed there. We had some schools there. We had a school where we lost three teachers, the headmaster and 39 pupils. These are areas we frantically want to reach, but there are many others.”

He added: “In Machongwe area they need to get food and there was a township that was completely wiped out. We do not know the number of survivors. We also understand that there were miners and we cannot accurately tell the number of those who perished there. The villagers are not able to identify those who were doing gold mining in the area.”

Minister Moyo said rescue teams were making frantic efforts to open roads to reach to all areas that have been rendered inaccessible due to damaged roads and bridges so that survivors get assistance while affording the dead a decent burial.

“Our teams are making efforts to open roads. Areas like Biriwiri are still not accessible even from Nyanyadzi. All the bridges were damaged from Wengezi to Nhedziwa and Biriwiri. We want to reach all areas that are in dire need like Ngangu and Rusitu.

“The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development is working with private companies like GreenFuel, Masimba Holdings and Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company to open new roads,” he said.

Minister Moyo said besides Chimanimani, other areas that were in need of assistance include Buhera, Gutu, Bikita, Zaka, Mvuma and Chirumhanzu.

A Harare-based housing and construction company, Enhanced Mortgage and Housing Africa has pledged to rebuild St Charles Lwanga Secondary School dining hall as well as 20 houses for the affected families in Chimanimani.

EMH Africa has also pledged to build classroom blocks at affected schools in Chipinge and Chimanimani.

The Cyclone Idai-induced rains affected mostly Chimanimani and Chipinge in Zimbabwe while indications are that 90 percent of the port city of Beira in Mozambique has been destroyed. The rains also devastated parts of Malawi.

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Source: ED pledges support for Gukurahundi victims – The Standard March 24, 2019

By NQOBANI NDLOVU

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday pledged to ensure the capacitation of the Home Affairs ministry with resources for the documentation exercise of Gukurahundi victims without identity particulars.

This emerged during a meeting Mnangagwa had with Matabeleland civic society organisations (CSOs) under the banner, Matabeleland Collective (MC), which was held at State House in Bulawayo.

Former vice-president Phelekezela Mphoko once launched the documentation exercise meant to benefit children who lost their parents to the 1980s mass killings.

“The President’s responses to civil society are that the Ministry of Home Affairs will be supported with resources to issue birth and death certificates to Gukurahundi victims in affected areas,” reads part of the MC minutes of the meeting.

“Gukurahundi survivors with challenges of accessing health care should be identified and assisted by the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare.”

Government’s failure to address the Gukurahundi issue, devolution and national healing were topical during the CSO’s engagement with Mnangagwa — a first of its kind.

Thousands of people do not have identity documents after losing their parents and relatives during the 1980s Matabeleland mass killings that left over 20 000 civilians dead, researchers say. This has resulted in, among others, some pupils dropping out of school after failing to write examinations because they had no birth certificates.

A survey once conducted by Women in Leadership Development (WILD), Emthonjeni Women’s Forum, Basilizwi, Lupane Women’s Development Trust and Inkanyezi Development Trust, among other regional CSOs, revealed that nearly 40% of children in Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South and Bulawayo do not have birth certificates.

Researchers cite the Gukurahundi massacres as one of the reasons why many youths do not have identity documents after their parents and guardians were killed by the North Korean trained Fifth Brigade in southern Zimbabwe in the 1980s.

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