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ZIMBABWE has started exporting electricity to regional countries especially Namibia, buoyed by increased production at the Kariba Power Station which came into life in March last year. President Mnangagwa commissioned Unit 7 and 8, which were constructed at a cost of $531 million by China’s Sinohydro, resulting in an additional 300MW into the national grid. The Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC)

Source: Govt dismisses cyclone rip-off | The Herald March 23, 2019

Tropical Cyclone Idai

From George Maponga in BIKITA
Government and the ruling Zanu PF have dismissed circulating reports alleging that some homeless victims of Cyclone Idai in Bikita were being ripped off through paying a daily levy for accommodation, by fellow villagers in the disaster prone district.

Bikita is one of the districts hardest hit by Idai which claimed five lives, affected more than 4 000 households and left nearly 300 families completely homeless.

There were reports that some unscrupulous people in the district were ripping off victims in Bikita by charging them a levy of $10 per night per person for accommodation.

Deputy Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet (Presidential Communications) Mr George Charamba was quoted saying some of the victims were being ripped off.

However, Bikita district administrator Mr Bernard Hadzirabwi yesterday disputed the report saying investigations so far showed nothing of that sort was happening.

“We heard it on the news and we effected investigations which even included members of the Joint Operations Command here and we found nothing of that sort here.

“Investigations that we have carried so far, have shown that no victim is paying for accommodation here and we even sent our officials to places where that practice was said to be happening and it turned out to be false,’’ said Mr Hadzirabwi.

He said Government would not allow that to happen especially to victims of Cyclone Idai whose effects are being mitigated to make sure those affected rebuild their lives.

Mr Hadzirabwi’s revelation was also corroborated by Zanu PF national political commissar Retired Lieutenant-General Engelbert Rugeje who was speaking in Bikita on the sidelines of a donation of blankets and other materials he sourced from sons and daughters from the district.

Rt Lt-Gen Rugeje, who hails from the district, blamed the social media for spreading false reports saying the people of Bikita practiced ubuntu/unhu.

“I was disturbed when I heard reports that some victims here were being ripped off because I come from Bikita and I know the people from my home area very well,’’ he said.

“The people of Bikita have always upheld the tradition of being there for each other and sharing, be it in good or bad times. Report of victims being ripped off here is an act of mischief particularly on social media. I think that the source of such malicious information should account for that.”

He said inquiries from traditional leaders and ordinary people on the reports had proven the allegations to be completely false.

“The people of Bikita, who are predominantly of the Duma clan have a heart, they are known for their purity and uprightness particularly on issues to do with helping each other and under no circumstances would they make life hard for each other,’’ he said.

Humanitarian aid from Government, donor organisations and ordinary well-wishers has been flowing to cyclone victims in Bikita and three other districts ravaged by the disaster.

 

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Source: Cyclone survivors recount tales of woe – NewsDay Zimbabwe March 23, 2019

BY Everson Mushava/Tapiwa Zivira

JOHN Mufudza rolled down a huge and steep mountain leading to the Rusitu valley, which housed Dzingere growth point, popularly known as Kopa in Chipinge.

He looked devastated and tired, physically and emotionally.

The man stopped walking, looked down into the valley, rolled up his blue cotton T-shirt and wiped the sweat flooding his face.

He made a few more steps down the hill and again stopped, hunched on a huge boulder, sighed in obvious disbelief of what his eyes were feeding on.

What used to be a residential place had been washed away by ferocious floods that left monstrous boulders strewn all over the valley.

For anyone who did not know the place, only graphic communicators could convince them to believe that this area used to be a residential suburbs occupied by agriculture extension workers, teachers, banana traders and a police station on the north.

“This is where my son-in-law’s house used to be,” Mufudza whispered, pointing at a huge tree that stood tall and proud beside the huge rocks deposited on the valley by the furious floods.

“All is history now. My brother-in-law and his two children are no more.”

Mufudza had been told of what befell his son-in-law and his two children and set off from Masvingo to the valley to satisfy his anxiety on what he had been told had happened.

He narrated: “My son-in-law was a businessman. He owned a grocery shop close to the residential place and his children attended school near the suburb, on the eastern side of the police station. He heard people talking about the floods and rushed to pick up his children, but was trapped by the floods and washed away. No one knows where he is.”

Down the valley, anxious people are crossing to and from a makeshift bridge to the place where over 80 housed had been washed away. There is no trace that the place used to be a residential place. Huge stones, debris of bridges and trees litter the whole place.

While others were coming to see things for themselves, most people were coming to listen to President Emmerson Mnangagwa promise them food, shelter and medicines. Most of them wanted to be assured that government would do all in its capacity to recover the bodies of their missing relatives and bring closure to their lives.

One women, who miraculously survived, gave harrowing experienced of what happened, disclosing that some families with as high as nine members had been washed away and no one has been accounted for.

“This place now covered by these rocks is where our houses used to be. The houses were washed away by floods after three rivers, Nyahode, Rusitu and Chipita changed course and flooded the whole valley. The house next to mine, there were nine people and they all perished,” one of the survivors rescued by fellow villagers using a rope, Joice Mudzokora, said.

One of the villagers, she said, who worked at the growth point, but did not stay with his wife and children, had invited his family for the weekend and none of his children survived.

Only his wife, who did not come with the children, survived.

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THREE police officers, one of them a senior cop were arrested on Friday when they were found with 15 different types of guns, more than 180 live bullets and several other assortment of related armaments which were not accounted for by the force.  David Fugao, whose age was not given but is an Officer-in-Charge at the Matabeleland North Provincial Armoury (in Bulawayo), Wonder Tawanda Karamba

Source: Paz warns against crossing flooded rivers | Daily News

Drivers of passenger service vehicles must desist from crossing flooded rivers, the Passengers Association of Zimbabwe (Paz) said yesterday.

Paz joined the nation in mourning the loss of life and livelihoods in the areas affected by Cyclone Idai.
“We are disheartened by the fact that some buses attempted to cross flooded rivers’ bridges,” Paz president Tafadzwa Goliati said.

Paz said while it anticipates the speedy rehabilitation of road infrastructure destroyed by Cyclone Idai, “we are fully aware that given the circumstances the demands for assistance are many whilst resources — despite efforts by all stakeholders — cannot meet every pressing need.”

Paz said it acknowledges and salutes the concerted effort made by the government, the donor community, embassies, civil society and community-based organisations and many individuals including neighbours of victims of the cyclone in assisting the victims of Cyclone Idai.

“It is a trying time and our prayer remains that the homes, bridges and roads will be built soonest and that all of us will also work towards ensuring that victims get required access to clean water, sanitation and food. The cyclone has passed but the effects remain.

“Our government should ensure, that the Civil Protection Unit has adequate funding in order to directly warn people evict people before the disaster, as a proactive initiative,” the Paz president said.

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