Zim News Blog -NEWS NETWORK

Source: Investors, Harare  partner on new markets | Daily News

Harare City Council is inundated with applications by investors who want to partner in the construction of new markets.

Director of Housing and Community services Addmore Nhekairo said hundreds of applications have been received and the city was now processing them.

Currently, council has designs for the markets; they have been completed and what was left was to begin construction.

“After the mayor’s press statement in January, council was swamped with applications from investors willing to partner with the city in the provision of temporary and permanent vending structures at various market sites in Harare. We closed the receiving date of applications on February 19,” Nhekairo said.

He added that now council was trying to speedily and efficiently expedite the processing to ensure that vendors were urgently provided with the shelters.

The director of housing emphasised that the current structures which were deemed substandard were only temporary and would be removed once the final process started.

“The structures that councillors and residents are seeing are not the final product. We are awaiting finalisation of the Memorandum of Agreement with CBZ for the construction of the market infrastructure,” he said.

Chairperson of the informal sector committee Antony Shingadeya said the committee had tasked Nhekairo with looking for more avenues of revenue collection from the informal sector.

“The informal sector is a huge revenue base for the city which needs proper management for maximum utilisation. Nhekairo should find ways of ensuring that we collect enough revenue to provide them with structures that meet international standards,” he said.

Harare town clerk Hosiah Chisango said all district offices have now been empowered to issue out tables to willing informal traders who approach them for space.

“We heard the grievances of vendors who want markets and we will do right by what we said. There are some markets in the various suburbs that had been abandoned and we want traders to start taking up those spaces and pay directly to council and not space barons as they previously did while the new markets are being constructed,” Chisango said.

One month ago, councils across the country with the aid of the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the army removed vendors that had built illegal tuckshops as a way of bringing order to the cities.

The post Investors, Harare  partner on new markets appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

Youthful MDC Alliance leader, Nelson Chamisa appears headed for a crashing victory at the party’s 5th congress slated for the 24 to 26 of May. Various interviews conducted by The Mirror with party activists in key positions show that there is a groundswell for Chamisa in party structures almost throughout the country. There is also […]

Source: Govt to roll out artificial  cattle insemination | Daily News

Government will soon roll out an extensive cattle Artificial Insemination (AI) programme aimed at improving the quality of the country’s livestock as well as increasing the national herd, a Cabinet minister has said.

Lands minister Perrance Shiri said this in a speech read on his behalf by the principal director in the department of Crop and Livestock Joseph Gondo.

Simangaliphi Tshuma-Ncube came out first out of 299 farmers from all the country’s provinces. The second prize went to a farmer from Manicaland while the third and fourth prizes were scooped by farmers from Mashonaland East and Mashonaland West respectively. Shiri said the Livestock Revitalisation Programme being spearheaded by the Zimbabwe Agricultural Society (Zas) would play a pivotal role in improving the genetics of cattle in communal areas. The programme seeks to introduce pure breeds that include Tuli, Boran and Mashona through AI.

“The first launch of the programme was in Matabeleland South, in the Gwatemba area, and I have been reliably informed that the subsequent AI in the area should have produced its first calves. This is indeed interesting news . . . “

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Source: Crops at serious risk  from fall armyworm | Daily News

Researchers have warned that crops such as maize, rice, sugar cane, sorghum, beet, tomato, potato, cotton and pasture grasses worldwide are at serious risk from fall armyworm (Faw) infestation if efficient measures are not taken.

A recent study by Exeter University and the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International in the UK has reported that alarm bells rang in January 2016, when major outbreaks of Faw first occurred in Nigeria and Ghana.

The pest was subsequently identified in Benin, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Togo. By September 2017, Faw was present in 28 sub-Saharan African countries. Recent estimates indicated that up to 50 percent maize yield loss in Africa could be attributed to Faw infestation.

The researchers speculated that the pest arrived in Africa on a passenger flight from the Americas.  They said that the first countries where the invaders were found had major air transportation hubs and a warm, moist climate similar to those of the pest’s natural habitat.

As temperature and rain play a major role in determining whether Faw will establish itself in a region, the scientists concluded that South and Southeast Asia, as well as Australia, face the most serious risk.

The post Crops at serious risk  from fall armyworm appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

Source: Nkomo's hospital hits another snag | Daily News

The anticipated opening of the Ekusileni Hospital in Bulawayo, a brainchild of the much-loved late Vice President Joshua Nkomo, has hit yet another snag after government failed to meet the project investor in India as had been scheduled.

This comes as the Indian investor, Sharda Group of Institutions (SGI), had started staff recruitments in preparation for the re-opening of the hospital.

However, Nyasha Masuka, the chairperson of the taskforce running the medical centre, said they had no idea when Ekusileni Hospital will open its doors to the public following its closure 15 years ago.
“We have not yet gone on the trip; we are not sure when we will be going. You can contact the permanent secretary for information,” he said.

Nkomo’s son, Sibangilizwe, said the family was in the dark about developments on the hospital.
“I have no information about the recruitments that are said to have been advertised in India.
“There has been no communication whatsoever about the project. For the past 17 years, this has just been an issue discussed in the press,” Nkomo told the Daily News.

Last year, he disclosed that government had turned down a potential South African investor, Clinix Health Group’s proposal, in favour of the Indian investor whose authenticity had not yet been verified.
Ekusileni specialist hospital was built in 2001 but shut down three years later after it was discovered that its acquired equipment, worth millions of dollars, was obsolete.

The hospital has been undergoing renovations over the past two years due to the damage on infrastructure caused by termites and dereliction.

Last year, President Emmerson Mnangagwa made a spirited commitment to open the specialist hospital before year end, pledging that he was going to make sure nothing would stand in the way of his efforts to bring fruition to Nkomo’s vision.

Finance minister Mthuli Ncube said the re-opening of the hospital was way behind of schedule.
According to Ncube, the hospital was supposed to have been running at the time set by Mnangagwa.
Government had said the hospital would be opened in two phases to be rolled in 2019 and 2020.
“Phase one of the operationalisation plan will begin in January 2019, targeting opening of the Accident and Emergency, Out Patients and Casualty Units, among others.

Phase two, targeting opening of Operating Theatres, High Dependency Unit, Intensive Care Units and Dialysis, among others is expected to commence in January 2020.
“This will be done under a joint venture arrangement between the National Social Security Authority (Nssa) and an identified private investor.

“The private investor will contribute medical equipment, and carry out renovations to the health facility, as well as provide the medical services and linkages with local medical personnel,” Ncube said last year.

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