Nyazura, Zimbabwe — With Zimbabwe’s railroad network in a massive state of disrepair, a goods train killed the driver and injured three crew members last week, 9th March, after it derailed owing to breaks failure in Nyazura in the country’s Manicaland province as the goods train headed to Beira in Mozambique loaded with chrome ore.
The fatal accident occurred at a curve along a steep stretch at Tsungwezi in Nyazura.
The goods train loaded to the brim with chrome ore was coming from Mutorashanga, apparently a small ferrochrome mining town in Mashonaland West province in Zimbabwe.
Police spokesperson for Rusape district in the vicinity of Nyazura where the accident transpired, Assistant Inspector Muzondiwa Clean, confirmed the accident which happened late on Tuesday.
“The driver of a goods train tried to apply brakes as he approached the curve on the steep stretch around Tsungwezi, but it failed, resulting in the accident,” said Muzondiwa.
Over the decades, Zimbabwe’s rail infrastructure has faced dilapidation due to lack of regular maintenance, resulting in a series of railroad accidents that have claimed hundreds of lives.
Just in December last year, two National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) employees died while seven others were injured when a goods train traveling from Hwange to Bulawayo derailed at Redbank Siding, approximately 40 kilometers outside Bulawayo.
On March 9, 2015, Sheffra said unidentified men outside the barbershop in the vicinity of the couple’s home in Harare, the Zimbabwean capital, seized her then 35-year-old husband accusing him of livestock theft before bundling him into one of their unmarked vehicles and sped off.
Since then, Itai’s whereabouts have remained a mystery.
“My message today is we will not forget Itai and we pray that we get answers and we hope the government of Zimbabwe will help us to find him or to find the abductors,” said Sheffra.
A journalist by profession and founder of a pro-democracy movement called Occupy Africa Unity Square that campaigned for the resignation of former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Itai had become a thorn in the flesh of the country’s ruling party, the Zimbabwe Africa National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF).
Days before his abduction, Itai had urged thousands of people at a rally organized by the late Movement for Democratic Change party leader Morgan Tsvangirai, to topple Mugabe.
Robbed of her husband, with her two children — a 13-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl, she (Sheffra), said ‘the children know what happened, so we just pray for him to come back to us one day.’
“Life without him is hard. It’s hard to live for six years without knowing where (Itai) he is or what happened to him, especially when l look at our two young kids; it’s hard.”
“My boy and girl can’t wait to see their dad. They talk about him most of the time, saying that when dad comes, we will run to meet and embrace him,” Sheffra told Ubuntu Times.
Itai’s brother, Paddy Dzamara, said ‘my message is directed to those who took Itai and also to Mr. ED Mnangagwa (the President) to provide us with closure of his whereabouts.’
“Itai’s abduction and disappearance has been hard for the family and we all miss him. His children Nokutenda and Nenyasha always ask about his whereabouts and when he will come back to them,” Paddy told Ubuntu Times.
Gladys Hlatshwayo, the opposition MDC Alliance secretary for external affairs, said ‘we remember the courageous Itai Dzamara who was abducted on this day six years ago.’
“He is still unaccounted for to this day. Sadly, his brother Patson Dzamara passed away before he could get answers,” said Hlatshwayo.
Harare, Zimbabwe— Embroiled in a litany of sex scandals accusations, Zimbabwe’s Vice President Kembo Mohadi on Monday this week resigned from his job.
Mohadi, aged 71, handed his resignation to his boss, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa pinning the blame for his disgrace on his unrevealed political foes in government for making up bed-hopping allegations against the deputy president.
He (Mohadi) even before resigning, had issued a statement last week vehemently denying the sex scandals allegations, vowing to fight the claims through the country’s courts.
In a four-page document detailing his resignation, Zimbabwe’s former Vice President made claims that he was a victim of a “grand strategy” by his “political foes.”
Mohadi rose to become Zimbabwe’s Vice President after the 2017 coup that overthrew the country’s longtime strongman Robert Mugabe.
Before then, he (Mohadi) was Zimbabwe’s State Security Minister.
“My decision to relinquish the vice president post is also a way of respecting the citizens of this great nation, and my party comrades, some of whom would have been affected by the falsehoods and character assassination in the digital ecosystems,” said Mohadi.
He also said his resignation was ‘necessitated by my desire to seek clarity and justice on the matter in which my legal team will pursue and deconstruct this pseudo-paparazzi and flawed espionage to achieve cheap political points.’
Falling short of admitting his sex scandals with a number of married women, one of whom worked in his office, Mohadi apologized to Zimbabweans for “those tasks I failed to do well.”
In leaked phone call recordings, which went viral on social media, which he claimed were results of voice cloning, Mohadi was heard at one time organizing to bed one of his married lovers in his office.
Yet in one of the phone call recordings, the former Vice President was heard coaxing a formerly underprivileged woman whom he had paid tuition for in college to join him at his Bulawayo hotel room for sex.
Bulawayo is Zimbabwe’s second-largest city.
Miffed by Mohadi’s sex scandals, Zimbabwe’s opposition parties and civil society organizations demanded Mohadi’s resignation, calling for Mr. Mnangagwa to replace him with a woman.
Harare — His house stands out in the midst of water, with the entire driveway concealed under water, apparently with nowhere to step on, yet for 15 years, 50-year-old Jimson Ruvangu in Westlea suburb in the Zimbabwean capital Harare, has managed to evade censure from the city’s local authorities.
Ruvangu claims he acquired the piece of land on which he built his home through a local housing cooperative.
But climate change activists, even as many like Ruvangu are apparently getting away with murder, warn that illegal construction of homes and commercial buildings is fueling climate change impacts across Zimbabwe.
Yet, many like Ruvangu even as they dwell in the midst of wetlands, he (Ruvangu) is happy that he has somewhere to lay his head.
Makeshift homes are rising rapidly on undesignated pieces of land in Harare, the Zimbabwean capital, with pieces of land being cleared of trees prior to the erection of the temporary homes as people invade vacant land in Zimbabwe’s towns and cities, this fueling climate change impacts. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
“I have a home; that is what matters. Whether it was built illegally or not, that is another matter, but look, I am nearing two decades living here and nothing has happened to me,” Ruvangu bragged.
For climate change activists here like Happison Chikova, it is illegal construction that particularly fuels climate change impacts across this Southern African country.
“The haphazard construction of houses in the major cities and towns in Zimbabwe has contributed immensely to climate change in Zimbabwe. The unplanned housing schemes has contributed to high emissions of green-house gases into the atmosphere due to rampant deforestation and destruction of wetlands,” Chikova told Ubuntu Times.
As construction occurs on undesignated places, according to Chikova, ‘the destruction of biodiversity and the ecosystems reduces carbon sequestration as huge amount of carbon dioxide is lost into the atmosphere as vegetation acts as carbon sinks.’
That in fact has not moved illegal urban land occupiers like Ruvangu who claim nothing will move them, but in the eyes of climate change experts like Chikova, many like Ruvangu have brought more harm than good.
Hundreds of illegally built yet luxurious homes are emerging on undesignated pieces of land, with climate change experts saying this is often taking place on wetlands thereby fueling climate change impacts as the construction of such homes dries up groundwater. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
“The haphazard construction of houses in urban areas is resulting in increasing the heat in the cities, thereby creating heat islands. This is because the houses are not built according to the city standard as well as following green cities foot prints,” said Chikova.
He (Chikova) also said as construction is often done illegally, ‘the destruction of wetlands has affected local climate as the wetlands are responsible for cooling the environment hence increase in temperature.’
Apart from being a holder of a degree in environmental studies from Zimbabwe’s Midlands State University, Chikova is a student at the University of Edinburgh in the UK studying global food security and nutrition.
For Harare Wetlands Trust, a conservation group here, disorderly constructions across Zimbabwe’s wetlands have also fueled climate change impacts.
Incomplete luxury spacious homes stand out on undesignated land pieces in the capital Harare, where climate change experts say trees important for retaining water vapor in the atmosphere for the accumulation of rains are wantonly cut down paving way for illegal construction of properties. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
“Construction covers wetlands with hard surface. The water can no longer seep into the soils to be stored. So, water runs off and floods on hard surfaces downstream. It is not available underground to keep streams flowing during droughts and dry seasons and we blame climate change when we changed a crucial landscape and contributed to climate change,” Selestino Chari told Ubuntu Times.
To him (Chari), ‘it is effectively an ecocide to build (homes) on something that supports us when we can build elsewhere. And where will all this built-up area get its water from after it runs off the hard surface down to the sea?’ Chari said.
Even the country’s top academics have weighed in, apparently irked by the growing climate change impacts emanating from rife construction on undesignated points here.
One such intellectual is Professor Johnson Masaka, the executive dean at the Midlands State University’s department of Land and Water Resources Management, who has spelt out the harm wrought by the chaotic constructions.
“Firstly, the unplanned constructions will necessarily require that trees, bushes and grasslands are cleared on construction sites. The vegetation that fixes carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas or global warming gas, in photosynthesis is destroyed in the site,” Masaka told Ubuntu Times.
With haphazard construction all over Zimbabwe’s towns and cities, Masaka said climate has had to suffer the results amid wanton cutting down of trees as people in illegally built homes have no access to electricity.
“Provision of electricity in such haphazard settlements is almost impossible due to legal requirements; so, people resort to use of fuel wood. Upon burning, the wood releases a series of global warming gases such as carbon monoxide and methane into the atmosphere where they cause warming of climates,” said Masaka.
But many urban dwellers like 56-year-old Hector Ruvende based in Masvingo, Zimbabwe’s oldest town, see nothing amiss dwelling on a wetland upon which he built his home two decades ago.
“Electricity will be connected to my home one day; what matters is that I have a roof above my head; of course, we use firewood which we buy from wood poachers,” Ruvende told Ubuntu Times.
A foundation is laid out for a home being illegally constructed in one of the suburbs in the Zimbabwean capital Harare, unlawful acts of which climate change experts blame for the rising climate change impacts across Zimbabwe’s towns and cities. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
Such actions by Zimbabweans like Ruvende, to Professor Masaka, ‘participate in loading the atmosphere with global warming gases.’
Yet even climate change activists in Zimbabwe like Kudakwashe Makanda who is the programmes manager for the Youth Initiative for Community Development (YICD), a youth civic organization, blame disorganized construction for worsening climate change impacts in the country.
“I think you understand that most local authorities have been allocating housing land on wetlands mostly; this then undermines the crucial role that is played by wetlands which is to service the water sources that we do have across the country and also to clean the water; by constructing houses on wetlands, it means the water being reserved or kept there will stop being available,” Makanda told Ubuntu Times.
For Makanda, chaotic urban construction of homes has in fact brought more harm than good.
“Cutting down trees so as to pave way for residential areas also reduces the amount of vegetation that is necessary to supply the atmosphere with water vapor and that alone then leads to less rains being experienced,” said Makanda.
To Makanda, ‘the major challenge is that most local authorities are prioritizing development at the expense of environmental consciousness and the way that they are apportioning the land is not being done in a well thought out manner.’
Yet for independent climate change experts like Gilbert Musungwa in Zimbabwe, corruption in the country’s urban local authorities has fueled illegal construction of homes, subsequently leading to noticeable climate change impacts.
“In other sectors like the construction industry, the issue remains a sub-issue and often overshadowed in the offices; whenever there is an intention to have some infrastructural development, oftentimes environmental impact assessments (EIA) are requested. It boggles the mind how some developments pass the required EIA,” Musungwa told Ubuntu Times.
On a rainy day in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, prison officers armed with AK47s are monitoring prisoners disembarking from a prison van at Harare magistrates court.
A few prisoners have leg cuffs which are often used for prisoners with grave crimes such as serial armed robberies and those who are a flight risk.
One of these prisoners is familiar to Zimbabweans, especially in opposition politics circles.
His name is Job Sikhala, the MDC Alliance vice-chairperson who was arrested on allegations of communicating falsehoods.
Sikhala was arrested on the 9th of January 2021 at the same court when he had come to offer legal assistance to investigative journalist Hopewell Chin’ono who had been arrested a day before and charged with communicating falsehoods.
Just like Sikhala and Chin’ono, on the 11th of January MDC Alliance spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere was also arrested on the same charges.
Mahere was freed on bail, on Monday the 18th of January 2021
Chin’ono was also freed on bail on the 27th of January 2021 while Sikhala was released on bail on the 1st of February this year.
The trio are accused of using their Twitter handles to spread false information. They allegedly spread falsehoods that a child was killed by a police officer during skirmishes with illegal minibus drivers in Harare’s central business district on the 5th of January 2021.
The post by the three followed a video, which was circulated on social media by many users, shows a mother manhandling a cop asking why he had beaten up his child who was hanging helplessly in her arms.
The child allegedly died.
MDC Alliance spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere was also arrested for communicating falsehoods, a law that was declared unconstitutional by Chief Justice Luke Malaba back in 2014. Credit: Ruvimbo Muchenje
However, the Zimbabwe Republic Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi denied the claims.
“The child is not dead as alleged on social media and this has been confirmed by medical personnel who are now in touch with the police and parents,” he said.
The law under which the trio were arrested was outlawed by the Constitutional Court led by Chief Justice Luke Malaba back in 2014.
In his ruling, Malaba said, “government is prohibited from appointing itself as a monitor of truth for people.”
This is the third time that Chin’ono has been arrested in a period of six months.
He spent 45 days in remand prison on charges of inciting people to commit violence and another 17 days on charges of obstructing the course of justice.
Media Institute of Southern Africa-Zimbabwe Chapter official Nqaba Matshazi told Ubuntu Times that it was quite strange that people were still being arrested for publishing falsehoods in the 21st century.
“Publishing falsehoods is an effective tool in a dictators’ tool box. It is easy for dictators to use such laws to descend on political opponents,” he said.
Matshazi said there is no need to criminalize publication of falsehoods.
“When a journalist lies. It is the journalist who loses his or her credibility. There is no need to criminalize the offense. There is a norm of retracting and issuing apologies,” he said.
This is the third time that investigative journalist Hopewell Chin’ono is being arrested in a period of six months. Credit: Ruvimbo Muchenje
Media Alliance of Zimbabwe programs manager Nigel Nyamutumbu said arresting citizens on account of peddling falsehoods is unsustainable and amounts to criminalization of freedom of expression, and by extension journalism.
“Government should walk the talk in respect of reforms and be consistent on the same. It is an act of hypocrisy to, one hand purport to be repealing draconian laws such as [Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act] AIPPA during the day, while at night resuscitating dead laws as a means of targeting political opponents, muzzling journalists, criminalizing expression and crushing dissent,” he said.
In a related case, Harare mayor Jacob Mafume had been languishing in prison since 2020 after he was arrested on allegations of tampering with a witness in another case involving abuse of office for which he was already out on bail.
Mafume was released on bail on the 15th of January after his lawyers had several times unsuccessfully requested he be granted bail so that he can get treatment at a health facility of his choice as he was ill.
The list of people arrested in the past months for inciting violence is cumulative.
University of Zimbabwe student Allan Moyo (23) is also in prison after getting arrested on the 7th of December 2020 and charged with inciting people to revolt against Mnangagwa’s government.
Moyo has been denied bail several times.
In a statement, MDC Alliance deputy spokesperson Clifford Hlatywayo said his party strongly condemned the continued abuse of justice institutions through the arrests of Mahere, Mafume, Chin’ono, Moyo and other wrongly convicted prisoners that include Last Maingehama and Tungamirirai Madzokere.
He said the government is abusing State institutions by continuously persecuting opposition leaders and human rights defenders.
“The arrest pertaining to non-existing crimes represents dictatorial rule, severe abuse of power and an attack on the rule of law. Persecution through prosecution reflects authoritarian consolidation rather than democratization,” he said.
There have been allegations of judiciary capture in Zimbabwe with Mnangagwa himself allegedly calling the shots from his office.
In October 2020, judges wrote a letter to Mnangagwa and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, claiming that the judiciary was under siege and judges were captured thereby unable to independently execute their duties without interference from the executive and State agencies.
“What is repeated in the public domain and on social media about the capture of the judiciary is no longer fiction or perception, it is in fact reality. It is an open secret that right across the judicial structure, the Chief Justice now rules without a fetter,” reads part of the letter.
“Where magistrates used to be subject to administrative supervision by their superiors, it is now an open secret that the Chief Justice now routinely interferes with magistrates and their decisions through the Chief Magistrates’ office.”
Human rights defender Musa Kika told Ubuntu Times that the arrests simply provided the latest evidence in what has become a clear pattern of manipulating the judicial system to silence and eliminate dissent.
“Chin’ono, Mahere and Sikhala are perceived leaders in dissent, and their arrest is meant to dissuade others from speaking ill against the regime,” he said.
Kika said as the norm the goal is never to convict them but to punish them through prolonged pre-trial incarceration and the harassment they endure in the process.
Even some people who are publicly perceived to be supporters of Mnangagwa are beginning to be critical of his administration.
In a statement, media mogul and member of Mnangagwa’s advisory council Trevor Ncube said the attack on Chin’ono’s rights to freedom of expression limits the rights of citizens to know what is going on in Zimbabwe.
He said the response of the State should be to set the record straight, not to arrest or harass those who express themselves freely.
Harare — Zimbabwe was on Monday hit by 60 COVID-19 deaths in 24 hours, this at a time the country has lost a total of 773 people since the first case was confirmed almost a year ago.
A late night Covid-19 update by Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health on Monday also said 689 new positive cases of Coronavirus were recorded on the same day the 60 people succumbed to the dreaded pandemic.
“60 COVID-19 deaths were reported today (Monday). 37 of the deaths occurred at institutional level with 23 at community level,” a statement from the country’s Ministry of Health reads.
The Ministry of Health here also added that ‘National Case fatality Rate now stands at 2.8% as at 18/1/21.’
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s Coronavirus mortality rate is relatively far lower than other countries that have so far experienced skyrocketing deaths due to the rampaging pandemic.
Yet the country’s democracy activists like Elvis Mugari of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change Alliance worry the deaths could be a sign of worse things to come.
“Our country’s dysfunctional health care facilities could mean much more Covid-19 deaths are in the offing,” Mugari told Ubuntu Times.
On Wednesday, COVID-19 killed the country’s foreign Affairs Minister Sibusiso Moyo, the former army general who went on state television and announced a coup that toppled former President Robert Mugabe in 2017.
Zimbabwe is currently in a 30-day national lockdown period ordered by the government in order to throttle the further spread of Coronavirus.
On the 20th of January, United States (U.S) President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of America.
Biden’s win was recently confirmed by the US Congress months after the incumbent Donald Trump and his Republican party unsuccessfully sought to challenge the November 2020 election result, which they said were marred by irregularities.
Prior to that Trump, armed with his social media platforms including microblogging site Twitter and Facebook incited an insurrection that saw his supporters storming the US Capitol in Washington DC on the 6th of January 2021 resulting in five people losing their lives including a federal police officer.
Facebook and Twitter have since suspended Trump’s social media accounts, permanently.
The attempted “soft coup” at the US Capitol left millions questioning the so-called democracy that Americans preach around the world.
Not to be left out, Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa seized the opportunity to call for Biden’s administration to remove sanctions on the former British colony.
The US and its allies imposed “targeted” sanctions on Harare in 2001, following the Land Reform Programme that saw around 4,500 white farmers lose land under the leadership of the late President Robert Mugabe.
The sanctions, under the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA) of 2001 restricts US support for multilateral financing to Zimbabwe. The sanctions can only be removed if Zimbabwe implements political and economic reforms.
The Mnangagwa regime has even dedicated the 25th of October annually as a day to campaign against sanctions.
But the US continues to insist that sanctions will remain until Mnangagwa implements comprehensive electoral and human rights reforms.
In 2019, Trump’s administration renewed the sanctions with Mnangagwa’s top allies including businessman Kuda Tagwirei and National Security minister Owen Ncube being added to the list.
Mnangagwa, who ascended to power in 2017 through a military coup that ousted his mentor and long time ruler Mugabe, took to Twitter to denounce insurrection at the US Capitol and to call for the removal of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe.
“Last year, President Trump extended painful economic sanctions placed on Zimbabwe, citing concerns about Zimbabwe’s democracy,” he wrote.
“Yesterday’s (Wednesday, 6 January 2021) events showed that the U.S. has no moral right to punish another nation under the guise of upholding democracy. These sanctions must end.”
Mnangagwa said his administration was ready to work with Biden to build cordial relations between the two nations.
Zimbabwe is, as it always has been, ready to work together as friends and partners with the U.S for the benefit of both our peoples.
After outlawing the use of multi-currency in mid-2019 and introducing its local currency the Zimbabwean dollar, the latter has been losing value against major currencies.
There is a shortage of medicine in public hospitals which has left the majority of Zimbabwe’s population struggling to access health care amid the global pandemic, Coronavirus.
The Mnangagwa-led administration, after dumping its “Open for Business” Public Relations stunt, has adopted the removal of sanctions mantra as the solution to Zimbabwe’s economic crisis.
The government thrives on propaganda and blame-shifting.
Political analysts and international relations experts believe the US is not going to be moved by Mnangagwa’s talks without the implementation of political and economic reforms.
Pearl Matibe, an international geopolitics scholar with an interest in foreign policy and national security based in Washington DC told Ubuntu Times that Biden’s administration will continue to push the Zimbabwean government to respect human rights.
“What I do foresee is continued bipartisan support for transparency, fairness, and efforts that advance respect for human rights, democracy, and good governance,” she said.
Daglous Makumbe, a lecturer in the department of political studies at the University of the Western Cape said the US foreign policy does not change especially in response to dictatorial regimes such as the Zimbabwean one.
“The coming of Biden to the presidential pulpit will not change the political conundrum between Harare and Washington. Whether a Democrat or a Republican comes to power in the US, its conditions are clear on Harare,” he said.
“It is not about a Democrat or Republican coming to power in America, but a change of draconian policies in Zimbabwe that will make the US change its stance on Zimbabwe. Washington and Harare relations, therefore, are going to continue being polarized as long as Zimbabwe remains stiff-necked and recalcitrant.”
President Emmerson Mnangagwa led government has designated the 25th of October annually as a day for campaigning against sanctions. Credit: The FeedZW
Tawanda Zinyama, in academia at the University of Zimbabwe, said the character and behavior of Mnangagwa’s administration may help shape the US policy towards Zimbabwe.
“The fragmentation of the opposition and civil society in Zimbabwe does not entice the US to continue some of its policies as it may be counterproductive on their part,” he said.
Zinyama said the opposition parties thrive on legitimate grievances of the people and once the Mnangwagwa regime addresses them, even partially, the US will be forced by the reality on the ground to engage with them.
Biden was part of the congress that passed ZDERA.
The Mngangagwa regime has been using the country’s security forces to descend on political opponents and critics since 2018.
In August 2018 the military shot dead six civilians in the streets of Harare who were demonstrating against the electoral body which was delaying to announce the country’s first elections after Mugabe.
In January 2019, the military was deployed to quell demonstrators, who were protesting nationwide against Mnangagwa’s decision to hike fuel prices by 150 percent, resulting in the death of 17 people and leaving hundreds injured.
In 2020, the government using its security forces committed gross human rights violations under the guise of enforcing measures that had been imposed in March that year to slow the spread of the global pandemic, Coronavirus.
From March to September 2020 there were over 1,200 human rights violations cases ranging from unlawful arrests, assaults, threats and intimidations, harassment of citizens and journalists, and extrajudicial killings across the country, according to the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association, a human rights advocacy movement.
Zinyama said the democrats are likely to be more directly confrontational against a nationalistic Zimbabwe and they are more impatient about the pace of the democratization they want to see than the Republicans who simply paid lip service to Zimbabwean issues.
Binga — With its classrooms thatched, its walls built using home-made bricks and located in Binga, a remote area in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland North Province, Zumana Secondary school apparently stands weighed down by leaking roofs, with the grass thatch gradually falling apart.
Approximately 436 kilometers from Zumana school South-East of Binga, lies yet another perishing school — Melisa secondary, which is in Silobela, an agricultural village located in Kwekwe district in this Southern African nation’s Midlands Province, about 60 kilometers west of Kwekwe town.
One of the classroom blocks with ages-old fading greenish paint stands out without half of its asbestos roofing sheets, blown away by the wind in the previous years, according to local pupils.
“I remember I was doing grade three when the roof was taken away by the wind and I’m in grade seven now,” a 15-year-old school pupil who identified himself as Melusi Mpabanga, told Ubuntu Times.
A wide crack that has taken shape at a classroom at Melisa Secondary School in Silobela in Zimbabwe’s Midlands Province signals the imminent fall of one of the school’s classrooms. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
A teacher who preferred to remain anonymous saying he was forbidden to speak to the media, said, ‘here at Melisa, most of my students have to sit on the cracked floors each time during lessons conducted in classrooms with broken window pens.’
Fearing victimization, yet another teacher at Binga’s Zumana secondary school who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said ‘we have four thatched classrooms which we use for teaching and learning.’
“The thatched classrooms all have leaks and during rainy seasons, learners’ books get destroyed. Teaching at such an institution is really a bad experience. The teachers’ cottages are also grass-thatched and they leak, which makes life unbearable for us,” the Zumana school teacher told Ubuntu Times.
A typically worn-out thatched classroom block at Zumana Secondary School in Binga is pictured in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland North Province. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
Yet the sorry state of Zimbabwe’s schools is not only in the remote areas but has also cascaded down to urban areas amid a comatose national economy.
Civil society activists blame authorities for not prioritizing education, instead directing government revenue towards fattening their own pockets.
“For selfish reasons, government leaders are clearly paying zero attention to the sad developments in schools in terms of infrastructures which have collapsed,” Claris Madhuku, who is director of the Platform for Youth Development, a Zimbabwean civil society organization, told Ubuntu Times.
A classroom at Nyatsambo Secondary School in Mhondoro in Zimbabwe’s Mashonaland West Province has grass growing inside it after years of negligence by authorities even as pupils still use the classroom for lessons. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
Touched by the state of Zimbabwe’s deteriorating schools’ infrastructure seven years after he left office, David Coltart who was the Minister of Education back then, pinned the blame on lack of prioritization of the country’s education system by the authorities here.
“For years, in fact for decades, schools’ infrastructure has been deteriorating because to be frank there is simply insufficient budget being allocated to education; government boasts about the fact that the bulk of the budget goes to education, but in my experience, the amount actually paid out, there is no relationship with the theoretical budget figure; and even that theoretical budget figure is insufficient,” Coltart told Ubuntu Times.
For 2021, Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education received a total allocation of $55,221 billion (in local currency), an equivalent of about 55 million United States dollars.
This to Coltart, is a drop in the ocean.
“If we wish to make education a priority, that needs to be reflected in the amount of money that we spend and there need to be dramatic cutbacks elsewhere, in govt spending,” said Coltart, who is now treasurer-general of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change Alliance (MDC Alliance).
One of the schools in Zimbabwe’s Midlands Province in Silobela, Melisa Secondary School stands out with a classroom ridden with cracked floors. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
The Zimbabwean government has however been on record in the media claiming to be making major boosts of the country’s infrastructure in schools.
Earlier this year, Zimbabwe’s Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Edgar Moyo told parliament government was aware of the run-down infrastructure at some schools in the country, saying government continued to prioritize revamping them.
But even as dilapidation haunts Zimbabwe’s schools, government instead boasts of having more schools, about 6,000 primary and secondary schools, according to statistics from the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT).
At Zumana Secondary School in Binga in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland North Province south of Kariba dam, thatched residence of teachers stands out apparently worn-out, this development way into the 21st century. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
For teachers’ trade unions, even as the regime brags about having multiple schools, it amounts to nothing amidst dereliction of the infrastructure.
“The level of dilapidated infrastructure in schools is not only worrisome but rather pathetic and in a sorrowful state. The infrastructure is basically from the colonial era and not much changes have been effected to go with modern time and in most instances, especially in rural areas, the infrastructure is virtually nonexistent as teachers and learners are forced to conduct lessons in makeshift structures and under trees,” Robson Chere, secretary-general of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ), told Ubuntu Times.
Yet as they earn little, Zimbabwean teachers want the best to help them deliver service to the country’s learners.
The lowest-paid teacher in Zimbabwe now earns a monthly salary of $19,975 in local currency, which is the equivalent of 245 USD, with the highest-paid teacher earning 281 USD.
A thatched lanky classroom block built using home-made bricks at Zumana secondary school in Binga in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland North Province stands out under the weight of an almost curving roof, this as the school undergoes dilapidation for years now. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
“As a union, we are advocating for an educational equalization fund; our dream is to see a Zimbabwe which provides equal opportunities in education regardless of the location of a learner or school,” Munyaradzi Masiyiwa, ARTUZ deputy Secretary-General, told Ubuntu Times.
But amid dilapidated infrastructure across Zimbabwe’s schools here, Masiyiwa’s may remain a pipe dream, for before, some like Coltart tried with little success to revamp the country’s citadels of education.
“I last made an attempt to tackle the deteriorating schools’ infrastructure in my last year in cabinet in 2013; I developed the schools development project working between UNICEF on the one hand and individual schools on the other and we devised a program whereby money went straight from donors to schools committees and headmasters; I’m not sure how that is running now, but driving around the country, it seems to me there is very little taking place and schools’ infrastructure is collapsing everywhere,” Coltart said.
Harare — There are growing fears that Mozambique’s terrorism insurgents could spill into several countries across Southern Africa.
In Zimbabwe, many fear terrorists operating in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, which is over 1,000 kilometers away from Harare, could soon hit the country.
“It’s difficult to rule out the fact that the terrorists haunting Mozambique will soon be here in Zimbabwe especially as our government has already made its intentions to step in to help Mozambique fight the terrorists,” Claris Madhuku who heads the Platform for Youth Development, told Ubuntu Times.
On the 14th of this month, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa traveled to Mozambique to meet his counterpart President Filipe Nyusi over the destabilization there.
Last month, Mnangagwa said acts of terrorism in Mozambique were shocking, pledging to help the eastern neighbor in any way possible to counter the acts.
Madhuku also said ‘terror attacks in Mozambique are a threat not only to SADC but Africa as a whole.’
“Military intervention to thwart the vigilant group is not sustainable. The regional leaders must invest more in understanding these conflicts that are sometimes sponsored by economic interests and greed,” said Madhuku.
Mnangagwa made calls earlier last month to have soldiers deployed to neighboring Mozambique to crush terrorists in that country.
Turning to Twitter after militants beheaded over 50 people in northern Mozambique during attacks on several villages, Zimbabwe’s strongman said: “These acts of barbarity must be stamped out wherever they are found.”
Now, Zimbabwean students like 23-year-old Phineas Mbiza of the University of Zimbabwe are openly deriding the terror conflict in Mozambique.
“To me, these are mere Jihadist extremists searching for converts to their cruel belief system,” said Mbiza.
Yet, the government of the United States of America has also recently said it feared the spillage of terror attacks from Mozambique into nearby countries.
The US Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Nathan Sales briefed journalists following his recent visit to Mozambique, warning that the on-going violence in the neighboring country could spill over into neighboring countries and destabilize the SADC region.
With the entire Southern Africa region under threat from terrorists, in Zimbabwe, Mbiza said ‘loss of African lives through terror attacks confirm how threatened we are.’
Zimbabwean political analysts like Farai Gwenhure who is a law student with the University of Southern Africa, said ‘when you have a region in which unemployment is very high it can easily be a breeding ground for radicalization and extremist recruitment especially of young people.’
Speaking of terror spillage in SADC, Gwenhure also said ‘there is a high risk of the spread of terrorism, yes; we all know how ISIS started to spread in Iraq and Syria.’
A known anti-government political activist in Zimbabwe, Elvis Mugari, said ‘I foresee instability in the whole of SADC if there would be military intervention in Mozambique.’
“Rather, Mozambique government must engage the extremist leaders, map a way forward with them, try to address their concerns in a humane and diplomatic way,” Mugari told Ubuntu Times.
Harare — In a move that has been taken with a pinch of salt by local pro-democracy activists, the Zimbabwean regime on November 20 announced that it had dished out broadcasting licenses to six more television stations out of the 14 that had applied to be licensed.
Presently, just the Zimbabwe Television run by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation is the only national television station in Zimbabwe.
Amongst the successful applicants for a license, was the State-controlled, Zimpapers Television Network (ZTN).
ZTN is a sister company of the Zimbabwe Newspapers 1980 Private Limited, controlled by this country’s government notorious for stifling media democracy for decades.
Owned by business tycoon James Makamba, Zimbabwe’s only privately owned broadcasting station, Joy TV, which started in July 1998 was shut down on 31 May 2002 after a lease agreement the TV station had with the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation was annulled on the grounds that it desecrated the 2001 Broadcasting Services Act of this country.
Two decades later, Zimbabwe’s regime has licensed other players in the television broadcasting industry, however with pro-democracy activists skeptical about the government’s sincerity in its move to license the new players.
“The regime has merely licensed its own TV stations that will further step up praise-singing for it (the regime) as it perpetuates more rights abuses here,” Claris Madhuku who heads the Platform for Youth Development, told Ubuntu Times.
Under Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s rule, journalists like Hopewell Chin’ono have been arrested ostensibly for inciting public violence although he had mid this year exposed alleged government corruption involving Coronavirus supplies implicating the President’s son Colin Mnangagwa.
However, announcing the licensing of the six TV stations, Charles Sibanda, chairman of the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ), hailed the move which he said was the liberation of airwaves in the African nation.
“The Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe would like to express appreciation to all those who showed interest and indeed the general public for actively participating in this historic process of facilitating the opening up of broadcasting airwaves for multiplicity in television services,” Sibanda told reporters in the capital Harare.
But other applicants like Heart & Soul Television which is owned by Trevor Ncube one of President Mnangagwa’s advisors, was not amongst the successful applicants although Jester Media trading as 3K TV managed to get a license despite the fact that the company falls under the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) which publishes the Daily News, an anti-government newspaper.
Ncube is the owner of Alpha Media Holdings which publishes newspapers deemed to be hostile to the Zimbabwean regime — Newsday, The Zimbabwe Independent, and The Standard.
Other TV stations that were given licenses are Rusununguko Media’s NRTV, Acacia Media Group’s Kumba TV, Fairtalk Communications’ Ke Yona TV, and Channel Dzimbahwe’s Channel D.
Harare, Zimbabwe — Fiona Nyaungwa (24) still recalls marching towards the State House in Harare on the 18th of November in 2017 to put pressure on the then Zimbabwean ruler, the late Robert Mugabe to resign.
Nyaungwa, then a student at the University of Zimbabwe was supposed to attend lessons but she could not miss the historic event impelled by the military.
“My neighbor convinced me to witness this historical event of our time in the hope that we were being liberated from bondage,” she said.
But she is quick to confess her fear of Zimbabwe’s dreaded military.
“I was afraid the military was going to open fire on innocent civilians,” she told Ubuntu Times.
In the city center, she joined millions of Zimbabweans around the country who were calling for the resignation of Robert Mugabe — the man who had ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist since its independence from Britain in 1980.
Four days before, Nyaungwa had seen armored vehicles taking strategic positions in the city center from Inkomo Barracks about 35 kilometers northwest of Harare.
She did not know what was happening until the morning of the 15th of November 2017. ZTV, the country’s only State television broadcasting station and radio stations had been taken over by the military under the cover of the darkness.
While the drama unfolded, they had placed Mugabe under house arrest and Major General Sibusiso Moyo calmed the nation: “We wish to assure the nation that (President Mugabe) and his family are safe and sound and their security is guaranteed,” he said.
“We are only targeting criminals around him who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country in order to bring them to justice.”
Mugabe together with his wife Grace and a faction of Zanu-PF G40 members including outspoken former Minister of Higher Education Jonathan Moyo, Patrick Zhuwao – Mugabe’s nephew and Saviour Kasukuwere were immediately labeled criminals – accused of corruption in Zimbabwe. Their persecution started.
The coup led to the ousting of Mugabe and paved the way for the ascendency to power of axed Vice President Emmerson Mnangangwa – the man who for many years was Mugabe’s confidante.
The coup that ousted late President Robert Mugabe led to the ascendency of axed Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa to power. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe / Ubuntu Times
Young people like Nyaungwa saw Mnangagwa as a savior who would build a new nation where democracy, rule of law, and respect of human rights thrived. He carried Zimbabwe’s hopes of burying years of living under fear, years of political turmoil, and rebirth of a nation that was once praised for its economic boom. They welcomed the ouster of Mugabe.
“Mugabe’s regime was oppressive. There was no freedom of speech and expression. I needed change. My hopes were to see a democratic Zimbabwe. Under Mugabe there was nepotism and corruption,” Nyaungwa said.
Three years after the military-assisted takeover and a disputed election in 2018 Zimbabweans’ hopes have faded away as it becomes apparent to many that the coup was just a change of power and not a rotten system.
After outlawing the use of multi-currency in mid-2019 and introducing its local currency the Zimbabwean dollar, the latter has been losing value against major currencies.
As of November this year, Zimbabwe’s inflation rate was nearly 385 percent, according to Steve Hanke, an economist at Johns Hopkins University.
The country faces a myriad of problems.
There is a shortage of medicine in public hospitals which has left the majority of Zimbabwe’s population struggling to access health care.
The Mnangagwa-led administration, after dumping its “Open for Business” Public Relations stunt, has adopted the removal of sanctions mantra as the solution to Zimbabwe’s economic crisis.
The government thrives on propaganda and blame-shifting. The Mnangagwa regime has even dedicated the 25th of October annually as a day to campaign against sanctions.
The United States and its allies imposed “targeted” sanctions on Harare in 2002 following a chaotic Land Reform Programme that saw blacks taking back their land from about 4500 white farmers during the Mugabe era.
But, Washington through its embassy in Harare has insisted that Mnangagwa should reform and respect human rights.
Admire Mare, a senior lecturer at Namibia University of Science and Technology said Zimbabwe’s economic malaise is a combination of both external and internal sanctions.
“Internal sanctions are rooted in deep-seated corruption, bad governance, unending electioneering, winner takes it all politics and polarization,” he told Ubuntu Times.
He said the current situation highlights that the regime has learnt nothing and forgotten nothing about the modus operandi of “Mugabeism”.
“The intensity of rule by law and abuse of the criminal justice system is unprecedented. It casts doubt on the sincerity of the regime to reform the political and electoral system,” Mare said.
The government has been using force on citizens since 2018 thereby closing the democratic space.
In August 2018 the military shot dead six civilians in the streets of Harare who were demonstrating against the electoral body which was delaying to announce the country’s first elections after Mugabe.
In January 2019, the military was deployed to quell demonstrators, who were protesting nationwide against Mnangagwa’s decision to hike fuel prices by 150 percent, resulting in the death of 17 people and leaving hundreds injured.
This year, the government using its security forces committed gross human rights under the guise of enforcing measures imposed in March to slow the spread of the global pandemic, Coronavirus.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa is using force to silence critics. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe / Ubuntu Times
From March to September 2020 there were over 1,200 human rights violations cases ranging from unlawful arrests, assaults, threats and intimidations, harassment of citizens and journalists, and extrajudicial killings across the country, according to the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association, a human rights advocacy movement.
Dr. Wellington Gadzikwa, a journalism lecturer and academic at a local university, said the presence of the military in civilian issues which are normally handled by the police has increased and reports of the members of the army violating human rights have increased more than during the Mugabe era.
“I think most people expected Mnangagwa to be radically different from Mugabe but the frustration with lack of change has led many to perceive that the new leader is worse off than the former,” he said.
Njabulo Ncube, the Zimbabwe National Editors Forum coordinator told Ubuntu Times that media reforms have been a fraud in the country.
“While (Mnangagwa regime) purports to be rolling out media reforms, it is sneaking in draconian laws that criminalizes the journalism profession,” he said.
“Mugabe was subtle in stifling media freedoms but Mnangagwa is brazen.”
Nyaungwa is regretting joining the march that forced Mugabe to resign in March 2017.
“The march brought corruption and the suppression of the freedom of expression,” she said.
Mberengwa — As a teacher, she has had very few associates. Back home, visiting relatives whisper behind her back apparently disgusted by her condition of albinism. Now, 43-year old Lindani Zhou based in Mberengwa, a Zimbabwean rural district in the country’s Midlands Province, has had to stomach growing discrimination against her each day of her life.
She (Zhou) is a high school History teacher at one of the district schools in the province.
Her woes with discrimination owing to her condition are even worse at school, where Zhou said ‘my only friend is my job.’
“I find solace in my job. In class, I have learnt to live with the contemptuous glares from most of my students and I just ignore, with some even giggling when they think I won’t be noticing,” Zhou told Ubuntu Times.
Zhou has even claimed in the villages closer to the school where she teaches, villagers believe she is a mystery figure.
Coupled with acts of giving and charity, people with albinism and their colleagues lead awareness on the condition during International Albinism Awareness day in 2017. Credit: Alive Albinism Initiative
“People here actually think I’m unlike other human beings, claiming I can disappear and reappear; imagine such primitive thinking in this 21st century, and because of those false beliefs they associate with albinism, very few have the courage to even greet me,” said Zhou.
For many other Zimbabweans living with albinism like Agness Gurume, the Coronavirus pandemic has even spelled out worse woes for her lately.
In an episode that captured the attention of the entire national media here, just last month, she (Gurume) was barred by security guards from entering Pick n Pay Supermarket in Masvingo, Zimbabwe’s oldest town after she had requested to wash her hands with soap instead of sanitizers which she had said affect her skin.
Not only security guards have turned to discriminating against people with albinism like Gurume.
People living with albinism in June 2017 as conduct a campaign against the discrimination of people with their condition during the International Albinism Awareness Day three years ago. Credit: Alive Albinism Initiative
In fact, four decades after Zimbabwe gained independence from British colonial rule, even little children born in this age ridicule people living with albinism like Gurume and Zhou.
“Little children openly giggle when they see me and they gather around me as if I have become some tourist object of attraction,” Zhou said.
Indigenous businessmen like 57-year old Gift Mhara in Harare who runs some shops in downtown Harare, openly shun working with albinos.
People living with albinism in the Zimbabwean capital Harare are in August 2019 captured shopping for sun cream to protect their skins from the heat. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
To him (Mhara), people with albinism are a cost.
“If you employ a person with albinism you must be prepared to get excuses of absenteeism from work because they fall sick anytime and they need to constantly visit medical specialists to attend to them, meaning their production time at work is minimal,” Mhara told Ubuntu Times.
Based in Harare, 31-year old Gamuchirai Uzande has also battled with discrimination as she lives with albinism.
Uzande said, “there is discrimination in all sectors of life, health, education, employment, socially, you name it.”
“Because of cultural beliefs, many people’s mindsets are corrupted; hence for a person with albinism to be employed in a formal sector is a challenge. Some employers are not even ashamed to show it on the day of the interview instead. If by any chance you get employed in a formal sector, chances of stigma between employees is very high,” Uzande told Ubuntu Times.
Faced with escalating discrimination of people with albinism in Zimbabwe, pro-albinism organizations like Alive Albinism Initiative, have spoken with vehemence against the rising trend.
“I always say people often get scared of what they don’t understand or what they don’t know. That’s the same reason why persons with albinism still face discrimination in Zimbabwe and in Africa. Some people are of the belief that albinism is a result of witchcraft or that it is some form of a punishment from God,” Ms. Gwenlisa Mushonga, who is the director for Alive Albinism Initiative in Zimbabwe, told Ubuntu Times.
Officials from various pro-albinism organizations pose for a group photo after a pro-albinism campaign during 2017’s International Albinism Awareness Day. Credit: Alive Albinism Initiative
Founder of Alive Albinism Initiative, Mushonga herself lives with albinism and has over the years become a disability activist with a focus on the rights and empowerment of persons with albinism.
According to the World Health Organization, there are approximately 33,000 people with albinism in Zimbabwe.
Of these, based on statistics from the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, only about two percent are gainfully employed, meaning approximately 660 people with albinism across this Southern African nation have jobs.
ZCTU is the primary trade union federation in this country.
With the escalating segregation of people with albinism in Zimbabwe, Mushonga apparently is pessimistic about the employment of people with the condition.
“Employers do not like employing people with albinism as they are declared that they might chase away their customers. We have a couple of persons often called for interviews, but once they show up that’s the end of it; they will not get the job simply because they look different,” said Mushonga.
Yet as Zimbabweans with albinism like Zhou and Gurume endure discrimination because of their conditions, many like Mushonga have pinned the blame on people’s backwardness.
Director of Alive Albinism Initiative, Ms. Gwenlisa Mushonga who lives with albinism presides over the proceedings in 2017 during International Albinism Awareness Day. Credit: Alive Albinism Initiative
“There is high level of discrimination of persons who have this condition in Zimbabwe. This is caused by the fact that Africa is mostly populated by black people and for black parents to give birth to a white child causes confusion, mistrust, and in the search of a cause, superstitious beliefs,” said Mushonga.
In fact, Mushonga said ‘people are scared of what they do not understand and instead of searching for answers and correct information, they just assume that they know it all.’
But even as they face discrimination, many Zimbabwean albinos like Tapiwa Musoni who work as a radio presenter have swum against the odds, beating segregation and becoming one of the country’s top radio personalities.
According to the United Nations, the physical appearance of persons with albinism is often the object of erroneous beliefs and myths influenced by superstition, resulting in their marginalization and subsequently discrimination.
Zimbabwean sociologist Mike Musawu based in the capital Harare said, ‘generally, people here are stuck in the olden belief that albinos are a curse from God or in fact punishment from ancestors.’
Yet human rights defenders like Elvis Mugari foresee the need for the Zimbabwean government to economically empower citizens living with albinism in order for them to become self-reliant.
A person living with albinism in the Zimbabwean capital Harare is captured having her blood pressure checked by a nurse. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
“Instead of watching albinos being discriminated against, government should act swiftly and make sure they have things to do to support themselves economically,” Mugari told Ubuntu Times.
So, for many Zimbabweans living with albinism like Uzande, a lot still needs to be done to fend off discrimination.
“I would say there is still much work to be done in order to raise awareness on albinism,” Uzande said.
Marange, Zimbabwe — It is a windy day in Marange, Chanakira village. Small clouds scuddle the blue sky giving it a blurred look. About 110 kilometers southwest of Mutare, Norah Mwastuku (48) a subsistence farmer sits at the verandah and contemplates when the first rains will arrive.
She anxiously looks at her fields, decorated with mulched holes.
Mwastuku is one of the farmers who have embraced the Pfumvudza program — a concept where crops are planted on zero tillage in a bid to conserve water and inputs on a small piece of land.
She is enthusiastic about the program and is looking forward to the new season.
“I have already dug holes in a 39 meters by 16 meters piece of land. This coming season I am planning to grow maize,” the mother of four told Ubuntu Times.
This area does not receive much rain and farmers like Mwastuku rely on boreholes to water their fields. The soils are tired too.
While the government is currently popularizing the Pfumvudza program, Mwastuku is used to it. In the season 2019/2020, she grew maize and sorghum at the same size of land as part of Pfumvudza.
“I had a good harvest. This is what we are surviving on as a family,” she said. The farming concept is increasingly becoming popular among farmers in areas that receive less rainfall.
Lilian Murangariri (50), a small-holder farmer from Headlands, about 140 kilometers from the capital Harare says Pfumvudza has less labor.
“Last year I grew orange maize and white maize in a half-hectare piece of land. I was amazed with the harvest. As a farmer you do not have to stress about using cows for tillage as this is zero tillage,” she told Ubuntu Times.
The mother of three says Pfumvudza is economic and can be practiced by farmers who do not have enough farming machinery.
“The holes and mulch conserve water. I can still harvest my crops even if there is poor rain. I also use less inputs such as fertilizer,” said Murangariri.
Mwastuku and Murangariri are some of the over 9,000 people who have embraced Pfumvudza with the support from the Zimbabwe Livelihoods and Food Security Programme (LFSP).
Pfumvudza concept maximizes on a small piece of land with less agricultural inputs to produce a good harvest. Credit: FAO
The LFSP, which is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), is managed by United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and implemented by Welthungerhilfe, Practical Action and World Vision.
It is aimed at reducing poverty, targeting 250,000 rural farming households through improved food and nutrition security and incomes in 10 districts in Zimbabwe.
LFSP trained over 50,000 farmers from their clusters in Manicaland, Midlands, and Mashonaland Provinces in 2019.
For the past half a decade Zimbabwe has been having incessant droughts and floods which, according to experts, are caused by climate change.
Nearly 8 million people, about half of Zimbabwe’s population, are food insecure, according to the United Nations’ World Food Programme.
The southern African nation, which was once the breadbasket of the continent, will import an estimated 1.1 million tonnes of grain in the 2020/2021 marketing year to meet demand, according to the FAO.
This Pfumvudza concept which was spearheaded by FAO last season in Zimbabwe has been adopted by the President Emmerson Mnangagwa led government in the 2020/2021 season targeting nearly 2 million households, about 10 million people.
The government is supporting these farmers with inputs.
Prudence Mucharwa, a small-holder farmer in Chihota near Marondera, about 70 kilometers from the capital Harare, said she is new to the concept.
“I joined Pfumvudza a bit late. I met an Agritex officer who explained it to me. The Grain Marketing Board will loan me inputs and I will pay back with maize or soya meal,” she said.
Mulching which is part of the Pfumvudza concept helps in water conservation ideal in drought-hit areas in rural Zimbabwe. Credit: FAO
Lands ministry permanent secretary John Bhasera explains more about the program.
“Pfumvudza is simply conservation agriculture. This is basically conservation which has been nationalized. It has minimum soil disturbance as well as mulching creating a blanket of cover so that you can conserve moisture. Crop rotation as well, we have three farming sectors—one for [a certain type of] cereal, another for [a different] cereal and the last for other crops,” he said.
Zimbabwe has been having farming schemes for the past decades but still, farmers are producing grain not enough to feed the nation.
There is a need for new tactics.
“We now have a new extension approach which is called Train, Track and Monitor (TTM). We have sourced motorcycles for our agriculture extension workers across the country so that they are able to practice the TTM approach. We started with training. We trained the Agritex officers for nearly a month. Now the extension officers are training farmers,” Bhasera said
Pfumvudza concept is a zero tillage program that is considered cheap and time-saving by farmers. Credit: FAO
Olga Nhari, Women in Agriculture Union chairperson speaks glowingly about the program.
“Of the three plots one produces yield sufficient for family and the other two plots for national storage,” she said.
Nhari said Pfumvudza helps rural women, especially, to fight against hunger and to improve livelihoods.
Zimbabwe Farmers Union executive director Paul Zakariya said there was a need to reverse the current state of affairs, where Zimbabwe has remained a net importer of staple cereals.
“It is not desirable that a country that has excellent agricultural lands and enjoys excellent climatic conditions, should import all its food,” he said.
In the past, farming schemes have been marred by corruption in the distribution of inputs as well as loan allocations. Some experts fear that the culture might continue under the Pfumvudza program.
“To say it is an opportunity to loot funds needs intelligence on whether the program will have a budget allocation and the actual implementation of the project in terms of funds or inputs allocation,” Harare based economist Victor Bhoroma told Ubuntu Times.
“However, almost all the country’s agricultural subsidy programs have flopped because of politicization of inputs distribution, corruption, inefficient funding or repayment models and lack of private capital participation which is tied to complicated land tenure policies,”
He said most of these agriculture programs are more political than economic of which in politics, the end justifies the means, hence, the government can pursue an economically costly program because it serves political interests.
Land preparation for Pfumvudza concept is often done soon after harvest while some in winter and others in summer. Credit: FAO
Another economist Vince Musewe said Zimbabwe has invested in previous farming schemes but the country still imports grain.
“We have invested billions (of dollars) in Command Agriculture and we still have to import. We, however, need a new mindset that farming is a business and not a hobby where farmers expect to get free inputs,” said Musewe adding that a strong private sector drive in agriculture is important.
Zakariya said there is a need to put in place measures to curb abuse of inputs under such schemes.
“Without effective and efficient systems, the world over, abuse can be rampant,” he said.
From Pfumvudza, the government is expecting about 1.8 million tonnes of grain, which is almost 90 percent of the national food requirements.
During the 2020/21 season, the LFSP aims to incorporate agroecology aspects as subsistence farmers like Mwastuku realize the fruits of their sweat.
It is hoped that agroecology will better climate-proof smallholder agriculture production and will ensure nutrition for 50,000 households.
Harare — Faced with a restive civil service that has for long demanded to be paid in USD amid the country’s comatose economy, the Zimbabwean government has pledged to pay its workers an equivalent of 500 USD each as funeral cover upon death.
The development that has received a backlash from furious government workers like the country’s striking teachers, comes despite most civil servants having their own funeral policies, subscriptions of which are deducted from their monthly earnings.
According to the government, the 500 USD for funeral cover which comes at the courtesy of the cornered regime here, will be paid to a surviving spouse, adult children, or agreed dependent.
But, infuriated by the development, leaders of the country’s teaching union, the Amalgamated Rural Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe, Obert Masaraure, said ‘we demand USD 520 per month in our lifetime; the livelihoods of our families can’t be deferred to our graves.’
Even as government workers fumed at the development, government officials appeared adamant about the development.
“Starting immediately, government will pay an equivalent of US500 in funeral assistance for any civil servant who passes away. This is regardless of any funeral policy the member may have. The money is paid to a surviving spouse, adult children or agreed dependent,” Nick Mangwana, Zimbabwe government’s Permanent Secretary of Information, said in a statement.
Yet, the Southern African nation’s civil servants have been demanding their wages to be paid in US dollars or at a rate equivalent to the country’s local currency—the Zimbabwe dollar.
Currently, Zimbabwe’s government workers like teachers earn an equivalent of 35 USD monthly, a situation that has seen teachers countrywide downing tools claiming they have become incapacitated to keep reporting for duty.
Reacting to the announcement to reward government workers at death, Zimbabwe’s former Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi who is in exile in South Africa, said ‘an incentive for dying has been pronounced by the Zimbabwe government. Shall we say congratulations?’
Besides Mzembi, another irate Zimbabwean took to twitter lashing out at the government move to reward its dead.
“What will we do with the money when we’re dead?”, tweeted one Van Lee Chigwada.
Harare — Former Chief Executive Officer of the Zimbabwe Football Association, Henrietta Rushwaya was on Monday nabbed by cops as she attempted to smuggle six kilograms of gold to Dubai.
Based on a police internal memorandum gleaned by Ubuntu Times, Rushwaya who is the Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) president was arrested Monday at Robert Mugabe International Airport for contravening section 182 of the Customs and Excise Act.
The arrest of Rushwaya comes at a time Zimbabwe reels from corruption at the behest of the ruling elite.
This is not the first time 53-year old Rushwaya is courting controversy in the Southern African country.
In 2016, she (Rushwaya) was embroiled in a match-fixing scandal dubbed Limpopogate, which linked her to a match-fixing syndicate that had been fixing games for the past 6 years prior to 2016, a year later plotting again to fix the Zimbabwe 2017 Nations Cup qualifiers game against Swaziland.
Amongst a slew of other corruption scandals, in yet another match-fixing scandal as ZIFA boss, Rushwaya in 2009 stood accused of having organized a trip by the Zimbabwe national team to Malaysia in December during which matches were said to have been manipulated.
Now, with the leopard apparently not shedding its spots, Rushwaya has hit again, this time attempting to smuggle gold while ironically, she heads the Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF).
ZMF is the brainchild of Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Mines whose formation was marked to represent and contribute to the development and growth of small-scale miners.
According to police, upon her arrest, Rushwaya claimed she obtained the gold from someone only identified as Ali living at number 32 Lanark Road, Alexandra Park, Harare, whom she also claimed was a licensed gold buyer.
But a day after her arrest, Rushwaya appeared in court where she was remanded in custody to the 28th of this month, with the magistrate Ngoni Nduna saying he wanted to consider the conditions agreed by the State and the accused’s defense team.
Meanwhile, the State led by Charles Muchemwa complied that Rushwaya be given $90,000 bail (Zimbabwean dollars).
Zimunya, Zimbabwe — The October sun is blazing hot in Zimunya, about 56 kilometers southwest of Mutare. Johnson Muranda (11) is resting on his pickaxe inside a mining pit.
Muranda has been here before sunrise searching for gold.
He has a uniquely awkward beginning to his day compared to his agemates.
Most boys of his age spend their pastime at home doing extra-lessons to compensate for time lost as a result of the COVID-19 imposed lockdown.
Since March this year when the government imposed a nationwide lockdown, Muranda has been visiting the area along Odzi River, daily, in search of the precious metal – gold.
The story of Muranda is a tip of the iceberg of the threatening effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on school-going children.
Zimbabwean children had been out of school for nearly seven months until the government opened schools to some exam classes in early October.
The rest of the classes are expected to open later this year.
As family incomes dwindled during lockdown, children have had to carry the mantle of fending for their needs even if it meant delving into dangerous ventures such as illegal mining. This has seen a number of Zimbabweans losing their lives in unprotected mines.
“I have been coming here since April with my friends. I sell gold to buyers from my home area. I realize about $20 per day,” said Muranda whose name has been changed to protect his identity.
Muranda, a Grade 5 student lost his father in 2015 and is now staying with his mother and two other siblings.
He is slowly graduating into a “young parent.”
“I started mining in May and used the money to buy food for my family. My mom is not formally employed and her sources of income were impacted by Coronavirus,” he said.
Muranda is not alone in this dangerous venture. Many more children from his school have answered to the lure of illegal gold mining as they seek ways to make ends meet.
Chemicals such as cyanide and mercury used to separate ore and gold put the lives of child minors at risk. Credit: CNRG
Another child miner Sarudzai Muchemwa (17) works about five hours a day along Odzi River.
She too has a heart and responsibility of an older person.
“I use the money to buy food as well as clothes for me and my family,” said Muchemwa whose name has been changed to protect her identity.
Apart from looking after the family needs, Muchemwa, who is in Form 3, is saving the money to pay school fees when her class opens late October.
“We are opening on the 26th of October. My parents are peasant farmers and they struggle to raise money for my fees. So, I have decided to help them,” she said.
Zimbabwe has a long history of child labor.
Child rights defenders have recorded an increase in the number of child miners in Zimbabwe during lockdown. Credit: Zela
In 2019, of the 50,000 children surveyed in the southern African nation, 71% were working in agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors and 5.4% were in the mining and quarrying sectors, according to the Labour Force and Child Labour Survey released by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency.
Adolphus Chinomwe, International Labour Organisation senior program officer based in Harare told Ubuntu Times that loss of incomes could be forcing children into illegal mining.
“The period from March up to now was postseason for agriculture and from May to June households, especially those in rural areas normally supplement with artisanal mining,” he said.
He added that the lockdown period has been long to the extent that children become “susceptible to child labour-both economic and non-economic.”
According to the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (Zela) in its report titled “Impact of Covid-19 response mechanisms on children in selected gold and diamond communities in Zimbabwe”, children have resorted to drastic mechanisms that compromise their welfare and puts their rights at risk of being violated.
Zela said children were no longer attending classes and the pandemic also drove some to engage in economic activities including illegal mining while stating that sexual exploitation is rampant in mining areas around the country.
“Since the COVID-19 induced lockdown and the closure of schools, the number of children involved in alluvial diamond and artisanal gold mining in the areas under review has increased,” said Zela.
“For diamond, the activities include milling of alluvial diamond, skirting of diamond, cooking for the syndicates and digging of diamond ore. For gold, the alluvial mining is mainly happening along river beds.”
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) defines a child or minor as a human being underage of 18.
But according to the International Labour Organisation the fundamental convention sets the general minimum age for admission to employment or work at 15 years, even at 13 for light work and the minimum age for hazardous work at 18 while 16 years is considered as well though under certain strict conditions.
Even though the Labour Act in Zimbabwe allows people under the age of 18 to be employed as part of educational training it makes it illegal for children under the age of 18 to perform any work which can jeopardize their health, safety or morals.
Without proper monitoring, observance of these laws is minimal. Children venturing into mining are exposed to dangers and are left to learn the ropes of the trade on their own.
“Fortunately, we do not use any chemicals. We first create holes on top of a 200-liter water container. We then put a carpet on top of it. Gold usually does not pass through the carpet but only soil will. This is how we separate the gold,” said Muranda.
He said he has never fallen into any open pits left by other miners.
Illegal miners often leave a trail of environmental destruction in forms of gullies and open pits putting the lives of other miners at risk. Credit: CNRG
Desperate to get money during lockdown some young girls had to engage in sexual activities with illegal miners operating in Manicaland.
“In Odzi we met young girls who are having sex with artisanal miners in exchange for money. Miners take advantage of them. They sleep with them without protection and pay them huge sums of money,” Hazel Zemura, a coordinator for Women Against All Forms of Discrimination told Ubuntu Times.
Organizations that advocate for the rights of children are concerned about the involvement of young people in illegal mining activities.
Zela said the government needs to speed up the formalization of the artisanal and small-scale mining sector to discourage the increasing involvement of children in the sector.
Mines deputy minister Polite Kambamura professed ignorance on the involvement of children in mining activities.
“Our Labour laws in the mining industry do not allow employment of anyone under the age of 18 years. If ever there are such employers they must account for such actions,” he said.
Kambamura challenged mining companies to formalize their operations.
“We encourage all miners to register and formalize their operations so as to avoid unethical work practices.”
But while solutions to child laborers and observance of law by miners continue to be sought, pupils like Muranda and many other young girls who are forced into illegal mining activities might be irreparably damaged.
They are beginning to see mining as a pastime venture with lucrative proceeds albeit its associated dangers.
“This is my only source of income. I will be back in the mining fields whenever we break at school,” he said.
Harare, Zimbabwe — When schools reopened in Zimbabwe, late September, Noel Madamombe (16) thought time had arrived for him to prepare for final examinations later this year.
Little did he know that there will not be any learning, for quite some time.
Zimbabwean teachers have vowed not to report for work until their employer revises their salaries to 2017 when they earned not less than $300 per month.
While negotiations are continuing, the government has, in the interim, offered the striking teachers a 40 percent transport allowance.
This is in addition to a COVID-19 $75 allowance lasting until December.
Currently, teachers are earning a paltry 3,500 Zimbabwean dollar (Z$) ($38).
The Total Consumption Poverty Line for an average family of five is now pegged at Z$15,573 ($173) as of August this year, according to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency.
While the poverty datum line and the cost of the basic commodities, which are pegged against the United States dollar, have continued to rise the government has not responded by increasing teachers’ salaries beyond the COVID-19 allowance and transport allowance.
As the government and its workers tussle over salaries, the students are the most affected.
School children in Zimbabwe are going to school to study as teachers’ strike continues. Credit: Ruvimbo Muchenje
Madamombe, is in his final year studies and is due to write his Ordinary Level examinations.
Students have been out of school since March this year when the government imposed a nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Zimbabwe has some of the highest data tariffs in the region and has been experiencing its worst economic crisis in decades.
With Coronavirus cases declining, the government is finally putting measures to ensure all schools reopen while observing COVID-19 World Health Organization regulations.
Since the 28th of September 2020, schools have started opening their doors only to pupils who will sit for their national examinations later this year.
The remaining pupils are expected to return to school towards the end of the year.
“I am worried about my examinations because during lockdown I was not learning,” Madamombe, a student at George Stark Secondary School in Mbare in the capital Harare told Ubuntu Times.
“I live in an area with no electricity to charge my gadgets and buying internet data bundles to attend online lessons was a challenge for me.”
While students are coming to school, no learning is taking place.
“Our teachers are not coming to school,” Madamombe said.
Another Form 4 student, Trish Hungwe (17), said they were going to school to study.
“Since the day we reopened we have not been learning,” said Hungwe who learns at Chikanga Secondary School in Mutare, Zimbabwe’s fourth-largest city.
Madamombe and Hungwe‘s predicament is similar to many students who are going to school at a time when their teachers are on an industrial strike citing incapacitation.
Zimbabwe’s economy has been plummeting since the time President Emmerson Mnangagwa took over reigns of power from the late former President Robert Mugabe, in November 2017 through a military coup.
Teachers are among civil servants that are demanding adequate salaries from the government. Doctors from public hospitals were captured here demonstrating against poor salaries in 2019, in Harare. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe / Ubuntu Times
The country is going through a crisis.
Basic commodities are readily not available and the country is battling to arrest unemployment and hyperinflation that has surpassed an annual of 700 percent as of August this year, according to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
This has posed viability challenges and eroded salaries of civil servants.
The southern African nation’s economy has been worsened by the impact of Coronavirus which has paralyzed many industries.
Teachers are among the worst affected groups.
Teachers, who are saying their salaries are the lowest in the SADC region are demanding a monthly minimum wage of $520.
As the plight of students worsen there are growing calls for the government to ditch piecemeal arrangements and find a holistic solution to teachers’ salaries problem.
“Our education is in a serious crisis, November 2020 candidates will not be ready for examinations in December. Government should urgently convene education stakeholders to resolve the ensuing crisis,” Obert Masaraure, Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president told Ubuntu Times.
He said even though they still have teachers who are consistently logging in they are not teaching and 98 percent of their teachers are not reporting for work.
“The few teachers who reported for duty on opening day are now leaving schools to join the majority who are still at home,” he said adding that learners in boarding schools were spending time in between hostels and dining halls.
Some schools, especially those in remote areas, are struggling to meet Ministry of Health conditions on social distancing and sanitization.
But, the government has given assurance that all is under control.
School children in the cities are being asked by school authorities to bring at least two face masks from home. Credit: Ruvimbo Muchenje
Speaking during a media briefing in early October, Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said basic Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) that include face masks, sanitizers and disinfectants “have been distributed to all public and independent schools.”
This is all fake according to information gathered by Ubuntu Times.
John Mutisi, a headteacher in Buhera, in eastern Zimbabwe, whose name has been changed to protect his identity for fear of reprisal said he has been forced by the government to open the school with inadequate PPEs.
Mutisi’s worries are echoed by teachers’ unions who believe the government is neglecting them by exposing them to Coronavirus.
“There are no PPEs and no running water in several schools. Teachers have not been tested for COVID-19,” said Raymond Majongwe, the secretary-general of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe.
Masaraure said PPEs were an essential requirement for schools to reopen.
“However, the government has failed to make these important essentials available thus risking the lives of teachers and learners,” he said.
Some Non-Governmental Organizations have come to the government’s rescue by providing PPEs in some schools in the country.
“We have provided handwashing stations and most of the schools in our areas have been making masks,” Shamiso Matambanadzo, World Vision Zimbabwe advocacy, communication and external engagement team leader told Ubuntu Times.
“Also, we have been distributing bars of soap, hand sanitizers, and buckets in preparation of schools opening.”
However, the government remains hopeful that a solution will be found.
Mutsvangwa said salary negotiations for civil servants were underway.
“Government is aware of the challenges facing civil servants including teachers and is committed to improving the welfare of its workers. Consultations are currently underway to consider the request by the Apex Council in the last negotiating meeting held with the Government,” she said.
School children in Zimbabwe have been out of school for nearly six months and now their teachers have embarked on industrial action over poor salaries. Credit: Zimbabwe Peace Project
There seem to be no lasting solution in sight to Zimbabwe’s crippling education sector.
While the government has in some sectors resorted to issuing threats to its workers, teachers are refusing to budge.
“Teachers continue to send a bold message to the employer, they are not going to be cowed by empty threats,” said Masaraure.
While the labor tension between the government and teachers continues, Madamombe and other students who are scheduled to write their national examinations this year will continue paying the ‘price’.
“I just hope we will soon start learning,” said Madamombe.
“I am worried about my future if I fail this examination.”
Harare — Two years ago, his then 53-year old mother succumbed to colon cancer. A year later, his 24-year old sister was diagnosed with the same disease, yet earlier this year, 28-year old Tapfumaneyi Hwengwere also turned into another colon cancer patient in the family.
Hwengwere said now doctors have told him his cancer has reached stage four, meaning his case has leaped beyond redemption.
“I’m just taking medication to ease the pain although it’s clear my condition has gone beyond what the doctors can do to save my life,” Hwengwere told Ubuntu Times.
So, as Hwengwere and his sister contend with colon cancer, he (Hwengwere) said they find solace meeting many other cancer patients at the cancer clinics they often visit here.
According to Zimbabwe’s Cancer Registry, from 6,548 registered cases of cancer in 2013, figures have skyrocketed to 9,220 two years ago, with Hwengwere and his sister comprising the Southern African nation’s alarming cancer statistics.
Many Zimbabweans like Hwengwere and his sister bear the dreaded cancer illness at a time the country also faces the ravages of Coronavirus which has claimed over 200 lives since it struck this country.
Now, health experts here like Jason Utete, a private oncologist in Harare, the Zimbabwean capital have said as doctors they are attending to increasing cases of cancer on a daily basis.
“People are not aware of this; cancer cases we attend to daily are rising more than ever before; it’s scary,” Utete told Ubuntu Times.
A critically-ill cancer patient is photographed in 2014 being pushed on a stretcher bed by an unidentified man into a hospital ward at Parirenyatwa hospital in Harare, the Zimbabwean capital. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
Yet, with cancer deaths on a gradual rise in Zimbabwe, the country also suffers a scarcity of cancer specialists like Utete, who said owing to that, ‘prospects of detecting cancer early are minimal here.’
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe only has four cancer specialists, according to the country’s Ministry of Health and Child Care although the country is laden with over 7,000 cancer patients.
As such, besides the ravages wrought by Coronavirus, in Zimbabwe, cancer is gradually overtaking several deadly diseases, becoming the country’s number one killer.
Of the types of cancers that have become common among Zimbabweans, is colon cancer, which has affected many like Hwengwere and his sister, and even orphaned them after their widowed mother was killed by the same disease.
Even Zimbabwe’s young children have become victims of the deadly disease, according to this country’s Ministry of Health and Child Care, which has been on record in the media claiming over 700 underage children succumb to cancer each year.
Nurses are photographed in July 2014 tending women suffering from cervical cancer at hospital in the Zimbabwean capital Harare. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
As if that is not enough, an average of 5,000 new cancer cases are recorded annually, according to Zimbabwe’s National Cancer Registry, but more than 80 percent are only diagnosed at a very late stage.
“In both adults and young children here, cancer is often diagnosed late, which has resulted in rising cancer deaths in the country,” said doctor Utete.
Yet, more superstitious Zimbabweans like 73-year old Danisa Chambati who lives in Highfields high-density suburb in Harare has dismissed the existence of cancer, instead, scapegoating witchcraft for such diseases.
“There is nothing called cancer; people are bewitching each other, causing mysterious illnesses and deaths,” Chambati told Ubuntu Times.
But, despite his denial, Chambati’s children confirmed that their mother, his wife, in this case, was killed by colon cancer three years ago.
In Zimbabwe, nurses have been going on strike demanding better wages as the country’s economy teeters on the brink of collapse, a move that has nonetheless worsened the situation of cancer patients seeking treatment in government hospitals. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
One of the children, 41-year old Letwin, who is a single mother living with the aging Chambati even claimed the father was suffering from prostate cancer, a condition she also claimed their father has frantically dismissed as untrue.
“Our father has prostate cancer, which is now at its advanced state, but even as doctors diagnosed him of the disease, he has vehemently stayed in denial, claiming that his illness is due to witchcraft in the family,” Letwin told Ubuntu Times.
As such, with many like Chambati clinging to myths related to cancer, many more Zimbabweans are perishing unknowingly to the disease.
In Zimbabwe, therefore, the rich and the poor, celebrities and politicians alike, are succumbing to cancer at an alarming rate.
On Valentine’s Day in 2018, Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe’s former Prime Minister in the government of national unity between 2008 and 2013, succumbed to colon cancer at a top medical center in neighboring South Africa.
Last year in September, former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe who ruled this country for closer to four decades, also succumbed to prostate cancer at Gleneagles Hospital in Singapore.
Nurses and visitors jostle in action in and outside the hospital in July 2014 during the busiest hours at Parirenyatwa hospital in the Zimbabwean capital Harare. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
In 2014 alone, 2,474 people succumbed to cancer in Zimbabwe, and in the same year, 7,018 new cancer cases were recorded, this based on figures from the Cancer Association of Zimbabwe.
But, Zimbabwe’s few cancer specialists like Utete have said ‘such figures are only related to recorded cases in health institutions.’
To him (Utete) ‘most patients could be dying because of cancer within their homes without access to health services due to exorbitant costs.’
In fact, according to government officials, even killer diseases like AIDS in Zimbabwe are being outpaced by cancer as the top killer disease.
“Cancer has turned out to be the topmost killer than HIV and because of this, several people are shunning seeking cancer screening services because they fear to be found with the now dreaded disease which they say is difficult to be treated compared to HIV,” a top official in the Ministry of Health in Zimbabwe, told Ubuntu Times on condition of anonymity as she was unauthorized to speak to the media.
“Apparently, there is now a stigma tag to cancer illnesses, subsequently making it difficult to make sure cancer is diagnosed and treated early,” added the Zimbabwean government official.
Gweru, September 22 — Former Provincial Minister for Midlands Province in Zimbabwe was this Tuesday sentenced to four years in jail following accusations of criminal abuse of office, this after he parceled out State land to desperate home seekers in Gokwe, one of the towns in the province.
A day prior to the sentence, Mr. Machaya and his accomplice, former Midlands physical planner Chisayinyerwa Chibururu were found guilty of abuse of office involving the sale of state land in Gokwe.
Sentencing the former Midlands Minister alongside his accomplice, Magistrate Charity Maphosa handed the two four-year jail term each, however suspending 18 months for each on condition that the pair does not commit a similar offense in two years.
The two would therefore serve 30 months in jail.
Machaya faced charges of parceling out 17,799 residential and commercial stands to land developers, with the developers, in turn, handing the former Midlands Minister 1,791 stands of which the accused sold 1,185.
But last year when his trial commenced in Gweru, the Midlands Provincial capital, Machaya and his accomplice denied the charges.
Mr. Machaya also faces charges of unlawfully parceling out 192 residential pieces of land to the Apostolic Christian Church of Zimbabwe (ACCZ).
Machaya and Chibururu’s defense lawyer Alec Muchadehama has however filed for his clients’ bail pending appeal against the sentences handed down by the magistrate.
Mutare, Zimbabwe — Growing up in Ngaone, Chipinge in the southeastern town of Zimbabwe, Ishmael Sithole (35) still recalls bees could not entertain anyone cutting down a tree near their hives.
He hated them for their stinging bite.
Then, he was a young boy, growing up in a family that grew wattle trees for survival.
He never imagined the idea of becoming a beekeeper someday, nor did he know the value of bees to conserving forests.
Only God knew his fate.
Sithole, is now a renowned professional beekeeper and commercial beekeeping consultant at MacJohnson Apiaries.
He works with Willett Mtisi (44) of Climate Smart Bees and Admire Munjuwanjuwa (35) of Honey World Zimbabwe.
Sithole nostalgic about his childhood and others determined to change the lives of their communities, the three have expanded the project to Dangamvura, a high-density suburb in Mutare—Zimbabwe’s fourth-largest city.
Their project has become a shield to the effects of deforestation.
In this area, trees have been cut down except where these beekeepers’ beehives are located and surrounding areas.
“If you try to cut down these Acacia trees, bees will come out to defend their territory,” Sithole told Ubuntu Times while applying few puffs of smoke at one of the bee hive’s entrance.
Willett Mtisi, a professional beekeeper, prepares smoke which they use to prevent bees from biting them. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe / Ubuntu Times
“Bees have a high sense of smell. They naturally feel threatened whenever they hear the sound of an axe chopping a tree within a 10-meter radius. They become defensive and go into a stinging frenzy.”
When there is an intruder bees have a natural chemical that they produce known as pheromone, that triggers the colony to be defensive.
Sithole, a member of the Southern African Development Community Apimondia Youth Initiative, said their bee sanctuary in Dangamvura, established two years ago, is serving a dual purpose-producing honey and keeping firewood poachers at bay.
Willett Mtisi, a professional beekeeper, prepares to open a beehive at a sanctuary in Dangamvura. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe / Ubuntu Times
He adds that there is a symbiotic relationship between the urban environment and bees.
“This then offers an opportunity for biodiversity conservation as well as an opportunity for apitourism—where the public are afforded an opportunity to appreciate bees at sanctuary setting,” Sithole said.
The trio rescue bees in urban areas from ceilings, chimneys and tree hollows, and house them in the mountains.
A female bee, known as the queen, surrounded by other bees. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe / Ubuntu Times
“We are currently hosting approximately 24,000 bees of the Apis Mellifera species in three standard Kenyan top bar hives. We will be introducing the trigona hives to attract the trigona species,” Sithole said.
At the sanctuary, they were mainly targeting to protect Acacia trees.
“Acacia trees are a lucrative source of nectar and pollen yet they offer immaculate shade for hives as well as a beautiful aesthetic appeal owing to their shape,” he said.
Sithole said they are determined to leave an indelible mark in the annals of the forest conservation to last hundreds of years to come.
“Since the tree of this year is Adansonia digitata (Baobab), we are busy erecting a nursery so that we plant hundreds of this largest succulent on the first Saturday of December (the National Tree Planting Day) as well as on the 11th of December (International Day of Mountains). Some of the trees we are nursing will be visible and alive 700 years to come,” he said.
Albert Sabawe (24), another beekeeper based in Chimanimani, about 144 kilometers out of Mutare, told Ubuntu Times that bees protect forests.
“No one dares to cut down a tree near my beehives,” he said.
Mtisi said honey which will be harvested at the bee sanctuary in Dangamvura will be an additional bonus.
“Honey builds bodily resistance to cough, colds and other ailments. Provides cure for constipation and it is used in Hospitals as a surgical dressing. Asthmatic patients also benefit from honey as well as people with ulcers,” she said.
Ishmael Sithole holding various bee honey products. In Zimbabwe, bee honey is used for medical purposes. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe / Ubuntu Times
Zimbabwe’s beekeeping industry has been growing for the past decade.
“As beekeepers, we champion forestry preservation by protecting our sites through establishing fireguards in areas where we keep our bees,” said Jacqueline Gowe, a chairperson at the Zimbabwe Apiculture Platform (ZAP).
“We promote use of modern hives made from timber of environmentally managed forests.”
According to the country situation paper, in 2014 there were over 150,000 beekeepers in the country but projections from the ZAP are that the number has almost doubled up.
The trio are expanding their project to other areas.
“We recently introduced another sanctuary close to Cecil Kop [a nature reserve located 2 kilometers out of Mutare] and we are prospecting for further expansions,” said Sithole.
Zimbabwe is experiencing its worst economic crisis in decades with shortages of basic commodities such as fuel and electricity.
This has forced many people to cut down trees indiscriminately.
In Chikanga, a high density suburb in Mutare, people walk everyday to the surrounding mountains to fetch firewood used for cooking. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe / Ubuntu Times
The southern African nation loses 330,000 hectares of forests per annum due to forest fires, settlements or agricultural expansion, firewood and tobacco farmers who burn their produce after harvests, according to the Forestry Commission.
But bee projects are helping to preserve forests and are fast becoming a lucrative enterprise.
Admire Munjuwanjuwa, a professional beekeeper, looks at some of the beehives in his custody. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe / Ubuntu Times
Violet Makoto, an information and communications manager at the Forestry Commission said beekeeping is a forests-based enterprise that is lucrative and conservative.
“We have also discovered that beekeeping is one of the strategies for forest conservation,” she said.
Makoto concluded that beekeeping is a non-consumptive way of utilizing forest resources.
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