Zim News Blog -NEWS NETWORK

Source: Proceedings stayed in Mandiwanzira's graft case | Daily News

Proceedings in ex-Cabinet minister Supa Mandiwanzira’s graft case have been stayed by the High Court.

This was after Mandiwanzira lodged an appeal for review of a ruling in which his application for exception was thrown out by Harare regional magistrate Elijah Makomo.

High Court judge Esther Muremba granted the stay of proceedings in the lower courts.
Mandiwanzira, who is accused of corruptly engaging Megawatt for consultancy services rendered to  NetOne Pvt Ltd had argued before Makomo that the charges were misplaced because the telecommunications company was not a procuring entity.

However, Makomo ruled Mandiwanzira in his capacity as minister then could not have acted on behalf of NetOne because it had its own directors and employees prompting Mandiwanzira to approach the High Court for review.
“The charge and outline are clear that the issue is not about proceeding to tender but that as minister the accused person handpicked Megawatt.

According to papers it was not NetOne but the minister,” Makomo ruled.
“…by acting in that manner the minister became a procuring entity and was bound by procurement regulations.
“The accused person argued that the services had been proffered on pro bono basis but it was only pro bono on paper because payment was later demanded.”

Mandiwanzira had argued that Statutory Instrument 160/2012 removed NetOne from the list of public enterprises that were deemed to be procuring entities.

The post Proceedings stayed in Mandiwanzira’s graft case appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

Source: Byo residents fear cholera outbreak | Daily News

Bulawayo residents say they are at grave risk of contracting deadly diseases such as cholera and typhoid, unless the government urgently bails out their city council to replace its decrepit sewer and water infrastructure.

This comes as virtually all local authorities in the country are grappling with similarly antiquated sewer and water reticulation equipment, which requires hundreds of millions of dollars to replace.

It also comes after Harare was last year hit by a deadly cholera outbreak which left dozens of people dead and many others hospitalised, after much of the drinking water in the capital was contaminated by bacteria from raw sewerage in high density suburbs.

Bulawayo Progressive Residents’ Association (Bupra) coordinator Emmanuel Ndlovu told the Daily News yesterday that the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) had been crippled by acute shortages of foreign currency to service its infrastructure — which meant that it required urgent help from the central government.
“Central government should come in to rescue … what is happening now is just a symptom of the worst that is yet to come in the near future, unless something is done urgently.

“While we accept that the council is trying its best in light of the prevailing foreign currency shortages, serious challenges have been noted in the areas of refuse collection and burst sewer pipes.
“It has been noted that the infrastructure is dilapidated, and there is need to totally remove the old piping and replace it with new infrastructure.

“The council budget … has no allocation for investment in infrastructure … all that we see is maintenance works, repairing and re-painting,” Ndlovu told the Daily News.
He said burst sewer pipes had become “such an eyesore” in some of the city’s old suburbs — emphasising further that the infrastructure needed to be replaced urgently.

In the latest BCC minutes, councillors from various wards in the city complained bitterly about burst sewer pipes in their areas, accusing the local authority of taking too long to address the situation.
“Despite several reports to the relevant department, nothing had been done. To worsen the situation, people doing business around Mashumba beer garden were now relieving themselves in the open because the public nearby toilet was locked,” Ward 8 councillor Ronniah Mudara said.

Councillor Tinevimbo Maposa also reported that there was almost a total collapse of sewer infrastructure in his ward.
In September last year, Budiriro and Glen View townships in Harare were rocked by a deadly outbreak of cholera which killed dozens and left more than 100 people needing treatment.
The cholera outbreak came as the capital city was battling to contain typhoid, which had killed 10 people at the time.

Zimbabwe was in 2008 hit by a deadly cholera outbreak which killed more than 4 000 people nationwide.
This was arguably the worst such outbreak in the country in living memory.
This was blamed on poor public health services and policies, as well as on the country’s dysfunctional water and sanitation infrastructure.

Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium vibrio cholerae. It is an extremely virulent disease that causes severe diarrhoea.
It takes between 12 hours and five days for a person to show cholera symptoms after ingesting contaminated food or water.

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Source: Harare to double service delivery | Daily News

Harare City Council has set a target of increasing service delivery to 75 percent by 2020, town clerk Hosiah Chisango said at the city’s service delivery benchmark workshop yesterday.

“As a city we are particularly focused on ensuring that we provide first class service delivery and this is clearly articulated in our goals. We want to improve rideability on 50 percent of city roads, that is, 2 250km from the current roughness index. We also want to increase access to potable water from the current 40 to 75 percent,” Chisango said.

“Council also wants to reduce environmental pollution levels from the current 83 percent to 50 percent, ensure that council laws and regulations are up to date and cover 100 percent of all council activities and to increase stakeholder engagement from the current 55 percent to 70 percent by December 2020.

“For us to be able to attain vision 2025 and contribute to vision 2030, we should be providing seamless services, potable water, efficient waste water management services, effective solid waste management services well lit streets and have  pothole free trafficable roads,” the town clerk said.

The post Harare to double service delivery appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

Source: Parly blasts TIMB execs | Daily News

Parliament yesterday humiliated the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) executives by turning them away after coming “ill-prepared” for its meeting with the portfolio committee on Agriculture amid corruption allegations.

The Justice Mayor Wadyajena-chaired committee had asked the Tobacco Association of Zimbabwe (Taz) and Boka Tobacco Auction Floors to give evidence on their preparedness for the forthcoming tobacco marketing season that is set to officially commence next week.

However, when they presented their evidence, the tobacco growers associations,  Taz in particular accused the TIMB board chairperson, Monica Chinamasa of being a conflicted individual to sit on the regulator’s board while she also represents farmers through the Zimbabwe National Framers Union.

They alleged that Chinamasa was in the habit of frustrating growers who belong to other associations in direct competition to her Zimbabwe National Farmers Union.

The farmers’ representatives also accused the TIMB of mismanaging funds meant for the refurbishment of forests destroyed by farmers when they process their tobacco for the market.

They also alleged that TIMB had unfairly distributed the $70 million facility extended to it by the Reserve bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to avail inputs to farmers by allegedly giving one unnamed contractor a whopping $10 million.
When it was TIMB’s time to respond to the allegations, Wadyajena and his committee felt that the tobacco marketing regulatory board had not adequately prepared for the meeting — a development that was deemed contemptuous by the legislators.

“You must take Parliament seriously because I see you are not prepared adequately despite the fact that you have been avoiding us after we called you to appear before us on more than two occasions now,” Wadyajena said.
“When you come next, TIMB will have to fund the sitting because we cannot burden taxpayers because of your failure to plan properly,” he added.

This was after TIMB chief executive officer Andrew Matibiri had given a narration of the organisation’s mandated and terms of reference in less than two minutes.
Wadyajena also did not take lightly Matibiri’s response with a laugh to allegations that TIMB had also abused $10 million from the RBZ $70 million inputs facility.

“Do your employers and the minister of Agriculture know that you are laughing at MPs when they are quizzing you about public funds? Do you think he will be happy?
“Where were you working before you joined TIMB?” a visibly angry Wadyajena asked.

This prompted Chinamasa to leap into Matibiri’s defence pleading with the committee to bear with him.
“It is not like we are laughing at the MPs, we are laughing at the figure we are being accused of having given to one contractor, it is shocking,” Chinamasa said.

In the end the committee requested that TIMB avails, when it next appears before the committee, documents including a letter that was purportedly written by former minister Joseph Made to extend the board’s term of office beyond the mandatory three years.

The committee also demanded that Chinamasa explains her involvement with the Zimbabwe National Framers Union that could constitute conflict of interest.

It also demanded that TIMB explains how it used the funds meant for afforestation that it collects from farmers.
“You must also provide information about how you funded the construction of your headquarters, donations you may have given to individuals and political parties and also how you have made use of the tobacco levy,” Wadyajena said.

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Source: Chinamasa’s wife implicated in tobacco cartels | Newsday (News)

VENERANDA LANGA

THE Tobacco Association of Zimbabwe (TAZ) yesterday alleged corruption in the tobacco industry, with Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB) board chairperson Monica Chinamasa’s name coming out prominently as one of the individuals causing confusion in the sector.

Chinamasa is the wife of former Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa and also founder of the Zimbabwe National Farmers’ Union (ZNFU), which farmers strongly believe constitutes a conflict of interest.

This was revealed when representatives from TAZ, the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association (ZTA) and Boka Tobacco Auction Floors appeared before the Justice Mayor Wadyajena-led Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Agriculture to discuss challenges in the tobacco sector, ahead of the opening of the auction floors on March 20.

TAZ secretary-general Stan Kasukuwere told the committee that the tobacco industry was a cartel bigger than those of marijuana.

“Tobacco is a cartel and it is bigger than mbanje (marijuana) and drugs, and if you (committee) can investigate that on our behalf, because the ZNFU which was formed by Chinamasa, came later than TAZ, and we find that if we are to talk about tobacco corruption, we are sidelined at such meetings,” Kasukuwere said.

“The corruption is that Chinamasa is chairperson of ZNFU and also sits at the TIMB board as chairperson, and how does she then represent the farmers? Whenever we talk, we are sidelined.”

TAZ president George Seremwe alleged that whenever they tried to voice grievances by farmers, they were never taken on board by Chinamasa.

Boka Tobacco Auctions Floors managing director Chido Nyakudya said the golden leaf sector faced foreign currency challenges needed to repair equipment like conveyors and other machinery.

“Our biggest challenge is unauthorised tobacco sales, where we have seen an influx of dealers preying on our grounds and diverting farmers not to deal with us.
This has resulted in loss of sales for us. Another challenge is with the 2% (electronic) transaction tax, where merchants need to bring their money to us and we have to pay the growers,” she said.

“In 2018, we handled $70 million on behalf of merchants. Our revenue is less than 7% of this, but if you calculate 2% of the $70 million, it takes away a big chunk of our revenue and we have requested that the 2% be exempted from transactions between ourselves and growers.”

Nyakudya said vendors were also causing havoc by putting up illegal stalls and posing cholera threats, as well as threatening farmers who come from outside to sleep at the auction floors.

ZTA chief executive officer Rodney Ambrose said 98% of the country’s tobacco was exported, adding that the challenges being experienced this year included the drought, which would result in less tobacco than the 250 000 metric tonnes farmed last season.

“There has been an increase in tobacco contract farmers where 85% to 90% are under contract farming, and only 10% is under tobacco auction floors and the viability of tobacco auction floors is now declining with only three auction floors that sold tobacco last year,” he said.

Ambrose said middlemen were also disturbing business at auction floors, and also blasted TIMB for not adequately representing farmers, saying they hoped the board would be changed because it was also failing to release the $25 million collected from farmers’ levies meant for afforestation.

Chinamasa and TIMB chief executive officer Andrew Matibiri also appeared before the committee, but failed to even give projections of the tobacco crop, resulting in Wadyajena sending them away.

The current TIMB board has served since 2009.

The post Chinamasa’s wife implicated in tobacco cartels appeared first on NewsDay Zimbabwe.

The post Chinamasa’s wife implicated in tobacco cartels appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.