Zim News Blog -NEWS NETWORK

Strive Masiyiwa is live at a Kenya Townhall meeting. Strive is talking about scaling companies.  Strive Masiyiwa

Source: Police face suit over protest killing | Daily News

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) has petitioned Home Affairs minister Cain Mathema, demanding compensation over a Chitungwiza man who was shot dead during the January fuel price hike protests.

According to a letter dated February 22, 2019, the organisation said it intends to sue the ministry over the death.  The letter was also copied to the officer in charge Chitungwiza Police Station, Commissioner-General of police Godwin Matanga, Prosecutor-General Kumbirai Hodzi and Health and Child Care minister Obadiah Moyo among other offices.

“Our clients have informed us as follows: on January 14, 2019, Kelvin Choto was killed by a police officer during protests taking place outside Chitungwiza Police Station. “He was shot in the head by police in the main road about 20 metres from the police station, outside the police fence. Sadly, he died on the spot.

“On January 15, 2019, … Choto’s father, Julius…, went to Chitungwiza Police Station and reported his son missing.
“He was referred to Chitungwiza General Hospital, where he identified his son’s body in the mortuary,” ZLHR said.

The organisation said when Julius went to Chitungwiza Police Station to make an application for a post-mortem report, he was told by the member-in-charge that the process had already been initiated and he was asked to make a statement to the investigating officer only identified as Ngwere.

A sudden death docket was opened, while Julius was advised that a post-mortem report would be collected from Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals. ZLHR said a post-mortem was conducted at Parirenyatwa hospital on January 18, 2019 and the family went to get a copy at Chitungwiza Police Station.

However, the member-in-charge informed Julius that the post-mortem report was not for his consumption and that only the commissioner-general of police would release the report but the family has not yet been supplied with the document.

“In light of the above circumstances and in accordance with our … Choto’s family’s right to administrative justice and right to access information and the truth pertaining to his death, we hereby request a copy of the post-mortem report and documents including: copies of any consent and/or authorisation for the initiation of the post-mortem process in terms of Sections 4 and 8 of the Anatomical Donations & Post-Mortem Examinations Act (Chapter 15:01) or of any direction given for the post mortem by a magistrate in terms of Section 6 (1) (a) of the Inquests Act,” the organisation said.
It further demanded copies of the certificate establishing death and an inquest report, among other documents.

“In the event that an inquest has not been initiated, we hereby request that the matter be urgently referred to a magistrate for investigation, in terms of Section 5 of the Inquests Act (Chapter 7:07).

“Finally, we hereby notify you of our clients’ intention to sue for damages for the unlawful killing of … Choto by the Zimbabwe Republic Police. Damages to be claimed include loss of support, pain and suffering and nervous shock, the sum to be commuted in due course and to be furnished in the summons commencing action,” the lawyers said.

Mathema has not yet responded to the letter.

The post Police face suit over protest killing appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

Source: Death, suffering at hospitals. . . doctor weeps in front of Health minister | Daily News

Senior doctors at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals yesterday narrated to the minister of Health Obadiah Moyo, of the horrors and deaths occurring everyday at major hospitals because of acute shortages of drugs and hospital consumables.

The medical practitioners yesterday embarked on a public protest demanding government’s speedy intervention citing that the situation has forced them to scale down their services except for dire emergencies only. Moyo met the doctors at Parirenyatwa during their protest.

Raising concern on behalf of the distraught doctors Azza Mashumba, a paediatrician, wept before Moyo as she narrated how several patients had lost lives due to the lethargy from authorities in dealing with the situation.  “We are coming to certify dead bodies…,” she said.

Enunciating the deteriorating situation at State hospitals Mashumba added: “I come to work, I do my very best but my outputs are still births and my outputs are disabled babies. “I have patients in the oncology ward, we start them on chemotherapy and two weeks later syringes are finished, what do we do, interrupt treatment then restart?”

So dire is the situation in public hospitals that doctors are forced to do some of the painful procedures on patients without some essential drugs due to the acute shortages. Besides being out-dated and in need of repairs, medical equipment has allegedly been operating without being serviced for years.

One doctor revealed that the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Harare Central Hospital had also been closed while another revealed that incubators at Mbuya Nehanda Maternity Ward were in need of repairs. David Chimuka, a surgeon, told the Daily News that without speedy intervention the doctors will not be able to work normally and save lives.

“We decided to only do emergency operations…which amounts to 20 percent and 80 percent are elective operations, because we are running on limited drugs and equipment,” he said. To make matters worse, the hospitals are also failing to supply doctors with gloves, syringes and bandages resulting in a health hazard with patients having to wash and re-wear bandages.

“So it’s about the theatre time, it’s about gloves, running water, consumable antibiotics, consumable pain killers, even the patients in my ward, I admit patients who can’t breathe and we need to do operations to put tracheostomy, we don’t have tracheostomy, the ones that we are using right now were donated,” said Cameline Nyamarebvu, an ear, nose and throat consultant (ENT).

A survey by the Daily News inside Parirenyatwa hospital yesterday revealed the backlog situation has spiralled out of control with seriously ill patients lying on casualty hospital beds on the passage while others were sitting on benches waiting for the doctors to attend to them.

Sadly, more ill patients continue to be hurriedly brought in through the casualty on emergency beds by relatives.The doctors also said they have a huge operating list backlog which is already booked up to June — precipitating from the junior doctors’ 40-day industrial strike.

In response, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, Thomas Zigora, said that he was aware of the challenges which according to him were precipitated by foreign currency challenges. “Sending out foreign currency is a problem and banks are unable to send foreign currency outside the country to suppliers… ,” he said.

Medicine continues to account for a big chunk of Zimbabwe’s import bill. An estimated of US$85 million is needed to procure medicines annually. The doctors, however, advised both Zigora and Moyo that instead of waiting for imports, government could simply buy medication from local suppliers who do not require US dollars.

Zigora further stated that he had previously explained to the doctors that some of the bids for a few weeks supplies had gone to tender.
“We are sick and tired of two, three weeks solutions. I lost a girl last week… there was no single working ventilator… I also lost another 18-year-old because I could not get an operating theatre and she died,” said another doctor responding to Zigora revealing that the tender process would even take up to six months and by that time many lives would have been lost.

Meanwhile, according to the doctors, Mbuya Nehanda Maternity Clinic is still yet to be rehabilitated after the fire that took place early February. “There is just no urgency, this fire happened on the second of February and yet they are painting the outside, how is that helping?

In response to the plight of the doctors, Moyo empathised and assured the doctors that government would take requisite steps to rationalise the situation. Moyo, however, brought Zigora to task questioning him about the delay in rehabilitating Mbuya Nehanda Maternity Clinic as well as making consultations to find out what the doctors urgently needed instead of waiting for tenders that required a long time.

Moyo was shocked to find out that no work had begun at the hospital yet Treasury had already released money for the rehabilitation of the maternity clinic. “Yes you mentioned issues to do with foreign currency, but I believe there are ways we can be able to speed up issues,” he said.

The post Death, suffering at hospitals. . . doctor weeps in front of Health minister appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

Source: Bring rogue soldiers to book — HRW | Newsday (News)

By Tatenda Chitagu

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has challenged President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration to bring to book rogue soldiers who killed 17 protestors and allegedly raped several women during the riots sparked by the January 150% fuel price hike.

In a report released on Tuesday titled Zimbabwe: Excessive Force Used Against Protestors, HRW said government should stop ongoing abuses and release people detained arbitrarily.

“The authorities should arrest and prosecute those responsible for abuses and send a strong message that crimes by the security forces won’t be tolerated,” Dewa Mavhinga, Southern Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said.

The report condemned the continued crackdown on civil society and opposition leaders and said the State should, instead, address the underlying causes of the protests to avoid the situation getting out of control.

HRW interviewed 45 victims of abuses and their family members, witnesses, activists, medical personnel, lawyers, police officers, and others in Harare, Epworth, and Chitungwiza in February.

The report chides law enforcement officials for using live ammunition on protesters.

“Law enforcement officials should not use firearms against people except to protect against the imminent threat of death or serious injury,” it said.

According to the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission findings on the violence, law enforcement agents seemed to “resort to (the) use of brute, excessive and disproportionate force in most circumstances, thereby causing avoidable loss of life and also worsening the situation”.

HRW urged African leaders “to impress upon Mnangagwa on the need for prompt, impartial and effective investigations into the violence”.

“Southern Africa leaders should press Mnangagwa to put an end to security force abuses and ensure those responsible are brought to justice. Instead of burying his head in the sand when it comes to human rights, (South Africa) President (Cyril) Ramaphosa should publicly urge his Zimbabwean counterpart to deliver on his promise to get to the bottom of these allegations and hold perpetrators to account”, Mavhinga said.

HRW documented the cases of 14 men and three women killed by security forces between January 14 and February 5. It says 14 of those died from gunfire, while three died from injuries sustained following severe beatings.

Most of those killed were from Epworth, Chitungwiza, and Harare’s Mbare and Warren Park suburbs.

The post Bring rogue soldiers to book — HRW appeared first on NewsDay Zimbabwe.

The post Bring rogue soldiers to book — HRW appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

Source: Minister evicts villagers | Daily News

Manicaland Provincial Affairs minister Ellen Gwaradzimba is in another farm eviction storm — this time involving 21 villagers who allege she is encroaching into their land to expand her Penhalonga farm.

They claim to have assisted her family wrestle the farm from its former white owner and even showing her the farm’s boundary with Zengeni Village whose part she now claims to be hers. The villagers were this week issued with seven-day eviction notices giving them until March 19 to leave the land or face arrest in the messy fallout.

“You are violating section 3 of the Gazetted Lands (Consequential Provisions) Act Chapter 20:20; Gazetted Land Act in that you are occupying the said property (Zengeni Farm) without lawful authority,” reads part of the generic letter which was stamped on November 13, 2018 but filled in on March 12, 2019.

They have, however, been already on trial at Mutasa Magistrates’ Courts for the “illegal occupation” of the farm, having had a civil suit against them withdrawn as the Lands ministry took over the long-standing dispute following her ministerial appointment.

The villagers, who are all self-confessed Zanu PF supporters with some being members of the Zimbabwe Liberation War Collaborators Association (Ziliwaco), say they are now a laughing stoke of opposition members and were also being chided by the white farmer whom they say is also waiting for his turn to reclaim the farm.

“We feel betrayed by someone we helped to settle in our area as a neighbour and now we are being mocked for bringing this on ourselves. “Even the white commercial farmer would not have encroached into our village like what the minister has done,”

Ownered Zengeni, one of the affected villagers, said.
He said they have long been allocated land in Nyamukwarara where there are no roads or amenities with dozens of children’s education set to be disrupted.

“There are so many anomalies in how our case is being handled.
“How could they have allocated us land before the criminal trial at Mutasa Magistrates’ Courts is even concluded?” Zengeni queried.

Gwaradzimba’s aide and family member said the families were squatters who had encroached onto the minister’s property but the villagers claim she applied for an extension of her farm to encompass their village.

“Those people are settled on the minister’s farm and we have documentation to prove that,” the family representative said referring all questions to the Lands ministry. Zengeni claims the affected villagers used to be contracted by the Gwaradzimba family to work on their farm before they decided to take over their land in the farm extension.

“We used to be very good neighbours when they initially moved on to the farm but they were to later decide to use their positions of authority to kick us out and take over the whole land,” a miffed Zengeni said.

The post Minister evicts villagers appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.