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Source: Court saves Mugabe from eviction | Newsday (News)

BY CHARLES LAITON

High Court judge Justice Ester Muremba has saved former President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace, together with their family business Gushungo Holdings, from being promptly evicted from a Mazowe farm after dismissing an urgent chamber application filed by three farmers.

Last month, three Mazowe farmers, Adonia Makombe, Sahungwe Hungwe and Nyika Chifamba, claimed ownership of Lot 1A Teviotdale Farm in Mazowe district, Mashonaland Central province, through offer letters and won the right to retain the farm following a ruling in their favour.

However, Mugabe, his wife together with Gushungo Holdings then petitioned the Supreme Court on appeal, challenging High Court judge Justice Helena Charehwa’s judgment, a development which did not go down well with the farmers, who also approached the High Court on an urgent basis, seeking leave to have Mugabe evicted from the farm, pending the appeal.

But when the trio’s matter was brought before Justice Muremba on February 28, 2019, the judge removed the case from the roll, saying it was not urgent at all.

“Whereupon after reading documents filed of record and hearing counsel it is ordered that: the matter be and is hereby removed from the roll of urgent matters and the applicants (Makombe, Hungwe and Chifamba) shall pay the first to third respondent’s (Gushungo Holdings, Mugabe and Grace) costs,” Justice Muremba said.

The three farmers, initially issued summons against the former Head of State in June last year, seeking his eviction from the farm, arguing that they were holders of offer letters for the piece of land, which they grabbed at the height of the land reform programme in 2000.

But, the Mugabes challenged the farmers’ assertions, arguing that they were neither entitled to the piece of land nor had any right to demand anyone’s eviction from the land they themselves had no lawful authority to use, possess or occupy.

Mugabe further argued that only the Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement minister could exercise that right, but Justice Charehwa dismissed his assertion and ordered him off the farm.

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Source: PAC sets up committees | The Herald March 9, 2019

President Mnangagwa speaks to members of the Presidential Advisory Council, businessman Dr Shingi Munyeza (second from right) and prominent lawyer Mr Edwin Manikai, at the inaugural meeting of the council at State House yesterday. – Picture by Tawanda Mudimu

Felex Share Senior Reporter
Members of the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC)— who were inaugurated by President Mnangagwa on Thursday — have hit the ground running by forming five thematic work groups in line with the five strategic pillars of Vision 2030. The Government’s economic blueprint – the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) – stipulates that the aspirations of Vision 2030 will be realised through five strategic clusters, namely governance, macro-economic stability and re-engagement, inclusive growth, social/human capital development and infrastructure and utilities.

In a statement yesterday, the PAC said they were already on the ground, working on strategies which will assist President Mnangagwa in addressing the challenges facing the country.
“We have already organised ourselves into clusters,” the PAC said.

“If you look at Vision 2030 and the TSP you will realise there are five clusters which should guide the development efforts we are going to make as a country. As such, we have come up with an equal number of clusters. Over the last weeks PAC members have been familiarising themselves with the two documents, that is Vision 2030 and TSP. “

The council said the committees will be meeting regularly.
“We will be meeting often but the PAC will be meeting with the President quarterly but it can be more than that depending on the need. I can tell you that we have already started as we were given the green light by the President yesterday (Thursday).”

The 26 members of PAC are experts and leaders drawn from sectors such as business, health and social protection, agriculture, governance and human rights, faith-based organisations, tourism, education, minorities, ICT, civil society, communication and media management.

PAC facilitator Mr Joe Mtizwa said their services would be voluntary.
“The service that we are bringing in is voluntary and we come to serve as independent members,” he said.
“We do not expect to benefit from these appointments contrary to what we hear in the press. Rather we seek to give our country of our best as we endeavour to make a contribution to the strategic future of Zimbabwe.”

In his inaugural meeting with PAC members, President Mnangagwa exhorted them to quickly give impetus to the TSP by proffering advice and assisting in the formulation of key economic strategies that advance Vision 2030.

He said to propel development and improve people’s livelihoods, the PAC members should expend more energy towards supporting the TSP and policy pronouncements made under the Second Republic.

“The Transitional Stabilisation Programme and the various policy pronouncements made under the Second Republic should be a beacon through which we must unleash our full potential towards the attainment of Vision 2030,” President Mnangagwa said.

“We must therefore proffer our views, recommendations and solutions alive to the interests of the majority. Let us give due regard to the undeniable need to uplift the quality of life of the millions of our people throughout the country. As the Presidential Advisory Council your work programme should be informed by the immense opportunities in every sector in our nation and the various strategies we need to grow and develop our economy. The present challenges must never obscure or limit what we can become or what we should do, now and in the future. I challenge you to be informed by the hope of a better and more prosperous tomorrow.”

The PAC members will hold office for the duration of the President’s tenure of office.

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1214: The body of national hero Brig-Gen Munemo is now being carried to its final resting place. 1208: President Mnangagwa has concluded his address. 1207: The President says the engagement and re engagement will continue with those who open their doors to the country. He says Zimbabwe is a train on the move and those who want to board should do so and those that don’t want will be left

Source: ‘Bio-digesters panacea to conserving forests’ – NewsDay Zimbabwe March 9, 2019

BY PIUS SAWA

Two local youths have started a programme to provide affordable cooking energy to rural households in the country, saving rural Zimbabweans from walking long distances to fetch firewood from diminishing forests.

Households have to cook meals at least three times a day, but families across Zimbabwe, especially those in rural areas have only one source of energy – firewood. Not only is it dangerous to human health because of the carbon emitted, it is also harmful to the environment and contributes to climate change.

“Our target is Zimbabwe’s rural population. These communities mainly use firewood to cook. A few years ago, it used to be easy to access firewood, but because of massive deforestation, people now have to travel long distances to get firewood,” Nicholas Toronga said.

Toronga and his partner Tinotenda Makuvire met in 2016 as Mastercard Foundation Scholars at McGill University in Canada. They were selected for the scholarship for their academic talent, social consciousness and leadership qualities.

As engaged students, the two started discussing how they could use their education to benefit their community.

Toronga, who is pursuing studies in finance, and Makuvire, who is studying engineering, decided to build a low-cost bio-digester that will harness animal waste to produce biogas for household cooking.

Their initiative, ZimDigester, will provide biogas to low-income Zimbabwean households.

In the past, it was women and children who would go to the forests to fetch firewood, but that is slowly becoming a thing of the past.

“People are now relying on buying the firewood from local vendors who have seen this as an opportunity to make money and charge exorbitant prices for it. People have no other option, but to buy the firewood. In a community where unemployment is high and people are already struggling, this just makes life difficult,” Makuvire said.

According to data gathered by Global Forest Watch, Zimbabwe lost 373 000 hectares of tree cover from 2001 through 2012, which is about 2% of the country’s total forest cover. These losses are attributed to the use of forests as the main source of fuel in rural areas.

Toronga observes that few measures have been put in place since the report was released to protect forests. According to him, clean energy is the way to go.

Since most households in rural Zimbabwe and semi urban areas own an animal, waste will be a readily available raw material for the generation of biogas.

“Most people in rural areas have domestic animals they rear, so we are going to leverage on that to power the bio-digester. In essence, everyone controls the source of fuel. If they purchase a bio-digester, they will have one less headache to deal with,” Toronga added.

He said the bio-digester is easy to use and the only thing that the user has to do is to feed the animal waste and water into the bio-digester and let the digester do its work.

The due plan to produce 30 bio-digesters for their test run. Depending on early sales during the initiative’s initial rollout in the first two months, the project will continue to produce more bio-digesters for low-income families.

“We have developed our bio-digester and we are still iterating it to make it as efficient as possible, while also putting in place infrastructure on the ground for the project. This involves talking to the communities about the importance of preserving their forests. Our aim is to cover most of rural Zimbabwe in one year, but that depends on the success and feedback from the first phase of the project,” Makuvire said.

The cost of one bio-digester is estimated to be around US$85, with a lifespan of three years and with no repairs, meaning that if every household can have a bio-digester, many forests will be saved.

ZimDigester won the Resolution Social Venture Challenge in 2018, a competition that rewards compelling leadership and promising social ventures led by youth. These young leaders earned a fellowship that includes seed funding, mentorship and access to a network of young global change-makers to pursue impactful projects in their communities.

A collaboration between the Mastercard Foundation and The Resolution Project, the Resolution Social Venture Challenge provides a pathway to action for socially responsible young leaders who want to create change that matters in their communities.

Makuvire and Toronga are optimistic that they will overcome challenges to change people’s perceptions of new, affordable and clean energy solutions.

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Source: SI for implementation of vehicle loan scheme gazetted | Herald (Top Stories)

Fidelis Munyoro Chief Court Reporter
Government has gazetted a Statutory Instrument 52 of 2019 for the implementation of a vehicle loan scheme for senior officials, replacing personal issue vehicle as part of an expenditure management strategy. The loan will be extended to principal directors or their equivalent, directors and deputy directors.

Principal directors are entitled to US$40 000, directors US$30 000 and deputy directors US$20 000.
The new regulations amend the Customs and Excise (General) Regulations, 2001, published in Statutory 154 of 2001 (The principal regulations), particularly Part X111 by insertion of a new section after Section 144(T) that will deal with rebate of duty on vehicle imported by specified serving public servants.

According to the new Section 144(U)(2), “with effect from January 2019, a rebate of duty shall be granted in respect of one vehicle imported or taken out of bond by serving senior public servant who is employed in the civil service and service commissions and is not under any disciplinary proceedings if such vehicles is (a) procured using a loan availed under the transport purchase fund through CMED (Pvt) Ltd or serving senior public servant’s own resources; and (b) intended solely for the private use of serving senior public servant and not for commercial or trade purposes.”

Clause 6 reads: “The maximum amounts to be availed to the serving senior public servants in terms of Subsection (2)(a) are to be as follows — principal directors and equivalent US$40 000, directors and equivalent US$30 000and deputy directors and equivalent US$20 000.”

Subsection (7) list the requirements for one to qualify for rebate under this section.
The requirements include, an application letter to be considered as a beneficiary in terms of the section, recommendation letter from the responsible permanent secretary confirming employment as stated in Subsections (2) and (3), a copy of the intended beneficiary serving public servant’s driver’s licence, a pro-forma invoice and a bill of landing for the vehicle being imported among others.

It has been established that Government was spending a lot of money maintaining its fleet, and is saddled with bills as well as dilapidated vehicles whose disposal would be prudent while new vehicles could be brought in cheaply.

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