ALL over the world, the internet has provided extraordinary socio-economic opportunities to businesses, governments and individuals. But less-developed countries still face numerous obstacles to maximise its potential. The problems range from obsolete infrastructure, the non-availability, non-accessibility, cost, power fluctuations, policies and regulation.

Many countries on the continent still have bandwidth as low as 64 kilobits. This is in contrast to the 270 000 megabits per second in the US. Data also shows that downloading a 5GB movie took 734 minutes in the Republic of Congo, 788 minutes in Sao Tome, 850 minutes in Ethiopia, 965 minutes in Niger and 1 342 minutes in Equatorial Guinea. Singapore is the fastest, taking about 11 minutes and 8 seconds to download a typical 5GB high-definition movie.

In certain situations, bandwidths for the entire country is less than what is available to an individual residential subscriber in the US.

Similarly, African countries are listed among those with the lowest internet speed, yet with the most expensive communication and internet cost in the world.

Africa is on record to have had the fastest growing mobile telecommunication market over the years. But the continent still has the lowest mobile penetration. And developments in Africa’s telecommunications sector happen in cities and urban centres. Service providers argue that it is not economically feasible to roll out a network to cover an entire country .

But various advanced technologies are emerging to reduce the cost of internet provision and to increase accessibility.

They also offer the possibility of developing communication networks in a way that does less harm to the environment.

The approach is called resource virtualisation, where multiple telecommunication services can be provided by less physical infrastructure.

Since the chunk of the cost transferred to the end-user comes from the cost of power and infrastructural management, this approach can reduce the operational cost, improve accessibility and cut the cost to the end-user.

Rethinking how masts are sited

Like every architectural work, telecommunication masts must meet specific constructional requirements, including choice of location and risk analysis.

But unregulated construction is typical in many parts of Africa. Even where regulatory bodies exist, many media and communication masts are sited within very short distances and hilly grounds in big cities.

This is true in Ghana too, where in an urban environment it is possible to see 10 masts within close proximity to one another.

This does not necessarily guarantee quality service. In addition, it poses a severe environmental and physical risk.

Masts are also expensive to put up.

It stands to reason, therefore, that having fewer masts, hence using less energy and doing less damage to the environment would be the optimal way forward.

I have been involved in developing a framework along with other colleagues that can help policymakers demarcate, and zone major cities — or the whole country into zones.

Each zone takes only one mast, owned by an infrastructure provider and shared by multiple service providers.

I focused on telecommunications, but the principle can be applied to TV and radio signal towers too.

My proposal involves a three-level architecture that includes a provider who owns and manages the infrastructure.

At the upper level is a Cloud-RAN macro-base station. A provider like the State regulator, can own and manage the data from the base station.

The macro-base station is responsible for managing the system’s energy, bandwidth allocation, and flow management, including the handover in intra and inter mast zones. At the middle level, service providers focus on providing tailored and quality service to their users.

The service providers will not have to spend their resources on managing the infrastructure they only have to deal with how to satisfy users. The user on the third level has to only deal with the service providers.

This framework will bring an end to uncontrolled mast deployment seen in many African countries.

It would allow for power and bandwidth sharing among multiple service providers and would reduce the need for multiple masts.

Traffic would be scheduled over limited masts or access points that reduce the system energy consumption and improve efficiency. The general impact on the environment would also be reduced.

Service providers could then focus on end-users and not on infrastructures.

—The Conversation

 Clement Prince Addo is a PhD researcher, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Sugar manufacturer, Starafricacorporation Limited (SL) posted a 10,5% decline in refined sugar tonnes produced for its Goldstar Sugars Harare (GSSH) business to 32 047 tonnes for the half year ended September 30, 2019 due to power cuts.

BY MISHMA CHAKANYUKA

The decrease in manufactured sugar was from a comparative period figure of 35 791 tonnes.

SL was established in 1935 principally as a sugar refinery, with its Goldstar Sugar brand being its main source of revenue, but has since grown to become a diversified conglomerate listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.

“The unit (GSSH) continues to anchor the group in terms of both turnover and profitability in dollar terms. It produced 32 047 tonnes of refined sugar compared to 35 791 tonnes produced in prior half year,” SL’s group chairman, Joseph Mutizwa said in a statement accompanying the company’s financial results for the half year ended September 30, 2019.

“The slowdown was due to the acute power shortages experienced in July and August 2019 which resulted in the factory shutting down for five weeks.”

Mutizwa added that the power situation improved after the establishment of a ring-fenced power supply arrangement which came with a steep tariff review.

Zimbabwe has been facing crippling power outages lasting up to 18 hours daily. These power cuts have severely affected business operations in the industry and mines, hence leading to a decline in production.

In October, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority hiked tariffs by 320% to 162,16 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) in a bid to improve the country’s power supply by charging cost-effective prices.

Apart from GSSH, SL operates Country Choice Foods (CCF), Tongaat Hulett Botswana that it has shares in and its Silver Star Properties business.

The CCF segment recorded earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $5 million against $400 000 realised in the same period last year.

The sector’s production was 9% higher than last year buoyed by the change in product mix where core products with better margins comprised most of the total sales volume for the period.

Tongaat Hulett Botswana achieved a converted profit after tax of $11,2 million while the group’s share was $3,7 million against $1,8 million and a share of $600 000 recorded in 2018.

“The growth comprised the unit’s actual performance in Pula terms as well as the effect of converting the Pula denominated performance into ZWL at exchange rates which have greatly depreciated since the start of the financial year,” Mutizwa added.

The Property business recorded a subdued increase in EBITDA from $200 000 to $300 000 owing to a decline in rental yields. The unit experienced a limited demand for space and constraints to what existing and prospective tenants could offer.

Starafrica recorded a rise in profit after tax to $20,3 million from a comparative of $12,4 million in the period under review.

Turnover for the period was $132,1 million, an increase from $28 million due to changes in product mix and inflation-related price adjustments aimed at preserving the company’s ability to service the market.

Mutizwa said the group expected strategies and eventual cessation of current austerity measures being pursued to keep the company on a sound financial footing.

INVICTUS Energy Limited (IEL) has entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) with local energy firm Tatanga Energy (Private) Limited for a 500-megawatt (MW) ‘Gas to Power Plant’ estimated to cost about US$800 million.

BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA

Tatanga Energy was established in 2016 by a group of local finance and energy practitioners to develop and operate renewable energy projects in sub-Saharan Africa. The founders of the firm are the company’s chief executive officer, Tunde Akerele, Memory Mashingaidze (finance director) and Culven Chipfumbu (technical director).

“Invictus Energy Limited, is pleased to announce that the Cabora Bassa project partners, comprising Invictus (80%) and One-Gas Resources (Pvt) Limited (20%), have entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Tatanga Energy (Private) Limited to process gas supply for a ±500 MW Gas to Power Plant in the event of a commercial gas discovery from Special Grant 4571 in Muzarabani,” Invictus, in a statement said.

“Under the MoU, Invictus and Tatanga have agreed to jointly work together and co-operate with regards to investigating the economic and commercial viability of supplying natural gas from the Cabora Bassa Project to the proposed Gas to Power Plant which will be sold to the national grid and/or to captive clients (ie mines, industrial and other large consumers of energy) in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique.”

Invictus added that the proposed gas to power plant will be built in two phases with the first phase estimated at ±150MW and the second phase consisting of an additional ±350MW.

“The optimal location of the plant will be determined by factors including proposed pipeline routings and access to transmission infrastructure including the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAPP). Preliminary studies have identified a number of suitable locations that provide the ability to supply electricity to the local grid as well as export customers through the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAPP),” Invictus said.

Akerele said the constrained domestic energy landscape and the importance of securing reliable and affordable feedstock supply in an undersupplied market, caused Tatanga Energy to enter into the partnership with Invictus.

“We are the developers of the project; it is a very big project that can be up to maybe US$700 million or US$800 million dollars . . . That funding will come from mostly foreign institutions,” he said.

The MoU comes on the backdrop of the Muzarabani project having a potential gas supply of up to 100 million cubic feet per day for 20 years, which is a substantial volume which will underpin the development of any commercial gas discovery we make in the Cabora Bassa Project.

NewsDay Business understands that the gas to power plant project could take four years to complete once IEL starts producing gas.

THE nation at large has the responsibility to nurture and parent children who have lost their parents and guardians to crime, Prison Outreach Support Trust national co-ordinator Wilson Femayi has said.

BY LORRAINE MUROMO

Speaking at an early Christmas gathering for children whose parents are incarcerated held at Greatstride College in Harare recently, Femayi said the community has a role to play in safeguarding the interests of children.

“The church, the civic society and the corporate world have a fundamental role to play in ensuring that they end discrimination against these innocent children,” Femayi said.

“They are just victims of circumstances and should not be judged and discriminated against based on the mistakes made by their parents. Children should be free to be children.”

Femayi said education was a basic right that should be extended to these children as a means of protecting them from the harsh environment.

“This project has been helpful towards rehabilitation of inmates as they have peace of mind that their children and families were being taken care of.”

“Cases of inmates who die due to stress-related diseases have reduced too and marriages are being salvaged (as well),” Femayi said.

He, however, said as a trust, they require consent and authority from the parents, hence they had to sign consent forms.

Femayi said this helped the trust to gain access to the children and assist their families.

“We have data collection forms signed by inmates whereby they voluntarily provide information that enables us to identify and locate their children. This helps boost their confidence as they still felt that they were in control of their families and destinies,” he said, adding that beneficiaries have learnt life skills which made it possible for them to cope in the absence of the breadwinner.

Femayi said this year the party ran under the theme Angel Tree, aimed at developing interaction as well as counselling.

“This event is done annually, but in between we have get-togethers where we meet with parents and guardians. We facilitate children and parent connection whereby we bring them over to see their parents and we Usually, take advantage of prison week,” Femayi said.

Prison Outreach Support Trust, an affiliate of Viva Network, has assisted 203 children under 12 years.

IN these difficult times that offer no clear visuals of the hazy future, it would help us endure the relentless suffering if some among us took time to ponder their decisions first before rushing to make pronouncements which only serve to disoriented us even more.

NewsDay Comment

At the recently-concluded Zanu PF conference, the ruling party’s secretary for youth affairs, Pupurai Togarepi confidently said: “Your Excellency (President Emmerson Mnangagwa), the youths have resolved that all civil servants (should) undergo the National Youth Service (training) so that they will be acquainted with government issues as well as patriotism.”

Cognisant of the fact that national service is a common practice across the globe, it is, however, difficult to support the Zanu PF youth’s alleged resolution given the disastrous past of the programme that bred a certain type of youth who became notorious for perpetrating violence against anyone opposed to the ruling party’s ideology.

A national youth service training informed by a common and palatable national ideology and consensus is not a bad idea at all.

But a youth training or civil service orientation training based on a purely political party ideology will not help Zimbabwe chart a clear future.

The programme’s past failure to go beyond the confines of the ruling party structures is good enough testimony that there is something fundamentally wrong with its overall objective. A 21st century is now completely different from the 20th century Zimbabwe, a period in which the ruling party appears stuck in terms of ideology.

It is a fact that Zimbabwe is currently a divided nation and the fact that former South African President Thabo Mbeki is now seized with the country’s unfortunate predicament speaks volumes.

Whatever informed the ruling party youths’ decision on the national service training obviously had little or nothing to do with the idea of uniting the country for a common future. It sounds more like Togarepi and his youths hope to indoctrinate the civil servants and nation in general with Zanu PF ideology.

The proposal is not surprising coming from Togarepi. What does one expect from a youth league fronted by a 55-year-old? We have known that a youth leader can be up to 35 years. What does Zimbabwe expect when older generations claim to represent the interests of youths when they can no longer understand issues affecting them?

National service for civil servants, or anyone else for that matter, will only find takers once the country is united and pulling in one direction. As it stands, the ruling party itself is so divided that it will be very difficult to successfully implement the national youth training programme.

Besides, what Togarepi is busy dreaming about will do little, if anything, to help ameliorate the current socio-economic and political crisis Zimbabwe is facing.

It will only serve to worsen the political tension in the country, given that the civil servants are not much of a happy lot at the moment as far as remuneration is concerned. In short, what Togarepi and colleagues are hallucinating over is the least of our worries at the moment. So they may as well keep their dreams to themselves because this is not the time to hallucinate.

BY RUTENDO MATANHIKE

The Electoral Resource Centre (ERC) has urged the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to give preference to voter education to improve future election processes.

Speaking to NewsDay on the sidelines of the launch of the fifth edition of electoral reform barometer (ERB) yesterday, ERC director Tawanda Chimhini said voter education should be a continuous process.

“We (ERC) are insisting that there are priorities which have got to be identified to improve future election processes, so that we can concretely say that Zimbabwe is on a path towards reform that makes sense to the ordinary citizen,” he said.

Chimhini said ensuring citizens have information was key in future elections.

“Ensuring that voter education is extended on a continuous basis is, therefore, going to be crucial with voter education that is qualitative and that has considered the secrecy of the ballot that dispels information, will be a huge addition to removing Zimbabwe from a position where voter education has been passive,” he said.

The ERB is a tool used to track electoral reforms performance. It also acts as a reminder to election stakeholders that Zimbabwe has constitutional, regional and international obligations relating to the conduct of elections.

Chimhini added that it was important for Zec to start strategising voter education to build public confidence in the election process as voters progressively lose confidence in elections.

“So our requirement is that the election commission considers how they can strengthen their voter education strategy to build public confidence in the election and that the commission is an independent body. What we are seeing is that voters have lost interest in the election system and this is largely because of the bad publicity around elections which has given the impression that elections mean nothing,” he said.

The ERC director said Zec should be ready to explain rather than defend itself on the credibility of the election.

“Whenever credibility of an election is challenged, we do not want a situation whereby the election commission constantly defends itself. We want to see an election commission that fully explains itself with the purpose of building and developing the election process. We are looking forward to the commission working on strengthening credibility of elections,” Chimhini said.

BY STAFF REPORTER

ZIMBABWE and several other African countries were the biggest beneficiaries of the Global Fund’s largest ever allocations to fight HIV and Aids, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria and build sound health systems over the next three years.

According to its latest allocations, the Global Fund gave US$500 490 755 to Zimbabwe and described the biggest beneficiaries as those from countries with the highest burden and lowest income.

“The allocations provide significantly more resources for the highest burden and lowest income countries, while maintaining current funding levels or moderating the pace of reductions in other contexts,” the Global Fund said.

Zimbabwe was allocated US$425 034 567 (HIV and Aids), US$23 771 855 (TB) and US$51 684 333 for malaria.

Nigeria is one of the biggest beneficiaries after getting more than US$890 597 667, while other countries that include Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, India and Benin also got significant figures.

According to the Global Fund, the allocations include US$12,71 billion for country allocations and US$890 million for catalytic investments for the period beginning January 1, 2020 to 2022.

This is 23% more than for the previous three-year period.

The funds will help save 16 million lives, cut by half the mortality rate for the three diseases and get the world back on track to end the epidemics of Aids, TB and malaria by 2030.  

“World leaders came together at our replenishment and made commitments to step up the fight to end these epidemics by 2030,” Global Fund executive director Peter Sands was quoted as saying.

“Now the real work begins. Our allocations will allow partners to expand programmes that work, and to find innovative solutions for new challenges. In addition to more money, we need better collaboration and more effective programmes.”

Countries in Africa are receiving around US$2 billion more than in the previous period and countries in West and Central Africa have the biggest increase of US$780 million.

The allocations include increased investments in eastern and southern Africa for HIV prevention among adolescent girls and young women; more funding for the countries with the highest burden of TB in Africa and Asia; continued investments in Eastern Europe to cover the costs of treatment for multidrug-resistant TB; more funding for African countries with a high burden of malaria; and increased focus in the Sahel region to boost vector control and seasonal prevention campaigns.

Earlier this year, the Zimbabwe Aids Network was up in arms with government for failing to honour its annual contribution of US$6 million to the Global Fund in order for the country to access the funds to buy anti-retroviral drugs.

The country is currently facing chronic shortages of mostly second line ARVs, leading to some patients defaulting on therapy, while others are forced to buy from private pharmacies where they are much more expensive.

Mai Sorobhi

BY RUTENDO MATANHIKE

VETERAN actress Rhoda Mtembe, popularly known as Mai Sorobhi in yesteryear drama Paraffin, was on Wednesday honoured as a community hero by local cooking oil producing company, Pure Oil Industries (Pvt) Ltd for championing the cause of the country’s film industry.

The 76-year-old actress suffered a stroke early this year and is not able to walk without aid.

In recognition of her great sense of humour on the small screen, Mai Sorobhi received a certificate and is set to get a year’s supply of cooking oil from Pure Oil Industries as part of its corporate social responsibility.

Speaking at the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) ceremony, Pure Oil Industries chairperson Pradyumin Ganediwal said they had decided to incorporate into the event a category of giving awards to individuals they regarded as community heroes.

“This year, we thought it worthwhile to recognise a special category of people whom we are calling the heroes of our community. These are people, who despite the challenges they also face, have acted selflessly to help other society members. We would like to honour this group of special people by giving them a year’s supply of cooking oil,” he said.

Mai Sorobhi started acting in the early 1990s and rose to fame through the then prominent television series Paraffin, where she played the role of Mai Sorobhi, wife to the late main character Paraffin.

Her acting career started off as a passion as she featured in dramas that focused on several themes such as HIV and Aids and child abuse.

Also honoured with the same recognition was another community hero, Esther Zinyoro alias Mbuya Gwena of Mbare, who has rose to fame through helping women deliver babies during a time when Zimbabwe’s health sector has been rapidly deteriorating.

BY SHARON SIBINDI

ZIMBABWE People’s Revolutionary Army (Zipra) ex-combatants on Wednesday launched a book titled Lest We Forget – Histories of the Zipra that documents their exploits during the armed struggle at the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce in Bulawayo.

The book consists of interviews from ex-combatants belonging to Zipra which was Zapu’s armed wing during the liberation struggle. They took up arms against the colonial regime between 1962 and 1979. The book was edited by Pathisa Nyathi, Jocelyn Alexandra of Oxford University and JoAnn McGregor.

“This book tells our story in short; each one pouring his heart out, saying his own piece. Which means it’s a book from all of us,” Retired Brigadier-General Abel Mazinyane said.

“I feel proud of my former Zipra comrades who contributed through their articles in Sunday News series Lest We Forget. The general public positively prodded the contributors to the Sunday News series to continue writing. The encouragement made even us pretenders to believe we can write or narrate our liberation war experiences.”

Speaking at the same event, Nyathi emphasised the need to speed up the documentation of the country’s armed struggle before ex-combatants, who participated in the liberation war die.

“This is why we have put this together and we are hoping it is not the first and last. It is the first yes, but we need more volumes produced in future so that we have many voices, many narratives regarding Zipra history,” he said.

“We need to document that history so that people don’t go with their stories, they want stories in heaven. What binds us together is our passion for documentation of Zipra history.”

Alexandra said it took them several years to document Zipra’s history.

“We have been working on this history for several decades. Zipra’s history remains unexplored in huge elements and we are hoping this will make a small contribution to try fill some of the gaps in that history,” she said.

“We hope to make the history accessible to more people, young people and to the new generation who haven’t heard had direct experience and still need to know more about the history of Zimbabwe.”

The late Vice-President John Nkomo once revealed plans to write a book, but died before fulfilling his wish.