ZANU PF has secured 67 of the 150 beasts to be slaughtered during the annual conference to be held in Goromonzi next week, where it expects to spend over $5 million to feed at least
7 000 delegates.

BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA

The beasts sourced from party members — among them legislators, provincial members and supporting partners — will be kept at a paddock near the venue, Goromonzi High School.

Zanu PF Mashonaland East provincial secretary for administration Kudzai Majuru said they had started collecting the cattle.

“After all the pledges, we have started collecting 67 beasts that we are assured of getting. Starting from today (yesterday), the truck is already moving around collecting the cattle to be kept at a paddock near the conference venue. We are happy with the progress so far and we are well on course as far as the preparations are concerned,” he said recently.

The Zanu PF provincial leadership recently said the party wanted to source 400 goats and
5 000 chickens to feed the 7 000 delegates expected to grace the event.

Zanu PF has a penchant for splashing huge amounts of money during its functions, with government departments such as Zesa Holdings, Zimbabwe National Water (Zinwa) and TelOne, among others, chipping in as well.

Currently, the District Development Fund and Zinwa have drilled four boreholes at the venue, while roads have been graded and resurfaced bringing a new look in the district that has poor infrastructure despite its proximity to the capital city.

Roads that link to schools providing accommodation like St Johns High have been worked on, while the one linking to Chinyika Clinic has been rehabilitated.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s close ally and Gokwe-Nembudziya legislator Justice Mayor Wadyajena has vouched for Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga, saying the former army general, who toppled former President Robert Mugabe in a coup in November 2017, had no plans to stage another military takeover.

BY MOSES MATENGA

Addressing members of his constituency at the weekend, Wadyajena dismissed speculative reports that a coup was looming following Chiwenga’s return from a four-month long medical trip in China.

The speculation was further fuelled by the absence of senior government officials to welcome Chiwenga at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport on November 23 and at his home-coming prayer meeting in Wedza at the weekend.

“There were celebrations in the opposition that VP Chiwenga is back and ED is going. They said there is going to be a coup. Nothing like that will ever happen. The President and his deputy are brothers and it is President Mnangagwa who spoke to his Chinese counterpart (Xi Jinping) to have his deputy flown to China for treatment because they say he was poisoned,” Wadyajena said.

Chiwenga’s detractors claimed the ex-army general was angry over recent purges on his loyalists in the party and military.

Wadyajena said the narrative was being peddled by remnants of the G40 cabal to fan factionalism in the party.

“We hear you got calls from some ministers saying you must not bring the presidential inputs here. Whoever is calling you is working against the President. That’s why youths say they are people targeting ED and Nicodemously, saying he must go and leave for a younger person. Leave to go where? The Constitution says he must serve for two terms,” he said.

“Let us support the President and not work against him and sabotage him. Elections are in 2023, (so) let us not be in campaign mode.”

Cotton Producers and Marketers Association chairperson Steward Mubonderi said Mnangagwa had taken the Cuban and Rwandan strategy to bust sanctions through boosting local crop production.

“Today, Iraq and Libya are crying, they lacked vision and supported the killing of Sadam Hussein and Libyan leader Muammar Gadafi. They are now feeling the heat. It is disastrous to think of removing a leader now when we are under sanctions,” he said.

“What is killing us is lack of production. We don’t remove sanctions by marching, we need production. We do not forsake our father because of hunger,” Mubonderi said.

Women and girls bear the brunt of poverty and deserve economic, social and political rights as their male counterparts, a top United Nations (UN) official has said.

BY VANESSA GONYE

Officiating at the launch of Women in Africa Initiative in Harare on Saturday, UN resident co-ordinator, Maria Ribeiro said: “I feel honoured to share the UN perspective on women empowerment as a driver of inclusive growth and addressing social issues such as gender-based violence that disproportionately affects women compared to men.”

“I am inspired by Women in Africa’s dedication to the economic development of Africa and their commitment to supporting leading and high potential African women…your initiative’s focus on the agricultural sector in Zimbabwe is a powerful indication of the Women in Africa’s commitment to uplift the lives of rural women who are the majority.”

She noted with concern the undermining of the women in agriculture despite providing 70% of the labour.

“Despite constituting the larger percentage of the agricultural labour force, women are still confronted with issues such as less access to assets, credit services and markets,” she said.
She said the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals cannot be fulfilled without empowering women and girls and ensuring gender equality, particularly those in rural areas.

Ambassador of Women in Africa Initiative in Zimbabwe, Laureen Adam said agriculture could be a great wealth generator for the continent, but it cannot be a path to prosperity if farmers don’t get training in improved farming techniques and services.

“Government policies will be key to removing obstacles faced by women farmers and creating an enabling environment for them to thrive,” she said.

BY VENERANDA LANGA

UNITED Nations resident co-ordinator Maria omes Do Valle Ribeiro yesterday said the country’s economic shocks would put children at risk and hinder Zimbabwe from achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Ribeiro said this at the Parliament of Zimbabwe during a high-level forum on the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was organised by Unicef and the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Education, chaired by Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga.

“Zimbabwe has ratified key conventions, instruments and protocols on the rights of children and the involvement of children in armed conflict, as well as the International Labour Organisation Convention on the rights of the child,” Ribeiro said.

“However, poverty and economic shocks are putting at risk the achievements by made by Zimbabwe on the rights of children, for example, the impacts on the rights to access to food and nutrition, health and education and to ensure that all children feel protected and safe as this can put them at risk.”

Unicef representative Laylee Moshiri said Zimbabwe signed to SDGs and Agenda 2030, adding that if children’s rights are not improved, the country would be unable to eradicate poverty as most of the 17 SDGs have children at the centre.

Speaker of the National Assembly, Jacob Mudenda said it was imperative to support the rights of women as the care givers of children.

“The international community must also come to our aid because we have gone through difficult periods in terms of the effects of drought. Currently, the water levels at Kariba Dam are very low and we are not getting sufficient electricity, which has an impact on our industry and economy in general. The international community and the United Nations must come to our aid in a more forthright manner,” he said.

Mudenda said the national purse could not provide child feeding at schools, adding that some children were walking 10km to school on empty bellies.

Child president Mukudzeiishe Madzivire said the root cause of children’s problems in the country was that they are not included in decision-making processes.

Misihairabwi-Mushonga blasted ministers, their deputies and permanent secretaries for snubbing the event, where they were supposed to be asked questions about how they are promoting children’s rights.

Meanwhile, a Zanu PF legislator Alice Ndlovu (proportional representation) died in the early hours of yesterday.

“We have received sad news that one of us, Alice Ndlovu, passed on this morning (Friday) at around 2am at Avenues Clinic,” Mudenda told delegates.

“It looks like she had problems with kidneys and she died while on dialysis.”

According to her biography on the Parliament website, Ndlovu was born in 1956 in Gwanda and was a widow.