BY CHARLES LAITON

HIGH Court judge Justice Helena Charewa has overturned a default judgment that had been entered in favour of Norton MP, Temba Mliswa against Zanu PF Chivi South Constituency MP, Killer Zivhu’s $1 million defamation claim.

Mliswa had earlier scored a victory when a default judgment was entered in his favour after he had approached the court on the basis that Zivhu’s summons were materially defective and Justice Tawanda Chitapi granted his application.

But while overturning Mliswa’s victory, Justice Charewa also issued an order compelling Mliswa to accept the court’s determination or risk being slapped with costs on a higher scale if he chose to oppose Zivhu’s application for rescission of the default judgment. The determination by Justice Charewa on December 12, 2019 followed yet another dismissal of Mliswa’s application by Justice Christopher Dube-Banda in which Mliswa had sought dismissal of Zivhu’s matter for want of prosecution.

“The default judgment entered against the applicant (Killer Zivhu) under case number HC8987/18 be and is hereby rescinded. The matter in case number HC8987/18 be and is hereby referred to trial. Costs on a higher scale of legal practitioner and client scale if the responded opposes this application,” Justice Charewa ruled.

Sometime in October last year, Zivhu, who is the president of the Cross Border Traders Association and the chairman of the Zimbabwe Amalgamated Housing Association, filed the lawsuit after Mliswa allegedly tweeted on his personal Twitter account labelling the Chivi South MP “a thief and a corrupt individual”.

According to Zivhu, Mliswa, who operates a Twitter account under the name “Hon. Temba P. Mliswa @TembaMliswa”, had since April 25, 2017 to October last year, when summons were issued, been using the social media platform to tweet defamatory statements against him.

However, after receiving the summons and through his lawyers, Mliswa, filed an appearance to defend and later again filed a special plea in support of his defence in which he urged the court to dismiss the matter on the basis that Zivhu’s summons were materially defective. Mliswa is being represented by Marufu Mandevere

BY BLESSED MHLANGA

THE Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has resolved to mount peaceful resistance against poor salaries and skyrocketing cost of living which have reduced their members to “slaves”.

In a message to workers, the labour body’s president Peter Mutasa said 2020 will be a year of mounting resistance to ensure that slave salaries and wages are removed while prices of basic commodities become affordable.

“Workers have no choice but to resist; we have been given a mandate by the workers to lead and mobilise peaceful resistance against this modern-day slavery, which has taken the worker back to the Rhodesian era. We are, therefore, going to resist like we did under the (late Rhodesian Premier Ian) Smith regime,” Mutasa said.

ZCTU said it will take the route of peaceful resistance because it was satisfied that the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) set up under the law was not being respected by government and, therefore, not bearing any fruit.

“The government does not respect constitutionalism. They have rendered the TNF obsolete. Instead of putting emphasis and energy on making legally established institutions to work, they are busy pouring money into things like the Political Actors Dialogue,” he said.

Mutasa said the prevailing situation was terrible to the point that it would be a struggle for workers to send their children to school.

“It’s a nightmare. Many can’t buy uniforms. They won’t even pay school fees for the opening of schools because there is a disproportionate gap between prices and earnings, never mind fees. Many are being evicted from their homes right now for failing to pay rentals. We are back in Rhodesia,” he said.

MDC secretary for education, Fadzayi Mahere, said 2020 was not promising bright prospects at all, especially as parents grapple with back to school requirements for their children, which are way too expensive.

“The outlook is not positive at all, the crisis in the education sector cannot be divorced from the national crisis. As long as the economy remains in the doldrums, the shocks will be felt in education, school fees are too high, yet teacher remuneration remains very low. A number of schools have poor infrastructure and insufficient educational materials,” she said, pointing to a tough academic year ahead.

A pair of school shoes is selling for $500, a blazer is going for an average $800, while a girls’ dress costs anything from $400, bringing a modest cost for school uniforms to about $2 000 at a time the majority of Zimbabweans are earning less than $1 500 a month.

School fees have been hiked at most schools with most government primary schools having sought and received permission to hike fees from an average of $120 to $500 per term while boarding schools are demanding a minimum of $6 000 per term.

BY BLESSED MHLANGA

OPPOSITION politicians and analysts have challenged President Emmerson Mnangagwa (pictured) to publicly apologise over the “insensitive and tasteless jokes” he made in Harare last week, particularly his threat to deploy soldiers to beat up residents of Kuwadzana high-density suburb should he discover they were responsible for the current dry spell in the country.

Addressing a poorly-attended clean-up campaign programme in Kuwadzana — where Chamisa was once MP — Mnangagwa jokingly said he would not hesitate to deploy the army to beat up the residents for causing the prolonged dry spell.

“If we hear that it was the people of Kuwadzana who are causing the rain not to fall, we would simply say army, team up and let’s beat them,” he said.

Although meant to be a jest, the Zanu PF leader’s remarks were particularly chilling especially in light of how the military has been used to crush dissent following Mnangagwa’s rise to the presidency.

The army is generally feared in Harare’s high-density areas of Glen View, Kuwadzana, Kambuzuma and Warren Park which were put under lockdown by soldiers during the August 1, 2018 BY
post-election demonstrations and January 14 to 16 2019 fuel hike protests.

MDC leader Nelson Chamisa said the joke was proof that Mnangagwa used the army as a tool of choice to cow down citizens.

“He believes that whenever there is a problem, violence is the solution. He believes that whatever he perceives to be a problem manifesting itself, there must be crushing. Why would you bring in the military on people you think have caused rains not to fall? This clearly tells you that he has a hammer approach to every problem. Not every problem needs a hammer. At times you also need to be pacific and talk to people and engage people,” the opposition leader said.

“A president cannot afford to have such light moments of threatening to bring soldiers into the high-density areas to beat up people for whatever reason. A president cannot afford to make such jokes. When you invoke the involvement of the army, when you invoke the involvement of a presidential voice on such a particular issue, you are actually giving it and assigning seriousness and you can’t possibly joke with such issues because those are the things that then form the physic of a nation.”

Chamisa said violence should never be part of how the country should transact its politics because it was never a solution.

“Violence and force can’t be at the core and centre of how we engage with one another as citizens. If there is a problem, violence is not the solution. If you continue to propagate violence, ultimately you also invite it upon yourself,” he said.

Exiled former Zanu PF politburo member and Cabinet minister Jonathan Moyo took to Twitter to register his anger over Mnangagwa’s joke: “What a violent and unpresidential disposition. Your (Nick Mangwana) boss is scaling new heights in the open-mouth shut-mind politics.”

Social and political analyst Rashweat Mukundu said Mnangagwa’s statements reflected the character of his administration.

“People tend to say the truth and reveal who they are in unguarded moments and this reference to soldiers being sent to beat up civilians and coming as naturally from ED as it did betrays the President as a person with a penchant for violence and contempt for the suffering that Zimbabweans have gone through at the hands of the military,” he said.

“It appears that violence is the default position of ED when faced with criticism and opposition and this makes the Motlanthe Commission a laughable matter because the instinct of the most powerful person in Zimbabwe is still to unleash soldiers on civilians.”

But Information permanent secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana said it was just a light-hearted exchange between the President and Kuwadzana residents, now being taken out of context for political mileage.

According to an independent commission appointed by Mnangagwa and led by former South African President, Kgalema Motlanthe, the army used unproportioned force, firing live ammunition to unarmed demonstrators during the August 1, 2018 violence, killing six and injuring 22.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission and Amnesty International in detailed reports of the January 14, 2019 fuel hike protests also fingered the army for leading a violent crackdown on protesters, amid reports that soldiers raped women in the high-density areas during deployment to stop the demonstrations.

Speaking during the same campaign, Mnangagwa urged citizens to avoid eating meat — which has become increasingly expensive under his administration, saying residents should instead opt for vegetables.

“You should eat vegetables, they are recommended by doctors. Doctors want you to eat vegetables so that you stay healthy. Meat is not good at all. We have differed there; I listen to doctors, so I eat vegetables. They said vitamins are found in vegetables and potatoes. You see,” Mnangagwa said amid grumbling from the crowd.

In response to the call, New Patriotic Front (NPF) president Tendai Peter Munyanduri said, in a statement, it was shocking that Mnangagwa now wanted citizens “to eat grass like cattle”.

Munyanduri — whose campaign manifesto included ensuring that Zimbabweans will have “at least an egg, bacon and milk at every breakfast” — said it would be unhealthy for people to solely rely on vegetables.

“Why did Mnangagwa not promise grass as food for Zimbabweans in his 2018 election manifesto?” he quipped.

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By Moses Magadza

WINDHOEK – Professionals working with adolescents suffering from drug or substance disorders are honing their skills to provide family therapy. This, as research shows that children
as young as nine years are among regular drug and substance users in Namibia.

Towards the end of December 2019, a team of professionals from various disciplines met to bounce ideas off each other in a three-day training as officials expressed grave concern over the early age at which some children were using drugs and substances in the country.

Mrs. Rene Adams, the Program Manager responsible for Substance Abuse Prevention, Drug Control and Rehabilitation in the Ministry of Health and Social Services, officially opened the
workshop.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) convened and funded the training dubbed ‘Booster Training of the Family-based Treatment Training Package for Adolescents with
Drug and other Substance use Disorders’.

Major crisis

Adams said a recent nationwide study by the MoHSS targeting adolescents aged between 13 and 16 years had thrown light on a disturbing phenomenon: some children younger than 10 years of
age had commenced using drugs and substances.

“They start at the age of nine. Regular use of drugs and substances, not experimenting. They drink alcohol, sniff glue and smoke dagga. We need more of these trainings,” she said.

She welcomed the training, saying Namibia had a serious shortage of human resources for mental health and was struggling to cope with worsening drug and substance crises.

“We (professionals) are just a few but our country has a big problem,” she said.

Family therapy

Adams said the active involvement of empowered families was necessary to prevent more adolescents experimenting with drugs and other substances that might lead to drug use disorders.

She hoped the training would boost efforts to build a cohort of adequately trained and skilled professionals to respond to issues related to drug and substance use disorders and to work closely with families.

“We need family-based therapy for adolescents substance use disorder. We need to know and assist the families. Once a person goes for treatment and feels better, they return to their
families,” Adams said.

She explained that the effects of drug or substance abuse affect not just the people using drugs, but other family members as well as those around them.

“It’s a family addiction. Back in the days, we believed that substance abuse affected at least 16 people around the patient. I think it is 16 multiplied by two. This is because our families tend to be big and include extended family members. This problem affects much more people than we initially thought,” she said.

Evidence-based responses

Signe Rotberga, the UNODC Regional Coordinator for Southern Africa, called for the use of counterfactual evidence and developing partnerships in responding to drug and substance
challenges.

In remarks made on her behalf by a UNODC official, Rotberga cautioned against knee-jerk responses and over-reliance on the criminal justice system through criminalization when dealing
with drug use issues.

Dr Lahija Hamunjela facilitated the training. She is an internationally certified addiction treatment professional. Additionally, she is a specialist in psychiatry and mental health.

She said the training sought to build a cadre of “baseline professionals” to help many adolescents that were presenting at health facilities with substance use disorders. According to Hamunjela, the most accessible and abused drugs and substances in Namibia included glue and oil which are sniffed, and cigarettes, dagga, cannabis “and cocaine which is now common”.

Red flags

She said there were tell tale signs that a child is using drugs or other substances. She encouraged parents to be observant and seek help early.

“When parents notice their child’s school marks going down or the child exhibiting behavioral problems, they should wonder if drugs or substances are not involved,” she said.

Parental capacity

The tragedy, Hamunjela said, was that many parents had neither knowledge nor skills to deal with a child that is using drugs or substances.

“It can be worse if the child develops drug or substance use disorders. Some parents are in denial while others attribute such a child’s behavior and mental condition to other factors, most commonly witchcraft,” she elucidated.

She said while most people were good at taking children and other people who develop substance use disorders to health facilities “to be fixed”, few were adept at supporting such
patients to ensure adherence to treatment after they are discharged.

“That is why family therapy is important. It empowers every member of the family to support the patient to full recovery. It is not easy to stop once one has begun using drugs or other substances. Addiction is a chronic brain disease. The potential for relapse is high. Maintaining sobriety is not
easy,” she argued.

Enthusiastic response

Most of the approximately 30 participants welcomed the training. Charles Mabulawa is the Rehabilitation Coordinator in charge of Mental Health and Special Needs Offenders at the
Gobabis Correctional Facility of the Namibian Correctional Service (NCS). He found the training “very relevant” to his work.

“Young people form a significant part of offenders under our care. We call them juvenile inmates. Substance abuse is one of the factors that bring them into conflict with the law and the criminal justice system. At NCS, we are implementing rehabilitative interventions to combat the challenges of drug and substance abuse,” he said.

He hailed the training for its “emphasis on evidence-based interventions” and how families can get involved.

“The family forms part of the support system. Dynamics within the family can influence outcomes of treatment. The active involvement of families can significantly reduce recidivism,”
he said.

Mabulawa said although he had vast experience in the management of substance use disorders, he still found the training unique in that it sought to build the capacity of practitioners to deal with adolescents struggling with drug or substance use issues.

“I primarily work with juvenile offenders. What I learned will boost my skills in managing young people,” he said.

Esther Nana Awuku is a Clinical Psychologist at the Mental Health Care Center at Windhoek Central Hospital. For her, the training could not have come at a more opportune time. She said lately, many young people were presenting with substance or drug use disorders.

“In extreme cases, we attend to children as young is six years. Some children begin by abusing substances that include petrol before using hard drugs. It’s a big problem – a real epidemi see this most of the time. It maybe because ours is a state-run facility. We tend to serve many members of the community,” she said.

Awuku said the training had helped her engage better with clients and to carefully consider approaches to use. Additionally, it had exposed her to current and emerging issues related to
substance and drug abuse.

“It was an eye-opener. It enabled me to better appreciate the work we do. I was able to pick up new skills, especially those related to motivational approaches when working with resistant or uncooperative clients,” she gushed.

Josephine Shilongo, a social worker, holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Namibia Defense Force (NDF) where she heads the Directorate of Social Services and Rehabilitation. She
strongly recommended that the training becomes an ongoing process and not an event.

“Alcohol and drug use have become serious issues in our force. Many of our soldiers and recruits are young. By the time they come to us, some of them would have already begun using drugs and taking alcohol. This training has added to my knowledge. Now I can partner with families,” she said.

Atelma Thanises, another social worker with MoHSS, said she could not wait to go back to Swakopmund where she is based and share her new-found knowledge and skills with her
colleagues.

“I am a member of the West Coast Association of Social Workers. I will use that platform to widely share my knowledge and skills on managing substance and disorder cases,” she enthused.

She revealed that substance abuse was one of the 10 top social problems in Swakopmund.

“It is a common feature in many cases of attempted suicide. It also features prominently in cases of marital problems and acute confusion or psychosis. It is a very rampant problem,” she said.

Drug abuse is a global challenge. The UNODC Drug Report of 2019 showed that 271 million people aged between 15 and 64 had used drugs, with about 35 million suffering from drug use
disorders globally.

The UNODC supported the training under its regional Programme on ‘Making SADC Communities Free of Crime and Drugs’.

By Richard Muponde
GOVERNMENT has warned schools against wantonly hiking fees ahead of the opening of the schools on January 14, saying it would not approve such increases.

Addressing a rented crowd made up of mostly residents bussed in from other suburbs after Kuwadzana residents snubbed the event, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said his administration would not approve exorbitant hikes in school fees.

“I have heard that you are complaining that school fees have been increased. We haven’t approved any fees hikes. All government schools haven’t increased school fees and government has not approved any fees hike,” he said.

“What I have are requests by local authorities that they want to increase rates and from what I have gathered here as your grievances, I am going to refuse those requests.”

The clean-up programme, which was scheduled to start around 8:30am, was delayed by nearly two hours to allow Zupco and Zanu PF buses to bring in people from outside Kuwadzana — an MDC stronghold.

Earlier, police had allegedly chased away vendors from Kuwadzana 2 shopping centre and forced small shops to close, claiming the directive had come from the Environment Management Agency (EMA) which superintends the clean-up campaigns.

However, EMA denied giving such orders.
In an interview on the sidelines, EMA official Steady Kangata said the clean-up campaign was not held to disturb businesses but to boost them.

“We have never ordered the chasing away of vendors or closure of any business. The clean-up campaign is done within two hours and in that period it’s meant for the greater good. There is no disturbance to religious activities, businesses, social and educational activities, instead it gives the vendors and businesses an opportunity to boost their sales and to clean up areas where they work from and attract clients,” Kangata said.

Mnangagwa urged citizens to keep their surroundings clean to attract visitors and investors into the country.

“I am happy that Harare is becoming clean. I am not sure whether it’s all areas because I have just driven along Samora Machel. Let’s keep the country clean so that visitors find it clean and attractive. Don’t just say EMA and councils should keep the places clean, you should also do the same,” he said.

By Garikai Mafirakureva

THE European Union (EU) has reportedly withdrawn its €16 million offer for development of infrastructure for protection of wildlife in the vast Save Valley Conservancy over Zimbabwe government’s reluctance to end land invasions and respect property rights.

The EU extended the offer three years ago in a bid to make the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTP) project a success, but government could not guarantee protection of property rights in order to access the fund.

Environment, Tourism and Hospitality permanent secretary Munesu Munodawafa confirmed the development in a recent interview, but was quick to say that government has since resumed talks with EU to consider using the money for related projects in the country.

He was at pains to explain why government was not willing to take up the offer at a time President Emmerson Mnangagwa was pushing the “Zimbabwe is open for business” mantra at almost every international platform he is invited to address.

“The situation at the moment is that the European Union has officially decommissioned the fund for Save Valley Conservancy after the three-year period of offer lapsed. What this means is that we can no longer access that fund for Save Valley projects unless we re-engage EU.

“The government is continuing to engage the EU to see if we can agree whether to use the money for other projects or to reconsider the Save Valley project. The money has not yet been withdrawn from the country. We are hoping that by February next year (this year) talks between the government and the EU will be complete,” Munodawafa said.

The main purpose of the fund was to erect a perimeter fence along the GLTP corridor that would enable wild animals from Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique to move freely across the borders in the giant park.

Some properties in Save Valley are owned by investors from EU member countries under Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreements (BIPPAs), but the government of Zimbabwe failed to respect the agreements and property rights after it turned a blind eye on the invasion of the properties in the conservancy during the land reform, leading to the conservancy losing over 30% of its prime land to newly-settled farmers.

The conservancy was forced to relocate over 500 elephants, 1 500 impalas, lions and wild dogs to Chizarira National Park in Gokwe’s Sengwa Gorge area and two other privately-owned game parks in Mashonaland West and Central provinces due to overpopulation.

However, it remains to be seen if the re-engagement efforts will yield any positive results as government policies on land and property ownership rights remain unclear. Just recently, Vice-President Kembo Mohadi told a Zanu PF national conference in Goromonzi that government would intensify its land grab for the benefit of landless youths.

Efforts to get comments from EU head of delegation in Zimbabwe, Timo Olkkonen proved fruitless as his phone was not reachable.
GLTP is a 35 000km² peace park that links the Limpopo National Park (formerly known as Coutada 16) in Mozambique, Kruger National Park in South Africa, Gonarezhou National Park, Manjinji Pan Sanctuary and Malipati Safari Area in Zimbabwe, as well as the area between Kruger and Gonarezhou, the Sengwe communal land in Zimbabwe and the Makuleke region in South Africa.