The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) Entrepreneurship Programme says applications for its 2020 sponsorship for African entrepreneurs will open on January 1.

BY BUSINESS REPORTER

Applications are made through TEFConnect, the digital networking hub for the African entrepreneurship ecosystem, created by the Foundation.

The TEF Entrepreneurship Programme will begin accepting applications for the 2020 cohort, on January 1, 2020.

Last year, the Foundation received about 216 000 applications, with 42% coming from women entrepreneurs, from every country on the continent.

“The TEF Entrepreneurship Programme is open to entrepreneurs from across Africa, either with new startup ideas or existing businesses of less than 3 years existence, operating in any sector,” reads part of a statement from TEF about the launch.

“Successful applicants will join the over 9 000 current beneficiaries, from 54 African countries, and receive business training, mentoring, a non-refundable US$5 000 of seed capital and global networking opportunities.”

The Programme is a 10-year, US$100 million commitment to identify, train, mentor and fund 10 000 young African entrepreneurs.

“The goal is to create millions of jobs and the revenue required for the sustainable development of the continent, implementing the philosophy of Africapitalism, which positions the private sector as the growth engine for Africa and emphasises the importance of creating social and economic wealth,” reads part of the TEF statement.

According to the Foundation’s 2018 Impact Report, 70% of the total number of businesses in its alumni network were still operational two years after benefitting from the Programme.

The report also identified an increase of 189% revenue generated and 197% increase in the number of additional jobs created by the beneficiaries post-graduation from the Programme, as well as a 100% commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals.

BY PHYLLIS MBANJE

Private patients will now be paying
$2 160 for a unit of blood following an adjustment to the user fees using the interbank rate.

According to a leaked document from PSMI Laboratory West End Hospital, the prices of blood and its products were increased effective from December 1.

However, the National Blood Service Zimbabwe (NBSZ) said members of the public should not panic since it would still uphold its commitment to offer free blood to patients in public hospitals and would only charge private facilities at the interbank rate.

“The National Blood Service Zimbabwe wishes to advise the public that it made an adjustment to the user fees of blood using the interbank rate, which will see a unit of blood from NBSZ pegged at $2 160,” NBSZ spokesperson Esther Massundah said.

She explained that blood and blood products were still available free of charge to patients accessing treatment from non-private wards of public health institutions only as well as council hospitals in Harare and Bulawayo.

“User fees for blood and blood products will be charged for patients in all private health institutions and in private wards of public institutions, as well as for all those on medical aid cover,” Massundah said.

She added that hospitals were allowed to charge an administration fee of 5% on blood and blood products.

“While blood is donated for free, there is a value chain between its donation and transfusion to the patient, and this value chain costs US$120, an amount that the NBSZ is recovering from the user in order to continue operating as a going concern,” she said.

Massundah said as NBSZ, they were not selling blood for a profit and their financial statements were publicly available for scrutiny as testament to this.

BY BLESSED MHLANGA

STRIKING public hospital doctors have defied President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s latest 48-hour moratorium which came after government reversed its earlier decision to fire them.

Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa, presenting a Cabinet briefing yesterday, said only 46 doctors returned to work after the moratorium, leaving 402 doctors still holding out in the trenches.

“The Minister of Health and Child Care updated Cabinet on the industrial action by public hospital doctors as well as City of Harare nurses. He indicated that 46 dismissed doctors had presented themselves for work at various institutions following the moratorium extended by His Excellency, the President, to the doctors who were dismissed,” she said.

Following the snub, government resolved to be tough on the doctors who had requested an extension of the moratorium and said there would be no further extensions.

“Cabinet directed that the moratorium lapsed on December 1, 2019 and would not be extended as this would negatively affect patients. Cabinet resolved that discussions on conditions of service would only be held with those doctors who are at work,” she said.

Government developed cold feet and revoked its initial attempt to charge the stirking doctors, with the Health minister Obadiah Moyo saying the 57 senior doctors who were targeted for disciplinary action had now been pardoned.

“The 57 senior doctors have been cleared because of the moratorium. Their cases no longer stand, but the fired doctors who did not report for duty and signed assumption of duty forms stand fired because with the expiry of the moratorium, we have returned to the status quo,” he said.

Government said it would be moving to build a block of flats at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, Sally Mugabe Hospital (formerly Harare Central Hospital) and United Bulawayo Hospitals worth $160 million to improve the lives of doctors and their conditions of
service.

National Housing minister Daniel Garwe said work would start as soon as today as government moves to provide houses for doctors, police and civil servants who were affected by low income.

BY BLESSED MHLANGA/RICHARD MUPONDE

RELIGIOUS groups affiliated to the Indigenous Interdenominational Council of Churches (IICC) on Monday begged for stands and funding from government to construct their own places of worship and ordered main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa to endorse President Emmerson Mnangagwa publicly.

Andrew Wutaunashe, who was leading the IICC, pleaded with Mnangagwa to give the local churches support and match the funding that was received by mostly missionary churches like the Catholic, Anglican and Methodist when they set up in Zimbabwe.

“We seek two things, namely to bring this organisation to your awareness. We seek first of all that you take note of our request that we need you and your government to dignify indigenous churches,” he said.

“We are very grateful for the way you have listened to our voice and visited us, sometimes even under trees. But we are also saying that we would like government to take note that most of the churches, which are known as the traditional churches, were originally originating from foreign lands and Western-funded. Sometimes they make statements that represent where they come from.”

IICC said most of its members were homeless and Mnangagwa’s intervention would bring dignity to their congregations who worship under trees, practising open defecation.

“We feel that now you are a President, whose eyes are open to the fact that you have got leadership of the church, which comes from the indigenous people. We appeal to you and your government to also find ways of affirming us, not only emotionally or by other statements, but also helping us to have infrastructure, land and other things so that these churches can have substance,” Wutaunashe said.

“We are cognisant of your exhortation that the churches should seek to have healthy practices, perhaps not to meet under trees and so forth, but it’s not enough to ask us not to meet under trees without helping us to have the infrastructure which others who were funded from abroad may have.”

The churches also asked government to disregard the calls by the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC), which voiced concern over the deteriorating social, political and economic situation in the country.

MDC national executive member and lawyer Fadzai Mahere was quick to take a dig at Wutaunashe, saying the pronouncements for the opposition to discard their call to have dialogue on Mnangagwa’s legitimacy was anchored on a desire to amass trinkets.

“I see this church talk is all about stands and buildings, not a word about principle or integrity. Selling out on values for the proverbial 30 pieces of silver. Shameful,” she said.
Mnangagwa said he was going to listen more to the IICC because its leaders were local.

Meanwhile, MDC chairperson Thabita Khumalo has challenged Mnangagwa to deliver on his electoral promises and stop blaming Chamisa for his shortcomings.

“Firstly, Chamisa is not the president of the country. He’s the president of MDC. We are expecting deliverables from Mnangagwa because he won the election in the ConCourt. So he should deliver on the promises he made to the people than waste time blaming Chamisa,” she said.

“We want to hear when we are getting electricity. We can’t go for 18 hours without power. He should solve the issue of water. Above all, stop the victimisation of opposition MPs in Parliament and respect them and not to want to turn them into Zanu PF appendages.”

BY VENERANDA LANGA

SPEAKER of the National Assembly, Jacob Mudenda yesterday announced a nine-member Privileges Committee made up of eight Zanu PF MPs and one opposition member to investigate MDC Alliance legislators for snubbing President Emmerson Mnangagwa in Parliament and walking out on him during his addresses.

The only MP that he included from the opposition in the nine-member panel was Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga (MDC), but she declined the offer and Mudenda said he would find a replacement.

The other eight are Jonathan Samukange (Mudzi South) who will chair the committee, Joseph Chirongoma (Mashonaland West senator), Omega Hungwe (Harare
Metropolitan senator), Cecil Kashiri (Magunje MP), Stars Mathe (Nkayi South MP), Levi Mayihlome (Umzingwane MP), Kindness Paradza (Makonde MP) and Alignia Samson (Proportional Representative).

“I announce the appointment of a Privileges Committee to investigate allegations of improper conduct against MDC Alliance MPs,” Mudenda said.

“On November 14, Zanu PF chief whip Pupurai Togarepi raised a matter of privilege regarding the conduct of MDC MPs, whereby since 2017, each time the President attends Parliament in his official capacity as head of State, they either do not rise for him as a matter of respect or they walk out, and Togarepi finds the behaviour of MDC Alliance MPs grossly disrespectful of the
President,” Mudenda said.

He said as chair, he ruled that there was a prima facie case of contempt of Parliament charges against the MDC Alliance MPs and accordingly, the Standing Rules and Orders Committee found it prudent to set up the Privileges Committee to investigate the opposition legislators and come up with punitive measures against them.

“The terms of reference for the Privileges Committee include that the committee will investigate the conduct of MDC Alliance MPs in consecutive instances, whereby they did not rise for His Excellency the President, walked out of Parliament when the President was addressing, and did not bother to attend Parliament whenever the President attended Parliament.

“The committee will establish whether such conduct, as outlined, constitutes contempt of Parliament, and any other incidents that may arise from the investigations and to report the findings in the National Assembly by February 28, 2020,” Mudenda said.

In declining the offer, Misihairabwi-Mushonga said: “If I am allowed, may I take the opportunity to decline on the basis that I am conflicted. I can raise the issue of conflict of interest with you, Mr Speaker.”

Mbizo MP Settlement Chikwinya (MDC Alliance) then asked the Speaker to explain why he had ignored his point of privilege that he raised last week to investigate Zanu PF legislators that have been disrupting all portfolio and thematic committees chaired by the MDA Alliance legislators.

But Mudenda quashed his point and refused to take any more point of privileges from opposition MPs.

“The terms of reference said any other incident that may arise will be looked at,” Mudenda said.

When Warren Park MP Shakespear Hamauswa (MDC Alliance) later tried to raise the issue again, Mudenda curtly responded: “I do not want to go into details. May the committee do its work. We must address the fundamental reasons causing the disruptions.”

BY MOSES MATENGA

Government has threatened to arrest MDC leader Nelson Chamisa and other opposition officials pushing for the ouster of President Emmerson Mnangagwa from power.

Information deputy minister Energy Mutodi yesterday said government would not hesitate to send to jail “criminals” instigating for the removal of government through protests and civic disobedience to sabotage the regime.

His comments followed threats of protests by the opposition over the deteriorating situation in the country.

“If anyone wants to take the law into their own hands and engage in such activities so as to discredit the government, the law will take its course and criminals will be jailed, even if they are leaders of political parties or whatever,” Mutodi said in apparent reference to the MDC leader, whose party has announced plans for what it terms the “final push”.

But Chamisa said he would remain unfazed despite the threats on his life and/or arrest.

“These threats are becoming too common and the people issuing them are just common criminals who have no interest of our country at heart,” Chamisa’s spokesperson Nkululeko Sibanda said.

“Their irresponsibility is a direct result of their incapacitation and we simply must ignore such naivety. You must remember that after ED’s (Mnangagwa) blue-eyed boys attempted to shoot the president (Chamisa), we have not received calls from the ministers, the police or anybody to try and explain the situation and that is an act of complete irresponsibility.”

He said Chamisa was “a national asset” and a threat on his life could not be treated like something normal.

“It is a threat to the security of our country because we are talking about the people’s president. When they shot at him on Sunday, it was the people of Marondera that said, ‘president, this issue must not end here. We can’t stop doing the right thing because the Zanu PF police will disrupt’,” Sibanda said.

“They said let us move on. It is not just the president who is unstoppable. Taking from Marondera, it is the people of Zimbabwe that are no longer stoppable.”

Meanwhile, MDC vice-president Tendai Biti yesterday met with diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe to brief them on the situation in the country and what transpired in Marondera on Sunday.

“We briefed them on the Marondera situation. We gave them a chronology of events. We told them there was no meeting, but it was just a tree-planting event,” Biti said.

“They wanted the facts because government said there were no gunshots. The fact of the matter is there was live ammunition. The whole story doesn’t hold water. Even if they only released teargas, as they lie, why do that?”

The Value Creation Challenge, a competition launched by a partnership between Old Mutual and the British Council earlier this year, enters the all-important boot camp stage on Tuesday 3 December 2019 in Harare. The objective of the competition is to drive innovative and sustainable solutions to the socio-economic challenges being experienced today.

During bootcamp stage, the top 25 shortlisted contestants will attend a two-day intensive training workshop that will prepare them on how to effectively pitch their business ideas.

Both Old Mutual Zimbabwe and the British Council are driving the nation-wide Value Creation Challenge because they believe in and support local solutions to local problems, and are proud to a platform where innovative and sustainable ideas to socio-economic challenges can be incubated.

Welcoming the group of lucky contestants drawn from Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare, Lupane and Rusape, among other cities and towns, Old Mutual Group Marketing Executive, Lillian Mbayiwa, said they are important stakeholders in the business.

“We are excited to be part of this initiative that supports ideas that are creative enough to solve today’s problems. Innovation does not have to come from abroad. We know you are inventive enough through your brilliant ideas to provide local solutions,” Ms Mbayiwa said.

The participants of the boot camp run companies in their own right and have expressed what they expect to benefit from the intensive programme that will prepare them through training on pitching their business ideas to potential investors and scaling the business.

One contestant, Jeremiah Musungo of Bespoke Delights, a Harare company that produces health care products focusing on holistic wellness, said he was very excited to be among those who made it through to the boot camp. He looks forward to getting the knowledge, exposure and pitching skills.

“We expect to learn skills that will help us upscale our businesses for years and years to come and be able to pitch our ideas to potential investors,” he said.

One of his partners, Paidamoyo Muzangaza, a creative entrepreneur who is into premium skin and hair care solutions added that they wanted to understand their business better.

“We want to refine and align our goals and strategies for growth in 2020 through this training,” she said.

Msindazwe Ndlovu represents a Bulawayo-based company called The Noble Savage. They have been operating for the past 2 years to provide sustainable eco-friendly building material, and they are already planning to expand to Gweru and neighbouring Botswana.

He expected that the boot camp will help them holistically grow and redefine their business strategy to confront the challenges faced in the country. 

“Our intention is to become part of the influencers that achieve the Vision 2020 set by the government for Zimbabwe to become a middle income country. The journey we are taking is to be part of the re-industrialisation process,” he said.

Amy Mufunda pitches her company, Lit Energy.”

The contestants will appear before a panel of judges comprising of bankers, entrepreneurs, Old Mutual and British Council officials who will test the strength of their business pitches. From there, ten will go through to the next stage that involves a six-month incubation period at the Eight2Five Innovation Hub in Harare.

At the end of the incubation period, the top ten contestants will undertake the final pitching process from which the three top pitches will win seed capital, mentorship and business space.

The boot camp is being conducted in conjunction with Hatch Idea and Stimulus Africa.

BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA

A RADIO frequency controller at the air traffic control (ATC) broke down on Monday night, causing a two-hour flights delay yesterday morning, NewsDay can reveal.

Last week, a leaked letter from the Air Traffic Controllers’ Association of Zimbabwe (ATCAZ) to Transport minister Joel Biggie Matiza, dated October 29 2019, highlighted the “continued deterioration in air navigation communication performance”.

In the letter, ATCAZ warned that failure to address the air navigation communication system could result in mid-air collisions and possible blacklisting of the country by the United Nations’ aviation agency, ICAO.

Efforts to reach Matiza were fruitless yesterday.

The latest systems failure has raised fears that Zimbabwe’s airspace may not be safe to navigate and has been made worse by air traffic controllers at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in Harare, downing tools last Monday citing incapacitation and fatigue, forcing flights delays and cancellations.

Reports that there were technical challenges at the ATC yesterday were confirmed in a tweet from low-cost carrier, fastjet.

“We inform our esteemed customers that our flights today shall be affected by delays due to air traffic control technical issues experienced in Zimbabwe earlier on this morning. We apologise for any inconvenience caused as a result of this,” fastjet tweeted.

Contacted for comment, the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) confirmed that there had been some technical challenges that caused flights delays.

“All things are back to normal now. Safety and security are key to our operations, so we work to achieve exactly that 24/7,” a CAAZ spokesperson told NewsDay.

CAAZ could, however, not disclose the cause of the technical fault.

However, according to fastjet accountable manager Ed Berry, the airline was told that the technical challenge was caused by a breakdown in radio frequency that are used to communicate between planes in mid-flight and the ATC.

“The radio frequency that they were using was not working, that is what they explained to us this morning (Tuesday). Usually, airplanes are equipped with traffic collision guidance systems, and also they usually back-up frequencies that can be used and do get used. What you don’t do, if you are going to run on a back-up frequency though is to increase your problems by increasing the frequency,” he said.

“It is a radio frequency that is used for talking (between) air traffic control (and) the airplane. Sometimes the radio that controls that frequency breaks down. It is not a question of just one radio. There is a whole lot of stations throughout the country that are often run using data and transfer information using data and if that data feed fails sometimes you are going to have a problem in distributing the signal.”

Berry added: “The problem is fixed, so our flights are now flying. They delayed this morning, but they are flying again. Obviously, CAAZ in good time will communicate to us and give us more information as and when required.”

Despite the confirmation from CAAZ, Board of Airlines representatives chairperson and Tourism Business Council of Zimbabwe president Winnie Muchanyuka said they had not heard anything on the matter.

Editorial Comment

CLAIMS by President Emmerson Mnangagwa that his nemesis and MDC leader Nelson Chamisa has failed God by refusing to accept the disputed outcome of the 2018 presidential elections and Constitutional Court ruling are a clear demonstration of the arrogance, self-righteousness and conceit of the Mnangagwa administration which believes that its ascension to power was by divine design.

Mnangagwa cannot attribute to himself the all-knowing qualities that are only found in God, especially in view of the fact that his policies and the conduct of politics by his party stink to high heaven.

But perhaps what is most sad is how local church leaders he met with at State House to find a home-grown solution to the country’s deteriorating political and economic crises have shown that they are not neutral players and can, therefore, not be tasked with the responsibility of playing the role of mediators and peacemakers.

We know that many of these so-called indigenous church leaders are just out to gain some filthy lucre from politicians. It is not surprising that some of those leaders even started begging for residential stands, demonstrating that they are just out to selfishly gain something rather than to help resolve the crisis bedevilling the country.

The church has a moral and spiritual responsibility to call politicians and the government to order when they violate the principles of common decency. The church should be encouraging Mnangagwa and Chamisa to make the necessary concessions to ensure that there is genuine dialogue that will lead to the resolution of the country’s political and economic crisis.

It is quite disconcerting and rather unfortunate that the Indigenous Interdenominational Council of Churches leader Andrew Wutaunashe — long known as a Zanu PF bed fellow — would warn Mnangagwa against entering into negotiations centred on his legitimacy. Such entrenched positions do not create a conducive environment for dialogue, but the ordinary people will continue to suffer even when these pastors get land and other goodies from the system.

Wutawunashe’s history is a matter of public record. He is the same man who declared former President Robert Mugabe as close to Jesus and is now perambulating with the same man who forced out Mugabe by the gun and is now declaring him the answer to the challenges facing the country. Are these not clear, open double standards? Which God is he representing and claims to know? In the old days this is what would qualify as utter blasphemy.

These churches should just do us a favour by becoming neutral players that speak truth to power without becoming cosy with any particular side.

This meeting at State House shows it’s not only politicians who are polarised on partisan lines but the churches as well. All the country requires is detoxing at the moment. Pity the Zimbabweans, they have no peacemakers at all except some corrupt individuals masquerading as men of cloth.

Pity them Zimbabweans for having such so-called men of cloth who instead of representing the poor, dine with the rich and the oppressors. Did Jesus not say in Matthew 11: 28: “Come to me, all who are toiling and loaded down, and I will refresh you.” How do these so-called men of cloth sleep?

What we know for real is they will soon be devoured. What do you expect if you ride a hyena? We implore all the so-called men of cloth, if indeed they are genuine, to come together on their own for a common position not to be pitting Mnangagwa against the opposition’s Chamisa to the country’s enemies delight.

It boggles the mind why each of the two politicians has a group of churches and pastors supporting them. For what?

That’s uncalled for. Citizens have suffered enough, we say enough are the lives which have already been lost due to this political impasse.

Churches must be neutral, not this grandstanding. We need healing, not this mischief by some church leaders.