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Source: Aid arrives from UAE, Tanzania | The Herald March 20, 2019

President Magufuli

Herald Reporters
Zimbabwe has started receiving support from countries in the region and far afield, with a planeload of assistance arriving yesterday from Tanzania while a huge consignment is due to arrive this morning from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

South Africa, Namibia and Angola have also pledged support.

Locally, The Herald understands business will hand over an assortment of goods for the President to channel to his stricken people reeling from the deadly effects of Cyclone Idai which has left a trail destruction and death in the eastern and south-western parts of the country.

Over 100 people have been confirmed dead, while thousands of others have been displaced, with far more destruction being wrought in the neighbouring countries of Mozambique and Malawi.

Speaking in Mutare yesterday, President Mnangagwa said the country had received pledges of support in the form of helicopters, medicines, vehicles among many others with friendly countries responding positively to his calls for assistance in the dark hour.

“On Saturday, when I was advised of the destruction in Manicaland, there was not much information. I advised my counterpart in Abu Dhabi that I should go home and address the effects of the cyclone. Our hosts enquired what we required and we sent word back home to be briefed of the requirements. The most likely materials we found necessary included medicines, tents, blankets, motor vehicles and so on,” he said.

“The ruler of Abu Dhabi promised that he will send these materials that they pledged in three days.”

The President said the head of the Red Cross Society in Abu Dhabi had already put together these things and they will arrive within three days, minus the vehicles, which would arrive later.

He added:“The Tanzanian President (John) Magufuli called me and expressed his condolences. He asked me what assistance they can provide and we gave them a list. A plane will arrive tomorrow with the materials we have mentioned to him. Condolence messages have also come from Angola, Namibia and South Africa. South Africa has provided us with an Air Ambulance as well as a passenger helicopter. We are grateful for all this assistance.

“We are aware that South Africa has also been affected by the cyclone and so far we understand that more than 100 people have died. In Mozambique we understand that more than 1 000 people have died and there has been serious devastation and loss of property around Beira.”

President Mnangagwa said it was fortunate that the mountainous terrain in Manicaland had helped to weaken Cyclone Idai as it moved towards Malawi and back to the sea.

“We, according to the weatherman, helped to weaken Idai. We are grateful that we have these mountains because had they not been there, the cyclone would have had a worse impact,” he said.

And last night, Presidential spokesperson Mr George Charamba, who is also the Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet (Presidential Communications), confirmed  that a consignment of material from Tanzania had arrived, with support from UAE on the way.

“This evening, the President has received a 15-tonne consignment of material for alleviation of cyclone victims from the government of Tanzania,” said Mr Charamba.

“This is a gift by the people of Zimbabwe through their Government to the people of Zimbabwe through President Mnangagwa. Tomorrow afternoon, the President will be receiving a planeload of materials from United Arab Emirates and this is arising from his recent working visit to that country. The material is a gift from the people of UAE through their humanitarian arm called Red Crescent. It is understood that it will have materials that include medicines, tents and many other things that are required to support the cyclone victims.

“I am aware that the President has received two planes from South Africa (helicopters), one which is an air rescue service plane and another which is an all-weather helicopter which had been chartered by a well-wisher. Tomorrow (today) when it’s clear, the President will be going to Chimanimani.”

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The Zimbabwe sub aqua police unit were met with quite a surprise when some of the trapped cyclone Idai victims refused to be rescued and preferred to hold on to their property instead. The sub aqua unit had to swim across the dangerous, flowing waters to reach the victims who were stranded for three days […]

Source: Cabinet deliberations centre on deadly cyclone | The Herald March 20, 2019

Minister Moyo

Felex Share Senior Reporter
President Mnangagwa yesterday ensured that the Cabinet meeting he chaired placed its primary focus on the Cyclone Idai disaster which left 104 people dead, while businesses, homes and schools were destroyed.

Soon after chairing the Cabinet meeting, the Head of State and Government headed for Manicaland Province, the epicentre of the cyclone, to supervise rescue and relief efforts.

The cyclone, which also hit Malawi and Mozambique, left a trail of destruction and caused deaths in Masvingo and Mashonaland East provinces.

Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister July Moyo, who has been on the ground since the weekend, apprised Cabinet of the situation.

He dispelled reports that the deceased had been buried in mass graves.

“The mortuary in Chimanimani had no electricity and together with the other people, the bereaved were able to bury their loved ones,” he said.

“They were communicating with us. We had heard that they were going to bury them in mass graves and even parliamentarians were asking me questions thinking that we had buried people in mass graves. We heard about it and I gave instructions that nobody gets buried in a mass grave. The youths were mobilised there to dig graves and we are able to find somebody who gave us coffins. What happened is that a mother was buried together with the child. To me that could have only been the decision of the family not us as Government because we discourage people being buried in mass graves.”

He said those who could not take their loves ones to their home areas buried them in Chimanimani urban centre.

Minister Moyo said there was a possibility that some bodies of people from the Rusitu area could have floated all the way into Mozambique.

“At Rusitu there are two rivers which converge and they all burst and we understand there are bodies that floated and some all the way into Mozambique,” he said.

“Peasants in Mozambique were calling our people to say we see bodies and we believe they are coming from Zimbabwe. The total number we were told could be 100 with some going as far as saying they could be 300. We cannot confirm this situation.”

He said rescue efforts were continuing while aid was now reaching some areas which not accessible in the past days because of the cyclone.

Meanwhile, Cabinet received a report back from Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Prisca Mupfumira on Zimbabwe’s recent participation at the International Tourism Bourse (ITB) in Germany.

Zimbabwe won two prestigious awards from the Pacific Travel Writers’ Association Awards (PATWA).

Zimbabwe won the Sustainable Destination of the Year Award, while Minister Mupfumira scooped the Tourism Minister of Year Award (Africa).

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Source: State engages ZMDC creditors | The Herald March 20, 2019

Ishemunyoro Chingwere Business Reporter
Government is engaging creditors owed millions of  dollars by six mines owned by the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) that were last year tendered for partial privatisation, in a bid to stop continued property attachments and give the mining firms a chance to recover.

Government, through the ZMDC, last year placed two gold-rich deposits of Jena Gold Mine and Evington Gold Mine as well as Lynx Graphite Mine, Sandawana Mine, Mbungu CBM and Gwayi CBM on the market.

However, in February Government cancelled the tenders that had attracted 151 investors.

The partial privatisation process for the six assets is one of the key strategies with which the Minister of Mines and Mining Development seeks to grow the country’s mineral export earnings to US$12 billion by 2023 as a contribution to President Mnangagwa’s Vision 2030 by which Zimbabwe should attain upper middle-income earning status.

In an interview, Mines Ministry Secretary, Mr Onesimo Mazai Moyo, said the tendering process had problems as the form and underlying value of the assets kept changing due to property attachments by creditors.

It is against this background that Government, as already announced, made the decision to withdraw the assets from the market to repackage its offer.

The Secretary said his ministry was currently locked in negotiations with concerned creditors to find common ground and if need be, consider a scheme of arrangement that will give the assets a moratorium from creditors attachments and a chance to life.

“We ran into a problem with the tendering in that investors did came to view the assets prior to bidding but what was happening is that the assets were changing in form and the underlying value for which the investor would have placed a bid as creditors would pitch up from time to time to attach property,” said the Permanent Secretary.

“So it would then distort the process in that once there are changes to the asset tendered for, the investor would then want to alter their bid in line with the new value as they see it.

“So what we are now doing is we are working on repackaging our offering to the market by way of getting creditors’ buy-in through maybe a scheme of arrangement, if we can agree on one.

“We are currently talking to them (creditors) and I am sure our engagements will yield positive results.

“Our hope is that once this is done, we will then be able to go back to the market and present our offer in a calm environment and this could even get us even more investors in a re-tender,” he said.

Mr Moyo said another challenge that needs redress is to do with the fact that some of the concerned assets are under explored thus quantifying their real value for tendering processes is somewhat problematic.

It is against this background that he said hope is that the ministry will get funds for exploration work and get results with which they will go to the market and be able to argue from an exploration backed standpoint.

“The other challenge is that some of the assets are not fully explored, thus there is need for exhaustive resource definition exercises so that as Government we are then able to tell the market that this is the value of what we are selling, backed by exploration results,” he said.

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Source: Cyclone Idai affects over 2,6 million in Sadc | The Herald March 20, 2019

Cyclone winds and floods that swept across south-eastern Africa affected more than 2,6 million people and could rank as one of the worst weather-related disasters recorded in the southern hemisphere, United Nations officials said yesterday.

Rescue crews are still struggling to reach victims five days after Cyclone Idai raced in at speeds of up to 170 kph (105 mph) from the Indian Ocean into Mozambique, then its inland neighbours Zimbabwe and Malawi.

Aid groups said many survivors were trapped in remote areas, surrounded by wrecked roads, flattened buildings and submerged villages.

“There’s a sense from people on the ground that the world still really hasn’t caught on to how severe this disaster is,” Matthew Cochrane, spokesman for International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies told a UN briefing in Geneva.

“The full horror, the full impact is only going to emerge over coming days.”

The official death count in Mozambique stands at 84, but its President Filipe Nyusi said on Monday that he had flown over some of the worst-hit zones, seen bodies floating in rivers and now estimated more than 1 000 people may have died there. The cyclone hit land near Mozambique’s port of Beira on Thursday last week and moved inland throughout the weekend, leaving heavy rains in its wake on Tuesday. Studies of satellite images suggested 1,7 million people were in the path of the cyclone in Mozambique and another 920 000 affected in Malawi, Herve Verhoosel, senior spokesman at the UN World Food Programme said.

Several rivers had broken their banks, or were about to, leaving a huge area covered by the waters, and only accessible by air and water, Lola Castro, WFP regional director for Southern Africa told the UN briefing by phone from Johannesburg.

Heavy rains preceded the cyclone, compounding the problems, said Clare Nullis of the UN World Meteorological Organisation.

“If the worst fears are realised . . . then we can say that it is one of the worst weather-related disasters, tropical-cyclone-related disasters in the southern hemisphere.”

Droughts are classed as climate-related, not weather-related. In Beira, a low-lying coastal city of 500 000 people, Nullis said the water had nowhere to drain.

“This is not going to go away quickly,” she said.

Beira is also home to Mozambique’s second largest port, which serves as a gateway to landlocked countries in the region. — Reuters.

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